December Birding Journey with Jim Mori
For many years I had made good friends out of birders that had join our services and thru many of those birding tours whether are half day Carara or 4 week trips, many of these participants have become life time friends. And Jim Mori is one of them, not only because he might be one of the most laid back birders, happy with all results, keen on what he really enjoys finding and viewing but most of it for the quality of person he really is. Looking forward to guide you again Jim.
Day 1. Dec 10 2011
Upon arrival, Jim and I had a good conversation about last year trip, asked common questions about family, jobs at first I did not wanted to mention over the crisis in Japan since he is deeply envolved as a human being and as an earthquake an volcanoe expert. The short conversation about the Tsunami and its collateral damage were enough to keep me updated and aware of the real magnitude of the hazard.
Along the road we encounter the biggest traffic jammed I had ever been in the city, since I live far away and only seen it on the news, well today I had a first hand taste of it. Very unpleasant and it shorten us few hours of good birding in the Talamanca’s Highlands.
Few species we saw along the way being the first one Crimson fronted Parakeet; just on our way to Cartago, perched on the roadside few pairs of Red billed Pigeon, Social Flycatcher and of course Great tailed Grackle.
After a long drive (due traffic) we finally made it to San Gerardo de Dota on which the very first specie we saw across from Dantica Lodge was a Dusky Nightjar, well more like a glimpse of it, I parked my car a beat to close to it, forgetting the very first rule of birding, that is distance, that is why we carry binoculars!!!!!
A warm meal full with fabulous tastes, and colors, not to aspect less since Savegre Lodge is known for its great cuisine and friendly staff.
Day 2. Dec 11
Early start around 5:30 am; I went to check on Jim to wake him up since he still has Kyoto’s time, but to my surprise this quite yet very pleasant birder was already out getting some birds to his personal list.
Within minutes the numbers started to add and the species were abundant left and right, many of the first birds spotted were hummingbirds, since the gardens at the lodge are just awesome for these species, needless to say few feeders also contribute to the presence of these rapid fliers.
Some of the first birds that we saw was a Juvenile Barred Forest Falcon, a rather small raptor that ambushes its preys in the deep forest, to my surprise this bird was out in the open perched in the high canopy hunting like a Bat Falcon. It was my very first juvenile, ( seen the adults dozen of times) but never a young individual, it was refreshing for me to start the morning this way. Little after the common Acorn Woodpecker, Flame colored Tanager, Rufous collared Sparrow, Yellow thighed Finch, among many others came out in every direction.
I told Jim to go for a walk along the river’s edge in order to get some of the open space birds, American Dipper, Torrent Tyrannulet and few others that live close to this torrid river, but before I could say much a Resplendent Quetzal male and its female came up to my eye sight; making my flow nearly a joke and completely effortless. Seconds later I pointed at Jim were those birds are perched and suddenly notice that they both were digging a hole on a death tree near the river???!!! The nesting season is during Feb and or June-July (later on was revealed to me that at a higher altitude on the other side of the valley they already have off springs!!) Which is leading me to think that is going to be a rough year climatic wise, still do not know whether is going to be very rainy of the opposite. This is just a personal intuition base on years of experience observing nature. Some were similar to those observation made by my ancestors milleniums ago.
Little after observing the Quetzals at very close range we decided that a good coffee and pinto were do just fine to us. The rest of the day we just continue birding for new species or better looks of already spotted ones.
After a wonderful breakfast, we went to Los Robles trail (Oaks) and its mentioning a large forest tract of oaks that covers from Cartago’s mid elevations to Chiriqui in Panama, the largest protect forest in Central America call La Amistad International Park and home of giant oaks of 6o meters and with ages well above 2000 years old, not to bad for the tropics. Its not a secret that neither the largest or the oldest trees are found the tropics worldwide but this amazing forest at San Gerardo is getting there: as long as both Costa Rican and Panaminian Goverments work together to preserved.
