EARLY MORNING WALK IN THE HOTEL GROUNDS – PROVIDENCIA ROAD – UJARRAS COFFEE PLANTATION – CACHI LAKE
WEATHER: clear blue sky, quite cold to start with. Cloudy later with rain this evening. Temp 4C – 20C
We were on the road again today but for the last time, our last destination was a hotel near Orosi in the mid-elevation cloud forest. But before we departed the beautiful San Gerardo Valley, we made one final walk around our current hotel grounds.
the Tennessee Warbler is a very common winter visitor to Costa Rica
It was so much different this morning compared to yesterday, the very cold air was virtually silent and devoid of birdlife, the sun had not risen above the mountains at 6am so it was very chilly. Slowly the birds emerged and we enjoyed some lovely sightings, the only new bird seen was a Black Phoebe. The look-alike endemic Dark Pewee was also seen nearby and the two species were often confused with one another by the group.
the Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher captured this morning by Brian Fairbrother
The usual Hummers emerged and the Slaty Flowerpiercer continued to pierce flowers, the Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher dashed about too. On the mountainside a large group of Black Vultures stalked the grassy pastures, looking for food I guess. We saw Sulphur-winged Parakeets in the canopy of fruiting trees and Blue-and-White Swallows zoomed around us.
Talamanca Hummingbird - another gem taken by Brian Fiarbrother
It was 8:30am when we finally left, it took well over 30 minutes for the bus to negotiate the steep, winding road out of the valley, the road was under repair and next year it should be perfect. At the top we stopped at the ‘famous’ Providencia Road where a wide track winds its way through a forest along the mountain tops.
the head of the Sooty-capped Chlorospingus
Once again it was fairly quiet, we had good views of the local hummers, the Black-capped Flycatcher was common and so was the Sooty-capped Chlorospingus. However, our target species did not show we were looking especially for the Black-and-Yellow Silky-Flycatcher.
Back on the road again we drove for another 30 minutes and pulled into Paraiso de Quetzal Lodge where we stayed for lunch, enjoying their very popular hummingbird feeders for an hour or so. We didn’t see anything new but all the most common hummers paraded in front of us. A walk along the approach track produced much of the same species we had already encountered. Down in the gardens below the lodge Sue and Nigel heard a Costa Rican Pygmy-Owl calling and just missed a sighting of it, other people told them it had just flown off!
Talamanca and White-throated Mountain Gem at the feeders at Paraiso Lodge taken by Kevin Jones
We then drove for a couple of hours down into the central at Cartago and on towards Orosi and to Lake Cachi, our hotel was on the shoreline of the lake. Before we got there we stopped in the coffee plantations near Ujarrás and enjoyed our best birding of the day.
The area was alive with birds and some of the species had not been seen before by the group. A Garden Emerald Hummingbird was seen by most of the group, we also found a pair of Black-headed Saltators. We searched the coffee fields as best we could looking for the endemic Cabanis’s Ground-Sparrow (formerly Provost’s Sparrow), this little colourful species thrives in the grassy undergrowth beneath the coffee bushes.
Black-headed Saltators
Jason pulled off a miracle and found one, we all got to see it, fantastic. Then another one appeared and a third, what a superb find. We enjoyed the afternoon sunshine and reduced temperature for the next hour or so, it was very pleasant out there.
the Cabanis's Ground-Sparrow, a very elusive species
We arrived at our hotel around 4pm and quickly settled into our rooms, most of the group went down to the lake shore and scanned the floating plants and shoreline vegetation. We saw a host of species, mainly waterbirds of course.
a view of Cachi Lake from near my room
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron with a juvenile Purple Gallinule
Yellow-crowned Night-Herons were joined by Purple Gallinules, Little Blue Herons, Green Herons, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets and Cattle Egrets. The only birds on the water were Least Grebes and Muscovy Ducks. Ringed Kingfishers dash passed us and Keel-billed Toucans flew over.
THe Black-capped Flycatcher taken earlier by Kevin Jones
A Fiery-throated Hummingbird taken at Paraiso by Kevin Jones
It was raining when we went to dinner at 7pm, only lightly though. A wedding was in progress in the main hall, so it very noisy at dinner, but at 8pm it all suddenly stopped, the wedding was over and quiet prevailed. We completed our check-list, we are a few species short of 400 at moment, this a down from our usual total and due to the adverse weather at the start of the tour.