Saturday, March 16, 2024

Tarcoles Birding Lodge

The last night with the group we spent at the Tarcoles Birding Lodge, which coincidentally was next door to Cerro Lodge where I'd stayed at the beginning of the trip. It was brand new, just opened a few months before, by the previous owner of Cerro Lodge. It was quite small, just 6 cabins and a few rooms. The cabins were beautifully done. We were only here overnight, so not a lot of photos for a change.

Tarcoles Birding Lodge

When we arrived there was a Howler monkey in one of the trees. It seemed quite relaxed, moving around and gathering leaves to eat.

Howler monkey

Howler monkey

There were also some Scarlet Macaws eating the seeds/fruit of one of the trees.

Scarlet macaw

Scarlet macaw

I didn't spot a lot of other birds, although I'm sure they were around. I managed a distant shot of this White-crowned parrot.

White-crowned parrot

My best discovery was when I returned to my cabin after supper. There was something on the spotless tile floor. At first I thought it was a leaf or twig but it turned out to be a scorpion. And even more interesting, it was in the process of eating a smaller scorpion! It didn't even run away when I shone bright lights on it and took numerous photographs. It only got worked up when I captured it with a drinking glass and a piece of cardboard. I was quite careful with this process as I had no desire for it to escape and sting me. I must admit I was a bit nervous walking around the cabin in my bare feet afterwards.

Bark scorpion eating a smaller scorpion

Bark scorpion eating a smaller scorpion

I found this interesting spider on a barbed wire fence. And I was able to get through the fence to take photos from both sides. Spiders can look quite different depending which side you see them from. It turned out to be a Silver Garden Orbweaver. I saw a few different Garden Orbweavers on this trip.

Silver Garden Orbweaver

Silver Garden Orbweaver

The lodge (like Cerro) is on the top of a hill, with a nice view towards the ocean and the sunset.

sunset

See all 16 photos in this batch.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Drake Bay & Corcovado National Park

foggy morning

The main reason to go to Drake Bay is to visit Corcovado National Park. It's not the easiest place to get to. There is a road but it's challenging 4wd territory. The better alternative is by boat, which wouldn't be so bad except there's no dock in Drake's bay so you end up jumping out of the boat into the water, which wouldn't be so bad except when there are 4 foot waves tossing the boat around. At least it's a sandy beach in Drake's Bay. A boat ride is also required to get to the Sirena entrance to the park, where you also have to jump out into the water, but there it's a rocky shore. And depending on your schedule, you may end up spending a night in Sierpe where you catch the boat. Sierpe has limited choices for food and lodging. All of our group except me ended up with stomach problems after Sierpe, putting a damper on the trip to Drake Bay.

Our hotel in Drake Bay was up on the hill with a great view of the bay

Drake's Bay

There were green iguanas in the trees and many birds around.

Green Iguana

Mangrove Swallow

Buff-throated Saltator

Common Black Hawk

Great Kiskatdee

Corcovado is the largest park in Costa Rica and one of the largest remaining areas of lowland tropical forests anywhere. You have to have a guide to go in the park and go in a group. We had eight people in our group, which wasn't bad, although there were many other groups so it wasn't exactly a wilderness experience. The advantage of the guide is that they know where animals can be found, and you see much more than you would otherwise.

While I was happy to get photos of these animals, the challenges of the dense forest mean they're not very good (by my standards).

There are four kinds of monkeys in Costa Rica - Howler, Spider, Squirrel, and Capuchin. We saw Howler and Spider here.

Howler Monkey

Howler Monkey with juvenile

Spider Monkey

Costa Rica is known for its sloths. We saw one Three-toed Sloth although it was sleeping in an awkward spot to get a good photograph. (Not very considerate of it!)

Three-toed Sloth

We were also lucky enough to see this Tamandua anteater. They spend a lot of their time up in the trees. It was moving around but I think it was a little curious about us, which allowed me to get this shot.

Tamandua (anteater)

Tapirs are another iconic (and endangered) Costa Rican animal. We saw two different ones, but they were both sleeping in mud wallows, surrounded by vegetation.

Tapir

There are two kinds of peccaries here, White-lipped and Collared. We only saw Collared Peccaries, which I've also seen in the southern USA where they're known as javalinas. We also saw Coatis (a bit like raccoons) but I didn't get a decent photo of them.

Collared Peccary

We didn't see a lot of birds in the park. The most impressive were the Great Curassow. We saw both males (all black) and females like this one. For a change the female birds are more colorful. They're quite large birds, about the size of a wild turkey.

Great Curassow (female)

I was happy to spot these Basilisk lizards, although the rest of the group wasn't interested. They're known as "Jesus lizards" because of their ability to run across water. The rest of the group was busy looking for the baby Spectacled Caimens.

Common Basilisk

Spectacled Caimen juveniles

The guides are mostly looking for the larger, more "famous" birds and animals. At one point, when our guide came over to see what I was photographing, his comment was "oh, it's just a spider". Personally, I thought it was quite an interesting creature.

jumping spider

spider

See also a post from our previous trip.

See all 58 photos in this batch

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Rivas

clouds

Rivas was another flying site, inland from Dominical. This is a more advanced site. Conditions can be strong and the landing is quite far and in a soccer field surrounded by trees. Last time Shelley and I hadn't flown here because conditions weren't good. It didn't seem like we'd get to fly this time either since it was cloudy and windy when we arrived. But in the morning it looked better and a couple of us got flights in. We stayed at Hotel de MontaƱa El Pelicano which had nice gardens and lots of trees and birds.

heliconia

heliconia

Red-tailed Stingless Bee

grasshopper

Golden-hooded Tanager

flower

We were leaving the restaurant one morning when the manager called us back. They had found a leaf mimic katydid and had seen our interest in wildlife. It's quite amazing how closely they resemble a leaf, even with fake veins and damage. It had crazy long antenae.

Leaf Katydid

Leaf Katydid

The other reason to come here was to visit Mariposario Casa Alegria (butterfly house). When we first arrived one of the group found a Praying Mantis in the women's bathroom. Not wanting to be seen taking photos in the women's bathroom, I transferred it to a plant outside :-) Praying mantises (and spiders) weren't popular at the butterfly house because they catch and eat butterflies.

Praying Mantis

Malachite butterfly

Owl butterfly

Whitened Bluewing butterfly ?

White-spotted Prepona butterfly ?

Doris Longwing butterfly ?

Silver-studded Leafwing butterfly ?

Julia Heliconia butterfly ?

Some of the caterpillars were almost as pretty as the butterflies.

Blue Morpho caterpillar ?

caterpillar

In a protected environment like this the butterflies live longer than they would in the wild, and so quite a few of them were ragged and damaged.

Doris Longwing butterfly ?

The owner himself gave us our tour of the butterfly house.

the butterfly keeper

See all 77 photos in this batch