I didn't take a single photo on this day that was worthy of being edited, hence there being no photos above this text. Nonetheless, it was a very, very good day. It was Peter's birthday this time, and we woke up to a pair of Barred Forest Falcons serenading us before leaving Bosque de Paz. We made a quick roadside stop to pick through a MASSIVE flock of swifts swirling above us where we found over 100 Chestnut-collared Swifts, 6 dozen White-collared Swifts, and a handful of White-chinned Swifts, quite a good bird to nail down.
We made it into the town of Sarchi and had lunch and coffee at a cafe that we would also do some birding at. There's a large coffee plantation at this cafe, so we were able to get good looks at Chestnut-capped Warblers, Blue-vented Hummingbirds, about a million Tennessee Warblers, and more. As we got into better habitat, our real targets here started popping up. Cabanis's Wren sang loudly from the coffee thickets, and finally we found the endemic Cabanis's Ground Sparrow, a stunning skulker. Lunch was fantastic as always, and we needed to keep moving to get to Savegre in good time.
Driving through the northern part of San Jose, we saw more Short-tailed Hawks and other urban birds, and with the little daylight we had left, we were able to nab Sooty Thrush and Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher on our way into Savegre in the highlands. Before dinner, we spent the last minutes of the day observing Scintillant and Volcano Hummingbirds, two of the smallest birds I've ever seen, acting like perfect bumblebee mimics around our feet. We also saw Talamanca Hummingbirds, Lesser Violetears, and a Flame-colored Tanager.
After dinner, we decided to do a bit of owling. It was drizzling but not windy, so we figured it would be a success. Our first stop was a success for Bare-shanked Screech Owl, but I think only Jorge, Mom, and I heard it... After another hour or so of fruitless owling, we headed back down the road to the lodge to try at some last-resort patches of forest for our biggest target. At one of our very last possible stops, we played a call we'd played dozens of times, and heard a bark back. Finally!! An Unspotted Saw-whet Owl barked back at us, which was a call that (if I remember correctly) hadn't been recorded on eBird until Peter got a clip of it.
Chestnut-collared Swift
Blue-and-White Swallow
Chestnut-collared Swift
White-chinned Swift
Lesser Goldfinch
Acorn Woodpecker
Chestnut-collared Swift
Blue-vented Hummingbird
Crested Caracara
Chestnut-capped Warbler
Rufous-backed Wren
Squirrel Cuckoo
Sooty Thrush
Flame-colored Tanager
Volcano Hummingbird
Scintillant Hummingbird
Citheronia volcan
