Tapir Valley to Maquenque

Today we needed to traverse much of northern Costa Rica. First a two-hour drive up into the cloud forest to Tapir Valley, and then another three hour drive down the east slope of the mountains to Maquenque. Of course these times assume no stops to look at animals and birds, let alone meals. So we left before dawn and arrived around sunset! The amazing Jimmy has a favorite pond where we stopped for a picnic breakfast, and had 19 birds on today’s list by the time we left! 

Tapir Valley is a small private nature reserve in the valley between two volcanos and adjacent to Tenorio National Park. Originally set aside for conservation and research, it has become a thriving educational/ ecotourism destination as well.  It is a wonderful place, well laid out and with shelters along the trails for when the weather closes in. We saw a number of hummingbirds, including some special ones we’d never seen before. Being in the cloud forest often means having the clouds all around you, but today it also downright rained, so we shortened our time there a little (rain not being very compatible with binoculars and cameras).  

Driving from Tapir Valley to our lunch stop... well actually whenever we are in the van... we scanned the trees for birds and animals along the road, and today were rewarded with a great viewing of a Brown Three-toed Sloth. Initially we thought she was just sleeping, but then she woke up to scratch some itches, to snack on the Cecropia tree in which she was resting, and to spend a full five minutes just smiling directly down at us. Need we say that lunch was a bit on the late side today.. and came complete with 9 Green Iguanas in a tree outside the restaurant.

Then on the final leg of the drive, we saw two Great Green Macaws eating, kissing, flying together and very visible in an almond tree. Last year we saw some in flight in Tortuguera, but we had never before been able to really watch them or photograph them while stationary.  Finally, a quick word about Maquenque Lodge (we will doubtless have more to say about it tomorrow). The lodge sits on the north shore of the San Carlos River, so you leave your vehicle on the south side and take a small ferry across. Immediately upon landing you are immersed in jungle and gardens with lagoons. Our room is some distance from the main lodge, a treehouse up 50 wooden stairs, with only screens in the windows and the noises of the jungle all around us. Morning should be quite an adventure!

Pictured: Brown Three-toes Sloth, Great Green Macaw, Black-crested Coquette, Snowcap, Green Iguanas

P.S. You may have noticed there was an extra picture yesterday— apologies to the White-fronted Parrots for not getting their on-screen credit!

Parrots and Monkeys

 A quick update to yesterday’s entry: we drove to Hacienda la Pacifica for the night and a very late dinner... at which we had a special guest in the form of a very young Spotted Skunk. It seemed to come in from the lobby and head straight for the kitchen.. when it was discovered it scurried out the same way, rather than taking a short cut through the open door to the garden. It all happened too quickly for us to get a picture of the little cutie. 

This morning (before dawn) we drove to Hacienda Guachipelin, a large hacienda (still a working ranch) and ecolodge near the Rincón de la Vieja National Park. Actually the access road to the park is on Guachipelin’s land. As it was still quite early, we did some birding around the lodge and saw 6 different kinds of parrots or parakeets, as well as hummingbirds and trogons.  It was VERY windy today, which often reduces the number of birds to be seen, and this proved true when we went up into the park. But the mammals made up for it — we watched a troop of about forty Spider monkeys cross the trail, several of them mothers carrying tiny babies on their backs or stomachs, as well as a number of young monkeys who seemed to prefer swinging upside down and playing chase to following the troop on its migration. Not long after, we watched similar behavior from a troop of about a dozen White-faced Capuchin Monkeys. While we have seen Capuchins on previous trips, we have never seen them so well as today.  The trail wound past various thermal features (mud pots, steam vents, etc) and at one of them we saw a Tamandua (sometimes called a “little anteater “) dozing in a tree. Tamanduas are nocturnal animals, so to see one so clearly in daylight was a treat.  We also saw two quite hard-to-see (if not technically rare) birds: a Great Tinamou (a nocturnal ground bird that looks like a rock if it’s stationary) and a Spotted Antbird (hanging around an enormous swarm of Army Ants next to the trail).

We returned to the lodge for a late lunch, having been unsuccessful in finding a Turquoise-browed Motmot in the park, only to have one land in a tree off the patio while we ate!  We spent the afternoon walking trails at the lodge, and saw several Pacific Screech Owls on a walk after dinner.  

Pictured: White-faced Capuchin monkeys, Tamandua, Turquoise-browed Motmot, Spotted Antbird

Off to the northwest

 This morning we had a quick bird walk before breakfast and then boarded the skiff for the ride back to Drake Bay and a flight to San Jose. The bird walk was more like a “bird stand” behind our cabin looking for hummingbirds on the Verbena bushes— we were rewarded with two new species, the Blue-throated Goldentail and the male White-crested Coquette.  Jimmy often sees the female Coquette at that spot but was so excited to see the male. As you will see below, it is a spectacular little bird. We had stood in the same spot yesterday but the Charming hummingbirds may have been chasing the others (as well as the bumblebees) away. This morning it seemed that the Charmings were sleeping in, as we saw several bumblebees as well as the new hummingbirds. 

On the skiff ride back to Drake Bay, we passed a National Geographic/Lindblad ship with passengers riding across a pretty rough sea in Zodiacs to take walks on the shoreline. It reminded us very much of out Falklands- South Georgia trip... well except for the temperature and the landscape! 

