Friday, January 24, 2025

Gardens and Macaws







 January 24

Today was a day of two very different parts. This morning we drove to La Fortuna, the town closest to the Arenal volcano. We walked through a small nature reserve (mostly in the rain) with the owner helping us to find sloths, basilisks and poison dart frogs. Every day he walks the reserve and puts out flags to alert visitors where to look up to find a sloth.  This morning we saw five sloths (2 two-toed and 3 three-toed including one with a baby). They were all high in the trees and wet from the rain— so imagine furry coconuts with no visible faces. Still, it’s fun that there are so many.  We also saw red and green-and-black poisons dart frogs (really tiny ones, as the bigger ones are popular prey for some of the local birds). We also saw Pygmy tent-making bats and a couple of new bird species (and a lot of familiar ones). 


After lunch we drove south and east towards Sarapiqui. We drove past many pineapple fields; Costa Rica is currently #1 in the world for the production of pineapple. However, it requires so many nutrients that a given field only last for two years and then has to be switched to growing beans to put nitrogen back into the soil. 


At the end of a muddy road and after another deluge, we arrived at a farm in the middle of nowhere. Cows in the fields, chickens running around everywhere, and scores of macaws squawking from the trees. Oh yes, it is a macaw reserve! No fences; the macaws fly freely and eat naturally in the surrounding area, although they come back in the late afternoon for a snack of peanuts, which allows people like us to photograph them. The owner started with rescuing 4 scarlet and 4 great green macaws about 35 years ago. 5 years ago they tried to count them all— the estimate is 80, including a few hybrid ones. The birds are clearly very healthy and choose to stay in the area.


Pictured: scarlet macaw, great green macaw, pigmy tent-making bats, yellow tyrannulet, red poison dart frog, green-and-black poison dart frog 


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