TRANSFER FROM GERARDO DE DOTA VALLEY TO TURRIALBA WITH STOPS AT PROVIDENCIA ROAD AND PARAISO QUETSAL LODGE
WEATHER: bright and sunny all day.
Our last morning in the Valley started at 7am at breakfast, a few of the group had been out walking the hotel grounds but there wasn’t an official walk. A couple of new birds were found including the Black-faced Solitaire.
Birding in the gardens this morning
The river at the bottom of the gardens
We were on the road by 8:15am but we didn’t get very far as two of the group were still missing the Quetzal from their list. We stopped at a couple of places without success but the third stop we made proved successful but not fully?? A group of birders were watching a nest-hole of the Quetzal which was occupied by a male, he cannot get his huge tail into the hole so he becks into it backwards with his tail folded over his back, which then protrudes from the hole and can be seen. That is all we saw of the Quetzal this morning!!
The tail of the male Quetzal - would you tick this species if that is all you saw of the bird?
Our walk along the ‘famous’ Providencia Road was really quite unproductive, a couple of hummers, including the Scintillant Hummingbird and the Fiery-throated Hummingbird were seen and we had poor views of Black-and-Yellow Silky Flycatchers. Other than that we had a few flyover species.
the female Yellow-and-Black Silky-Flycatcher - taken by Chris Perry
At Paraiso Quetzal Lodge we had a great time on their famous hummingbird platforms, but before we got there we walked along their approach track which held quite a few species. We had much better views of the Black-and-Yellow Silky-Flycatchers, we saw Tufted Flycatcher, Yellow-thighed Brushfinch, Large-footed Brushfinch and several other species.
Talamanca Hummingbird
Fiery-throated Hummingbirtd
The ‘hummingbird’ platform where and array of feeders are set out was alive with hummers, the whole place buzzing with minute wingbeats and clicks from the birds. It was an amazing sight especially when the sun caught the iridescence of the birds feathers. The Talamanca and the Fiery-throated Hummers were particularly colourful and hard to capture in photographs. We saw the Volcano, Scintillant, Lesser Violetear, Purple-throated Mountain Gem as well as the main two already mentioned.
Rufous-browed Peppershrike
Walking around the gardens we found a few other species including the nest of a Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher with chicks in it. Our best bird of the visit was the sighting of a Rufous-browed Peppershrike which sat in the canopy singing away for ages.
Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher at its nest - taken by Chris Perry - from a distance
Tufted Flycatcher - taken by Chris Perry this morning
Our lunch was taken in a roadside restaurant and then we spent two hours driving down through Cartago and onto Torrriabla where our last Hotel is situated. After a quick checking-in process we dropped our luggage into our rooms and went birding for an hour or so.
A Huge colony of Montezuma Oropendolas sits in the tree above the main buildings of the hotel, it was alive with the noisy birds there must be over 50 nests hanging like huge pendulums from the tree.
Our walk produced a few new birds in the shape of Olive-crowned Yellowthroat, Black-thighed Grosbeak and Yellow-bellied Siskin, but many other species were present. Chris and I counted 13 species visiting a Poro Tree in flower from our balcony.
Dinner was taken at 7:15 and the bird-log just after.