Why not? It’s Truck Month!

We took our first camping trip this year out to South Llano River State Park.  It’s only about 1 ½ hours from our house but it is one of our favorite parks. 

Getting reservations in a state park, or any park, has become a challenge in the past couple of years.  Reservations must be made months in advance if you want to stay more than one night in a single spot, even if it’s during the week. 

We had hoped to be able to take some spur-of the-moment trips and have been discouraged with not being able to just load up and go. 

Plus, the parks are always busy, and not just on the weekends. Crowded, loud parks have never been fun for us. 

We enjoyed our few days at S. Llano but when we returned home we  both decided that camping was not nearly as much fun as it had been when we were working or when we were full time RV volunteers. 

So, the decision was made to sell our travel trailer.  We took it to a consignment place close to our house. 

We are a little sad to have that part of our lives over but also a little relieved to not have to think about getting difficult reservations, getting the trailer out, and crowded campgrounds. 

So, what’s next?  Lots of airbnb’s and many trips planned for this year. 

If you’ve ever seen a Ford commercial you will know that It’s Truck Month! I think every month might be truck month here in Texas. 

With no real need for a F350 diesel, we called up our favorite Ford salesman and took a couple of test drives. 

This one came home with us: 

It is a smaller F-150, but a Lariat which is a step above the XLT trucks that we've always owned. It has some nice features like heated and cooled seats, several cameras which provide a 360 degree view around the truck when parking, a giant 12" screen for navigation, ten(!) different driving modes. It is a Crew Cab, 4WD which is just about all they sell here in Texas.  We've started volunteering at a nearby nature preserve with some very rough roads and actually need 4WD for the first time in our lives.

We think that this will be a great travelling vehicle and just what we need for future road trips.

Costa Rica - Final Day

Friday, January 20, 2023

I went out with Johan at 5:45 to try for a final hike, while Teri decided to stay back and start packing. We walked some hotel trails, finding both Black-billed and Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrushes which we’d been missing up to this point. We also got a quick look at a Buff-fronted Quail-Dove, the last "lifer" of the trip. Most fun was watching a group of three Spotted Wood-Quail scratching and feeding from a distance of no more than ten feet away.

Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush

Spotted Wood-Quail

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and were in the car at 8:00 for the trip into San Jose. The drive went smoothly and we arrived at the airport around 11:00.  We said our fond farewells to Johan and headed inside. We were at our departure gate in less than 10 minutes and had plenty of time to relax before the flight. Teri did a bit of souvenir shopping at the airport as we'd not had many opportunities while we were out on the road. 

We left on time to Miami at 1:30 and we arrived at 5:30 EST.  Immigration went pretty quickly as did bag pickup and drop off, but the wait to pass back through security was over 30 minutes with a "special" inspection of our carry-on containing all of my camera gear and the binoculars. The whole thing seemed a bit absurd but we had plenty of time for our connection and were in our next departure gate with almost two hours to spare. Travel days are definitely the least fun days of a vacation!

We landed a bit after midnight in San Antonio, caught an Uber to the La Quinta where we'd stayed the night before our trip and where we'd left our car, and checked in for a welcome night of rest before heading home the next morning. 

Teri's purchased souvenirs:

We were surprised when Johan dropped us off at the airport and gave each a Costa Rican flag pin and a beautiful Toucan magnet!

Final Thoughts:

It was a wonderful trip for our 40th Anniversary!

Costa Rica never fails to come through with great birds, great lodges, and amazing guides. This was our second trip with Costa Rica Focus and they get an A+ for everything. From assisting us during our ridiculous first travel day with the airlines shut down to making all of the arrangements to, most importantly, hooking us up with Johan who was just a delight to travel and bird with. We'd never travelled with a full-time guide in Costa Rica before, but we'd certainly love to take another trip with Johan!

For the trip we saw 308 different species of birds, of which 13 were life birds, meaning species that we've never seen before. I got photos of probably half of the species, though I haven't really counted them.

This was our sixth trip to Costa Rica and we've spent a total of about eight weeks birding the country. While there isn't the potential for hundreds of new birds like there is in many other countries, we've come to think of Costa Rica as our favorite country for tropical birding because of the easy access (usually!), amazing number of excellent birds and birding sites, opportunities for photography, and friendly people. No doubt we'll be back! 

Costa Rica - Day 9 Part 2

Thursday, January 19, 2023

We headed to an area near the Savegre Lodge where we'd stayed on two previous trips. Just down the road from the lodge is the Waterfall Road, which is also the access road to the Truchas Reales (Royal Trout) Farm.  This is a dirt road that runs alongside a river and through some beautiful forest. 

We immediately started seeing some high-elevation species like Black-faced Solitaire, Collared Redstart, Flame-throated Warbler, and Spangle-cheeked Tanager. It was a beautiful walk on a nice shady road/trail and is probably my favorite type of birding. 

Black-faced Solitaire

Collared Redstart

Flame-throated Warbler

Spangle-cheeked Tanager

At 12:30 we went to a small local restaurant for lunch. We all had pizza which was very good, and I finished with a piece of lemon pie that was identical to what we’d call Key Lime Pie. 

