Sarapiqui

 This morning we didn’t meet the group for birding until 6:30, which gave us a chance to watch and listen to the awakening of the forest from our treehouse. A chorus of Howlers serenaded us about 4am, and other things began to stir and chirp about 5:30. The Tinamou, who had been silent since Monday night, started calling about 6:15, and then very cooperatively crossed our path as we headed down the hill. Jimmy was so surprised that we had seen and photographed another elusive Tinamou on this trip. 

We spent the morning en route to Sarapiqui, an area with a number of private reserves adjacent to the big Braulio Carrillo National Park.  Our lodge for the night has its own reserve and research center, where we walked before lunch. We walked across a bridge suspended high above the Sarapiqui River, and then walked some forest trails. Signs along the trails warned us to be careful of falling branches — apparently there is a particular kind of tree that drops limbs spontaneously as it grows taller! 

Then the balance of the day was spent at La Selva, one of three reserves in Costa Rica that are part of the Association for Tropical Studies. La Selva covers 3900 acres of tropical rain forest, although this year has been very dry and the conditions are more similar to a normal October. We saw a number of new and unexpected birds. As we walked across a bridge at mid-canopy level, we saw an adorable juvenile two-toed sloth. It was certainly novel to be looking down on a sloth from above. We ended the day watching three green macaws munching away in an almond tree. At dinner, we shared in the excitement of the local crowd watching the Costa Rica- Jamaica qualifying match for World Cup.  You could follow along just by watching the reactions of the crowd (when CR missed on a penalty kick or scored a goal), but we didn’t stay to see the end of the match. 

Pictured: Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth, Snowy Cotinga, Bronzy Hermit, Praying Mantis, a view of our treehouse, and the Papaya tree we forgot to post last night