After a good hike birding spotting all sort of species as Collared Redstar, Yellowish Flycatcher, Lineated Foliage Gleaner Juvenile, Green violet Ears singing everywhere, Black checked Warblers, Sooty faced Fiches, Flame throated Warbler, and many more we reached the top of the hill to the entrance to the trail, few minutes of walking let us know that the forest was getting quite, a common happening during late morning and the middle of the day around there. Jim and I started to walked back when my instincts made walk a beat away from the main trail and peek to the canopy; at first I saw nothing but something small and bulky made me put my binoculars up and at the very top of a skinny dead tree there was what I was hoping to find, Central American Pygmy Owl; an endemic owl resident of Talamanca’s Highlands and rather scarce bird to find. Jim was very surprise that I was able to find since minutes earlier I mentioned and he state that any owl we find it’s a good owl. This situation was going to repeat itself over and over during the next 2 days, it seems that every time he mention a bird he really wanted to see it all the sudden pop up from the darkness of the forests.
We were about to spend the rest of the day driving up and down in search of more birds, roadsides, forest edges, river margins, gardens, etc.
Many times we came across mixed flocks, which the ones on the deep forest were lead by Spangle checked Tanagers, Ruddy Treerunners, and Spot crowned Woodcreepers, by the contrary the open spaces such as forest edges and gardens were abundant on Sooty capped Bush Tanagers, Yellow thigh Finches, Collared Redstarts.
Our list keep on growing and the number of good endemics was getting better, well this is pretty easy on a place were most species found are endemic.
Later on after lunch we took the car and went from a drive in order to find Black billed Nightingale Thrush, Sooty Robin, Long tailed Silky Flycatcher, Black capped Flycatcher, Fiery throated Hummingbird, Volcano Hummingbird and a second better look to Dusky Nightjar near the house of Dona Miriam; a local lady who owns a small restaurant at the top of the mountain and which gardens are fill with birds such as Large footed Finch, Flame colored Tanager, Silky Flycatchers, etc. Upon arrival to her house the very first bird I saw was Resplendent Quetzal female, nearly 20 feet away, I pointed to Jim and he simply laughed. Seconds later a second female showed up and grab an avocado fruit from the garden, passively perched on a nearby tree and repeated its action before disappear on the distance. We decide to grab a cup of coffee and hang out to see what else might come; well not much same old Sooty Robin, Large footed Finch, few sparrows singing beautiful on a high perch.
It was almost 5:30 pm and we both it was time to get some night action before running to the restaurant for another great meal. A short drive and half and hour later and we were heading to the lodge with the satisfaction of getting a second better view on Dusky Nightjar!!
Day 3. Dec 12 2011
An obscure morning with chilly winds gave us the feeling that was about time to leave the area behind and moved on to our next destination in the lowlands of the Sarapiqui’s Valley. Simply, an overwhelming birding destination full with dozens of habitats such as grasses, plantations, river gorges, riparian forests, and thick jungles. After breakfast, we took off slowly trying to our last grasps of highland birding before we reached the Panamerican Highway, sadly the weather keep us going and few birds such as Sooty Robin, Collared Redstar, Black capped Flycatcher were the only ones out there in the rain.
Once on the road, the cloud cover the constant rain kept me thinking if it was a good idea to go over to the Caribbean lowlands, all the signs pointed that a tropical depression was sitting on Costa Rica, and the news over the radio were confirming the bad stage over there. Shortly after all this thinking I decided to call La Selva Biological Station and over the phone they easily convinced me to visit another day, since the precipitation has reached green alert and people were getting evacuaded from the area. Therefore I grabbed the phone and made some arrangements to stay on the Northwest pacific lowlands at Ensenada Lodge, luckily they had enough space and our birding journey continued. Upon arrival to San Jose we noticed that the traffic was not moving much so after a good 30 minutes I concluded that it was going nowhere so we turned around and follow some back roads away from the hassle of the city. Well we finally made out without much problems and retake our route to the north stopping for lunch in front of our second most important port. Along the seaside we spotted few migratory birds, grabbed the scope and started to figure out what was over there. Royal, Sandwich, Elegant , CommonTerns were plenty along with nearly a hundred Laughing Gulls, few willets, sandpipers and Whimbrels. Although the cloud covert persisted, our laughs and jokes were at high levels, Jim is such a great listener and friendly man that saying good bye to him has been hard before.
Once we left the Panamerican Highway birds started to showed up in any direction, all the common dry tropical forest species such as Common ground Dove, Groove billed Ani, Striped headed Sparrow, White fronted Amazon (Parrot), Orange chinned Parakeet, a soaring Hook billed Kite that graceful enough gave us few turns so we can see all great details on its wing barring and off course its prominent beak.
