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!