If you are staying in Guanacaste (Las Catalinas area … dry forest habitat), and you have a 4wd vehicle drive up and over the extremely steep hill towards Zapotal Beach. I love to bird the region from the start of the road to the beach. Do not drive past the Steam Crossing. Assuming you head over early in the morning (like sunrise before the heat of the day), just park at the beginning of the road to Zapotal (wooden sign to beach) and walk the road. The combination of the stream / river on your left as you walk towards the ocean and the savannah habitat on your right makes for fantastic birding. The Pacific Ocean is less than 1/2 mile by foot, and Zapotal is an extremely private beach. I never see anyone there! (see my prior post with pics of the beach and a video). This morning I had Trogons, a Pale Billed Woodpecker, Turquoise-Browed MotMots, a Gray Hawk, Tropical Kingbirds and much, much more. Quite frankly the new golf course with its ponds have actually enhanced the birding since I last visited two years ago. Hopefully the savannah habitat will be left untouched.

Anyhow … from this morning! (the hawk is a life)

Gray Hawk (looks like a male Northern Harrier to me, but it is NOT!)

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Pale Billed Woodpecker

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Turquoise-Browed MotMots

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Some Orange Fronted Parakeets from the prior evening … when these little guys actually slow down right before sunset … at Las Catalinas Town.

And sometime in the next few days … need to process the photographs … my trip to Hacienda El Roble. Birding started at 6:00 AM. Scarlet MaCaw spotted within moments. Shortly thereafter a Pygmy Owl, but I get ahead of myself.

 

Our rental is a 4WD vehicle, and at sunrise this morning I decided to utilize that fact. I drove some amazingly rutted dirt roads and up super steep inclines (and down) and ultimately reached a stream crossing that I found two years ago during a prior visit to Costa Rica. It is the dry season right now, and I was able to easily walk the stream bed and then 600 yards further to the Pacific Ocean. For 3 hours I saw nary another person as I birded in Paradise.

My private beach … the movie (video link for email subscribers)

Upon returning to the stream bed crossing, the Black-Headed Trogons started to sing. For over 30 minutes I watched and photographed the large number of Trogons.

Black-Headed Trogon Song Fest (I saw over six individual trogons)(video link for email subscribers)

I might have stayed longer, but my ears heard a Pale-Billed Woodpecker drumming. Thus, I popped back out to the Savannah from the forest and ocean area. While I never did find the woodpecker, other delights awaited me!

Iguana and Prey (Black Spiny-Tailed Iguana ??)

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Tropical Kingbirds

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White-Faced Monkey

Apparently rain forest birds love bananas. If one puts out a clump of bananas at sunrise, the birds will fly a path to your doorstep! My “job” in the rain forest was to get up early, find the bananas (easy), and start taking pictures. The challenge was keeping my camera dry even if it was not raining. The humidity invaded all of my electronics, which was a bit of a challenge. Given the lodge staff put out bananas at sunrise, my effort was darned easy. Eventually … perhaps after 90 minutes of communing with the birds, I would meander over to an outdoor table (with a roof to protect against the rain) and have my farm breakfast. La Carolina Lodge raises or grows over 80% of the food served to guests.

Now that I am visiting the extremely hot dry forest region on the Pacific … 95F mid day with zero rain … the heat of the days is a perfect time for blogging. Thus these pics from a few days ago …

It goes w/o saying without Cornell’s Bird ID I would have been totally confused in terms of bird identification. However as this is now my fourth trip to Costa Rica I am actually learning many birds by sight and sound. Did you know the Keel-Billed Toucan’s song sounds like a frog croaking?! I now know that fact and it helped me find this kind of toucan.

Rain Forest Banana Birds

Black Cheeked Woodpecker

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Blue Gray Tanager

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Buff-Throated Saltator

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Cattle Egret (out in the nearby farm field)

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Chestnut-Headed Oropendola

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Clay Colored Thrush

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Crested Guan

 

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Crested Guan and Russet-Naped Wood Rail

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Golden Hooded Tanager

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Great Kiskadee

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Keel-Billed Toucan

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Montezuma Oropendola

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Palm Tanager

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Russet-Naped Wood Rail

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Scarlet-Rumped Tanager

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Southern Lapwing (out in the nearby farm field)

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Yellow-Throated Euphonia

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Yellow-Throated Toucans