Costa Rica - Day 2 Part 2

After spending the morning at Carara National Park, Johan took us up the mountain to the Ti-Ko Restaurant. The restaurant's seating area is a large deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The view was amazing. A great advantage of having a local guide is that Johan knew all of the best, off the beaten path places to bird and eat!

We saw a few birds in the treetops, including a Pale-billed Woodpecker, which is closely related to the presumed extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker of North America. 

We also saw the "other" large Toucan in the area, the Yellow-throated Toucan. 

That afternoon we had a boat trip on the Tarcoles River. This is a popular area for group Crocodile tours, as the river is loaded with them. But ours was a private birding trip with just our captain Willkie, Johan and ourselves. 

We were thrilled to get looks at a Yellow-naped Parrot. These birds are critically endangered due to habitat loss as well as nest poaching for the pet trade. We saw several during our trip which Johan thought was a good sign. 

The birds of the tour were Kingfishers. We saw all five of the possible Costa Rican Kingfishers, which was a real treat. We were specifically looking for the smallest, the American Pygmy Kingfisher. 

After seeing the huge Ringed Kingfisher, the smaller Amazon Kingfisher, and the even smaller Green Kingfisher, we finally came upon a tiny American Pygmy Kingfisher. 

Ringed Kingfisher

Amazon Kingfisher

Green Kingfisher

American Pygmy Kingfisher

American Pygmy Kingfisher

Another target bird for the trip was the Mangrove Hummingbird. We'd never seen this bird before, probably because it feeds primarily on Mangrove blossoms along the rivers and coastlines. Mangrove blossoms are subtle, but pretty. 

This is where having a good guide and boatman is key. They knew that this was an area where we could see the Hummingbird, so we found an area with blooms and waited. Sure enough, a Mangrove Hummingbird was using this area to feed and we soon got good looks. This one is pretty plain as Hummingbirds go, but it was a lifer for us!

Mangrove Hummingbird

We also got to see a Common Black-Hawk swoop down and catch a catfish, then drag it to the bank to eat it. 

Common Black-Hawk

After the boat tour we did a little birding along the black sand beach, with Teri spotting this Roseate Spoonbill. We birded until sunset. 

Roseate Spoonbill

On the road back to the lodge Johan stopped to find us a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl which was cooperative enough to allow a picture to be taken.

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

It had been a good day!

Next - Moving on to our second lodge. 

Costa Rica - Day 2

Thursday, January 12, 2023

We started our day by walking along the entrance road to Cerro Lodge. 

Our guide Johan and Mark

Along the road we picked up some good species, including a White-throated Magpie-Jay. This large crested Jay was one of 13 life birds (birds we'd never seen before) that we would find on this trip. 

Yellow-headed Caracara

White-throated Magpie-Jay

Rose-throated Becard - male

(Costa Rican birds don't have the reddish throat patch!)

We then returned to the lodge to enjoy breakfast back at their outdoor restaurant. 

The breakfast choices were "Tipico" (a typical Costa Rican breakfast which includes rice, beans, fried plantains, and eggs), "Americano" (typical American breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast) or "Continental" (toast only).  

The restaurant is on a raised deck overlooking a couple of simple feeders. The main attraction is Scarlet Macaws. With the deck being raised the Macaws were at eye level in the trees.  These enormous red parrots were endangered at one point by trapping for the pet trade, but with protection are now doing well. 

Scarlet Macaw

We also enjoyed seeing a beautiful Keel-billed Toucan, the Fruit Loops mascot!

Keel-billed Toucan

Then into the car and off to visit Carara National Park.  On the way we saw another lifer, Double-striped Thick-knee(s). 

We were met in the National Park parking area by some huge Black Iguanas. The males can be as much as four feet long!

Black Iguana

We hiked the "Universal Trail" in the park and then past a bridge over a small river.  Birding on forest trails is often slow, and that was the case here. But we found some interesting birds and one tiny poison dart frog. The frog was no larger than the last joint on my pinkie finger. 

Black-throated Trogan female

Blue-throated Goldentail (Hummingbird)

Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher

Green-and-black Poison Dart Frog

Near the end of our hike we came across an army ant swarm being attended by Northern Barred-Woodcreeper, Bicolored Antbird, and Buff-rumped Warblers.

Northern Barred-Woodcreeper

Bicolored Antbird

Buff-rumped Warbler

We finished up at noon, and headed off to lunch. 

Next: A special lunch spot and a boat ride.  

Costa Rica - 40th Wedding Anniversary Trip

Teri and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in early January, and had planned our sixth trip to Costa Rica to celebrate. We booked everything through Costa Rica Focus, the company that we'd used for the first time back in July 2021. 

As is our tradition, we stayed the night before our flight at the La Quinta Airport Hotel in San Antonio. We arrived at the airport at 4:00 a.m. for our 5:30 flight and got checked in. So far, so good.  

At some point our departure time was pushed to 6:00 and then 6:30.  We got word of a nationwide failure of the FAA NOTAM (Notice to Airman) system that had grounded all US flights. We finally got a new 8:00 departure time which became 8:30 with delays. 

Just before takeoff we got word on the American Airlines app that our Miami to Costa Rica flight had been cancelled, that American had nothing available, and that we needed to make other plans. We debated even getting on the plane, but decided to go to Miami and figure it out. 

After landing, but while still taxiing I turned my phone on and started looking for alternative flights. It appeared that American had nothing, nor did any other US carrier. It looked like best case we’d spend the night in Miami and then fly out the next day on Copa Airlines, arriving at around 7:30 pm,  completely wrecking the first couple of days of our trip.

I was in contact with Costa Rica Focus who were also trying to find us something, but we were ending up with solutions like flying to Panama City, and then getting a flight the next day to Costa Rica, or flying to Bogota and then connecting back. It was looking like a real disaster.

We were also trying to figure out what was happening with our luggage and how to get it back from American so that we could book on another airline. We returned to the gate where we’d landed to ask, but found that the adjacent gate was boarding a flight to Costa Rica!!  We’d assumed that nothing was available since American told us that, but we waited at the counter and realized that the gate agent was madly booking people onto a standby list!  They were starting to call standbys and directed folks needing to get on standby to the area of the counter where we happened to be standing. We were taken next, given two separate seats in economy, and told to immediately board the plane. I don’t know why we were jumped to the front, but we didn't quibble!

So we went from thinking we’d not get there at all to arriving only four hours late!  Our luggage even make the flight!!  So hats off to American for pulling it all together at the last minute!  They could have done better with the initial cancellation but all is forgiven. What a disaster of a day it was for many folks, thanks to the incompetence of the FAA. 

Our guide for the trip, Johan was patiently waiting for us, and we were on our way in no time. We arrived to Hotel Cerro Lodge at around 6:00 pm, driving the last 30 minutes in the dark. We saw several Common Paraques on the final dirt road into the lodge, so that was a treat. 

Common Paraque - taken through the windshield at night

We got checked in, went out owling for about an hour and saw an immature Spectacled Owl and more Pauraques, and then had dinner. 

Spectacled Owl

The lodge restaurant specializes in wood-fired pizza, and Teri and I split a “personal” vegetarian pizza that was all we could eat together. Strangely, we were brought a large pair of office scissors to cut the pizza and they worked surprisingly well. 

Our large three-bed room had an A/C which was wonderful as this is a warm, humid area. 

It also featured an outdoor bathroom which was interesting. It was surrounded by vegetation and shade cloth, but at night with the light on very easy to see into!  

So we showered with the lights off, which was fine as there was enough stray light from the hotels walkway lighting. We had a decent nights rest, if not sleep. It had been a very long first day!