Carara National Park (part 3)
May 3rd, 2014
Once we reached the lagoon, I crept along the edge angling for a good photo of
the shorebirds and herons. The harsh midday sun made things difficult--as did
the wariness of my subjects! This pair of Black-Necked Stilts regarded me
sternly, while the young Jacana seemed to wonder what all the fuss was about.
1680x1050 wallpaper
Left to right: Bare-Throated Tiger Heron, Black-Necked Stilts, Tricolored
Heron. The young jacana is hiding in here too. Look near a brown leaf to find
him.
Green Kingfishers were common, as they seemed to be in just about any wetland
in Costa Rica. This one looked rather regal in the bright sun.
At the end of the lagoon trail lay a Boat-Billed Heron nesting colony. I'd
seen Boat-Billed Herons in my field guide before the trip, and thought they
looked a lot like our local Night Herons (to whom they're related.) In person,
they looked nothing like Night Herons. They looked like the strangest birds
I'd ever seen: like giant-eyed, bulbous-billed muppets. The juveniles were,
frankly, ugly, but it was an ugliness you had to love!
The adults go for a more debonair look, taking on a slightly less bulbous bill
and a wavy hairdo.
Not a photomanip, I swear to god. They really look like that.
They're nocturnal herons, thus the huge eyes. The bill is an adaptation to
their diet and way of feeding. While most herons spear fish using their long,
pointed bills, Boat-Billed Herons just scoop them up out of the mud, along
with small crustaceans and aquatic insects.
(Continued in next post)
3 comments | Comments are closed
Carara National Park (part 2)
May 1st, 2014
There are a lot of showy birds in the rainforest. But the showiness of the
Royal Flycatcher is sneaky: an exuberant multicolored peacock crest that stays
hidden 99% of the time, folded up like an Asian fan into the back of the head.
When it does unfurl, it's very much a blink-or-you-miss-it affair. The easiest
way to get a good look is
like
this: take the bird in hand. Apparently, as discovered by bird banders and
researchers, the experience of being held is startling enough to provoke a
full-on display. Those of us for whom that is not an option must content
ourselves with brief unphotographable glimpses, or with the fraction of the
crest that sticks out when the bird preens.
Another of the many army-ant-followers, Barred Antshrike was on my wishlist
due to its striking black-and-white plumage. I saw only this one, skulking in
a dense thicket. (Like so many of my successful wishlisters, I have Johan's
eagle eyes to thank for it.)
I wasn't above photographing the occasional butterfly on a bird-watching tour!
This one's a Red Postman, I think.
Orange-Collared Manakin
Just can't get enough of him :-)
(Continued in next post)
2 comments | Comments are closed
Carara National Park (part 1)
April 28th, 2014
On Monday, we went on our second tour with Johan Chaves: a full day in Carara
National Park, one of the best birding destinations in the country. Vividly
colored trogons and toucans, parrots and hummingbirds captured our eye,
although comparatively few of these came within reach of my 300mm lens. This
guy certainly did though:
1680x1050 wallpaper
I want to make an aside here, for something I found amusing. I sometimes take
my non-birder friends and family out on walks. Some of them are casual nature
lovers, or if not, I can coax them in that direction. What they notice mostly
is the tame, bold, inquisitive birds, and what they admire mostly is the
colorful birds. They notice the adorable chickadees coming to their hands for
sunflower seed. They notice the cardinals and blue jays perching in plain
view, and the iridescent green of the mallards. I'm usually looking at other
things, and if they can even pick out what it is I'm looking at, they might
wonder what on earth is so interesting about it.
As a hard-core birder, you see so many cardinals and blue jays and chickadees
that you become blase. You start focusing on the elusive birds, the wild ones,
the hidden ones, above all, the rare ones. The more you bird, the more
"interesting because it's rare" becomes a thing, and "boring because it's
common" becomes something you fight against. (Or I fight against it, anyway.
Because it's not true. They're all interesting.)
But when a temperate-zone birder visits the tropics for the first time, it's
an exercise in role reversal. Now you're the one oohing and aahing over the
flashy common birds, while your tour guide, who has seen them all a thousand
times before, rolls his eyes discreetly. While you're going ape over toucans
and macaws, he's going ape over some drab, nondescript fellow with a drab,
nondescript name like Thrushlike Schiffornis or Stub-Tailed Spadebill.
You get it, because you're a birder. You empathize with his fascination with
the rarity. You take a good look at the drab rare bird. But then you turn back
to the Scarlet Macaws and ooh and aah some more.
Scarlet Macaws are a highlight in any trip to Carara, one of the few places in
Costa Rica where these magnificent parrots--flying rainbows, some call
them--are still a common sight. Every morning they come to the park to feed.