We then drove up to the Batsu Gardens bird photography site which Teri and I had visited in 2018 when it was brand new. The gardens had grown in some but it was pretty much the same. The site has a fruit feeding area with perches that are perfect for viewing and photography. 

Acorn Woodpecker

Baltimore Oriole

Golden-browed Chlorophonia

Rufous-collared Sparrow

Silver-throated Tanager

In addition to birds coming into the fruit feeding station, there were plenty of feeders and flowering plants to attract hummingbirds.

Lesser Violetear

Scintillant Hummingbird

Volcano Hummingbird

We also saw both male and female Slaty Flowerpiercer. They are considered "nectar thieves" as instead of feeding down the throat of a flower and spreading pollen from plant-to-plant, they pierce a hole at the base of the flower and drink the nectar that way. The male and female are different colors, but they share the distinctive Flowerpiercer bill shape. 

Slaty Flowerpiercer - female

Slaty Flowerpiercer - male

After a couple of hours at Batsu Gardens we went back to the Waterfall Trail and birded it till dark. We saw a pair of American Dippers which are odd birds that walk underwater on the riverbed, probing the gravel for insects. They are always found near fast-moving water. 

American Dipper

Another bird found in this habit is a small flycatcher called the Torrent Tyrannulet. These streamside birds seem to share the same gray color scheme. 

Torrent Tyrannulet

We'd had a big lunch and were still pretty full so stopped at a tiny local place for a cup of hot chocolate and an artisan roll. We ended the night with owling back a Dantica Lodge, finally calling in a Bare-shanked Screech-Owl which just flew past us into the tree behind. We heard it a couple of more times but never really got good looks. Oh well, maybe next time!

Next time: Our last day, final thoughts, and souvenirs.

Costa Rica - Day 9

Thursday, January 19, 2023

This was an early morning as we had to depart for the Paraiso Quetzal Lodge at 5:00 in order to meet our hotel guide by 5:30.  The hotel has a cooperative program with over 20 local farmers who maintain or improve habitat for Resplendent Quetzals, and in return the hotel brings guests to see them. Each morning they choose a farm based on recent activity, facilities, etc. and transport guests there for the opportunity to see and photograph Resplendent Quetzals, thought by many to be the most beautiful bird in the world. 

We met up with our hotel guide and were taken to a local farm called La Esperanza. We arrived first and were taken up a trail to a seating area overlooking a fruiting little avocado tree with very nice artificial perches set adjacent to it on either side. It was a great photo set-up with the sun at our back, if the birds cooperate. 

Little Avocado Tree - Favorite food of Quetzals.

We were waiting quietly for the Quetzals to arrive when two small buses showed up and unloaded about twenty photographers. The group hiked up the hill and proceeded to set-up a line of tripods and gear right in front of where we were standing. Lots of chatter, messing with equipment, loud talking about settings, previous shots, etc. 

This seems to have become the norm with this celebrity bird in Costa Rica. In 2008 when we first saw it we enjoyed it in a quiet place, with only a couple of other folks around. In 2018 our experience was on a public road with hundreds of folks bused in from nearby hotels for the experience. Most were not birders, and once the Quetzal showed up they were back in the bus to head off to their next activity. We’d hoped that this set-up would be better, and it was, but still not our favorite way to bird. One crazy thing was that several of the photographers were playing Solitaire or Candy Crush on their phones while waiting, rather than looking around and enjoying the scenery and other birds present, like the rare Spotted Wood-Quail and the Yellow-thighed Brush-Finch. 

Spotted Wood-Quail

Yellow-thighed Brush-Finch

Before long a beautiful male quetzal flew down toward the tree, but immediately flared and retreated. Perhaps it had seen the large group of folks set up (too) close to its feeding area and decided to go elsewhere.  Johan felt like that had been the case.

Our hotel guide had wandered up the hill behind the photo area and called Johan to tell him that Quetzals were feeding up there. We broke away from the group and headed up that way. It was very steep and difficult walking, but we got great looks at a feeding pair of Quetzals, and I was able to obtain decent photos. Not what we would have obtained at the photo set-up, but those folks ultimately packed up and left without having seen the bird, so we’d made the right choice to abandon the set-up and hike up the hill. 

Resplendent Quetzal

We returned to the hotel for breakfast (Americano for Teri, Huevos Rancheros for Mark) which was very nice.  

After finishing breakfast we headed out to enjoy the hotel's hummingbird garden and beautiful grounds. 

The hummingbird feeders were absolutely crawling with Fiery-throated Hummingbirds, a species that we’d seen only poorly in the past and that I'd never managed to get a decent picture of. Problem solved!!

Fiery-throated Hummingbird

There were other hummingbird species as well. 

Talamanca Hummingbird - Male

Volcano Hummingbird - male

Volcano Hummingbird - female

After getting our fill of hummingbirds we walked trails through the expansive gardens of the hotel, picking up some good birds including a nice pair of Golden-browed Chlorophonias. 

Golden-browed Chlorophonia

Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher

Flame-colored Tanager - female

Flame-colored Tanager - male

We left the hotel at 10:00 and did some road birding as we worked our way toward our next birding area. 

Next - Batsu Gardens