CAÑO NEGRO RIVER CRUISE – TRANSFER ARENAL OBSERVATORY LODGE VIS FORTUNA
WEATHER: A beautiful sunny, warm morning, cloudy later at Arenal.
What a wonderful and action-packed boat trip the group had today! Birds, birds, birds and crocodiles and Caimen!! The trip started from the jetty at 6am, a five drive from the hotel and soon we were on our way.
Birds came thick and fast, new species as well as many we had encountered before. Prothonatory Warbler was one of the first followed by a Boat-billed Heron sighting. Herons, Egrets, Storks and Ibis filled the sky as they sought out their daily feeding sites.
Prothonatory Warbler - ALL PICTURES ON TODAY'S BLOG WERE TAKEN BY CHRIS PERRY
We drifted down river spotting both Crocodile and Caiman and several Iguana Lizards, we entered a huge open marsh area with grassy banks, it was stuffed with birds. We added a few waders such as Black-necked Stilt, Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs and Least Sandpiper.
Red-winged Blackbird
Our star bird of the trip was found along the river bank feeding around fallen trees, it was the beautiful Agami Heron, it was a stunning bird and showed really well. After our fill of the heron we drifted down to open marshes and into a channel with marshes both sides of us. During this sortie we made most of our raptor sightings and a few waders.
two p[ictures of the stunning Agami Heron
Green Kingfisher
American Crocodile
Spectacled Caimen
Dozens of Blue-winged Teal fed in the marsh with the waders and masses of Ibis and Herons. A few raptors were noted such as Osprey, White-tailed Kite, Roadside Hawk and the colourful, Black-collared Hawk.
Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers, Lesser Yellowlegs and Least Sandpipers fed in the muddy fringes around the marsh along with Black-necked Stilts and Blue-winged Teal. Plenty of Ibis, herons, egrets and storks were also seen.
Lesser Yellowlegs
We made a brief excursion on foot at a landing point where we searched for warblers and wrens and where we were shown a Pacific Screech Owl roosting. We heard the Bay Wren singing but did not track it down or call it out. Black-and-White Warbler and Chestnut-sided Warbler went onto the list.
Boat-billed Heron
Russet-naped Wood-rail
The three hour duration on the boat went by in a flash and soon we were heading back to the hotel for our 9am breakfast.
At 10:30 we were on our to the next Lodge at Arenal where the great volcano smoulders away very close to the lodge! We stopped a couple of times along the bumpy approach road as headed Away from Caño Negro to look for Seedeaters. We added Thick-billed and Morelet’s Seedeaters but could not find a Nicaraguan Seedeater.
Before we stopped for lunch we visited a supermarket along the main road towards Fortuna, we didn’t stop for groceries! We stopped to look at a Barn Owl that has chosen this warehouse type supermarket to roost. Our 7th Owl in 6 days!
Once we reached Arenal Observatory Lodge we had a short time for walk in the gardens, it was very windy with dull clouds and rain threatened. But we added a couple of species to the list when we fund Black-striped Sparrow and Purple-crowned Woodnymph.
We ate dinner at 6:30 and called the birdlog around 8pm. Everyone went for an early night except for Rob Parsons who went for a ‘owl prowl’ by himself and found a Black-and-White Owl, the 10th owl of the trip.