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.