Summer Costa Rica Jul 07—20, 2007
Posted by Jeri Langham
Jeri Langham
Jeri M. Langham has a Ph.D. in plant ecology from Washington State University, and after 38 years as a professor of biological sciences at California State University ...Related Trips
All eighteen of my Costa Rica tours have been unique. Although we visit the same areas, the species we encounter at each location vary somewhat just as they do when one revisits favorite areas at home. We do take extra time to locate specialties like a male Three-wattled Bellbird, which is the bird on the cover of my personalized Checklist, and Resplendent Quetzals, which are on the back cover. About 90% of the birds on the yearly Trip Lists are the same, but where we find them and how well they cooperate varies tremendously. Picking the highlights of any tour is always difficult, so I will instead recount one full day and part of two others to whet your appetite.
July 10: Suspension bridge hike near the Carara Biological Reserve. Four years ago, Hotel Villa Lapas constructed a wonderful new trail that includes five large suspension bridges over deep ravines and valleys. At dawn, Santiago drove us up the hill to the trailhead and we enjoyed our downhill walk back to the lodge. The trail brought us breath-catching views from special overlooks and the five suspension bridges, as well as wonderful wildlife such as perched Laughing Falcon, Scarlet Macaws, Black-headed Trogon, White-fronted Amazon, and others that responded to our tapes. I learned from the former hotel manager that about 65 workers did this fantastic job. They carried all the bridge material in—no helicopters were involved! Some of the other great birds were Buff-throated Foliage-Gleaner, Long-billed Gnatwren, Riverside Wren, Violaceous Trogon, Brown Jay, Crested Guan, and Long-tailed Manakin. The walk was over way too soon. After breakfast, we were off to Monteverde.
July 11: Reserva Biológica Bosque Nuboso Monteverde. A few of us met on the Fonda Vela overlook porch this morning at 5:30 a.m. and while waiting for breakfast to be prepared, saw White-eared Ground-Sparrow, Elegant Euphonia, White-naped Brush-Finch, and Stripe-tailed Hummingbird, but only heard Three-wattled Bellbird. Our buffet breakfast at 6:20 was superb, with way too many choices. We then boarded Santiago's bus and headed up the hill to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve information center with its entrance fee at $15 each this year. We immediately started on the trail called "El Camino" because it is the old road to the Continental Divide and the overlook on the Caribbean side called "La Ventana." The weather was variable, with wind and some overcast, but no rain until we returned to the bus at noon. We had many great encounters with birds, including Ruddy Treerunner, Ochraceous Wren, Gray-breasted Wood-Wren, Three-striped Warbler, Spotted Barbtail, Collared and Slate-throated redstarts, Prong-billed Barbet, and more. This is a fantastic cloud forest and we marveled at the tall trees and dense vegetation dripping with epiphytes. I am continually amazed by the magic of walking in primary tropical cloud forest. What I enjoyed most about this trail walk was that it really gave us an appreciation for the denseness and lushness of tropical cloud forest growth. Some of the trees were incredibly wide and tall. Our morning hike was about 4 kilometers long. Two species helped make this the best walk of my 17 years: a Black Guan with young crossing the trail in front of us, and the Black-breasted Wood-Quail parade back and forth with young also. We capped the return with Orange-bellied Trogon and Azure-hooded Jay.
Lunch was another delicious buffet with, once again, way too many choices to make. After a siesta break, we headed out at 3:00 for a road just down the street from the hotel. Wattled Bellbirds were gonging in tall trees around us, but we were able to see only one young male. We did pick up Blue-throated Toucanet, Golden-olive Woodpecker, Golden-browed Chlorophonia, and a 2-foot long tropical kingsnake that had been run over but was still very much alive. We then cruised up to the Hummingbird Gallery. Once again, the treat for most everyone was standing at the nectar feeders soaking in great close-up looks at six species of fabulous hummers, ranging from the small, endemic Coppery-headed Emerald to the huge Violet Sabrewing. The smiles on everyone's faces as some of these birds perched on our fingers and swirled around our heads were wonderful to see. A second treat was getting good looks at a female Resplendent Quetzal near her nest hole. The male was inside the nest. We hoped she would replace him, but instead, she joined him for the night.
After our buffet dinner (with beef and chicken grilled on the outside barbecue), we headed back to the Hummingbird Gallery for an extravaganza with nectar-feeding, Geoffroy's hairy-legged or tailless bats. Standing near the hummingbird feeders while the bats swirled around our heads will be one of the tour's highlights for many of us. On our spotlighting trip Brian Gibbons was hot, finding olingo, kinkajou, and two Hoffman's two-toed sloths. The Mottled Owl we saw the previous night was not in the same place. I simply love spotlighting at Monteverde. What an incredible day and night!
July 19: Selva Verde Lodge to La Virgen del Socorro to Volcán Poás to San José. When we arrived at La Paz Waterfall Gardens for lunch, they wanted $29 per person, which included an entrance fee to the lower restaurant. I decided to find a different restaurant and Santiago suggested a great one. We enjoyed it so much that I will return with next year's group. All too soon it was time to make our way toward Volcán Poás in hopes of seeing the crater. This would turn out to be my best visit to the slopes of Volcán Poás. It started when Brian spotted a Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher at the bridge. We saw about four of them, but also had Flame-throated Warbler and a flock. I decided to troll for Yellow-winged Vireo, which immediately answered and flew in for views—I was definitely jazzed by our luck.
Once we reached the park, we paid our entrance fee and began to get the needed species from this montane habitat. After a quick stop at the bathrooms, we headed up the paved walking path to the crater's edge, but added Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush, and Yellow-thighed and Large-footed finches before starting the walk. We soon found Fiery-chested Hummingbird, but I urged everyone on hoping fog would not swoop in. We could smell the sulfur fumes before even reaching the observation point. This is the most acidic lake in the world, with a pH of zero. Although there was no fog on the walk up, it shrouded the crater when we arrived. However, it slowly cleared to show us most of the water-filled crater, and then became invisible once again so all we could see was fog. We were blessed to get that short but satisfying view.
As we headed back down the trail, we saw Sooty-capped Bush-Tanager, Sooty Robin, a tiny mouse, Slaty Flowerpiercer, and Poás squirrel. Our walk through the forest met with intermittent rain, but was very successful with Black-and-Yellow Silky-Tanager, Scintillant Hummingbird, Black-cheeked Warbler, and the two cooperative Wrenthrushes (Zeledonias) being the prize. Those who stayed by the bus with Santiago saw many of the same birds. The rangers literally escorted us out of the park at 3:30 since they wanted to close it down. We drove down through Alajuela and past the airport to our wonderful Hotel El Rodeo.
Please join me July 7-20, 2008 when my co-leader will be David Ascanio.