Costa Rica - Rio Claro and on to Quizarra

 

 Our birding in Rio Claro took us to Golfito on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.  We were up and ready at o’dark thirty, our guide however, was almost an hour late.  

 

 

Nonetheless, while he wasn’t the most knowledgeable guy on the birds-Tom was showing him new birds- we did see 

 

some squirrel monkeys bouncing along through the trees.  They are quick little creatures, about 20 inches tall, moving swiftly through the trees searching for bugs.  This one shot I choose not to crop, and the size of the leaves on the bush the monkey was in makes the monkey look like a minature!

 

The cool find of the day was the two-toed sloth.  I was helping to search for a bird in a tree, and found the lump of fur nestled in a branch. It wasn’t in any position to really get a good shot, but after some tapping on the trunk of the tree, it moved a few inches revealing its two toes.

We also found a coati (co-ahh-tee) right next to the road eating in the underbrush.  It didn’t seem to mind us at all, but was disturbed by 3 guys walking down the road behind us and headed off deeper into the bushes.

 

A stop at a restaurant on the way back to Rio Claro gave us an opportunity to get some good shots of several iguanas that live in a tree next to the deck.  Knowing that the tourists like to see them up close, the staff puts out banana slices whenever guests arrive.  This trio performed quite nicely!

 

Our hosts in Rio Claro have several feeding stations for the birds.  They made sure that the bananas were out the whole time we were there. We were invited up to their deck to watch a morning feeding.

A male Green Honeycreeper

Black Mandible toucan or a Yellow Throated toucan 

 

a Summer Tanager

 

Lessens Motmot

 

A Blue Grey Tanager

 A quick walk through the forest next to our hosts home and we were off to Quizarra.

We’re down to our last week here, and this portion will take us up the spine of Costa Rica.  And since we’re down to the last few days, there is certainly a growing feeling of anxiety about finding the birds!

 

We Left Rio Claro and turned east and north onto a very winding, twisty, long steep road – up in to the clouds! 

 

Looking east towards the Caribbean

 

 

and west to the Pacific

Since it’s hard to take photos and accurately represent the curves and turns, the gps did a better job!

  

The gps has been invaluable here.  There are no street names or highway numbers except at a few of the larger intersections.  We were very happy to have it. Driving through the town of San Vito the road was closed due to a slide that covered the road.  We were able to navigate on the gravel/mud roads following the gps back to the highway.  Adventures along the way!

 

A quaint little home perched on the hill just at the clouds