gryllosblog   Gryllo's (aka Ian Lewis') blog. All things to do with travel, wildlife especially birds, history, architecture and anything else that interests me.

One of the best ‘beware of the dog’ signs I have ever seen.

Although the sign had been taken down, you can’t help wonder why it was put up in the first place!

You’re hardly going to advertise dirty bathrooms are you?

Since we left San Jose on April 1st we have been to the south and west to areas near the Panama border, north-west along the coast to Hacienda Solimar, back into the mountains at Monteverde, north along the mountain ridge then descending to the lowlands near Cano Negro and along the Caribbean slope near Volcan Arenal. This final post covers the area around La Selva on the Caribbean slope.

La Selva is a reserve belong to the OTS Biological Station where we stayed for the last three nights of the tour. Accommodation was quite acceptable but it was a 1km away from the dining area, which meant it wasn’t easy to pop back to your room for something you forgot. As the area catered for young people performing biological research projects and tourism was a sideline, meals were served up in a school canteen manner and although adequate, didn’t match the service and quality we had experienced elsewhere. Many of the trails were concreted ….

…. and even had guide rails. This is great if it encourages those with reduced mobility to get around but it did distract from the wilderness experience somewhat. Oh, and the concreted trails didn’t prevent me from almost stepping on a Fer-de-Lance on the way back from dinner!

Now to the birds; on the first afternoon we had a run of good birds near our cabins, the bandit-masked Laughing Falcon ….

….. the tiny Bat Falcon,

…. and best of all the enormous but exceedingly rare Great Green Macaw.

Near to the restaurant we saw beautiful Chestnut-coloured Woodpecker and the delightful all-white Snowy Cotinga but the latter didn’t pose for photos.

Birds of prey that breed in North America but winter in South America must pass through Costa Rica as they cannot cope with long sea crossings. Most probably pass along the Caribbean coast and most had probably passed through by the time we arrived, but we were privileged to see a flock of about 100 Mississippi Kites .

Collared Peccaries were common and easily seen around the research centre …..

…. although potentially dangerous if cornered, these seemed completely accustomed to people walking by.

The taxonomy of the larger toucans has been in flux with several former species lumped, but in most areas there are two types, a ‘croaker’ and a ‘growler’. In this area the ‘croaker’ is represented by Keel-billed Toucan ….

…. and the ‘growler’ by Yellow-throated (aka Chestnut-mandibled) Toucan.

Most male euphonias are blue-black with yellow underparts and crown however Olive-backed Euphonia bucks the trend.

I saw two ‘lifer’ tanagers in these forests, Emerald (which I didn’t photograph) and Black-and-Yellow (which I did).

White-faced Capuchin Monkeys showed well ….

…. as did this Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer.

At nearby Braulio Carrillo National Park we had great views of the stunning Snowcap, one of the prettiest hummers of all, but we failed to see the localised Lattice-tailed Trogon.

The White-whiskered Puffbird is normally rare and only seen on about 2/3rds of trips. we saw between 15 and 20 over the three weeks.

Buff-rumped Warblers were seen regularly along streams.

…. and we had more great views of Crested Guans.

We also saw the bizarre Basilisk aka ‘Jesus Christ Lizard’ (as it can run across the surface of water for short distances) ….

…. and some delightful poison-dart frogs (delightful that is until you touch them as their skin contains neurotoxins).

One of the last additions to our list came as we walked to breakfast on the last morning (having just seen my life Slaty-breasted Tinamou) we found a juvenile Tiny Hawk. Some of the non-tinamou watchers joined us further down the track, we walked back to show them the Tiny Hawk, only find that it had gone and been replaced by an adult of the same species.

During our time at Braulio Carrillo National Park we were taken to an area of farmland and woodland by a local guide. We were shown a whole range of great birds, like this Thicket Antpitta ….

….. and this Great Potoo. Potoos have evolved an unusual defense strategy, they are able to roost out in the open because they look and act just like a tree stump.

Later we were shown a roosting Crested Owl. This large and magnificent owl was roosting in a thicket and getting a good angle to photograph it without disturbing it was tricky.

Then we were shown something really bizarre; just what is Rose photographing?

…. Honduran White Bats, tent-making bats that shape a Heliconia leaf into a tent by biting the central rib to form an inverted V and then roosting underneath it.