Palo Verde National Park Visit

There is plenty to see and photograph on the 5,000+ acres of Rancho Humo, birds, other wildlife, and scenery! But across the river from the ranch is another wonderful and large Costa Rica park: Palo Verde National Park.

Costa Rica is blessed with many national parks and wildlife reserves, more than 25% of country’s total land!  This park is a combination of Tropical Dry Forest, the Tempisque River and its surrounding wetlands which bloom with wildlife.

 

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I float down the river for a different experience in the park. But here are 3 slideshows for what was seen on Tuesday on a 6 km hike and posting here on Wednesday. Will post boat trip later today or tomorrow.

Birds in Palo Verde National Park

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Other Wildlife in Palo Verde National Park

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Views Surrounding Us in Palo Verde National Park

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New Friends on My Afternoon Walk

My 4 pm afternoon walk ended up being partly with a young couple from Germany who checked in the hotel today along with a separate American couple, so I no longer get all the attention of the staff!   🙂    This German couple are going with me on the hike into the national park tomorrow morning.

My other new friends were a group of Yellow-naped Parrots that live only in the Northwest of Costa Rica and thus my first time to see. They are also popular for pets and thus now endangered, so a really good photo find and a “Lifer” for me. Click the name link above for Cornell University’s Neotropical Birds article with map of the few places they still live in the wild and a recording of their sounds which I heard live today. This kind of wildness is going to disappear one of these days if humans don’t change their ways.

Yellow-naped Parrot, Rancho Humo Estancia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Yellow-naped Parrot, Rancho Humo Estancia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

 

Rancho Humo Birds

All of these birds were photographed on the Rancho Humo hotel property (100’s of acres of farmland) with some fields flooded by a tidal irrigation system from the Tempisque River. Many of the fields are shared with some of the 800 cows they have here along with wild deer, howler monkeys, and all the smaller wildlife like coatis and iguanas, etc. Tomorrow I go into the Palo Verde National Park which will probably give me some new birds along with some of these.       CLICK AN IMAGE TO SEE LARGER or to begin a slideshow with larger images than the automated slideshow.

 

Rancho Humo Estancia on Rio Tempisque

See how I “rough it” in luxury in Costa Rica:

¡Pura Vida!

Morning Birds

First a Turkey Vulture soared overhead like a messenger from God, then 3 simple birds landed in 3 different trees and I felt close to God during breakfast today – even without colorful, rare or gorgeous birds – just plain birds smiling at me as I smiled back!

Birds in My Garden at Breakfast Today

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My heart is like a singing bird.

~Christina Rossetti

And tomorrow morning, Saturday, I leave for Palo Verde National Park. See yesterday’s post for more information.

¡Pura Vida!

Tres Amigos

I took my camera out for a later breakfast today and though earlier is better, I did get shots of these three familiar friends. I include two of the dove because front view and back view is always different! Click image to see larger.

Tres amigos

 

Hope is the thing with feathers

‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

~Emily Dickinson

¡Pura Vida!

State of the World’s Birds (& My Bird Galleries)

See this fascinating report from BirdLife.org titled State of the World’s Birds.

 

If you love birds, I hope you will also visit my BIRDS Photo Gallery     🙂

And as I very slowly move smaller and older photos from my old PBase galleries I am currently working on all of my Africa travel photos in a different location  (Pre-Costa Rica TRAVELS) within my big SmugMug Gallery and today  I’m working on my Gambia Birds  Sub Gallery, which is interesting for the large variety of birds found there, though most of the photos are of poor quality. I Photographed then on a cheap old film camera without a long lense and later scanned 4×6 prints at too low a resolution affecting the quality more. Though I got half a dozen good bird shots on the 2009 revisit of The Gambia with my better digital camera.  Just another part of my Birds Collection from the past. Later I will try to add what few birds I photographed in the states.

Also with the Africa Travel galleries are these with East African birds:

Eventually I will put copies of all of these birds in my BIRDS Gallery, but everything is done manually and slowly.

 

Finally! A Toucan in My Tree!

I planted this Cecropia Tree (guarumo tree to Ticos) nearly 3 years ago having heard they attract toucans and in fact my photos of toucans in other locations are frequently in Cecropia Trees. Well, it grew fast but only one other time have I seen a toucan in it and before I could get my camera, he was gone! This morning at breakfast I had my camera with me when this Keel-billed Toucan AND a Montezuma Oropendola flew together into my tree. I got a few shots before they flew. So I’m happy with my Cecropia Tree now!   ¡Pura Vida!

 

Keel-billed Toucan on my Terrace, Atenas, Costa Rica
Montezuma Oropendola on my terrace, Atenas, Costa Rica
WHERE THEY LANDED:  The Cecropia Tree by my terrace, Atenas, Costa Rica      While I ate breakfast on that table.