The birds kept on coming all day until dark and the number of lifers for Jim were just making good sense. Jays, parrots, pigeons, orioles, flycatchers, hummers, among many more were very close to the lodge main area, but our targets like Black headed Trogon, Cinnamon Hummingbird, Streak backed Oriole, White throated Magpie Jay, were filling up his list. We birded until dark, had a great Seabass, mush potatoes, vegetables and some of the nicest lemonades I had in a while and off to bed. Since tomorrow many more species are waiting for us.
http://www.repretel.com/las-lluvias-mermaron-en-sarapiqu%C3%AD
Day 4. Dec 13 2011
A dark night with rain showers lasted until 5 am; kinda worry for the birding and the possible continuation of precipitation. But at last the rainfall calmed down before sunlight and we were able to take on long hikes with force breaks around every meal time because the scattered showers. Luckily those did not last very long and Jim and I were pretty successful considering the weather. This very morning we watched a pair of female Three wattle Bellbirds chasing each other every time one of them was leaping off for fruits. The entire morning was pretty good, sort of a joke I kept telling Jim that all birds were to easy to find, every new time we went out looking for a new specie, it sort of showed quickly and with little work. Today’s long list was rewarding and plentiful . A pair of Hook billed Kite soar above our heads, making a flocks of parrots flew away rapidly, we kept on trying to get Lesser ground Cuckoo but did not succeeded at this moment. Then we decided to go back to the car and take another short drive, but just a second before we hopped on the car, Jim spotted a hummingbird, so i got out to find the bird. It was a Green breasted Mango female protecting a feeding territory from Cinnamon, Steely vented and Canivet’s Hummingbirds we spend some good time try to see if more hummer species would showed up but nothing new appeared. We left the lodge grounds to search for new birds and few minutes after leaving we found a very wet Laughing Falcon very focus on the ground activity as usual, Jim was particularly excited about this bird, and I was very happy to provide the sighting. We continue driving for some more minutes before heading back for lunch at the lodge but along the way a group of fighting Black Vultures caught my eye because their beautiful position they had on a death tree; i was able to grab my camera and snap few shots whom turn out to be my very best pic of these specie. After lunch we try very hard to find Spotted Bobwhite ( which is call by AOU Crested Woodquail ) totally disagreed!!! Anyways, this specie is rather common to find at Ensenada Lodge but since there was some construction going on they probably kept their distance. Later on before sunset Jim and I took on another hike to located new species but we had nothing really new by exception of few.
Dec 14- 15 Few highlights happen these day but an exceptional work among us for finding at last minute before we got on the road to the international airport. We just took a short drive to see if by luck Lesser ground Cuckoo would showed up, suddenly I heard one not to far I stopped my car and went for a short walk in order to located the sound, we walked slowly and patiently around the sound origin and after a long time of search finally I spotted the cuckoo and quickly called Jim to get at least a glimpse before it took off, Jim was fast enough and got there before this elusive bird vanished on the under foliage. He was so exited and happy that his reaction were ok lets pack it up and go. Along the drive i mention to Jim to stop for Black and White Owl at tis regular place but we were very unlucky and neither the Owl or the Bat Falcon were found this day.
December Birding Journey
We just finished the year with incredible memories, great sightings and new friends. As a wonderful present my friend Jim Mori, decided to join us for another birding tour a second year in a row and already commute for a 2012 birding journey again in late December.
Tapanti National Park
Recently i had the pleasure to go back to my some of my favorite birding place, Tapanti National Park. A mid caribbean rainforest transition cloud forest hidden among coffee plantations and mist. With an elevation of 1250 meters above sea level this evergreen forest it could be the proving grounds for skill birders and bird photographers alike. Its dense vegetation, thick mossy branches and unpredictable weather creates the perfect combination for superb birding. Dozens of species could congregate at once species such as woodcreepers, becards, foliage gleaners, barbets, guans, endemic flycatchers, jays, parakeets, hummingbirds are just a few!
