Costa Rica Day 7 - Part 2

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Following lunch we headed out to a few nearby birding spots. 

The first was the local airport, but it's not what you think. The airport is simply a strip of pavement surrounded by a chain link fence. The fence separated many homes from the main road and had been (illegally) cut in several places so that locals could cross the runway and reach the road without talking the long way around. If you look closely at the Google Earth satellite shot you can see some of the paths from homes on the north side to the main road and businesses on the south.  

We have flown out of a couple of little airports like this in single-engine prop planes, and it can be a little disconcerting to see children and dogs running across the runway as you take off or land!

The airstrip was surrounded by tall grass which is good habitat for Yellow-bellied Seedeaters. We also found a Tropical Mockingbird, which is very similar in appearance to our Northern Mockingbird. 

Tropical Mockingbird

Yellow-bellied Seedeater

From the airport we explored a couple of nearby lagoons where we found an Amazon Kingfisher and a Green Heron. 

Amazon Kingfisher

Green Heron

We then headed over to Finca Cántaros, a small property that was a coffee plantation but is now being run as a nature preserve. The property is interesting because it contains a large petroglyph discovered in 2009 that is thought to be 1600 years old. The meaning of the symbols is not known.  There were also a couple of interesting stone carvings, one of a reclining person and another of a jaguar. We didn't learn the origin or age of these items. 

Petroglyph

Jaguar

Reclining Person

From a birding standpoint the main attraction is a 2 acre lagoon in the middle of the property. It supports a variety of ducks, including an interesting hybrid Green-winged Teal x Blue-winged Teal. One characteristic used to separate different species of birds is that they don't reproduce outside of their species. However this isn't absolute, and various Teal hybrids do exist. Below is a picture of the Hybrid as well as a Blue-winged Teal from this location. I've included a picture of a "pure" Green-winged Teal from a different location, as there we none here. Can you see how the hybrid has characteristics of both?

Green-winged Teal x Blue-winged Teal (Hybrid)

Blue-winged Teal

Green-winged Teal (different location!!)

After viewing the lagoon we walked some forest trails and turned up a few birds. One was a Green Hermit. Hermits are a type of hummingbird generally found in forests. They usually don't come to feeders and seem to prefer to stay in the shadows. 

Green Hermit

Streak-headed Woodcreeper

We returned to the lodge for dinner, and then went out on a night walk. Johan played an owl call and immediately a Mottled Owl came rushing in. It passed within just a couple of feet of us and then perched in a nearby tree. Territorial!

Mottled Owl

The gardens have several small water features, and we'd been hearing frogs calling.  Earlier in the day Johan had pointed out batches of frog eggs lain in a Heliconia. 

Frog eggs in Heliconia bloom

We saw several Marine Toads, largest amphibian in Costa Rica and one of the largest toads in the world. We also saw several Masked Tree Frogs, which are much smaller. 

Marine Toad

Masked Tree Frog

Masked Tree Frog

Our last animal of the night was an Opossum rustling its way through a treetop. 

Oppossum

Next - Moving day