 

Hear how the birds, on every blooming spray, With joyous music wake the dawning day.

~Alexander Pope

Back to My Garden Birds

Montezuma Oropendola in my garden

Another busy day today with Spanish Class here and minor surgery in Alajuela, but always time to photo a bird in my garden!  🙂   The above photo is of a Montezuma Oropendola sitting in my Guarumo or Cecropia Tree – my favorite place to watch birds, but unfortunately the light (for photos) is not good there, especially in the morning. They nest in our neighborhood visiting occasionally. And the bird below in my Yellow Bell Tree is a Melodious Blackbird.  And I saw a squirrel cuckoo this morning, but didn’t get a shot. 

Minor surgery? My dermatologist just went a little deeper on a growth removal for a biopsy. Only two stitches. If it turns out to be cancer, he will go even deeper next time to make sure he gets it all. An almost routine thing for us older people!  🙂  Otherwise I’m very healthy after a great week in a rainforest.

Tomorrow I have breakfast with the niece of David & Lynne Wells (Nashville friends) and her husband, child & nanny. They’ve rented a gorgeous house with an infinity pool for a week here in Atenas and using my driver, Walter, to take them to a few sights (volcano, waterfalls, beach & fishing) on top of resting here with possibly the best vista in Atenas. A great vacation plan!   🙂

Melodious Blackbird in my garden

 

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. ~Marcus Tullius Cicero

¡Pura Vida!

Home from Maybe Best Birding Trip Yet

I am tempted to declare Esquinas Rainforest Lodge my best birding location yet! In 6 days I photographed 50+ species of birds with 12 of them first timers for me or “lifers” for Costa Rica with two seen before in other Panama.  The Lodge name link above is to their lodge website. Or check out others’ reviews on TripAdvisor.

I highly recommend it! The lodging, food and services were all first class while immersed in a rainforest. You know that I have a lot of places I like all over Costa Rica, but this new one for me just moved near the top of my list! And realize that I was here during the wettest month of the year for them and still had a great experience! And it may have helped that I was the only guest there this week and had a personal birding guide!  Plus a personal chef and maid!   🙂  Hey! This is living! Retired in Costa Rica!

My Trip Gallery is Posted!

See the birds, animals, flowers, lodge and Golfito in my gallery for this trip at   2018 Esquinas Rainforest Lodge Visit.  Photos are the reason I make these trips and this collection is the result of this trip. A photo book will be coming soon! If no one else, the host lodges all love my photo books as I send one to each of them.

My Birds This Trip

Here are the birds I saw and photographed with the “lifers” or ones seen for the first time in boldface type. Presented in the order of the lodge’s bird list which is a little different from the Field Guide:

  • Great Curassow
  • Brown Booby  (1st in CR, got some in Panama in June)
  • Brown Pelican
  • Neotropic Cormorant
  • Magnificent Frigatebird
  • Little Blue Heron
  • Great Egret
  • Cattle Egret
  • Snowy Egret
  • Green Heron
  • Tricolored Heron
  • Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
  • Roseate Spoonbill
  • White Ibis
  • Green Ibis
  • Osprey
  • Gray-cowled Wood-Rail  (formerly Gray-necked Wood-Rail)
  • Willet
  • Spotted Sandpiper
  • Ruddy Turnstone
  • Laughing Gull
  • Short-billed Pigeon
  • White-tipped Dove
  • Gray-chested Dove
  • Squirrel Cuckoo
  • Long-billed Hermit
  • Band-tailed Barbthroat
  • Purple-crowned Fairy
  • Charming Hummingbird
  • Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
  • Violet-headed Hummingbird
  • Ringed Kingfisher
  • Green Kingfisher
  • American Pygmy Kingfisher  (1st in CR, have photo from Panama)
  • Fiery-billed Aracari
  • Wedge-billed Woodcreeper
  • Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet
  • Ochre-bellied Flycatcher
  • Least Flycatcher
  • Great Kiskadee
  • Gray-capped Flycatcher
  • Tropical Kingbird
  • Orange-collared Manakin
  • Gray-breasted Martin
  • Clay-colored Thrush
  • Prothonotary Warbler
  • Bananaquit
  • Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager (endemic to this area)
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager (formerly Cherrie’s Tanager)
  • Bay-headed Tanager
  • Green Honeycreeper
  • Variable Seedeater
  • Orange-billed Sparrow
  • Scarlet-rumped Cacique
  • Spot-crowned Euphonia

And with many of these I saw both male & female which can be so different it is like another species!  🙂

Spot-crowned Euphonia female eating a berry. Note her tongue.

¡Pura Vida!