One of my favorite water birds, especially when I can catch them flying or dancing, which I did not this time. See more images in Snowy Egret Gallery. Here’s 3 shots from this latest trip to Rio Tarcoles.
Snowy Egret
Soropta Canal Birds
Just a sample of the many kinds of birds we saw and I photographed on the old Snyder Canal for Banana Boats now called Soropta Canal for the nearby beach it parallels near the little town of Changuinola, Panama. A rich diversity of plants and wildlife are there!
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| Yellow-headed Caracara Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama |
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| Groove-billed Anis Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama |
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| Purple Gallinule Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama |
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| Roadside Hawk Juvenile Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama |
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| Black-bellied Whistling Duck Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama |
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| Roseate Spoonbill Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama |
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| Snowy Egret (in the rain) Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama |
Bocas del Toro Archipelago, Panama
See my “Trip Gallery”:
2018 Tranquilo Bay, Bocas del Toro, Panama
More Birds from Tarcoles River Trip
Arranged in the order presented in the book The Birds of Costa Rica, A Field Guide by Garrigues & Dean which puts families and similar birds together.
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| Bare-throated Tiger Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Great Blue Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Great Blue Heron in an Interesting Posture Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Cattle Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Snowy Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow-crowned Night Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Great Egret (left) and Whimbrel (right) Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Whimbrel Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Spotted Sandpiper Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Mangrove Swallow Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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Groove-billed Ani
Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
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| Ringed Kingfisher Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow Warbler, resident male with orange head Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
And did you see the Birds in Flight posted yesterday? Including 3 more species not included here.
Plus note that we saw a lot more birds than what I included here, just my only decent photos!
AND this was my first time to go to and from Tarcoles on public bus. Cheap & fun! Going down was a breeze, but we got wrong info on our return bus and ended up going through San Jose, but oh well, all part of the adventure! 🙂
Trip Photo Gallery: 2017-07-29- Tarcoles River
All of my photo galleries on Birds or just Costa Rica Birds
And the boat tour company we used: Jungle Crocodile Safari
Pura Vida from Costa Rica!
~Charlie
~Charlie
Some Birds in Flight from Today at Tarcoles
Had a wild bus adventure to Tarcoles and back today with Ed Fair. More photos, stories tomorrow.
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| Roseate Spoonbill Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Magnificent Frigate Bird female Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Ringed Kingfisher Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Great Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Oops! – Snowy Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
Trip Photo Gallery: 2017-07-29- Tarcoles River
All of my photo galleries on Birds or just Costa Rica Birds
And the boat tour company we used: Jungle Crocodile Safari
Pura Vida from Costa Rica!
~Charlie
~Charlie
Tarcoles Birds – Post 1 of 2
I chose 28 photos of 24 species of birds I want to show the world, so here is the first 14, in no particular order other than camera numbering or in the order taken. 14 more tomorrow!
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| Roseate Spoonbill Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Roseate Spoonbill Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Rufous-naped Wren Tarcoles River, Costa Rica (This is the most common bird in my garden/yard. They’re in the wild too!) |
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| Great Blue Heron with Fish Just Caught Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Great Blue Heron Flying with Black-necked Stilt Flying Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Black-necked Stilt Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Solitary Sandpiper Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Green Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Great-tailed Grackle male Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Snowy Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Whimbrel Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Cattle Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow-crowned Night Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Osprey with Fish! Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
These photos were all made by me on a 16 December 2016 float trip on the Tarcoles River, Costa Rica, this time with the Jungle Crocodile Safari which specializes in bird watching as opposed to a focus on crocodiles on most of the other companies. I also like Jose and the Jose’s Crocodile Tour, but his one finds more birds for you, about 35 species this trip, and provides a flyer for photo-identification of the birds. Plus if you take the 8:30 AM tour you will see more birds early AND you miss the tour bus crowds. There were just 4 of us plus our guide on our boat this time at 8:30 and when we returned we noticed that the next boat was packed full!
14 more bird photos tomorrow from this same trip.
And my constantly growing BIRDS Photo Gallery online
Egrets & Herons in Nicaragua
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| Snowy Egret flies in to Tricolored Heron Selva Negra Mountain Resort, Nicaragua |
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| Little Blue Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Green Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Black-crowned Night Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Tricolored Heron, Lake Nicaragua at Granada |
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| Snowy Egret, Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| Snowy Egret, Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
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| Great Egret, Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua |
“Patience” is what the egrets and herons seem to say to me!
The end of a thing is better than its beginning; The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
~Ecclesiastes 7:8 NKJV
Snowy Egret
Last of Tarcoles Animal Photos
I got a few more photos, but not really good enough to show (and maybe some of these neither!)
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| Tarcoles River before flowing into the Pacific Ocean, an hour+ drive from Atenas. Adjacent to Carara National Park, the last transitional rainforest in the Americas. Tarcoles, Costa Rica |
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| Yellow-crowned Euphonia, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Amazon Kingfisher, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Boat-billed Heron, a better photo than shown first day. Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Royal Tern, Tarcoles River Mouth, Costa Rica |
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| Black-crowned Night Heron, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Snowy Egret, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica (With trash all around him!) |
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| White-tailed Hawk, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Brown Basilisk (Striped Basilisk), Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Mangrove Crab, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica |
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| Juvenile American Crocodile, Tarcoles, Costa Rica |
See also my Costa Rica Birds PHOTO GALLERY
Costa Rica Reptiles PHOTO GALLERY
THE FUTURE OF TARCOLES RIVER?
“That’s what people do when they find a special place that wild and full of life, they trample it to death.”
― Carl Hiaasen, Flush
I’m hoping that won’t happen to Tarcoles River, but during Dry Season it is full of tourists coming to see the crocodiles and what is worse, the government is building two hydroelectric dams upstream on the Tarcoles River. Plus it has already been labeled “the most polluted river in Costa Rica” as many Central Valley towns dump their sewage and industrial waste into it. Wildness is slowly disappearing everywhere, even in one of the “green” countries! And the lack of rain thus far in this year’s rainy season has been shocking to me!