Costa Rica Birds

Although we didn’t see a lot of birds in the forest at Monteverde, we were lucky enough to get good views of the Resplendent Quetzal.



They have such long tail feathers that when they went inside their nest hole the feathers still stuck out.



We saw Blue-crowned Motmots several times. Although not quite as showy as the Quetzals, they are also colourful with long fancy tails. (Although the tail is not as noticeable since it’s black.)



At the end of our hike we had lunch at the cafe next to all the hummingbird feeders. There were so many hummingbirds I had a hard time putting down my camera long enough to eat! I’d prefer to see (and photograph) birds in more natural settings, but the feeders definitely helped to attract them. And with so many birds, they were also perching on branches around the feeders.







I also liked the feisty little Bananaquits who were also hanging around the feeders.



If you're in Monteverde, don't miss the garden behind the bakery - a surprisingly good spot for birdwatching, again partly because they have feeders.



We saw a number of small woodpeckers, including this one, which I think is a Hoffman’s.



Although we didn’t spend a lot of time actually bird-watching, we saw quite a few birds everywhere we went. While paragliding we saw Crested and Yellow-headed Caracaras, Black, Turkey, and King Vultures, and Swallow-tailed Kites. I also flew past a group of Wood Storks and several groups of Brown Pelicans - fun to be in the air with the birds.





Great-tailed grackles and their noisy calls were common.



When we were waiting to catch the boat from Sierpe to Drakes Bay a couple of Scarlet Macaws landed in a tree beside us and stayed for quite a while feeding on the fruit. It was tricky to get clear shots of them as they were constantly hopping around among the branches. For such brilliantly coloured birds, they actually blend in to the greenery quite well.





For more photos see all 51 as a slideshow or overview

Costa Rica Monteverde Plants

We took a day off from flying to visit the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. One of the big attractions is the birds, and we did see some good ones. But spotting birds in thick forest is a challenge and most of the time there were none in sight. (You can tell I'm not a serious birder!) So I filled the time in between birds with photographing the incredible forest and its huge diversity of plants. Lots of these are somewhat abstract since I'm attracted by the shapes, lines, patterns, colors, and light.





The trails were well maintained and signed.



One of the characteristics of tropical forest is that things decay very fast. Some of the dead leaves were just as interesting subjects as the live ones.





Although I saw very few insects, almost every leaf was chewed on.



I even managed to find some reflections :-)



Most of the forest was shades of green, which made the occasional flashes of other colors stand out even more.







I love color but sometimes the shape and light are what make an image and the color is just a distraction.



I am fascinated by the infinite variety of plants.





There weren't a lot of flowers in the forest. Lots of the trees have beautiful flowers but not many were blooming. Occasionally you'd see flowers on the ground but couldn't see where they had fallen from.





After the reserve we stopped in the town where I found more flowers than I had in the forest, including more varieties of Passion Fruit (Costa Rica has over 50 kinds)





For more photos see all 52 as a slideshow or overview

Stay tuned for the birds and butterfly photos from this outing.

Costa Rica part 2

In between paragliding (and hiding from the heat) we've been enjoying the beauty of Costa Rica. We went out to the beach the other evening to watch the sunset.



Lots of people out once the heat of the sun is gone.



Little (1 cm) sand colored crabs were scurrying everywhere.



Of course, I had to take a few abstract shots :-)



One morning we went to Hacienda Baru for breakfast and to wander around their butterfly garden and some of the short trails. I have been reading the books by Jack Ewing about this place so it was interesting to visit. A good sized iguana cooperated for some photographs and I managed to get quite close to it before it decided to take off. There are lots of iguanas around.



And Shelley found me a large (~ 3 inches long) bug in a women's bathroom. And made sure I didn't get arrested taking photos in there :-)



There are tons of large spiders around the Dominical launch site. They make huge webs a meter or more across. Sometimes they hold their legs in pairs so it looks like they only have four. I assume this is some kind of camouflage but I'm not sure what they are trying to look like.



There are hibiscus bushes everywhere. I always like these showy flowers.



Speaking of showy, I love the passion fruit flowers.



And a variety of brightly colored heliconia.



Who says ramen doesn't grow on trees!



Despite not going bird watching (yet) we've seen quite a few (I've checked off 21 in the bird app). It's fun to fly with the birds - I've been close to groups of vultures, pelicans, and wood storks. The vultures are your friends when paragliding since they show where the thermals (rising air) are. These little Inca Doves are common but cute. (We've seen showier birds but not to photograph)



For more photos see all 35 as a slideshow or overview

Costa Rica Paragliding

After flying at Jaco for a couple of days, and attempting to fly at Caldera one day, we headed south down the coast a couple of hours drive to Dominical. This site is on a ridge about 3 km inland from the beach. It's fairly heavy forest in between so you have to make sure to leave the ridge with enough height to make the beach. Not many good options for landing in between. If conditions are reasonable you can also fly a lower ridge beside the beach. I almost like this better than the upper ridge because you're beside the ocean. Usually you can fly the lower ridge the few kilometers back to Dominical and then we could land on the beach within a few hundred yards of our hotel. We've had good conditions and it's been no problem to stay up for an hour or more, which is usually enough for us. With two flights per day, I've been in the air about seven hours in the last four days.

