Another day, another amazing change of scene, more gorgeous wildlife

So we took a road trip to a remote luxury community with lots of wild land and a few huge houses.  It's in the mountains, and the road is so steep that you have to have 4-wheel-drive engaged to get there. It was pretty amazing!

There is a lake with a long path around it (it's incredibly well maintained) that we went partway around.  Right away it was pretty exciting, with some broad-winged hawks and a swallow-tailed kite flying over.

swallow-tailed kite

Then this white hawk came in, flew over a few times and settled down for a good 15 minutes.  What a treat!

white hawk

There were of course other cool birds at the lake, which we couldn't even see until the white hawk left.  But they were gorgeous too!

green heron

belted kingfisher

 Okay, time to hit the path.  Heading through the tall tall trees........

 On an actual sidewalk.  It's skinny, but it's cleared and incredibly well-maintained.

 And there were awesome birds!  Also plenty of mosquitos.  But let's not focus on that.

orange-bellied trogon

orange-bellied trogon

 This motmot was showing off how it can swing its tail.

rufous motmot

 My record stands - I have never met a manakin I didn't like.  I challenge you to bring me to a manakin that I don't like!  :-)

white-ruffed manakin

 We were all excited to have a nice sighting of a snowcap!   It's not in the Panama book, but..... well, there it is!

snowcap hummingbird

Of course there is a 360-degree lookout at the top of a rise.  And of course it is gorgeous!

 Parting shot of the motmot, it might be even more gorgeous from the front!

rufous motmot

Pitta! At last!

Today we went back to La Mesa, and hit another area later.  We saw at last the elusive pitta!  Yes, yes, I know, that kills the suspense, but I just can't help blurting it out.

streak-chested antpitta

streak-chested antpitta

orange-chinned parakeet

masked tityra

snowy-bellied hummingbird

mystery flycatcher

keel-billed toucan

song wren

mourning warbler

bay-headed tanager

basilisk

Amazon kingfisher

Canada warbler

swallow-tailed kite

Our trail was gorgeous but a little hard on the ankles - a dry streambed, going right through the forest.

The day with the luxury beach house

What a day!  Up very early for breakfast, then in the truck with a different guide who was also wonderful.  We were driving to the beach, birding along the way.  And it didn't take long to get started, these bobwhites were right on the road!

crested bobwhite

 I love the light in this picture.

groove-billed ani

 We saw quite a bit driving around, with several stops to check out what was nearby.

fork-tailed flycatcher

 It took the guide a couple of tries to convince me that the bird on the left was the juvie version on the bird on the right.  I am still dubious even though there seems to be widespread agreement.  :-)

wattled jacana, adult(R) and juvenile(L)

 Tody!  I love those little guys!

common tody-flycatcher

mystery flycatcher

 I think this is a short-tailed hawk, but I can't make any promises.

mystery hawk

mystery hummingbird

barred antshrike

 It was cool seeing these guys so close to each other.

yellow warbler, lesser goldfinch

brown-throated parakeet

 It was sort of awesome seeing another vulture, but sort of anti-climactic.  It looks basically like a turkey vulture with a yellow beak.  Which is hard to see.  Oh well, it was cool!

lesser yellow-headed vulture

 I loved seeing a caracara mix it up with the black vultures.

crested caracara, black vulture

We saw so many savannah hawks!  Including two in nests!  It was amazing - the first one was hard to find, then they were just sort of everywhere.

savannah hawk

 Look how gorgeous this guy is!!!!!

straight-billed woodcreeper

 Oh, yeah, so then the caracara flew right in front of the car.  That was convenient.

crested caracara

 The tanager is like, hey buddy, what's up?

tropical mockingbird, blue-grey gnatcatcher

 We made it to the beach house for a late lunch, and it was amazing.  Delicious lunch on the patio, then swimming!  And they had a shower for us, hanging out for a little while, then we were off again.  To find this guy!

ferruginous pygmy-owl

Jack is getting better and better at digiscoping.  :-)

ferruginous pygmy-owl

 Back at the lodge, checking out the feeders before dinner, here comes the rail!

grey-necked wood rail

 Checking for a kingfisher is always a good idea.

tropical kingbird, green kingfisher

Another day, another owl

Well, yesterday when we saw the mottled owl, I blathered on about how I wanted to see a spectacled owl, not out of complaining, just out of an outpouring of owl-related words with the joy of seeing an owl.  Our guide just smiled and said you never know.  I never ever suspected he had a good lead on a spectacled owl!  What a day this turned out to be.

First, after a brief time at the feeders we loaded into the car with the guide and another couple.  We stopped at a pond in someone's yard and stayed on the road, watching a gorgeous kingfisher and a somewhat shy green heron.

green kingfisher

green heron

black-striped sparrow

lineated woorpecker

masked tityra

violet-crowned woodnymph

Back into the van and up a hill, where we walked along the road for a while.  What a gorgeous area!

tufted flycatcher

blue-headed parrot

plain wren

roadside hawk

mystery bird

We took a little trail looking for an ant pitta and didn't find it, we had to content ourselves with a pair of trogons.  Poor us!  :-)

orange-bellied trogon

Back on the road, we kept on and found someone's goal bird - toucanet!  We saw it flying a couple of times earlier, and while the group was looking for a wren I went ahead and saw it fly into a tree.  I felt like such a hero!  We all got good looks (but not good pictures) before it left again.

blue-throated (emerald) toucanet

silver-throated tanager

These crickets were crazy looking!  The guide didn't remember ever seeing them before.  Turns out they are the juveniles of one that looks quite different and is fairly common around here.  So cool looking!

Off on another ride, this time just us and the guide.  Walking along a road we were able to go into a private property with the groundskeeper.  And what grounds they were!  Obviously the owner(s) and the groundskeeper(s) love nature, they have a nice chunk of property they are leaving as a natural forest, with nice trails through it.  We walked along for a very short way when suddenly.......

spectacled owl

Hahahahahahaa, it's the exact owl I was blabbering on about!  And it's just as gorgeous as I was picturing in my head!!!  Oh happy day.  After a long look we moved on, the groundskeeper went a different way.  Briefly.  He called us back, because he had flushed this handsome fellow.

common pauraque

 That's right, you never know.  More walking along the trails, it was a surprising amount of walking, and then eventually we were rewarded with this little fellow!  This is the only motmot that doesn't have the racquet tail, and it's quite a bit more shy than the others.  Coincidence?  I think not.  

tody motmot

Also somewhere along there we saw more oro nests, one complete with and oro!

crested oropendola

It didn't like us watching, and let us know from a nearby perch.

crested oropendola 

A last stop to see some birds on a field had me finding a white hawk.  I felt so great!  It was quite far off though, so no good pictures.  What a great day!