Every evening their colors streak across the sky as they migrate in pairs and
flocks to their roosting grounds in the mangroves. Despite their vivid colors,
you usually hear them before you see them. Their squawks carry for miles.
There were many more highlights. Orange-Collared Manakins (pictured at top)
were high up on the list. Manakins are lekking birds: the brilliantly-colored
males gather at special sites and put on shows for the females, who come,
watch, mate if they're sufficiently impressed, and then leave to build nests
and raise young alone. Every species of manakin has its own unique dance
routine. Johan happened to know of a lek site. Unfortunately no females were
around to spur the males on to their full performance (which involves leaping
to and fro while snapping their wings like some avian version of click
beetles.
Have
a look.) However, using a recording to convince the lek regulars that a
strange male had come along, Johan was able to call one out into close view.
1680x1050 wallpaper
(Continued in next post)
6 comments | Comments are closed
Costa Rica Raptors
April 26th, 2014
Crested Caracara was one of my early lifers, being both common and distinctive
enough that it's hard to miss. (You might have seen one yourself if you've
ever been to Florida, Texas or Arizona.) Even though this bird is part of the
falcon family, it's more of a scavenger than a hunter. Like vultures it has a
bare face, and for the same reason: to help it stay clean despite its somewhat
unsavory eating habits. When it does hunt, it's as likely to take insects as
animals.
One day I even found a Caracara with the Cattle Egrets, foraging in the
tractor's wake as they did. I got a good shot of him when he perched beside
the road.
Roadside Hawks occupy a similar niche in the tropics to the one Red-Tailed
Hawks occupy here: hunting small mammals at field edges, often close to human
settlement. They also take the occasional insect or lizard. This one came down
almost to eye level and even did a bit of hunting as I stood there.
1680x1050 wallpaper
1680x1050 wallpaper
1 comment | Comments are closed
Meanwhile...
April 23rd, 2014
Spring migration is in full swing! I haven't had much chance to post about it
what with the flurry of Costa Rica pictures (which isn't over yet--I have a
few more around-the-resort birds to share, and then it's on to the avian grand
finale of the vacation, our tour to
Carara National
Park.) But I've been having a great time watching all our breeding birds
come home again.
1680x1050 wallpaper
1680x1050 wallpaper
I'm actually cheating with these. They're leftovers from a photo shoot around
this time last spring that I didn't develop before. The Hooded Merganser pair
is back on the same pond--I saw them yesterday--but there's no real reason to
disturb their peace when I already have something to show.
So far it's blackbirds and kinglets, ducks and cranes, and other birds who can
handle our often cold and wet April weather. But in another couple weeks, the
Yellow Warblers will be back. I can't wait.
Comments are closed
Manuel Antonio National Park
April 21st, 2014
On Saturday Michael and I decided on a visit to Manuel Antonio, for some
hiking, birding and maybe swimming. I've already shared the star of that trip,
the Blue-Crowned Motmot that flew to within ten feet of us. Another happy
sighting was a glittering Red-Legged Honeycreeper. On the Esquipulas trip,
Mike and Johan had seen one of these while I was separated from them (at the
very time when I was getting my lifer Chestnut-Backed Antbird, in fact.) It
was gone by the time I got back. So it was nice to see one at last.
I actually mistook that for a wintering Indigo Bunting at first, despite,
y'know, the
blazing red legs and long curved bill and pretty much
everything other than the fact that it was blue. Not my proudest moment as a
birder!
A family group of raccoon-like animals caught our attention, as they travelled
along in a dried up stream bed below us. I initially thought they were coatis
due to their elongated snouts, but
some research
cleared things up. Turns out they're
Crab-Eating
Raccoons--aptly named close cousins of the raccoons we all know and love.
They were hard to photograph in the shadows and brush, but this one briefly
came out in the open.
The odd-looking guy below is a Common Basilisk, although the locals would call
him a Jesus Christ Lizard.
Here's why.
Our final sighting of the day came late and unexpectedly. Our taxi driver was
taking us back to the resort when he pulled over suddenly, exclaimed that
there was a toucan in a tree and let us out to see it. Thus did I get my lifer
Chestnut-Mandibled Toucan! (Handsome tip: earned.) It was distant and
half-obscured by foliage, but still pretty exciting considering. As Mike said
afterwards, "
everyone in Costa Rica is a tour guide!"
2 comments | Comments are closed
Seedeater Birdscapes
April 20th, 2014
The
seedeaters, as a
group, stole my heart in Costa Rica. No, they're not colorful or beautiful
singers or anything like that, just very small and shy and cute. They seemed
to me as tiny as hummingbirds. The sapling palms near our resort were dripping
with them.
