Manuel Antonio Day

Today we went to Manuel Antonio park with Ersel, who is awesome.  We had a private tour, and had a great time!  Of course there were some lovelies by the pool before we left.

Mystery Little Lovely Bird

And by reception.

Streaked Flycatcher

Summer Tanager

To the park!  A quick drive to the entrance, and then our first sloth of the day.  It was a two-toed!  The two-toed are more unusual, and we were lucky to see one.  Later we saw another one, but that was after we were all slothed out.

Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth

Quickly after entering the park we saw another sloth.  One that we saw had a baby, I don't remember if this is that one or not.  We saw so many sloths, it was amazing!

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth

We saw this frog hiding on a leaf.  I upped the contrast to make the frog easier to see.  It was so cool!  I guess it's some sort of tree frog, but I have no idea which one.

Mystery Tree Frog

Aracari!  There is a nest quite close to the path, and we saw three of them hanging around near there.  They are so gorgeous!

Fiery-billed Aracari

Also gorgeous from the back.

Fiery-billed Aracari

This one looks like he's on sentinel duty.

Fiery-billed Aracari

There was an anhinga flying really really high, way up with the vultures.  We looked at it for a while, trying to figure out what it was, because usually they fly much lower.

Anhinga

Then another great sighting - pale-billed woodpeckers!  First, my funniest shot - the legendary two-headed woodpecker.  :-)

Pale-billed Woodpeckers

He's got style and Hollywood glamour.

Pale-billed Woodpecker

This was an amazing sighting, the woodpeckers were about 10 feet away from us.  They are awesome and huge and hilarious!

Pale-billed Woodpecker

This jangle of furry limbs is, you guessed it, another sloth!

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth

On the beach we saw this wood stork prettily framed.  It took a ~lot~ of tries to get my autofocus to focus on the bird.

Wood Stork

Walking along, Ersel spotted a yellow crowned night heron and set the scope on it.  I found it while he was setting up and took some pictures.  "Take a look through the scope" he said, so I did.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

And saw this - we were looking at different birds!  There were ~two~ yellow crowned night herons!  :-)

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron

A bit further on we saw a black hooded antshrike pair.  This is the female, although it's not a great picture.  She is gorgeous!

Black-hooded Antshrike

Back at the resort, black vultures entertained us for the afternoon.

Black Vulture

And euphonias!  In the light!  Pretty much in focus!  Oh happy day!

Yellow-crowned Euphonia

There were several warblers, but as usual the yellow warbler was the only one who wanted pictures.  In the world of warblers, this guy and the black and white warbler are my heroes - never too busy to pose for a few shots.

Yellow Warbler

And a frigate or four came by for a nice flyover.  What a great day!

Magnificent Frigatebird

First full day at Arena del Mars

Again I was up quite early - once I hear the birds I want to go find them!  :-)  Out to the deck, where I had some Diet Coke while letting the fog clear from my camera and binocs.  There were not many trees in front of the deck but they were definitely high quality.  Of course at first the light was not so great, and after that it was only great in one direction, so many of the pictures didn't work out.  There were warblers and euphonias teasing me, a hummingbird that seemed to know exactly how fast I was with the camera (not fast enough) and probably many others I'm not remembering right now.

First the parakeets came around!  This proved to be a fairly common occurrence, but I was particularly excited given how hard they were to see the last time I was in Costa Rica.  They were just as difficult to see this time, but they stayed around longer.

Orange-chinned Parakeet

Here is an example flycatcher.  We saw so many that were similar, and flycatchers are not really my thing right now, so I'll just include this particularly handsome fellow.

Great Crested Flycatcher (I think) 

I went up to the reception area and checked out an observation patio, where I saw this lonely howler monkey.  I didn't understand why I was seeing just one (I heard some others but they sounded like they were quite a ways off) until later.  We saw him again while we were with someone knowledgable, and it seems like he was the dominant male but just got challenged and defeated!  He's taking some time to get used to the new order of things.  Sometimes it's hard to be a monkey.

Mantled Howler Monkey

There was a pair of orioles dazzling me by the pool.

Baltimore Oriole

And this snake was on the sidewalk as I returned to our room!  I wouldn't have even noticed it, but someone else pointed it out to her child, so I got to see it too.  Thanks fellow traveler!  :-)

Green Vine Snake (I think)

This is a terrible picture of a hummingbird, but a great picture.

When I brought Jack back to the platform (and breakfast) we found this motmot!  Hahahahaha, another day, another motmot, that's Costa Rica for you.

Blue-crowned Motmot

This blue-grey tanager was gorgeous in the morning light by the pool.

Blue-grey Tanager

We of course saw tons of black vultures and turkey vultures.  You'd think I'd have a zillion great shots, but really after the first day or so I start to just ignore them.  I mean, I still look, and they're great, I just don't take pictures any more.  Like the cherrie's tanagers.  See them all the time, don't have decent pictures.

Turkey Vulture

There were many chestnut sided warblers.  It was interesting to be in a place where they are fairly common.  When the migration comes through New York, they are not so common.  The ones that are most common in NY I didn't see as many of in Costa Rica.

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Hello honeycreeper!  This tree outside reception was quickly turning into my favorite.  No leaves, lots of little berries, and lots of little lovelies.  Warblers, honeycreepers, tanagers, flycathers, euphonias, they all loved this tree.

Red-legged Honeycreeper 

The berries over there look tastier!

