ARENAL LODGE TRAILS – TRANSFER TO ENSENADA LODGE
WEATHER: dull and overcast for the main part of the morning and windy. Brighter later and very hot late in the afternoon.
It was another dull overcast morning with high winds and rain showers. We made the most of what time we had left and headed for the forest trails straight after our 6:30am breakfast. The Hepatic Tanager was milling about the restaurant building as we left and walking through the gardens we saw the usual trio of hummingbirds as well as Bananquit, Black-striped Sparrow, House Wren etc.
Black-striped Sparrow - ALL PICTURES ON TODAY'S BLOG WERE TAKEN BY CHRIS PERRY
We headed for the popular Frog Pond to look for Tree Frogs and whatever was lurking down there, we found both Masked Tree Frog and Red-eyed Tree and watched a dragonfly emerging from its larval casing.
Masked Tree Frog
A call came up from another birding guide who said that he found a mixed feeding flock, so we quickly walked back up the hill and onto another pathway. There we saw lots of movement in the canopy and some lower down. We added a few new species to our list with Plain Xenops, Carmiol Tanager, Olive-striped and Slaty-capped Flycatchers, a couple of people saw the Tawny-faced Antwren also both Wedge-billed Spotted and Woodcreeper.
Crimson-collared Tanager
After we left the feeding flock we continued down passed the Frog Pool and completed the Hormiga Trail adding a couple more species to the list including a trio of Swallow-tailed Kites that drifted over us.
At 10:30am we set off for the Pacific Coast section of the Tour, we were to spend a few hours on the road and stop for lunch along the way. During the lunch stop some of the group not eating went for a walk and came back with news of a sighting of a White-throat Magpie-Jay as well as other species.
White-throated Magpie-jay
Yellow-throated Toucan
Our only birding of the afternoon was around 3pm as we turned onto the dry and dusty approach track to Ensenada. We spent an hour in very dry and hot conditions watching many new species in this ‘Dry Forest’ habitat. Scrub Euphonia and Orchard Oriole went quickly onto the list followed by Blue Grosbeak, Stripe-headed Sparrow and White-lored Gnatcatcher.
Stripe-headed Sparrow
White-lored Gnatcatcher
Jason our guide, called out a Painted Bunting, a green female type, a few of us caught up with it but not many. He then played the call of the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl to attract other species, but instead of that happening an actual Owl appeared!!
Ferruginous Pygmy Owl
We recorded over 20 species during that short walk but we all got very hot and jumping bnack onto the air-conditioned bus was lovely.
Squirrel Cuckoo seen late afternoon today
Our arrival at Ensenada Lodge was around 4:30pm, we had enough time to walk down to the old jetty where a few more species were recorded. The view across Nicoya Bay from the lodge was stunning and from the jetty we saw many birds flying past. Brown Pelican, Magnificent Frigatebird, Caspian Tern, Whimbrel and a few other species were reported.
The sunset over the Bay was magical and it was so nice to sit in the outside restaurant enjoying the cool breeze and tropical ambiance.
Later, a couple of us went out owling, Rob Parsons led us and found Lesser Nighthawks quartering the grassy slopes and a Pacific Screech Owl in a bush, how he found the latter I will never know!