Costa Rica - Day 3

Our travel days spiced up with intermittent birding stops were some of our better days, as covering a lot of ground and visiting different sub-regions allows for a higher diversity of birds to be seen. Just as the day before, we spent a bit of time on the deck of the Observatory Lodge before breakfast, where we saw a barred morph female Great Curassow, ate breakfast, and walked one trail, the trail that was chock full of antbirds from the day before, with the hopes of finding an Ocellated Antbird, the main one we missed. Almost right off the bat we heard it sing, saw it zip across the path, and carefully followed it into the jungle. It was an extremely hard bird to get eyes on, and when Jorge pointed the laser in its direction to get us oriented on its position, I put my camera up in hopes of being able to see where it might’ve been sitting. I just so happened to be focusing through the foliage and locked onto it, fired off 3 shots, and moved out of the way for Peter and Mom to see it. Sadly it moved, and disappeared. Slaty-tailed Trogon, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Boat-billed and Gray-capped Flycatchers, a White-throated Thrush, Nightingale Wren, Cinnamon Becard, Fawn-throated Foliage-Gleaner, and more kept us occupied on our short jaunt around the grounds before rolling out. Link to Arenal list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S206297367

We had a decent drive ahead of us, about 3 hours, and bagged our first lifer-on-the-road of the day, a Ruddy ground Dove, shortly followed by Crimson-fronted Parakeets, and a stop for gas got us a Barn Owl INSIDE the grocery store across the street! After leaving the gas station, a kettle of vultures stopped us with one of my first nemesis ticks, a Hook-billed Kite! Blue Grosbeak in a field, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Groove-billed Anis, Olive-throated Parakeets, and a Short-tailed Hawk made sure we stayed sharp while on our way to our next destination. 

Eventually, we reached the Los Chiles area, where our first stop was the Medio Queso Wetlands. A Muscovy Duck (not one of the big, fat, ugly ones on a city park fountain) sitting in a tree on the entrance road was quite nice. Once out in the open of the wetlands, Northern Jacanas scurried alongside the road, Purple Gallinules grunted, White-throated Crakes called from all around, and a Snail Kite perched up on a dead snag for us quite nicely. Once at the new bridge (the place you once had to take a boat to continue along the road), we got out and did some proper birding. More crakes, Sora, pretty much all of the expected wading birds, and our lifer Amazon Kingfisher gave us great looks straight out of the van. A Laughing Falcon and Collared Forest-Falcon called out from a great distance away, showing how impressively their calls can carry. Mangrove Swallows, Fork-tailed Flycatchers, flyover Nicaraguan Grackle, a female Nicaraguan Seed Finch, a Western Kingbird, an Eastern Meadowlark, and some other random birds zipped, called, and floated around while crossing the bridge. Once across the bridge, we scanned for a Pinnated Bittern to no avail, but picked up Olive-crowned and Gray-crowned Yellowthroats, two birds that were very interesting to see just how different their vocalizations are from the familiar Common Yellowthroat. With most of our targets checked off at the Medio Queso Wetlands, we continued up to Los Chiles. At their local airport, a large flock of seedeaters stopped us right before our lunch spot for the day, and we nabbed a Ruddy-breasted Seedeater among the Morelet’s and Variables. Link to Medio Queso list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S206352240

Continuing along after a delicious lunch, Jorge picked out a Plain-breasted Ground Dove among dozens and dozens of Ruddies, and soon enough we made it to Entrada Los Chiles Hasta Caño Negro, some more wetlands. Nicaraguan Seed Finches, Nicaraguan grackles, Pale-vented Pigeons, Green Ibis, and a Green-breasted Mango greeted us. Not long after getting out of the car, Jorge picked out a distant Jabiru, which I believe is now the tallest bird I’ve ever seen. What a whacky looking bird. A lot of Fork-tailed Flycatchers fluttered around the fields, Montezuma Oropendolas and Gray-breasted Martins sat on trees and wires, and some Eastern Meadowlarks daintily crossed the road in the distance. Link to Entrada Los Chiles list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S206352354

Not far from Natural Lodge Caño Negro, an ag field and adjacent pastures produced some fantastic birds. 14 Double-striped Thick-Knees, flyby Yellow-naped Amazons (an endangered species), and Jorge spotted a Great Potoo roosting out in the middle of the pasture on a stump! A Crane Hawk kettled with vultures, and a Striped Cuckoo called for a while. Link to random roadside stop: https://ebird.org/checklist/S206352110

We arrived at the Natural Lodge fairly late in the evening, so a par of Russet-naped Wood Rails were the only birds we saw before heading to dinner. After dinner, I made the dark, grave, horrible, and outright bad decision of leaving my camera at the lodge for our owling session… We had point blank views ofd Black-and-White Owls, Striped Owls, and more Great Potoos. Argh. Peter did get som fantastic photos of them, and he let me use his camera for a couple of them which was very nice. 

’Twas a good day. Day 3 produced a fitting 33 lifers and 151 species, gave us lots of good photo ops, and set us up for my personal favorite day of the trip. Day trip report: https://ebird.org/tripreport/318818