Herman picked us up at 7:00 a.m on December 11^th and we enjoyed the ride through historic Cartaga, traffic-bound San Jose, and the coast mountains, arriving about noon at Villa Lapas, our final destination.  Although we arrived at noon, as scheduled, the Hotel enforced a misguided policy of not allowing us to check into our rooms until 3:00 p.m. (They were not anywhere near full).  We managed to clean up and change clothes in the public rest rooms on premises and walk the hanging bridge trails from 2:00 until about 5:00.

The next morning we started early again, driving the short distance to Carara National Park.  Almost immediately we could hear the raucous calls of Scarlet Macaws.  Within minutes we were observing multiple pairs of Scarlet Macaws as they squabbled raucously over nesting hole claims, and otherwise made their presence well known.

A troop of Spider Monkeys ambled along among the topmost branches of the jungle, pausing from time to time to taste the flowers.

We also spotted a Capuchin Monkey high in the leaves, but he stayed hidden from our camera lens.  This brought to three the species of monkeys that we saw, and, in the case of the Howler Monkeys, heard.

After the walk at Carara we returned to the hotel grounds, which are quite extensive, for some unguided birding and some rest.  The air conditioning in the rooms was most welcome, as the humidity and heat hit us hard after experiencing the coolness of the interior mountains for the prior 4 days. After siesta, we took a riding tour of the local villages, the sea shore and the farms, all the while looking for birds. Not much new was seen, but there were a few interesting shorebirds and other water-oriented species along the shore, and other interesting species in the country-side.

Among the more interesting birds seen during our stay at Villa Lapas were several Bare-throated Tiger Herons, Magnificent Frigatebirds, two Caracara species, Laughing Falcon, Crested Guan, Orange-chinned Parakeets, a Blue-throated Goldentail, and Blue-crowned Motmots.

Also found here were Barred and Black-hooded Antshrikes, Blue-crowned and Long-tailed Manakins, Rufous-naped Wrens, Yellow-crowned Euphonias, a Long-billed Gnatwren, and others, for a total of about 75 species, none of them, however, new to me.

Costa Rica is a beautiful, friendly, country.  I can’t think of a better place for a beginning birder to initiate his or her out-of-country birding experiences.  This second visit to the country was as comfortable and enjoyable as my first, over 10 years ago.

We arrived at Savegre Mountain Lodge in mid-afternoon on December 9^th.  This is an attractive facility with excellent and extensive gardens surrounding.  Hummingbird feeders and a couple of other feeding stations attract a good variety of birds so that a mid-afternoon arrival is blessed with some interesting birding despite the lateness of the day.

After a bit of birding we freshened up in our “Junior Suite”, where I was able to start a fire in the fireplace to dispel the chill.  When we went to dinner we were met by our assigned guide for the next morning, Melvin Fernandez, who suggested we make a very early start in the morning in order maximize our chances of seeing our target bird, Resplendent Quetzals.  We readily agreed to meet him at 5:45 a.m.  He reviewed my list of never seen birds that can be found in the area (about 35), and indicated he would make an effort to find as many of those as possible, after the Quetzal outing.

Next morning, after a short drive from the Lodge, we climbed a steep but short trail to settle in on a ledge overlooking an extensive valley and a nearby fruiting tree which attracts the Quetzals to their breakfasts.  It did not take long for a female Quetzal to show up at the tree, where it remained for the entire time we were there.

A half an hour or so later, a male Quetzal also flew into the tree and Adam was able to get a number of pictures of this beautiful bird.  Several others were seen flying at a distance.

The male Quetzal is arguably the most beautiful bird in the western hemisphere.  When I was a child in country grade school, there was a stack of old National Geographic magazines in the “library”.  In one of them I found a picture of a Quetzal, which I cut out of the magazine and took home to paste in my scrap book.  It was the prettiest bird I had ever seen and I thought that if I could ever see one in the wild, I would have achieved Nirvana.  I did see a couple of them when I was at the Monte Verde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica over 10 years ago, but the weather was wet and foggy and the sighting was not very satisfying.  This time was different, with beautiful morning sunshine, crisp and dry air and close-up views of both sexes of this iconic bird.  We were very happy to achieve success with this, our number 1 target of the trip.

Melvin then led us on a long but manageable hike in the forest and along a small river.  At the end of the day, I had seen 19 new species, by far the most of any of our stops.  Melvin had memorized my list after a few minutes of looking at it the night before, and he succeeded in finding far more of them than I had ever anticipated.  He is a great guide.

Among the new birds were the lovely little Flame-throated Warblers, Black-cheeked Warblers, a Wrenthrush (Zeledonia), Sooty-capped Bush Tanagers, Yellow-thighed Finches and many more.  New Hummingbirds were Volcano and Scintillant Hummingbirds and Gray-tailed Mountain-gems.

Early the next morning we were met at the lobby by German (Herman) Vargas, our driver/guide who had delivered us to Savegre and who would accompany us for the remainder of the trip.  The last stop on our tour would be Villa Lapas Hotel near the Carara  National Park, along the mid-Pacific coast of Costa Rica.  There we hope to find Scarlet Macaws, our number 2 target bird of the trip.