Day 1. My colleagues and i took an early start to try to make the most of it, after a short drive of a beat over an hour, we finally arrive to what it was need for both of them, for myself i have been there nearly 50 times and some of those times i spend over 2 weeks at the time, searching for the last bird on my life list and try to capture some good images. In one of this visits during a birding journey on the month of July my good friends from Maryland Kathy & George Rohe we were able to find what it became the second nest ever found of Sharpbill ( Oxyruncus cristatus ) http://www.xeno-canto.org/
Please view detail information & videos here:
http://avesdecostarica.org/files/revista/zele_2008_2.pdf
http://ibc.lynxeds.com/locality/neotropical/costa-rica/cartago-province?page=1
Our journey began with a straight visit to the park main station within few minutes our eyes and ears start to capture dozen of birds and its sounds, some of the best species were sighted at the very begging of our trip to the forest. Unlike most national parks and reserves such as Monteverde, this gem is barely visit by tourist both local and international, which it could one be the reasons why its so good birding. ( Avoid weekend days, many mountain biker like to travel to Tapanti during the weekends ). Other from that you “might” encounter few travelers, interesting mostly germans??? At the ranger station there are bathrooms and some comfortable chairs that you can hang out while waiting for the mixed flocks to show up, which those tent to come twice at day; i would say 8-10 am and 3-4 pm??? Guessing that those are the ours that majority of insect eating birds are active ( the ones that stir up the forest in search of proteins ). On my previous trip during a Christmas bird found we were able to spot 87 species of birds without moving much at all!!.
Elias, Manolo & I spend most of our time just walking up and down the trail targeting every bird i came our way, all of us are guides and love bird photography, the company was pleasant and they were able to catch up with the concept of stillness and quietness, which could be difficult for some. On our first mixed flock i identified over 40 species ( Elias & Manolo were not very familiar to the birds since they never been here ), sadly we were able to capture very few of days thru our lenses. Here is list of some of the most relevant species: Barred Becard, Rufous Mourner, Red headed Barbet, Collared Trogon, Swallow tailed Kite ( 8 of them ), Snowcap female ( rare in Tapanti, in fact might be the only time i had seen it on the park trails ), Golden bellied Flycatcher ( endemic ), American Dipper, Torrent Tyrannulet, Black Phobe, Slaty capped Flycatcher, Flatbill Eyering, Blue hooded Euphonia ( Elegant Euphonia, Ornated Hawk Eagle ( soaring ), Scaled Antpitta, and we heard many times but never saw Silvery fronted Tapaculo… As you all can see, some of the species are more difficult to find than others like Scaled Antpitta and Slaty capped Flycatcher but still anything can show up while a mixed flock is going by ( like my discovery of the Sharpbill nest ).
The 2 following days little rain came during the early afternoon who forced us to stay by the lodge; eating tasty trouts and some old costarican drink call “Agua Dulce” ( made of molasses and hot water ). Luckily the forest edges at the lodge gave us some good pictures and many of those are keepers.
Here some of the pictures capture during my short visit to Tapanti.
As a young child the natural world was the most fascinating thing to me, while most kids of my age were out there playing football (the real thing), more commonly known in the USA as “soccer”. Anyways, those days when most of my friends were out there chasing a ball, I was a bit more attracted to my natural surroundings; such as small patches of forest near the river beds and under the logs, always trying to find what the show, Planet Earth, calls arthropods; I was simply looking for bugs.
Anyhow, it’s a good thing we can take the course we choose in our lives and that is what I did. After a lot of hard work I earned a full scholarship thru the government to become a naturalist guide and continue later on with a full time career in tropical biology. The real inspiration of getting a license as a certified guide was the desire to explore every corner of my country, to know it inside and out, and get paid at the same time. Young inspiring National Geographic photographers would kill for this opportunity; just imagine, traveling thru Costa Rica, staying in nice hotels, being pampered by the staff amongst the fantastic company and the interesting people I was so fortunate to guide and share the beauty of my country. It took longer that I expected to become a professional naturalist and even longer to be proficient enough to recognize more than 800 species of birds, but here I am still working in the field and now days my birding has evolved into becoming one of the top bird photographers of Costa Rican birds.
Hello world’s Birders & Photographers.
After some 20 years of birding i decided to share to the world some of the most gratifying moments while birding. Its natural behavior, new discoveries, some candid photographs, trip reports and much more. I hope you can all join me on this journey of a life time, BIRDING!
