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!
Yellow-headed Caracara Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama
Groove-billed Anis Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama
Purple Gallinule Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama
Roadside Hawk Juvenile Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama
Black-bellied Whistling Duck Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama
Roseate Spoonbill Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama
Snowy Egret (in the rain) Soropta Canal, Changuinola, Panama
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.
Bare-throated Tiger Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Great Blue Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Great Blue Heron in an Interesting Posture Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Cattle Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Snowy Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Yellow-crowned Night Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Great Egret (left) and Whimbrel (right) Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Whimbrel Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Spotted Sandpiper Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Mangrove Swallow Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Groove-billed Ani
Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Ringed Kingfisher Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
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! 🙂
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!
Roseate Spoonbill Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Roseate Spoonbill Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Rufous-naped Wren Tarcoles River, Costa Rica (This is the most common bird in my garden/yard. They’re in the wild too!)
Great Blue Heron with Fish Just Caught Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Great Blue Heron Flying with Black-necked Stilt Flying Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Black-necked Stilt Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Solitary Sandpiper Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Green Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Great-tailed Grackle male Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Snowy Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Whimbrel Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Cattle Egret Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Yellow-crowned Night Heron Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
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!
I got a few more photos, but not really good enough to show (and maybe some of these neither!)
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
Yellow-crowned Euphonia, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Amazon Kingfisher, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Boat-billed Heron, a better photo than shown first day. Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Royal Tern, Tarcoles River Mouth, Costa Rica
Black-crowned Night Heron, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Snowy Egret, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica (With trash all around him!)
White-tailed Hawk, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Brown Basilisk (Striped Basilisk), Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
“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!