A close-up was out of the question. As soon as I approached within a certain
distance, every last one of them would melt into the scenery. I had to make do
with "birdscapes." I especially liked the view of these female Yellow-Bellied
Seedeaters with the mountains silhouetted in the distance.
Top to bottom: male Yellow-Bellied Seedeater, female White-Collared Seedeater,
juvenile male Yellow-Bellied Seedeater, male White-Collared Seedeater. (Yes,
there's a fourth one hiding down there.) Yellow-Bellied Seedeaters roam widely
in search of seeding grasses, and apparently that's the only reason I saw
them. They're not normally found in Quepos. Johan Chaves went searching for
them after I left, but the flock had already moved on.
Equally tiny Blue-Black Grassquits shared the same habitat. These guys were
quite pretty when the light caught them and revealed their cobalt-blue
iridescence. They were also more amenable to close-ups.
Many scientists believe that Blue-Black Grassquits were the original parent
species of
Darwin's
finches--the birds that helped Charles Darwin develop his theory of
evolution. When they first spread to Galapagos the islands were nearly
birdless. So they proceeded to rapidly diversify into about fifteen different
species, each one exploiting a previously empty niche.
A pair of Mangrove Black Hawks was nesting in a big dead tree near the
estuary. These hawks' favorite food is crabs, sometimes captured by racing
after them on foot through the mud! To everyone other than crabs, they seemed
to hold the status of "gentle giant"--the little seedeaters would perch in the
same tree as them without any sign of fear. The hawks also tolerated me close
to their nesting tree, although the first time I walked by on any given day,
one of them would usually do a quick fly-by to check me out (or maybe dissuade
me from trying any funny business?) This made for a good photo op if I had my
camera at the ready.
1680x1050 wallpaper
1 comment | Comments are closed
Wherein Ursula Vernon makes me laugh hysterically
April 17th, 2014
Birder Directions: A Play In One Act
Comments are closed
El Rey wetlands with Johan Chaves
April 16th, 2014
In the dry season, El Rey was shallow marsh, productive of wading birds like
gallinules and herons, plus the occasional kingfisher. (In the wet season the
adjacent fields flood and breeding waterfowl move in.) One of the high points
for me was a tiny American Pygmy Kingfisher. This guy is less than half the
size of the kingfisher we're familiar with in North America (Belted), and eats
very small fish and aquatic insects.
Familiar Green Herons were everywhere in Costa Rica, anywhere they could find
the tiniest bit of water to fish in. This time of year the resident Green
Herons were joined by wintering birds from North America. Like so many of the
wintering birds, they seemed tamer than back home.
1680x1050 wallpaper
The beautiful
adult Purple
Gallinules eluded my camera. I saw them only in brief glimpses. But this
juvenile was a lot more willing to come out in the open--perhaps because his
camouflage was better! Typical of his species, he stayed expertly out of the
water by scrambling over aquatic plants.
As did the jacanas. You can see below the ultra-long toes that allow jacanas
to even balance on floating lily pads.
2 comments | Comments are closed
Naranjito and Esquipulas with Johan Chaves (part 2)
April 13th, 2014
A familiar face:
1680x1050 wallpaper
This deep-golden beauty is a Prothonotary Warbler, a North American bird,
wintering in the tropics as most warblers do. Prothonotaries are abundant
breeders at Dutch Gap, one of my favorite birding spots when I visit my folks
in Virginia. They nest in tree holes (or manmade nest boxes) in wetland
habitat. I found this one to be especially tame. In fact I find a lot of Costa
Rican birds especially tame, as if they know they are in a peaceful country!
There are over two hundred types of tanagers in the Americas, nearly all of
whom are restricted to the tropics--probably something to do with their love
of fruit. Like our own Scarlet Tanagers (a species I'm still trying to get one
good photo of to this day), most of them seem to be deep woods birds who stay
well up in the trees and shun open spaces, which is unfortunate given their
often stunning beauty. Cherrie's Tanagers were a pleasant exception to the
rule. I saw them frequently both during our tours and around the resort.
Common Tody-Flycatcher
The striking pale eye on a dark face is distinctive, making this one of the
few easily identified flycatchers.
Green Honeycreeper
If you've been following along closely, the above bird might look familiar to
you.
I
photographed one in better detail at the Biodome a few years ago. Since
this was my first wild sighting, it was a lifer. There are three types of
honeycreepers in Costa Rica, all of whom specialize in drinking nectar.
Variegated Squirrel
These squirrels vary widely in color and pattern, thus the name. I found this
one particularly handsome.
2 comments | Comments are closed
Previous 10 |
Next 10