Costa Rica - Return to Quizarra

November 12, 2018

Costa Rica - Return to Quizarra

Our final three days in Costa Rica were a bit of a blur – not only from the long days and really early mornings, but the speed in which they seemed to be gone!

We spent two nights in San Isidro El General, about a 50-minute drive from Canaan de Rivas, our chocolate stop. Originally, we were heading north on Wednesday, but after making some inquiries and connecting with some other bird people, we changed the last two nights of our original plan to stay in the area longer.

We’d made plans to go birding with Susana Blanca, a local coordinator of Birding B&B’s, and a guide in the Quizarra area. Of course, 6am was the meet time, which meant another 4:30am wake up/5am departure. Another birder, Chris Fischer, of Pennsylvania, who is doing a ‘little big year’ in Costa Rica, joined us – or rather, joined Tom and Susana!

Not upset at all, I was able to wander and take my time finding bugs and textures and other stuff. I spotted a bird or two, but the three of them hunted together quite nicely!

Our walk was along the road that we’d first had an Airbnb. We sure wish we’d known about the hidden pathways and community gardens that we explored today!

Our searching today, then took us up to Los Nubes, the top of a local hill for more exploring. The birds in Costa Rica are different at different elevations, so several hundred meters up the hill we looking for a specific two birds known to be up here.

It was sunny when we arrived, but soon the clouds moved in. That’s pretty typical for the area and this time of year for a 2pm rain shower.

For some reason, Tom had two mantis’s land on his lens, one at the lower altitude and this one up high.

These purple flowers are very prolific and plentiful. The hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and other insects love them. You can see how big the bee is next to the purple flowers! It had a ‘buzz’ to match his size!