TRANSFER TO TARCOLES - VISIT TO CARARA NATIONAL PARK AND A BOAT TRIP ALONG THE RIVER.
WEATHER: Sunny all day, hot and humid at times.
It was a very early start this morning! We had to travel south to Tarcoles and we knew that the bridge over the river was under repair causing massive tail-backs and long delays. At peak times you could wait 2 -3 hours to cross the bridge. So we made an extraordinary early start to avoid that and it paid off, we only queued for 50 minutes and made it to Carara National park by 7am. We noted a Blue Grosbeak just before we crossed the bridge.
Magnificent Frigatebird over the river Tarcoles
Carara is a wonderful birding place with nice, easy going, trails it is full of bird species, an amazing variety because Carara and the Tarcoles River are the dividing boundary between the Dry Forest to the North and the Wet Forest to the south.
Grey-headed Tanager taken by Kevin Jones
an interesting Trogon, a possible hybrid (Black-headed and Violaceous)
It took us a while to leave the car park because we watched a few species in the trees, Jason found a Violacious Trogon and what looked like a hybrid individual, a mix of Violaceous and Black-headed. We also saw Streaked Flycatcher, Rufous-backed Wren and a couple of hummers.
We had a terrific walk, birds were everywhere we saw dozens of species, Jason was calling out birds left, right and centre, it was hard to keep up. A few stand species included: Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Eye-ringed Flatbill, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Pale-billed Woodpecker, Rufous and White Wren, Riverside Wren, Yellow-crowned Euphonia.
Rufous Piha taken by Kevin Jones
When things went quiet we moved on until we bumped into another mixed flock of species. We watched a Stripe-throated Hermit feeding on a white flowering plant, we watched Orange-billed Sparrows in the leaf-litter, we found White-shouldered Tanager in the canopy with other species.
Baird's Trogon, a really good find
We staked out a Great Tinamou which eventually came into full view on the side of the track. The most exciting sighting for me was that of a Royal Flycatcher’s nest! The adult birds were making the finishing touches to their work. The nest looked like a scruffy pile of vines and leaves and hung from a branch about 30 feet above the river, it was at eye-level for us on the raised pay. We had fantastic views of bot birds over a 30 minute period.
A Tropical Royal Flycatcher (female) you should google this bird and see the male's courtship display!!
Further sightings included Velvety Manakin and more flycatchers. On the return journey we came across an ant swarm and it entourage of antbirds, antshrikes, woodcreepers and tana. We had close-up views of Grey-headed Tanager, Bicoloured Antbird, Chestnut-backed Antbird and Russet Antshirke. Both Northern-barred and Tawny-winged Woodcreepers were new for us and the Cocoa Woodcreeper also appeared.
another of Kevin's pictures, a Pale-billed Woodpecker
Chestnut-backed Antshrike
A Ruddy Quail-Dove was seen by the front few in the line and the Green Shrike-Vireo called from the canopy but none of us could locate it. We added Yellow-crowned Euphonia to the list towards the end of the walk.
Bicolored Antbird
For lunch we drove a few kilometers south of Tarcoles and in a roadside sea-food restaurant.
Our afternoon river cruise began at 1pm, it was magical, except for the high tide status which limited the number of shorebirds available. Despite the lack of muddy margins we saw an awful lot birds, the most impressive was the vast number of Magnificent Frigatebirds gathering over the water, they we diving down to dip-wash in the river.
Hudsonian Whimbrels taken by Kevin Jones
The rarest bird we saw, was the Reddish Egret, probably not an adult but a female or a male in winter plumage. Another exciting part of the trip was sailing out to the estuary head to visit a sand bar with a huge colony of terns and most of the birds were Royal Terns, with a few Sandwich Terns and Laughing Gulls.
acracking shot of the Reddish Egret taken by Kevin Jones
We sailed beneath a Brown Pelican roost, some of the birds were in full b reeding plumage. An Egret roost held a single Yellow-crowned Night Heron.
American Crocodile
We ventured into the mangroves looking for specific species and finding none of them except for the American Pygmy Kingfisher. We did see Philadephia Vireo and a couple of hummers. A Rufous-brown Peppershrike was calling incessantly but we could not locate i
a juvenile Brown Pelican
We drifted past some enormous American Crocodiles, we saw Ospreys, Common Black Hawks, egrets, herons, ibis, spoonbills and ducks.
We were back on the bus by 4pm and took a two hour drive southward to our hotel near Dominical. No other birds were added to the list, it was just turning dark when we arrived to check-in.