Costa Rica Day 14

Day 14, our final day of birding in Costa Rica, a bit of a bittersweet day, a day marking two whole weeks in this incredible place. We made sure it was a good one. Bright and early, just as every other morning, we hopped on a boat to cruise around the Tarcoles river in search of mangrove species and tidal specialists. Among the 77 species we saw on the boat, a few were pretty special. Our main target, the Mangrove Hummingbird, went down easy. We found a couple of males zipping around flowering mangroves, not fantastic looks, but satisfying enough. Mangrove Vireos, a rare American Golden Plover, and a rare Snowy Plover gave us good looks. Masses of Western, Semipalmated, and Least Sandpipers floated around the river, tons of terns, waders, and other shorebirds lined the muddy shores. Northern Scrub-Flycatcher, Bright-rumped Attila, American Pygmy Kingfishers, and Gull-billed Terns were quite nice to see as well. We also saw a Collared Plover, a really sharp looking plover, coincidentally the last regular North American Plover species I needed to see. 

After our successful boat trip, we went back to the lodge to pack up our stuff and birded the road out for a bit. White-throated Magpie-Jays, Southern Lapwings, Scrub Euphonias, a Double-striped Thick Knee, and more escorted us out. It was a hot day on the coast, and we made the decision to not bake ourselves searching for passerines, but to drive north to Puntarenas for a rare Pacific Golden Plover. A few hours later we found ourselves looking at it, and shortly after, searching for an Elegant Tern. We also scoped for boobies on a distant island colony, but couldn't see any detail at all in any birds out there. 

We knew the drive out of Puntarenas back to the Hotel Robledal we started at was the last bit of time we had with Jorge, so it was pretty bittersweet. This was our first time doing a big trip like this, so I personally didn't realize that you basically adopt your guide for your time with them. Anyhow, we said our goodbyes, and it was just about time to sleep for the next day. I spent most of the next day editing photos and didn't do too much birding around the hotel, and eventually it was time to fly back to the states. Womp womp. A quick layover in Florida got us some goodies just birding out of the airport windows, filling in another big hole in our maps. 

All in all, this was an absurdly fun trip. We 539 species, blowing my (purposefully low) expectations out of the water. I like to set really low expectations (or no expectations at all) so that no matter what, I'll come out with my expectations exceeded. I think I was hoping to see about 350-400 species and have the good majority of those be lifers, not 389 of them to be lifers... Pretty unreal if you ask me. 

Trip report for day 14 here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/351730