This past weekend I had the privilege of guiding a client to foothill sites on Saturday and the Poas area the next. I hope to give you an idea of what that’s like in the following report: Saturday After a last minute check to make sure I am properly equipped with birding and guiding gear, [...]
I am pretty sure that the Lands in Love Hotel has the potential for being one of the best places for birding the Caribbean slope foothills (if not the best). You probably haven’t heard of this place as a Costa Rican birding destination because it’s mostly been marketed for the average tourist, and isn’t situated [...]
A few days ago, birding friend Susan and I did some morning birding on the road to Manuel Brenes Reserve in the foothills of the Tilaran Mountains. I have yet to make it all the way to the reserve (which is a private reserve for the University of Costa Rica in any case) but the [...]
Continue reading about Some Highlights from Good, Rainy Birding on the Manuel Brenes Reserve Road
Most birders on their way to Costa Rica have a list of the species they want to see the most. These are the birds that we yearn to see, that we dream about, and that capitalize the “S” in satisfaction. Ok, so maybe that’s a bit too much but anyone who likes to keep a [...]
Continue reading about Where Can I See a Snowcap when Birding Costa Rica?
I did a bird count recently at Quebrada Gonzalez with the help of my steadfast birding friend Susan. While watching tanagers feast on fruits in a nearby tree, we had a stimulating conversation with a conservation biologist and (ecologist) who has been working at La Selva since the 1970s. Although I have heard and read [...]
“Pocosol” can be translated to “little sun”. While a place with such a foreboding name sounds more like somewhere to stay away from rather than visiting for birding, in the case of the Pocosol Research Station, just the opposite is the case. It will probably rain and visitors can expect cloudy weather, but they can [...]
Continue reading about A Weekend Birding Trip to Pocosol Research Station
One of the innumerable cool things about watching birds compared to say, mammals, is that many tend to be colorful, decorative, and downright ornate. Not that there aren’t ornate mammals too but let’s face it, the general color scheme for mammal species happens to be brown. Some bird species have even managed to get “ornate” [...]
Christmas counts are happening in Costa Rica but scheduling conflicts and a trip to Niagara Falls are keeping me out of the count loop this year. I might make it to the Aerial Tram count but am sadly missing everything else. One count I would have loved to have participated in is the ever exciting [...]
Continue reading about Exciting Results from Veragua Christmas Count 2012
Time flies just like the migrants that zip through Costa Rica. Although I haven’t listened to the night skies as much as the previous year, the Spring Peeper-like notes of Swainson’s Thrushes have drifted down from the dark on several occasions. Fall migration has been happening here as it usually does- fast and furious. Thousands [...]
Continue reading about What Happened at Costa Rica’s First Birding and Biodiversity Festival
The Neomorphus cuckoos are some of the toughest birds to see in the neotropics. Unlike their more northerly, arid-zone cousins, the roudrunners, these are secretive birds of dense rainforests and like many other birds that inhabit that exciting habitat, they are naturally rare. In other words, they have low density populations where pairs and/or individuals roam [...]