The rest of the morning was spent flying and driving up the Pacific coast (along with a lot of Costa Rican’s heading to the beach so traffic was a bit slow). We stopped at a bridge made famous by the crocodiles who hang out beneath it. After lunch we continued north to La Ensenada, a working ranch and salt refinery right on the ocean that is also an eco-lodge. We embarked on a two hour tractor ride that took over three hours because we saw so much wildlife. The highlight was surely watching a troop of about 30 Mantled Howler monkeys cross next to our tractor, including watching them walk along the rails of a barbed wire fence, climb through the adjacent tree and then leap to the next group of trees. Some of the smaller ones were quite nervous about making that leap and studied the problem for a while before they took the plunge. We also saw several Black (Spiny) Iguanas, two of whom played hide and seek with us, moving back and forth around a tree trunk to be on the side we weren’t.  At the salt pools and later at a large pond, we saw a number of birds and a few new species. 

Pictured: Blue-throated Goldentail, Mantled Howler Monkeys, Roseate Spoonbill, Spiny Iguana 

Family Day

 (January 28)

Today’s itinerary was to ride by skiff for 45 minutes south to La Sirena ranger station in Corcovado National Park. The boat trip actually required two boats with a transfer in the ocean ( the reason for the transfer was that the second boat, not owned by the lodge, could go faster). Little did we know that our adventure would begin on that boat ride!  Did you ever wonder how sea turtles mate? We discovered the answer today, at least for the ones we saw.  We watched a pair of Pacific (Black) Sea Turtles floating near the surface of the ocean mating  with a second male trying to “cut in on the dance”.  About 10 minutes later, we had a school of Pantropic Spotted Dolphins play around our boat, which gave us time to hear on the radio about a Humpback Whale cow and calf nearby.  We abandoned the dolphins to head to the whales.  The dolphins, not happy with this loss of attention, followed us for a bit.  Viewing the whales from water level was just amazing.  We got to see three or four full breaches between them!  

At Corcovado we walked about 5 miles on trails through the forest. While we saw many wonderful birds, the mammals dominated the day.  We encountered three troops of spider monkeys (the last one with some very young members) and two troops of howlers (the second troop with two females carrying very small ones on their backs).  We also saw a large group of coati, about 14 of them, foraging all around us and later sleeping in trees.  After our trek, we boarded our boat (it’s a wet landing) and had a picnic lunch floating on the Pacific.  We did not see any dolphins or whale on our return trip, but we did see a flying fish.  We learned that this fish leaps out of the water and glides above the surface in order to avoid be eaten by Dorado (Mahi mahi).  It looked like a flying sausage, and glided for much further ( at least 100 yards) than we had imagined.  As we neared the lodge beach, we watched in awe as the boat pilot ran the rocky gauntlet to the lodge landing as the tide was coming in.  

Back at the lodge, we went to an overlook to watch for a pair of scarlet macaws. While we waited, we were entertained by a pod of false killer whales leaping out of the water one after another.  They were in the distance, but we still had a good view aided by our binoculars.  We also saw some blows from the female and calf Humpback Whales.  Just a little later the male scarlet macaw arrived, then within a few minutes, the female arrived.  The pair started to preen each other then flew in tandem and finally snuggled into the hollow palm that is their nest as the sun was beginning to set behind them. We stayed to watch the sun set then headed for a glass of wine after a long, but very satisfying day. 

Pictured:  Pacific Sea Turtle, baby Central American Spider Monkey, baby Mantled Howler Monkey, Scarlet Macaws

Casa Corcovado

 You know you are in a remote location when it takes a plane ride (about an hour in a 12-seat prop), then 15 minutes by van, then 45 minutes on a boat and finally a tractor cart up the hill to get there! On the boat ride, we passed two rocky outcrops in the ocean. One sported about 14 nesting Yellow-crowned Night-herons, and the other a nesting colony of Brown Boobies. We also saw several groups of Brown Pelicans, some high in the sky and some about a meter off the water, a bit like Canada geese, but something about the birds makes them look more like military aircraft— one of the guides said “there goes the Costa Rican Air Force” (Costa Rica actually has no armed forces.) 

Casa Corcovado sits above the Pacific just north of the Corcovado National Park.  The resort is lovely, with spacious cabins, two pools, several places to eat and drink, and lovely gardens and trails to see birds and other creatures. We spent much of the afternoon walking around the property. We got to see some interesting behaviors today: a colorful little hummingbird chasing a bumblebee (nearly half the size of the hummingbird) away from “her flowers”; a small Golden-naped Woodpecker chasing a much larger Lineated Woodpecker away from her nest; and a Tayra (a long sleek member of the weasel family) leaping down through a tall tree to try to catch a Spider Monkey — both the tayra and the monkey went crashing into the underbrush, but then there was silence and we don’t know the end of the story. As you might expect in the jungle, it’s quite humid and the insect chorus is quite loud! We’ve been told to keep an ear open at night, as we might get to see tapirs wandering around near our cabin. 

Pictured: Red-lored Parrot, Lineated Woodpecker, and a solitary Brown Pelican. 

Costa Rica round three begins

 An early morning but a fine travel day

We were up at 3am for our 6am flight to Atlanta and then the flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. Everything was very smooth, although it’s a good thing we brought some substantial snacks with us, as we’d have gotten pretty hungry with two bags of airplane cookies to cover breakfast and lunch.  80 degrees and bright sunshine was certainly a change from January in New York! The immigration line upon arrival was very long (early afternoon is a major arrival time for many flights) but it was nice to see that Costa Rica’s travel industry is healthy.  We cleared immigration in about 75 minutes, which locals tell us is actually really fast. The rest of the afternoon was spent doing a little practice birding around the hotel and meeting up with our guide Jimmy.  We saw some old (bird) favorites, including the Great Kiskadee, Hoffmann’s Woodpecker and Crimson-fronted Parakeet pictured below. Tomorrow the trip begins in earnest.