Days 3 and 4 in Costa Rica were occupied by travelling to Rancho Naturalista in the Tuis-Turrialba region of the Talamanca Mountains.  The staff, headed by birder extra-ordinaire, Harry, welcomed us and we were quickly seeing many Hummingbirds attracted to the lodge by feeders and observable at very close range.

Hummingbirds seen included three new life birds for me, Green-breasted Mangoes, Snowcaps and Red-footed (the new name is Bronzy-tailed) Plumeleteers.  Others present, many in substantial numbers, included Green Hermits, Little Hermits, Violet Sabrewings, White-necked Jacobins, Green Thorntails, and Violet-crowned Woodnymphs.

Other hummingbirds found at Rancho Naturalist were Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds, Green-crowned Brilliants, and Purple-crowned Fairies (12 species in all).  Aren’t the names amusing?  And often very descriptive.  The hummingbirds were definitely the highlight at Rancho Naturalista.

My first sighting of a Snowcap (a hummingbird) occurred as dusk was descending soon after our arrival, and three of us followed Harry into the even darker woods where we looked down into a deep ravine with a number of small pools.  As we watched from above, both a male and a female Snowcap came to bathe in the pools, dipping in and out like dragonflies.  Another excellent sighting at the pools was a very cooperative Tawny-throated Leaftosser, which kept us entertained with its bathing forays into the shallow pools.  Darkness finally forced us to return to the lodge for a delicious dinner, (especially the dessert) served family style to the 8 or 9 guests.

The feeders outside the lodge attacted many lovely birds including both species of Tourcans and this Collared Aracari. 

Early in the morning of our departure day, we walked to a large canvas that was stretched between some trees and lit with bright lights during the pre-dawn hours, attracting hordes of moths and other insects, which, in turn brought in a good number of forest birds looking for an easy meal.  These included a couple of new birds for me:  Plain-brown Woodcreepers, and Tawny-chested Flycatchers.

Rancho Naturalista produced a total of 73 bird species, of which 10 were new to me.  On the way to our next Lodge on the morning of Day 5 of our trip, we stopped at Mirador Quetzales.  This was a stop both for lunch and to hike the mountains in the area for a couple of hours, primarily for the purpose of seeing a Resplendent Quetzal, just in case we were to miss them at our next lodge, La Selva, where sightings are generally more predictable. The hike was taxing and did not produce a Quetzal although we did see a good number of other birds.

We arrived in mid-afternoon at Savegre and we were pleased and surprised at the beauty of the gardens and general setting.  Part 3 of my Costa Rica report will describe our excellent experience at this lovely facility.

Days 1 and 2:  Selva Verde Lodge, La Selva Biological Station, and the Sarapiqui River.

My son-in-law, Adam, and I went to Costa Rica on December 5^th to spend 8 days birding in 4 locations.  Our first stop was the Selva Verde Lodge near La Selva and the Sarapiqui River.  We were doubtful of taking our scheduled boat tour on the river because heavy rains the week before our arrival, (and while we were there) had caused the river to rise, and as we saw the brown, swirling waters speed past our lodge, we were somewhat fearful of it.  Our guide, Ivan, assured us that the boat we would be on was river-worthy and that it was covered so that we would not be drenched from above during the tour.  We trusted his judgment and we were very glad we did.  The river cruise was the highlight of our visit to La Selva.

In addition to the many birds seen during our morning cruise on the River, we were treated to great views of both Three-toed and Two-toed Sloths, hanging out high above the River.

Green and Orange Iguanas appeared clinging to the trees along the river.  The birds included a lovely Rufescent Tiger-heron, several Green Ibis, a Long-tailed Tyrant (my first), Mangrove Swallows, Buff-rumped Warblers, a Black-cowled Oriole, and many others.  Notably absent: crocodiles, perhaps out of view due to the high water.

Back at the Lodge, large numbers of birds and animals were attracted to the banana feeder just outside the dining area, where we could sit with our coffee or tea and observe their coming and going at close range.  Among the more spectacular of these were the Black (Chestnut) Mandibled Toucans.

Passerini’s, Blue-Gray and Palm Tanagers, Olive-backed Euphonias, Yellow-crowned Euphonias, and numerous other birds competed for the bananas at the feeder, but were usually out-performed by the Coati and the numerous Variegated Squirrels who knew where to come for an easy meal.

A visit to the La Selva Biological Station (in the rain) produced the new bird of the trip for me, a Snowy Cotinga, unfortunately at a distance and in mist. Peccaries showed up as we completed our rain-drenched tour.

Heliconias Island was on our agenda, and we arrived early afternoon, to intermittent rain and a generally disappointing experience, probably the least interesting destination of the entire trip.  Following our truncated and soggy walk around the deteriorating premises, our driver/guide took a side-trip “off the beaten track” in the agricultural country-side on a successful foray to find a rare and endangered Great Green Macaw.

On the pathway between our rooms and the dining area we encountered several Green Poison-arrow Frogs.

In summary, this was a very good destination with good facilities, good guides and good food.  We listed a total of 90 birds during our 2-day visit (probably a low count due to the constant rain), of which 4 were life birds for me: (the Snowy Cotinga, Great Green Macaw, Long-tailed Tyrant and a Long-tailed Hermit).  The mammals and frogs provided added interest. The lesson we learned is that rainy weather should not dampen the spirits of a couple of intrepid birders.