Costa Rica - Day 8

 Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Today we moved to our final lodge.  We got up early and headed out to find Black-chested Jays. We've seen these jays in Panama and Columbia, but they are very rare in Costa Rica, occurring only in a small area adjacent to the Panama border. 

Johan navigated us up to this area, and we found one within minutes. The Black-chested Jay doesn't have a crest like many of the jays that folks are familiar with, but sports a handsome blue, black and cream pattern. 

Black-chested Jay

We saw a Roadside Hawk in the area as well, and a Yellow-faced Grassquit along a fence line as we departed the area. 

Roadside Hawk

Yellow-faced Grassquit

We returned to the Las Cruces Biological Station for breakfast, and then packed up and headed out. Today's move would take us up into the mountains near San Gerardo, to some of the highest elevations in Costa Rica. The trip would take several hours, but Johan had a couple of special stops planned along the way. 

We passed through a lot of agricultural areas, with sugar cane being a major crop.  This, along with palm oil plantations are the main agricultural products coming from this area. 

Trucks at the factory loaded with Sugar Cane

At about 11:00 a.m. we arrived at Chirripo Oasis, which is a 100 acre family farm previously used for cattle production and timber. It has been converted over to ecotourism, along with organic coffee and bananas. It is a great example of the impact that ecotourism can have in rural areas. The farm had beautiful gardens and trails, along with a small hotel.  No one was staying there when we visited, so we had it to ourselves. 

One of the special birds at this location, and our target was the three inch long White-crested Coquette. Coquettes are a type of hummingbird known for their small size and unusual crests and tufts adorning the heads of the male birds. We'd seen Rufous-crested and Black-crested Coquettes before, but never the White-crested. 

The gardens were spread out around the hotel building, so we couldn't see them all from one spot. The owner of the farm kept a look-out on one side, and we watched the other. After about 15 minutes the owner shouted to let us know that the White-crested Coquette was feeding on his side. I took a lot of pictures...

White-crested Coquette - male

While the Coquette was the star of the show, we saw plenty of other birds as well. We saw both male and female Garden Emerald, another hummingbird species. The female's green and white color pattern blends in very well with the plants. 

Garden Emerald - female

Garden Emerald - male

The Speckled Tanager was becoming a favorite bird of mine, and we were finding plenty of them to enjoy. 

Speckled Tanager

The Black-striped Sparrow is different than the brown streaky sparrows that we commonly see in Texas. They are significantly larger with a bolder pattern. 

Black-striped Sparrow

Baltimore Oriole and Tennessee Warbler are birds that we'll be seeing back in North America in just a few weeks. 

Baltimore Oriole

Tennessee Warbler

After about an hour at Chirripo Oasis we headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was called El Pelícano, and though we didn't see any pelicans we did enjoy a delicious lunch!

Next - One more stop before we reach our final lodge.