It is Tuesday February 16th
and the final full day as the journey home begins tomorrow. This morning we made an early start to Carara
National Park and were dropped off at a gate where a fairly wide path leads
into the park.
There was a Black-throated
Trogon at the entrance when we arrived of which I managed to get a photo from
the rear.
Black-throated Trogon
Having had good views of the
trogon we started to walk down the track and the first birds we located were a
pair of Dusky Antbirds but several Black-hooded Antshrikes were heard before we
actually managed to locate a couple. I
was please to find what I thought was a White-whiskered Puffbird but it proved
difficult in the light to identify but eventually we had good views.
Yehudi then heard a Collared
Forest Falcon that proved difficult to locate as it moved around but eventually
he found it and then it sat nicely while we watched it for about forty
minutes. It was undoubtedly the bird of
the morning but I think we spent too long observing it and should probably have
moved on sooner.
Collared Forest Falcon
We continued down the path
seeing a Long-billed Hermit and then a Purple-crowned Fairy but only very
briefly. A Crane Hawk flew giving better
views than yesterday but still brief.
A Blue-diademed Motmot was
observed and two Yellow-headed Caracaras flew over and we had a Cocoa Woodcreeper. I had managed to lag behind and when I caught
the group up Richard had gone on trying to see a Blue-black Grosbeak and so I
joined him. There appeared to be two
birds and they were calling constantly but insisted in remaining out of
view. Richard had one perched briefly on
a number of occasions but each time I reached him it had disappeared. I did eventually see one on a couple of
occasions but only very briefly. However,
whilst looking for the grosbeak we both got good views of a stunning
Orange-collared Manakin, although we were in slightly different positions. When we got back to the main group a few had
seen the manakin but must were still trying to locate but unfortunately it
didn’t reappear. I also had good views
of Chestnut-backed Antbird, which had frustrated me on a number of occasions
this morning. Other birds seen were a
Plain Antvireo and a Buff-throated Saltator.
We returned to the lodge for
breakfast and afterwards a number of us explored the ground and a path leading
into the forest with Yehudi. There were
two Bare-throated Tiger-herons and a Northern Waterthrush on the stream and in
area of rough vegetation we found at least four Blue-black Grassquits and a
male Painted Bunting and I saw both Gartered and Black-throated Trogons in the
gardens.
The forest trail was a little
narrower than most we had been along but it didn’t restrict the viewing too
much. As we walked out along the track
we had another couple of Black-hooded Antshrike and a Rufous-naped Wren. We walked as far as the stream before turning
and heading back for lunch and as we did so, Ramon picked up a Black Hawk-eagle
circling above, which everyone managed to see and there was great excitement
when a male Long-tailed Manakin perched for a while to give excellent views and
it even looked stunning under the dull forest canopy. Three very noisy Riverside Wrens proved quite
elusive but eventually we all managed good views and another good find was a
Wood Thrush. Other birds seen during the
excursion were Piratic Flycatcher, Black-crowned Tityra, a Rufous-naped Wren
and two Red-legged Honeycreepers.
Black Iguana
Green Vine Snake
After lunch we returned to
Carara National Park but this time followed a narrow track into the
forest. We were now walking in single
file and it was much easier to miss birds and at the first stop there were
several good birds but they were all difficult to see well. I did manage to see both the male and female
Dot-winged Antwren but had un-tickable views of a Rufous-breasted Wren and
didn’t see the Long-billed Gnatwren at all.
A Streaked Flycatcher performed quite well with most of the group seeing
it and two Pale-billed Woodpeckers was observed.
We eventually reached a stream
that Yehudi indicated was good for seeing manikins coming down to drink. I initially, with about half the group, went
with Yehudi to view the stream from one vantage point whilst the remainder went
to view it from a bridge. Within a
matter of minutes we had seen a Red-capped Manakin and I went back to the
bridge to allow others access to the viewing area. However, when I reached the bridge they had
all seen the bird and the bridge seemed a better place to view from.
We moved on a little and saw
two Golden-naped Woodpeckers and Yehudi found a Great Tinamou further along the
track and I watched it as it walked further into the vegetation. Richard then appeared and said that there had
been a Blue-crowned Manakin at the bridge and so I returned to the bridge
hoping the manakin would do the same. It
wasn’t too long before it came back and provided some nice views and there must
have been as many as four Red-capped Manakins.
Other birds were also coming to drink and there was a Stripe-breasted
Hermit, a Bay-headed Tanager and two Green Honeycreepers and I picked up a
Swainson’s Thrush and a Bright-rumped Attila, which didn’t stay long and I am
not sure anyone else got on it. Whilst
we were in the area we could hear Black-breasted Wood-quail calling but
unfortunately we were unable to locate them.
On the walk back to the bus we
had a Buff-throated Foliage-gleaner but I missed a Scaly-throated Leaftosser,
which only the people at the front of the line managed to see.
A look for Fiery-billed
Aracari at the lodge resulted in just another White-whiskered Puffbird but we
agreed to meet at 06:00 for a final attempt.
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