LA SELVA ALL MORNING – TRANSFER TO CAÑO NEGRO WITH STOPS AT MEDIA QUESA MARSHES
WEATHER: dull, raining and overcast for most of the morning. Sunshine later, hot and humid.
It was one of those days when expectations were high but in reality we saw very little, at least as far the morning was concerned. It started off very dull, with light rain and it didn’t much better until after lunch.
Jason walked down from the Centre of the reserve to our array of cabins, we were all ready outside in the rain looking at various species. I don’t we added any new species until we started walking back towards the main centre.
We stopped to watch Crested Guans in a tree, also up there was Collared Aracari, both Yellow-throated and Keel-billed Toucans and a bunch of Masked Tityras.
Crested Guan
It was dull and wet along the trail to breakfast, we were walking on a wide concrete path through dense rain forest dripping with water. Lots of ‘Blue Jeans’ Frogs were about but birdlife wasn’t so prolific. We spent time at several places hoping to get a glimpse of singing birds, we managed brief views Red-throated Ant-tanager and a couple of species appeared on the path ahead of us, Orange-billed Sparrow and Wood Thrush. Some of the group at the front saw a Kentucky Warbler and a Scarlet Macaw flew over, ( a rare sighting for this area).
After breakfast we set off for a repeat walk of yesterday, we found a few species in and around the gardens of the Reserves central buildings, Gartered Trogon, Crowned Woodnymph Hummingbird and as we crossed the bridge we spotted a Semiplumbeous Hawk sitting high up in the canopy. Broad-winged Hawk was also added and we some great views of the beautiful Chestnut-coloured Woodpecker.
the huge Owl Butterfly is as big as a mans palm!
The next two hours was spent repeating yesterday’s walk, we saw far fewer species today, everything seemed to have cleared out. Dusky Antbird and Bicoloured Antbird we new but typically hard to se in the dense forest. We added Rufous Motmot on the way back but not much else.
Broad-winged Hawk
Chestnut-coloured Woodpecker
After returning to our rooms to load up the bus we headed off to the canteen for lunch, it was 1pm when we set off North-East towards the border with Nicaragua.
We visited the marshland at Medio Queso before driving to Caño Negro, what a great time we had there. Birds were all over the place ranging from the giant-sized Jabiru to the diminutive Green Kingfisher. We saw many new species and the group really enjoyed watching herons, egret, ibis, spoonbills, gallinules, bitterns and Jacanas.
Jabiru - one of our star sightings this afternoon
Four Kingfisher species were seen including the not so common Belted Kingfisher, we saw Pinnated Bittern, White Ibis, Wood Stork, Roseate Spoonbill, Southern Lapwing, Solitary Sandpiper and all the common Herons and Egrets.
Amazon Kingfisher
Grey -breasted Martin and Mangrove Swallows were nice to see, whilst many small passerines flitted about in the bushes, we saw Green-breasted Mangrove Hummingbird for the first time as well Ruddy-breasted Seedeater, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture and dozens of Red-winged Blackbird.
Pinnated Bittern
The drive to Caño Negro was very slow and tedious as we made our way along an unmade road. We notched a few birds along the way including an American Kestrel, what a stunner! It was dark when we arrived at our hotel and we ate dinner around 7pm. We called the checklist and now have 213 species on the master list.