Toucans, Tanagers,
and TREEFROGS take over…
Having spent the morning in the
foothills of the Central Cordillera, our arrival at Selva Verde Lodge also announced our
arrival in an extremely bird rich part of the country, the Caribbean lowlands.
This was immediately evident, when, following a lunch of traditional rice and
beans with more than a splash of Costa Rica’s signature Salsa Lizano, we ran into two different species
of trogon (Slaty-tailed and Gartered Trogons), a Black-cowled Oriole, and then walked up to a fruiting tree packed with birds, and a constant hive of
activity as birds pulled at the fruits and flew in and out of the tree.
This
was addictive stuff, and we absorbed this feast of birds for a while, which
included all three toucan species in the area (Keel-billed and Yellow-throated Toucans, and Collared Aracari), and also held a variety of tanagers, including Scarlet-thighed and Blue Dacnis, and Green and Shining Honeycreepers. Other
distractions included Strawberry ("Blue Jeans") and Green-and-black Poison Dart Frogs on the
grounds, and another two-toed sloth (plus baby slothlet this time), for the day.
We also got our first real
experience of the vast raptor migration that streams through Central America at
this time, as impressive kettles of Broad-winged
Hawks overhead held the odd Mississippi
Kite among them too too. Our search at the site for one of the lodge’s
celebrity birds, the Sunbittern, came
up short though, and so we tried another spot later, but again failing to find
that, but adding Golden-hooded Tanager, Grey-headed
Chachalaca, and also got to watch the acrobatics of some extremely agile Mantled Howler monkeys in the area. The close of the afternoon, not
far from the lodge, though, will perhaps best be remembered for a hummingbird
fight we witnessed, when a Purple-crowned
Fairy seemed to take particular offence to a Long-billed Starthroat calming sitting in a tree overhead. We
watched on as the lovely and gentle looking fairy, belied its appearance, by aggressively
and repeatedly dive bombing the poor starthroat,
which stood firm for a while, before flying off for an easier life!
At night, we searched the lodge
property for owls, hearing and seeing none, but being more than rewarded by the
sighting of Costa Rica’s most iconic frog species, the Red-eyed Treefrog, which adorns so
many book covers, posters and awnings countrywide. The team ended the day with 155 bird species, which was not to be our
strongest day of the competition that would come later! I should mention that I had some esteemed company within the team, our local guide was German Rojas, and the other team members were Tim Appleton (the man behind the British Birdfair), Niklas (journalist for Birdlife Sweden's magazine), and Beltran Ceballos Vazquez (a man synonymous with conservation and the famous Cota Donana National Park in Spain).
The
next day was set up to a biggie, starting out at the legendary OTS La Selva
Biological Station, and then moving on to the Aerial Tram in the foothills of the Caribbean
in Braulio Carrillo NP, before departing
for another more remote site, Selva Bananito Lodge, located within La Amistad NP, which stretches all the
way into Panama!
1 comment:
Great pictures and a wonderful blog!
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