Tuesday January 6
Today was a true birder’s day. We walked on two different trail in the morning and the afternoon, both of them second growth woodlands full of fascinating insect-eating birds with names like antwren, antshrike, gnatwren and antvireo. These tend to be small birds that skulk in the bushes and flit rapidly in pursuit of insects (although sometimes it feels as though they do it just to annoy the birders!) As you might imagine, actually seeing these birds takes work! Having an experienced guide who recognizes bird songs and has a keen eye for subtle movements in the underbrush makes all the difference. We had a wonderful, patient and persistent guide today, and we were with three other guests willing to take the time to “try to see what we could hear”. We were rewarded with seeing ten (!!!) new species today and heard several more that never deigned to be seen. The nature of the birds today also made photography a challenge to say the least; shooting through a little gap in the underbrush as with the antvireo and manakin below.
We are staying on the outskirts of El Valle de Anton. The town and surrounding area are contained in the caldera of the ancient El Valle volcano that last erupted 300,000 years ago. The caldera is three miles wide and its floor is very flat, while the walls tend to be steep and forested.
Our afternoon walk was on the caldera floor, in a former horse farm. Our morning walk climbed the side of the caldera to a section of the continental divide, where we could look down on either side towards the Pacific or the Caribbean.
Pictured: White-tipped Sicklebill (a really large hummingbird), Chestnut-capped Warbler, Tawny-crested Tanager, Spot-crowned Antvireo, Yellow-collared Manakin.
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