It was another early start on
the Sunday as we were travelling to the Salva Verde Lodge in the Caribbean
Lowlands but initially our plan was to drive further south to the Paramo. As we left Savegre we passed the site of the
quetzal but there was no sign of the Black Guan and we continued on to the main
road and then headed south. It wasn’t
too long after getting to the main road that we turned off towards some radio
masts and we were soon out of the bus exploring the new terrain. We had three target birds, which were
Timberline Wren, Volcano Junco and Peg-billed Finch. It was beginning to get quite warm and there
were few obvious birds and we saw just three species Wilson’s Warbler, Slaty
Flowerpiercer and one of the targets Volcano Junco.
View from the Paramo looking north
With no sign of the other two
target birds we departed and headed north to our next accommodation, which was
at Salva Verde Lodge. It was around a
four hour drive but we did make three short stops for a Grey Hawk, another
stopped produced a Spectacled Caiman, a Southern Rough-winged Swallow and a
Mangrove Swallow and the third stop was for a Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth.
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth
We arrived at the Salva Verde
Lodge at 13:00 and after viewing the feeding station where we added Collared
Aracari, Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Scarlet-rumped Cacique and Montezuma
Oropendola and also saw a Neotropical Cormorant on the river we obtained our
room keys and had some lunch.
Clay-coloured Thrush
Collared Aracari
Collared Aracari
The plan after lunch was to
meet at 15:00 and explore the grounds but as there was a good hour before them
I decided to do some exploring on my own.
I found and female-type Chestnut-sided Warbler near the restaurant and
was viewing a female hummingbird when Richard joined me. We eventually identified the hummingbird as a
Ruby-throated and we then began finding more birds in the same area. We sat down on bench opposite a group of
trees and before 15:00 we had seen several new species, which included
Grey-headed Chachalaca, a male Red-capped Manakin, Olive-backed Euphonia and
Buff-throated Saltator.
At 15:00 the rest of the group
assembled and we spent quite some time just moving about 100 meters and added
Black-headed Toddy Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, Masked Tityra, Black-crowned
Tityra, Lesser Greenlet and Blue Dacnis.
We eventually moved over the road to another area of the gardens but it
was much quieter there and we just added Plain-coloured Tanager.
When we got back over the road
it was still quite light and a number of us went down to the river to see what
we could find. We ventured onto what
appeared to be a very unstable chain bridge, which was almost impossible to
bird from but there were several herons moving up river that included Cattle
Egrets, a Little Blue Heron and Snowy Egrets.
There was an Amazon Kingfisher downstream and Richard found a Spotted
Sandpiper feeding along the edge. I was
on my way off the bridge when I was summoned back to see two Black-mandible
Toucans that were perched in a tree quite close to the bridge. Most people now moved away but Richard had
seen a Tiger-heron downstream but it had gone out of sight and so we decided to
go back to the feeding area to see if it was visible from there. Initially there was no sign but we tried a
different viewpoint and got some nice views of Bare-throated Tiger-heron, which
was an excellent close to the day.
Other species observed on the
7th were White-collared Swift, Green Violet-ear, Rufous-tailed
Hummingbird, Scintillant Hummingbird, Turkey Vulture, American Black Vulture,
Swallow-tailed Kite, Broad-winged Hawk, Torrent Tyrannulet, Boat-billed
Flycatcher, Tropical Kingbird, Clay-coloured Thrush, House Sparrow, Tennessee
Warbler, Blue-grey Tanager, Palm Tanager, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Baltimore Oriole
and Great-tailed Grackle.
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