As with summer 2016 I have been so busy with ringing and the resultant paperwork that I have little time for my blog. From late-July to now I have been visiting Durlston on most days when the weather permits and have made 22 visits so far, I have also done some ringing at our Lytchett Heath site on several occasions.
My intention was to upload a series of posts about my excellent trip to the Lesser Antilles and Trinidad. I had spent many hours sorting the photos and had cropped, edited, and labelled about 800 of the 2500 I had taken. I stored them all on an external hard drive and took it with me when we visited friends and family in early July, unfortunately I appear to have lost the hard drive! Of course I should have kept the edited photos in more than one place, but I’m afraid I didn’t. I can’t face going through them all over again but remain hopeful that the drive will eventually surface. Failing that I may go through the unedited ones and pick out some of the best for a quick summary.
However I have some great photos to hand. When Pete Morris of Birdquest, the leader of my April Costa Rica trip, sent out the trip report he included a CD of his photos and agreed that I can use them on my blog. Pete is an excellent photographer and uses top notch gear. By and large I have chosen birds that I didn’t photograph or ones where my photos were poor rather than just select the very best of Pete’s images. The pics are in alphabetical order, for chronological account of the trip see the multiple posts I uploaded from May onwards or for the full tour report and more photos see: http://www.birdquest-tours.com/pdfs/report/COSTA%20RICA%20-ULTIMATE-%20REP%2017.pdf
Admirable Hummingbird – fairly common on Cerro de la Muerta, a recent split from Magnificent (Rivoli’s) Hummingbird. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Banded Wren of the arid NW of Costa Rica, one of 22 species of wren on this tour. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Bare-crowned Antbird – a single male was seen at Arenal, Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Our bird of the trip – the seldom seen Bare-necked Umbrellabird. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
It took some searching but after a number of unsuccessful evenings owling in the Cerro de la Muerta area we finally tracked down a Bare-shanked Screech Owl at Monteverde. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Bicoloured Antbird, seen at Carara and Braulio Carillo. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Black-and-White Owl, why did I leave my camera behind when we popped out after dinner at Arenal? Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Black-and-Yellow Phainoptilia, fairly common on Cerro de la Muerta. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Black-throated Wren, it took a while to find one but it showed well when we did. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Blue-crowned Manakin, bathing in the stream at Carara NP. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Broad-billed Motmot, one of six species of motmot seen on the tour. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Boat-billed Heron. I took many photos of perched birds but never captured one in flight. Pete’s shot reinforces what a weird bird this is. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Cabanis’s Wren, one of a three way split of the old Plain Wren. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Chestnut-backed Antbird, another rainforest speciality. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Chestnut-sided Warbler a migrant from North America. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Collared Forest Falcon. Forest falcons are elusive and seldom photographed. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Chiriqui Quail-Dove, one of five skulky quail-doves seen on the tour. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Common Paraque, a very widespread nightjar with a range from South Texas to central Argentina. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Dusky Nightjar: unlike Paraque this species is restricted to the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Dusky-faced Tanager, seen at La Selva. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
I mentioned in my final post that I almost stepped on the small but deadly Fer-de-Lance as I walked back from the restaurant at La Selva. Well here it is! Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Fiery-throated Hummingbird, hummers seldom show off all their iridescent colours in a single photo. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Golden-browed Chlorophonia, another beauty seen at Cerro de la Muerta. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Grey-headed Dove, a single bird was seen at first light at Cano Negro in the far north of Costa Rica. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Not much help in this photo. but the Large-footed Finch really does have large feet (can’t comment on any other part of its anatomy though) Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Lesser Violetear, formerly known as Green Violetear until it was split into two species. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture: similar to Turkey Vulture but with more contrasting wings, white shaft streaks, paler underwing and a more pronounced dihedral in flight, this bird flies low over open marshes. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Montezuma’s Oropendola, quite impressive in flight. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Northern Barred Woodcreeper. Of the dozen woodcreepers seen on the tour this has to be one of the most attractive. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Northern Royal Flycatcher, although I have seen the various ‘royal flycatchers’ on several occasions I have still to see one raise its weird laterally compressed crest. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Ocellated Antbird, one of the best of those skulking, understory hugging ant-thingys. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Olive-backed Euphonia, makes a change from the usual black and yellow colour scheme of euphonia. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Orange-billed Nightingale Thrush, one of five Nightingale Thrushes seen on the tour, species in the same genus as the more familiar Swainson’s, Hermit, Grey-cheeked etc Thrush of the Nearctic- Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Orange-billed Sparrow, another stunner – Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Orange-collared Manakin, there are few bird families that give as much pleasure as the manakins. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Pacific Screech-owl, seen at a day roost at Hacienda Solidar. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Red-throated Ant-Tanager, not a member of the Thamnophilidae like other ant-thingys, this one is actually a real tanager. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Rufous Mourner, a bird whose taxonomic affinities have moved around a bit through the years, once a cotinga, its now a tyrant flycatcher. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Semi-plumbeous Hawk, seen at La Selva as we walked to dinner. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Short-billed Pigeon, quite attractive when seen close up. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Short-tailed Hawk, a widespread species but always a pleasure to see. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Snowcap, one of the best birds of the trip. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Adult Spectacled Owl roosting at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Spotted Antbird, another forest speciality. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
We all saw this wonderful Spotted Wood-quail with its chicks but only Pete got any photos in the very poor light conditions. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Streak-breasted Treehunter on Cerro de la Muerta. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
This Streak-breasted Antpitta eventually gave good views. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Owling at Esquinas produced this Striped Owl. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
A Sunbittern making an aggressive display to two Black Phoebes intruding on its territory. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Tawny-winged Woodcreeper, who says all woodcreepers look the same. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
A confiding Thicket Antpitta. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Uniform Crake: once again I left my camera behind because the light was bad and ‘crakes never show well anyway’. Well the light improved and this crake hadn’t read the instruction manual. Fortunately Pete was on hand with his mega-lens.- Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Vermiculated Screech-owl at La Selva. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
White-collared Manakin, also at La Selva. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Wood Thrush, a beautiful migrant from North America. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
Although it’s not in alphabetic order I can think of no better photo to conclude this selection than Pete’s shot of an Osprey with a fish flying into the sunset. Shame there are no photos of the Zeledonia as that would be an even better (and alphabetically more correct) finale. Copyright Pete Morris/Birdquest
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