On the ground I am much more interested in photography than Shelley. However, when we're paragliding that reverses - Shelley takes lots more photos and GoPro video. When I fly I'm too focused on the flying. I either don't carry my camera, or I don't remember to use it. In addition, usually Shelley likes me to launch first so I don't get a chance to take photos or video of her taking off. And I often like to fly longer, so I don't get to catch her landing either.













This afternoon we flew a new site called Hatillo. It's about 10 km north of Dominical. It's a lower site with not much ridge lift and the landing possibilities aren't great so you need to find thermals. After botching my first two attempts I launched and got some lift right away. That was good but then I started to sink out and I figured I'd have to head for a landing. But I managed to find another thermal and get back up. From there I could reach another spot where I could see the vultures circling. That got me up to cloud base with enough height to make the glide all the way back to Dominical - my first real cross country flight. It was a pretty tame one because I could have landed on the beach almost anywhere so it wasn't too committing. And landing on the beach near our hotel was familiar. Here's the flight on Doarama:



I've really been enjoying the flying. It's been a little challenging (for us) without being too scary. (Although a couple of minor collapses got my heart rate up a little.) We've been getting good long flights. The scenery is fantastic. Flying over the tropical forest with the birds and landing on the beach is great. The only drawback is the heat, especially standing around in the sun at launch. But once you're flying you get a steady wind and it's fine.

Unfortunately, the Dominical launch is in the middle of a large real estate development and it will likely be closed soon, to be turned into someone's mansion :-(

For more photos see all 10 as a slideshow or overview

Costa Rica part 1

The first night after we arrived in Costa Rica we stayed at Villa San Ignacio on the outskirts of San Jose. There wasn't much in the neighbourhood, but the hotel itself was nice and had large grounds with flowers and birds. It is the dry season and has been a dry winter so things aren't as lush as I expected. And San Jose isn't a really wet part of the country anyway.



We've been busy paragliding so we haven't been out looking at wildlife, but we've still seen quite a few birds and a few other creatures. Our paragliding guide is quite interested in birds and carries a birding guide and a spotting scope so when we do see something he usually knows what it is.

Eating breakfast in the hotel restaurant we noticed a couple of birds in the tree next to us. It turned out they had a well camouflaged nest that they appeared to be working on. I think they were Rufous-naped wrens.



Our first two days of flying were at Jaco. We hadn't flown for a few months so we headed for the beach when we first arrived so we could sort out our gear and do a little kiting.

The launch at Jaco is quite nice and has a huge landing zone - perfect for our first few flights. The only downside is the fine red dust that coats everything, including you! A Double-striped Thick-knee (bird) was nesting in the corner of the landing zone field. It was well camouflaged but it still seemed like a strange place to nest! In other climates birds sit on the nest to keep the eggs warm. Here, in the open sun, it was probably sitting on the nest to keep it from overheating.



One of the treats flying at Jaco was seeing (and hearing!) Scarlet Macaws. Such bright colors. They were always in pairs since they mate for life. The flying conditions weren't great - we had a few short flights due to sinking out, but we managed to scratch for some longer flights (40 min).

We stayed at Grampa Ninjas paragliding guesthouse. The owner died recently and the place is in flux but it is a beautiful house up on a hill with a view out to the ocean. There were lots of birds around, many that I didn’t get a good enough look at to identify such as hummingbirds and parakeets. I usually rely on identifying from my photographs. I did find a Costa Rica birds app and although it’s not the most user friendly app, it’s better than nothing.



We also had toads and iguanas around the guesthouse.





Our one wildlife stop was the bridge over the Tarcoles River. Salt water crocodiles (not alligators) congregate on the sandy shore under the bridge. There were six on land and another 8 or so in the water.





Of course there are lots of spiders and insects too. Here is one impressive one (about 3 inches long including legs)



Our third day we went to Caldera. Normally this is a great soaring site, but the weather hasn't been cooperating lately, possibly due to El Nino. The owner is Swiss and he has a great facility with a nicely groomed launch and a restaurant overlooking it. I suspect it reflects European flying sites.

The forecast was good for this day, but it turned out to be more parawaiting than flying. At first the wind was the wrong direction and too strong, and then when it finally turned to a reasonable direction, it got too light. We launched but it was a quick sled ride to the beach for most people. I managed to make about six passes and stay up for about five minutes before running for the beach. And that was probably pushing it for me, trying to stay close to the hill to get maximum lift I brushed the tops of the trees with my feet and when I finally ran for the beach I didn't have as much height over the power lines as I would have liked :-(

I can't say I've fallen in love with Costa Rica yet. The part of the coast we're on is quite developed and the tourist towns are not very attractive. I'm sure the national parks are great, but we haven't seen them yet. We wanted to go somewhere warm, but the heat has been tough hanging around at launch and landing sites, most of which don't have shade. But compared to Saskatchewan winter, we don't have much to complain about!

For more photos, see all 23 as a slideshow or overview