Window to Wildlife

There are around 50 different hummingbird species in the Costa Rica guidebook, and they are mostly tiny, very mobile, fast flying and often feeding very high at the top of large flowering shrubs. When we first arrived in the country I didn’t really pay too much attention, thinking I would not be able to identify one from another. However, after a few days I began to tune in more and realised that actually I could, and even more astonishingly discovered that we could get some pretty good photos! The first and most common sighting was the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, which we saw almost every day in a wide range of habitats. These were often the first bird I saw in the mornings as they nectared on low lying flowering shrubs around our accommodations. Helpfully they also often gave a high pitched call to draw attention to themselves. This shimmering female Green-breasted Mango was spotted sitting on her nest on the telephone wire shortly after we returned from our boat trip at Ma

Our third destination was the Wilson’s Botanical Gardens where we were based for 3 nights. The gardens were beautiful, with a variety of trees, flowering shrubs, lawns, a small pond and wooded areas. This rich tapestry of vegetation led to a diversity of habitat and a good variety of birds. Many of the hotels, cafes and gardens  in Costa Rica supplemented the planting by offering feeding tables laden with fruit, which acted  as a magnet for many spectacular birds, allowing brilliant views and good photo opportunities. Here, this was positioned outside the dining room at a central courtyard where we would meet for meals and walks. Tanagers were a species especially attracted to such feeders, many displaying beautiful, bold colours. These included the sunny Silver-throated Tanager, seen here eyeing up a tasty piece of banana. Silver-throated Tanager The lovely, blue tinged Golden-hooded Tanager And my personal favourite,  the stunning Speckled Tanager. There were also

It was a beautiful sunny day as we set off on a whale watching trip from the Marina Ballena National Park. Although we did not see any whales it was a thoroughly enjoyable excursion. The sea was calm, making for a relaxing journey. We encountered several pods of Spotted Dolphins which leapt and danced in front of the boat and also a few parrot turtles swimming at the surface. We stumbled across a small fishing boat, which had also attracted the attention of these lovely Brown Pelicans, who floated expectantly at a short distance, bursting into action as unwanted fish were thrown back into the sea. We also found a group of Brown Boobies together with two Red-footed Boobies (one shown here on the right) and were able to slowly edge in quite close to observe them bobbing along on the surface. Next we noticed a piece of driftwood, shared by a Brown Booby at one end and a Royal Tern at the other. Again, we were able to get in very close and drift alongside these birds, who appea

Today we visited the rainforest at Carara National Park. It was dark, hot and humid and a marked contrast to the locations visited yesterday, resulting in completely different birds and wildlife.  One of the first birds we saw was this classic “Woody woodpecker’ - actually a Pale-billed Woodpecker, but surely the model for Woody in the childhood cartoon. It was quite hard work birding in the thick vegetation, but our guide was helpful in identifying species and we all played out part in finding the birds. Some such as Chestnut-sided Warbler and Black-throated Trogon were neck-craningly high in the treetops  and others, such as Rufous-backed Wrens skulked in vegetation on the ground. This beautiful Lesson’s Motmot was found  perched in a tree lit up by a raft of sunlight penetrating into the forest. You can just make out the shuttlecock type tail feathers which are a distinctive feature of the Motmot family. We found a variety of birds from the Trogon family during

It is incredible to think how much we packed into our first day of this fabulous holiday. After the morning activities described in previous posts, we headed to a cafe near the Tarcoles River for lunch. This site is famous for it's views of the large American crocodiles: However we were equally pleased to find Black-bellied Whistling Geese, Kingfisher, and  this Yellow-Headed Caracara perched on a log at the edge of the river : Next we headed to Tarcoles beach where we found magnificent Scarlet Macaws feeding in the trees: We returned to Hotel Villa Lapas for a well earned siesta, but were out again at 4pm to meet together to explore the attractive grounds and gardens. These pictures below give a flavour of the setting, and perhaps illustrate why it was such a good location for birds with a good variety of vegetation and habitats leading to a great diversity of species. View of the hotel gardens Plenty of iguanas  A small river flows through the ground