Red-legged Honeycreeper

Here's my only picture of the female that you can see from the beak it's definitely a honeycreeper.

Red-legged Honeycreeper, female

 I love pictures of birds hopping.

Back on our deck after breakfast, and a black vulture settled down nearby.  In Costa Rica this is not uncommon, but it's pretty exciting for me!

Black Vulture

We went on our first tour today, a Sustainability tour, where a guy from the hotel took us around and showed us their water processing, solar panels, composting, all that sort of thing.  Jack will write a bunch about that in his blog, I'm sure.  I was more interested in this sloth, a mother hanging out with her baby!

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth 

Same pair, different angle.  This was so great to see!

Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth 

While we were touring the composting area (Jack's favorite.  I am not kidding.) a bunch of white-faced monkeys came by.  As it turns out, they are not particularly shy.

White-faced Capuchin 

In the afternoon the parakeets came back, making quite charming bookends for the day!  In this picture you can actually see the elusive orange chin.

Orange-chinned parakeet

Costa Rica Day 1

Back in Costa Rica!  And, appropriately enough, it is raining.  :-)  Well, I'm going out anyway!  We flew in last night and stayed overnight at Hotel Bouganveilla, which is the first-night hotel for tons of birding tours.  The room was fine, and I went out to the garden to reintroduce myself to the birds here.

Sadly as it was raining, the pictures are mostly rubbish. But I did see a gorgeous pair of pairs of Baltimore orioles, several hummingbirds (including one exciting and chattery 4-bird chase), some cute sparrows that I can't remember enough about to ID, and a few warblers.  Including my very first sighting of a rufous-capped warbler, who is gorgeous but apparently a bit camera-shy.  Also blue-grey tanagers, a few white-winged doves, and this guy:

Buff-throated Saltator

 One of the hummingbirds slowed down briefly - just long enough for me to get this picture - and then it was off again!

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

 Jack came down and came into the garden with me, and he found this gorgeous motmot.  What a great way to start the trip!

Blue-crowned Motmot

 Below the mot-mot, this hummingbird was doing some serious preening.  You know it's a good time when your directions to one bird are, "Okay, start at the motmot and go straight down and a tiny bit to the right."  :-)

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

 Then it was up for breakfast and packing, getting ready for the drive.  We were incredibly lucky, we told our driver that we like nature and especially birds, and it turns out that he loves birds also.  First stop, Crocodile Bridge, which lived up to its name.  There were at least a dozen lounging about and more in the water, here is a small sample:

Crocodiles

 We also saw a snowy egret, an anhinga, great egret, black-necked stilts, some sort of sandpiper, and this gorgeous fellow:

Purple Gallinule

 There were swallows flying just over the water, it was interesting to get this angle on them from the bridge.  I don't know what kind of swallow it was:

Mystery Swallow

 Next stop, scarlet macaws!  The driver spotted them flying ahead of us, and we pulled over to try to take some pictures of them flying.  No dice.  However they landed near us, which made the pictures much easier to take!  These two are involved in something that looked like a dispute of some sort.  It went on for a little while.

Scarlet Macaw

 Then one of them leapt over to another branch, and it was apparently settled.

Scarlet Macaw

 Too busy being gorgeous to squabble!

Scarlet Macaw

 Next stop, a pond near the roadside that hosts many herons etc.  My first look at a tiger heron!  This one was right by the fence, it was great.

Bare-Throated Tiger Heron, crest raised

 This tree had lots and lots of birds in it.  Clockwise from top left there is a wood stork (well only half of it made it into the frame), a roseate spoonbill, a little blue heron (just to the right and a tiny bit down from the anhinga), anhinga, and a snowy egret.  Later the tiger heron was in there too and I didn't see it fly it, so it might be hiding in there somewhere, but I don't see it.  It was quite a tree!

Wood Stork, Roseate Spoonbill, Little Blue Heron, Anhinga, Snowy Egret

 This yellow-headed caracara was hanging out there under a tree, too far away for a decent shot, but it left and flew quite close to us.  The wing pattern doesn't look quite right for yellow-headed caracara to me, but the underparts were all white, white head and neck, dark line behind the eye....... I certainly could not find a better candidate.

Yellow-headed Caracara

 We looked back over our shoulders and a group of about 6-8 scissor-tailed flycatchers were making they way through!  The rumors are true.  Costa Rica is heaven.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

As we were leaving, a pair of roadside hawks came over and stubbornly refused to get into any light that was remotely useful to a camera.  Next time, guys........

 Back to the drive, where we made good time until I spotted this kingfisher on a cable over a river.  It never moved so we never saw its front, so I don't really know if it was a ringed kingfisher or a belted kingfisher.  It struck me as quite large, but of course that's not super-reliable.  Look at that beak!

Ringed Kingfisher or Belted Kingfisher

 At last we made it to our resort.  We got up to our room, plopped our bags down, and settled into the deck chairs.  Our first visitor was this guy - a nice welcome!

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

 Then the tanagers started coming by.

Blue-grey Tanager

 Not a great picture of the woodpecker, but how often do you get a shot of a woodpecker with the ocean in the background?  Almost never!  Awesome!

Red-crowned Woodpecker

 Jack spotted teeny somethings, which turned out to be yellow-crowned euphonias.

Yellow-crowned Euphonia

 See?  It's a full yellow cap, not a half cap.  Thanks for showing us!  What a great first day.  :-)

Yellow-crowned Euphonia