Once again we are travelling in Costa Rica with out group leaders Tom & Carol Sykes. The difference this time is we have three friends from Colorado Springs birding with us. Our group of five Coloradans include Jo Anne Peterson and Patty and Jon Lovekin. This will be a great adventure back to some old favorite places and some new exciting places that may well hold new treasures for us.
This year Rise" and I left Colorado early to avoid the giant winter storm bearing down on Colorado Springs. With the potential for 8 to 12 inches of snow predicted for the day we were to leave, we decided to run away a day early and that plan worked out as we got away before things turned really ugly.
We would spend our first few days in San Jose on our own at the Hotel Bougainvillea relaxing and birding. As we had several days before anyone else arrived we contacted our tour guide Richard Garrigues to see if he could recommend any areas to go to where we could see new birds that would most likely not be seen on our upcoming trip. As it turned out, Richard set us up with his son Leonardo Garrigues, several times top birder in Costa Rica and great guide, to take us out for a day of hunting rarities. What a day we had seeing over 80 species of birds and three new life birds with two of them said to be in the top 10% hardest birds to see in Costa Rica.
Our trip would follow the route on this map with many other stops along the way for additional birds.
Our first few days before the trip were spent at the Hotel Bougainvillea in Santo Domingo, Heredia, Costa Rica. This is a lovely hotel with spacious rooms and a huge botanical garden that covers 10 acers behind the hotel. The garden is full of all kinds of flowers, plants, trees, and birds. It is a great place to relax and acclimate to the climate and birds of Costa Rica.
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| The Hotel Bougainvillea |
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| The hotel gardens |
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| The men's bathroom garden |
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| The rear of the hotel at night |
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| White-tipped Dove |
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| White-eared Ground-Sparrow |
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| Great Kisjadee |
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| Lesson's Motmot |
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| Lesson's Motmot |
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| Rufous-naped Wren |
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| Clay-colored Thrush (The national bird) |
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| Lesson's Motmot |
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| Brown Jay |
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| Brown Jay |
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| Termite nest |
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| Garden Flowers |
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| Crimson-fronted Parakeets |
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 | | Short-tailed Hawk |
Garden plants |
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| Decorative cart |
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| Sunset over San Jose |
On the 15th of March we met Leonardo Garrigues for a day of birding and decided to go hunting for hard to see "Quality of Quantity birds". We did find some of the rarer birds we were looking for and still saw 85 species before we were done. We birded the Copey de Dota and Los Santos Forest Reserve, Dota CR-San Jose and took a lunch break at a little lodge at the very end of the Providencia Road.
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| Black-cheeked Warbler |
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| Collared Redstart |
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| Collared Redstart |
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| Yellow-thighed Brushfinch |
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| Streak-breasted Treerunner |
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| Sooty-capped Chlorospingus |
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| Black-thighed Grosbeak |
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| Resplendent Quetzal (male) |
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| John, Leonardo Garrigues, & Rise" |
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| Flame-throated Warbler |
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| Mistletoe Tyrannulet |
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| Volcano Hummingbird |
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Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
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| Red-faced Spinetail |
Back at the hotel on the 16th of March we got up early to bird with some of the new arrivals from last night. Patty and John Lovekin, Jo Anne Peterson and Tom and Carol Sykes were all ready at 6 AM to see the garden and what birds were to be found. As usual, the gardens had a wide variety of plants and birds to amaze everyone.
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| Rufous-naped Wren |
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| Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
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| Varrigated Squirrel |
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| Hoffman's Woodpecker |
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| Gayish Saltator |
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| Hiding Lesson's Motmot |
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| Blue & White Swallow |
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| Tropical Kingbird |
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| Yellow-headed Caracara |
The 17th of March was another day of birding the grounds and taking a hike into town and out to a Super Mercado (a large food store). By now everyone had arrived and we were getting ready to meet Richard Garrigues, our guide, later in the day, and get more birding in around the hotel.
On the 18th it was up and at em to bird a little, eat breakfast and head to Carara National Park on the Pacific coast. We dove some dry forest roads after lunch and saw a great many new birds. The Guacimo Road proved to hold a treasure trove of bird species and amazed many with the numbers and variety of birds.
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| Slate-throated Redstart |
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| Golden-browed Chlorophonias |
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| Rufous-capped Warbler |
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| Crimson-fronted Parakeet |
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| Rufous-collared Sparrow |
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| Forreri Leopard Frogs |
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| Great-tailed Grackle |
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| Baltimore Oriole eating ripe fruit |
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| Blue-gray Tanager |
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| Green Iguana (juvenile) |
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| --- Trogon |
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| Crimson-fronted Parakeet |
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| Cabanis's Ground-Sparrow |
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| Cabanis's Wren |
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| PAtty, Connie, Jon, Lynn, Jo Anne, and Vicky |
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| Rufous-breasted Wren |
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| Yellow-throated Toucan |
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| Riverside Wren |
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| Chestnut-backed Antbird |
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| Pale-billed Woodpecker at Carara NP |
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| Pale-billed Woodpecker at CNP |
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| The trail at Carara NP. Rise", John, Richard and more |
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| A basking Basilisk lizard at Villa Lapas Hotel |
The following birds were seen on our stop along Guacimo Road and during our walk back up the road.
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| Scarlet Macaw |
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| Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher |
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| White-throated Capuchin Monkey |
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| Rufous Mourner |
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| Dusky Antbird |
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| Rufous-and-white Wren |
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| White-whiskered Puffbird |
These are some of the birds seen on the Tarcoles River boat trip.
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| Resplendent Quetzal female copulation solicitation |
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| Resplendent Quetzal male accepting her offer |
These photos were an attempt to capture the male Resplendent Quetzal chasing a squirrel away from the area near the nest tree where the copulation had just taken place. It was an amazing display of acrobatic flight with a little tail flashing here and there as we watched in amazement something none of us had ever seen before.
