Costa Rica: The Pacific Northwest

We had decided early on that we would plan our entire schedule on our own and only use guides when needed.  Chris had been to Costa Rica in the past and he had a good idea of places to visit. We had discussed the idea of renting a car, but decided against it as the public transportation is fairly cheap and very reliable.  The public transportation is a very economical way to get around.  However, one thing to keep in mind, is the fact that the public transportation is NOT geared for tall people with long legs.  Many times, I was uncomfortable as there was not enough leg room on buses and in some taxis.  Even on a short train ride that we took later in the trip, did not provide adequate leg room for a tall person.  That is just one thing to keep in mind if you are a tall person and if you are planning a trip on your own.  I even airlines now require me to pay more to get a seat with adequate leg room!

My trip began in the Pacific Northwest of Costa Rica.  We had found airfares into the Liberia Airport were considerably less than San Jose, so we opted to fly into Liberia.  This is a city of just over 50,000 people so we knew that getting around would be a bit easier with less traffic.  It is an area of Costa Rica that gets overlooked for birding an we felt we could add some much needed data to our eBird reports for this area.  We arrived in the rainy season for this area and it was hot, humid, and rainy.  We had decided early on that we would plan our entire schedule on our own and only use guides when needed.  Chris had been to Costa Rica in the past and he had a good idea of places to visit so we planned a trip based on a few spots where we spend about 3 nights and make day trips as needed.  We spent the first 3 nights in a casita just outside of Liberia, which met our needs, but I could have used a little bit bigger and more comfortable bed.  The point is that I survived.  We spent a lot of time exploring the rural area where we saw many great birds and even made a side trip to the beach town of Tamarindo for a day.  I picked up about 19 new life birds during this portion of the trip.  New mammals, reptiles, and butterflies were nice to see as well.  My blog posts will most likely include a lot more than just birds. Some of my bird photos were already posted in the previous post that referred to joining the 700/800 clubs.

The photos below are a sampling of the birds and other critters that we observed in Guanacaste Province which includes towns of Liberia and Tamarindo.

Groove-billed Ani - Very common in many places.

Elf butterfly

Black spiny-tailed Iguana

White Peacock butterfly

 Millipede

 Melodious Blackbird

White-collared Seedeater

 White butterfly

White-angled Sulphur

 Fiddler Crab

 Gulf Frittilary

 Ecuadorian hermit Crab

 Mantled Howler Monkey

 Malachite

 Letis scops Moth

 Tailless Whip Scorpion - totally harmless to humans

 Blue-black Grassquit

 Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

 Turquoise-browed Motmot - my 700th and one of my favorite birds.

Torpical Buckeye

More posts to come in different locations and totally different flora and fauna.  

Mongolia and Mexico Comes to Arizona

Needless to say, it has been a very unusual year for birds in Arizona.  Earlier this year a Pine Flycatcher was discovered in southeast Arizona, which was a first for this species in Arizona, but even more astonishing is the fact that it was also a first record for the United States.  Then in September Hurricane Newton arrived by moving up the Gulf of California from the Pacific Ocean and made its way over the desert into southeastern Arizona, where it fell apart.  But in its wake, it left many pelagic (ocean) birds that did not belong in the desert.  Many of these species had never been recorded in Arizona.

Now to the Mongolia connection to this post.  In October another new discovery was made in the northern part of Arizona.  Thanks to Jason Wilder and Chuck LaRue, they discovered a new bird for Arizona at a small mud pond in Coconino County.  This pond is actually named Round Cedar Lake, but in my humble opinion, it is far from being a lake at least at this time.  Maybe in the past it was a larger body of water, but not this year.  These 2 birders discovered a Lesser Sand Plover.  This a bird that is native to Asia; where it breeds in Siberia and winters in eastern Africa, southern Asia, and southeastern Australasia.  It has bred in Alaska, but that is rare.  The few sightings of this bird generally occur on the west coast and almost never found inland.  But this one found its way to Arizona and put itself in the record books for the state.  The scientific name of this bird is (Charadrius mongolus), hence the Mongolia connection. 

Birding buddy Tommy D. and  I, hatched a plan to try for this bird.  Tommy got off work that night around 9:30 pm.  So I met him at his place when he got home and we headed north at night and arrived in Flagstaff a little after midnight.  Grabbed a few 'zzzz's', and then headed out to the spot early the next morning.  When we got there, we were greeted by several other intrepid and serious birders of Arizona so we knew we were in good company.  Many of these had driven from Tucson, which was about a 6 hour drive.

And this place really did make me think we were in Mongolia, or at least a bit reminiscent of what I think parts of Mongolia might look like.

And finally here is the prize of this search. What a charismatic little bird!  This was a life bird that was not even on my radar based on its range.  It is amazing what one can find in the state of Arizona.  It is 3rd on the list of states with the most species of birds in the United States, behind only California and Texas.  

 Yes, the Lesser Sand Plover is in this photo as well, but you have to look a little harder, in the lower left quadrant.  Has its back to us to show how easy it blends in.

What was interesting was that at one point a Peregrine Falcon flew in and landed on the far side of the pond for a drink.  During this time the Lesser Sand Plover just froze in its tracks without moving.  The Peregrine eventually took flight and our prize bird survived without being a target for a meal.

