Butterflies often liven a garden or forest as much as birds and that was pretty much true visually at Playa Cativo Lodge this week and of course also as usual, they were difficult to photograph! There were probably more than twice this many flitting about, impossible to photograph, but here’s 14 I managed to “capture,” even if not all very good photos. 🙂 And I’m including 2 cool moths from my cabin but could not capture the one Dragonfly I saw. I’m not as fast with the camera as I used be! 🙂
Here’s one to go in the emailed version of the post and the rest will follow in the continued post online . . .
There are a lot of both land and water birds at this rainforest beach lodge, and even though it didn’t give my highest count of birds, it is good! My favorite was the Red-capped Manakin which has been very difficult to photograph in other places and was easy here! 🙂
Though no “lifers” (first-time seen birds), it should no longer be expected for someone who has already photographed over 358 species of birds in Costa Rica. 🙂 Below are photos of 25 different birds of 23 species. Two of these species have male and female so different they look like different birds, thus a photo of each! 🙂 I saw more birds than this but have no useable photos of the others.
Boat-billed Heron on Esquinas River, Parque Nacional Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica.
After my previous trip (Chachagua Rainforest Hotel) I did a separate post on each bird and decided not to do that this time. Enjoy the one photo of each species now and later I will have multiple shots of each in my trip gallery.
Jungle Waterfall, Playa Cativo Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica.
My birthday morning was sunny with lots of birds singing and the Howler Monkeys closer than they were the previous morning! 🙂 The monkeys serve as the roosters to wake you at 5 am when you’re in the rainforest. After a great breakfast I walked the half-kilometer all uphill to the waterfall closest to the lodge. It is left natural as it would be if no humans were around, thus vegetation hides part of the upper falls and a tree fell in the lower falls and they will let nature take its course, as the tree will eventually rot and be washed away, but now the only human “improvements” are the trail to get there and that could use some more improvement! 🙂 (I will include photos of the trail in my trip gallery later.)
Note that in the above photo you can partly see the upper falls while in the next two from the bottom, it is mostly hidden by vegetation.
Dark, damp, misting rain with no sunset as such but a trace of color as I eat my dinner at Playa Cativo overlooking the Gulf of Dulce on the Pacific coast of southern Costa Rica, while north of us Hurricane Bonnie is rushing across northern Costa Rica and Nicaragua and the handful of us here are thankful it didn’t veer south! 🙂
I saw and did a lot the first afternoon, but too tired to curate more photos now, so this rainforest report begins with a dark sky that will surely brighten as the week goes by. If not raining, I go on my birding hike at 5:30 in the morning and I got a head start with two pretty good photos today in the low light of a Great Curassow and a Scarlet-rumped Tanager.
And Of course I already like this place! 🙂 Later I’ll tell you about my beachside cabin and share photos from this nature-rich forest.
In Sunday’s Tico Times it was announced that Costa Rica’s National Parks located in the less-traveled South Pacific Area will receive the equivalent of $1.7 million USD infrastructure improvements which affects some of my favorite National Parks and Reserves like Marino Ballena, Corcovado, Piedras Blancas, Golfito Wildlife Reserve, and La Amistad International National Parks. I have visited all but La Amistad, the nearly inaccessible wilderness park on both sides of the Costa Rica/Panama border.
This will help tourism in that area and provide basic infrastructure needed with anything from a road or trail to a bathroom. Maybe even make La Amistad accessible to an old man! 🙂 They say this about it: “This protected area is vital for Costa Rica biodiversity and conservation. The rugged terrain and intense jungle make it difficult for tourists to visit. You won’t find convenient amenities there.” I slept 3 nights in the adjacent Bribri Yorkin Indigenous Reserve which is probably as close as I will get to that park.
Below are links to my “Trip Galleries” for parks in this area that are some of my favorites . . .
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)
The slideshow photos are in no particular order, just shots from my walk around the campus this morning with no rain! And almost no birds! There were a lot more birds on the rainy days! And now at about 3 in the afternoon the rain is starting for the first time today, so maybe the birds will return. Ahhhh! I just saw two Euphonias but not where I could photograph. Tonight is my last night here and near the end of the most wonderful food that someone else prepares for me. Its been a great week!
Morning Walk Photo Slideshow
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“The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life and activity; it affords protection to all beings.”
~Buddhist Sutra
And I am just now starting the “trip gallery” for this trip at 2018 Esquinas Rainforest Lodge — but soon that will be the place to see all my best photos from this week. I have gotten 10 new “lifers” or first-time seen birds this week! That is incredible! Possibly more than on any other trip at least recently.
All of these birds were photographed in front of my cabin or alongside the main building terrace. It is amazing the wide variety of birds living here!
Birds Seen in One Day at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge
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A Beautiful Rainforest Retreat for Birds & People!
Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica
It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
