EARLY MORNING WALK TO THE CACHI LAKE – ALL DAY VISIT TO EL COPAL PRIVATE RESERVE – LATE AFTERNOON BACK AT THE LAKE
WEATHER; broken sunshine all day, a nice breeze and a lovely temperature of 25C
Our early morning walk began in the main car park of the hotel where we watched a good number of species before we walked down to the Lake. At the lake we enjoyed views of Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and the usual crowd of egrets and waterfowl. It was amazing to see that almost the entire surface of the water at this end of the reservoir was now covered in floating water-plants whereas yesterday it was completely open and uncovered? The wind, we were told, causes this effect.
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
We found a White-eared Ground-Sparrow near the path and we watched a nice variety of species in the trees. The best of the arboreal species were: White-crowned Parrot, Squirrel Cuckoo, Montezuma Oropendula (performing its pendulous display routine), Black-cheeked, Golden-Olive and Lineated Woodpeckers, a beautiful Tropical Parula, Brown Jay and Keel-billed Toucan.
White-eared Ground-Sparrow was a nice surprising find
Tropical Parula brightened our morning
Green Heron displaying - taken by Kevin Jones
After breakfast we set for the privately owned nature reserve at El Copal which was an hour’s drive away. The bus couldn’t negotiate the steep climb up the approach track so we had to walk. We saw Swallow-tailed Kites, Barred Hawk and lots of Collared Swifts along the way.
This small mammal is called an Agouti, we saw them most days - photo by Kevin Jones
For the next two hours we patrolled the gardens and the elevated walk-way around the main visitor’s centre of the reserve, it was fantastic! The flowers were visited by many Snowcap Hummingbirds, they are tiny but stunning. A chocolate brown in colour with a bright white hat! They were joined by the Green Thorntail another stunning hummingbird.
The Snowcap Hummingbird taken by Kevin
the other star of the garden was the Green Thorntail Hummingbird also taken by Kevin
The main feeding station was a wash with tanagers, dozens of them of several species. It is the most colourful gathering of Tanagers I have ever seen in Costa Rica. Emerald, Speckled, Bay-headed, Golden-crowned, Silver-throated, Scarlet-rumped, Crimson-collared and Summer Tanagers were all seen. At one stage there was five species at the same time.
Emerald and Silver-throated Tanagers at the feeder
Speckled Tanager, my favourite
four species of Tanager here - Golden-hooded, Speckled, Emerald and Silver-throated
Also at the table were Green Honeycreepers, Buff-throated Saltator, Clay-coloured Thrush and Yellow-throated Euphonia. In the bushes around the garden we saw Bananaquit, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird and White-collared Manakin.
A walk along a forest track produced a few more species but not that many, we heard more than we saw. Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant, a few flycatchers and more tanagers of the same species as before.
At 2pm we left the reserve, Swallow-tailed Kites circled over us with usual turkey and Black Vultures, we saw large groups of White-collared Swifts, lots of very colourful butterflies were also on the wing. At the base of the steep track were the bus was waiting for us we found a large Bird Snake in an open shed.
Bird Snake - looking for bird's nests. Taken by Kevin Jones
We drove back to the Hotel stopping once to look for Sunbittern. We found a Green Ibis in the stream but not the bittern. A walk down to the lake at 5pm produced all the usual waterbirds and miraculously, the floating weed had cleared and the lake was in full view once again!
A Merlin was new for our list and we saw the White-eared Ground-Sparrow once again.