A very distant Peregrine Falcon

The Mexico connection to this post constitutes the sighting of a Groove-billed Ani in Maricopa County.  This species is not as rare in the United States as the plover, but it is relatively scare in Arizona.  Its range covers much of southern Mexico and on into Central America.  It is fairly common in the summer in southern Texas.  There have been sporadic reports of this bird in Arizona over the years, and to my recollection the last verifiable report was at Sweetwater Wetlands near Tucson in 2012.  That bird was a lifer for me back then, although I did not get great looks.  In 2015 I spent several days in Chiapas, Mexico and this bird was quite common and I got much better looks than my sighting in Arizona in 2012.

Well this bird at Veteran's Oasis Park in Chandler turned out to be quite photogenic for many.  It was nice to see that so many people were able to find it and see it, as it was a lifer for many, including Tommy.

This was my first photo and I thought it was going to play hard to get, but subsequent photos will show that was not to be the case.

 Sunning itself with its feathers on the back raised to warm its body.

And finally, a close up of the grooves in it bill which is the the reference to its name.

What a couple of really great birds to chase.  The Lesser Sand-Plover was a lifer and the Groove-billed Ani was a very good bird to add to my Maricopa County list.  Wonder what the next awesome bird will be that shows up in Arizona?

Chiapas: A Day of Rest ???

Our 5 days of guided field trips had finally come to an end and most of the group were all headed home the next day.  But Chris, being the wise man that he is, had suggested when we booked our airline flights to maybe spend a couple extra days while we were there to do some birding on our own.  And I agreed and it ended up being a very wise decision.  We were exhausted from the 5 daily field trips So we decided to take it easy on the first of our 2 free days.  A day of rest?  Not!!  No, we did not sleep all day, but had decided to check out a park across the street from our motel and maybe anything else within walking distance from the motel.  

During our entire stay so far, we had been surrounded by at least 2 species of parrots flying overhead and around the neighborhood of the motel.  We knew we had Green Parakeets and White-fronted Parrots, but we were never able to get very close for photos of either one.  Well that was about to change for both species.  We had already figured out how to identify both species in flight; the Green Parakeets had long pointed tails, while the White-fronted Parrot had a short rounded tail.  Before we got across the street a pair of Green Parakeets flew into one of the trees on our side of the street.  This is the tropics and there are many species of parrots and parakeets that are native to the tropics.

 Green Parakeets

Green Parakeets

Once we got to the park we quickly discovered White-fronted Parrots everywhere feeding in the trees.  Some were feeding on mangoes that were thick in the trees.  Thankfully these birds were quite gregarious and noisy which helped to give away their location.  Had they not been so noisy, they would have been easy to overlook and hide in the green leaves since their basic color was green.

 White-fronted Parrot

One of the most common birds that we saw in Chiapas at just about everyplace we went was the Clay-colored Thrush.  They remind me of a brown American Robin in behavior and structure.  They do not sound like our robin in the US though, as they have a varied repertoire of calls. They are so common that one person referred to them as Clay-colored Trash.  A few have been reported in the United States over the years, and when then do, they are quite the hot commodity for listers to get on their US bird list.

Clay-colored Thrush

Going to this park is a great way to get photos of some of the birds, because the ones that frequent these places are accustomed to humans and are more tolerant and allow for better photo opportunities.  Such is the case with the Great Kiskadee.  We had heard and seen them on a couple of the field trips, but here, I was able to observe them, listen to them and get some photos.  This is another bird who's range extends to southern Texas in the United States, but it was new to me.

 Great Kiskadee

Great Kiskadee

(Update:  Thankfully I have some faithful and very excellent birders reading my blog.  This next photo, I had mis-identified as Great Kiskadee, but instead they are Boat-billed Flycatchers.  I had seen this species on the trip to Sumidero, but did not get any photos, so I am glad, this photo has now been corrected with the proper ID.  Thank you Francesca and Jeanette!)

Boat-billed Flycatchers

We also found a pair of White-throated Magpie-Jays which I had seen on some earlier trips, and since it is such a unique bird, I had to take some more photos.

 White-throated Magpie-Jay

We also had a few birds that we have in Arizona that were a bit more photogenic.  Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher is annually regular in southeastern Arizona in the right habitat, but not always easy to photograph.  The Plain-capped Starthroat is being seen pretty much annually in southeast AZ as well, but definitely not a common bird and much rarer than the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher.  The Groove-billed Ani is pretty rare in Arizona, but one does show up every few years.

 Sulphur-blllied Flycatcher

Plain-capped Starthroat

 Groove-billed Ani

Up in the trees above the river that flowed through the park we discovered a pair of iguanas.  I am not 100% certain of the species, but I believe these are called Green Iguana.  They are quite large, probably close to 4' long.

Green Iguanas

And I just have to share one butterfly with everyone on this post; a Malachite butterfly that was attracted to the remaining flesh on a mango pit that had been discarded by one of the parrots.

Malachite Butterfly

After the park, we did take a break for a while at the motel, but later in the day, we headed out and down the busy street to the west for a late lunch and surprisingly, some more birds in this humanity.  These will be covered in my next blog post.