A couple days after coming back to where summer reigns eternal, I did some guiding at the Talari Mountain Lodge in the Valle de el General area of Costa Rica. Not too far from where Alexander Skutch lived and carried out so many life history studies of Costa Rican birds, Talari is located about 10 [...]
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During my first trip to Costa Rica in 1992, I visited Tapanti for a day. Back then it had wildlife refuge status and had a cheaper entrance fee but not much else has changed since then-and that’s a good thing! On subsequent trips, including a day and a half of guiding I did there recently, [...]
Continue reading about Tapanti National Park- good, middle elevation birding in Costa Rica
“Pocosol” may have rhythm as far as words go, but except for the occasional vampire wannabee (or unfortunates who are extremely sensitive to ultraviolet rays), “Little Sunlight” doesn’t sound all that inviting. Despite being strongly diurnal in nature, the Birding Club of Costa Rica was nevertheless undaunted in planning and doing a trip to Pocosol [...]
Continue reading about Pocosol: Little known Costa Rica Birding Destination
This past weekend I visited Rara Avis, one of the classic birding sites for Costa Rica. Lattice-tailed Trogon- a fairly common bird at Rara Avis. There were several Olive-sided Flycatchers in the area. Love these birds! Founded in 1983 by conservationists, Rara Avis started out as an organization whose goal was to demonstrate that rain forest could [...]
Continue reading about Rara Avis, one of Costa Rica’s classic birding sites
“Cephalopterus glabricollis”. I love the official, scientific term for the Bare-necked Umbrellabird. It makes it sound like some massive-headed, ominous creature from the depths of darkest outer space that uses its supreme intelligence for ominous plans so nefarious that even the strongest among us (such as E.O. Wilson, the Dalai Lama, and Alex Trebek) would [...]
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This past weekend I co-guided the Bird Club of Costa Rica (BCCR) once again; this time at a lodge that sits at the foot of the most active volcano in Costa Rica- Volcan Arenal. Smoking and grumbling in the Caribbean slope foothills, Arenal is about 2 hours from Monteverde, nearly four hours drive from San Jose. On Saturday morning I did the drive with [...]
This classic Costa Rican birding site became inaccessible after the earthquake on January 8, 2009. It is very likely that much of the habitat near the river was destroyed. Don’t make any plans to bird at Virgen del Socorro until further notice. Last Saturday, I guided the BCCR trip to the classic middle elevation birding [...]
Continue reading about Birding Day trip to Virgen del Socorro
Tragically, the town of Cinchona was destroyed in the 6.2 earthquake of 1/8/2009. The place described below no longer exists. It was a wonderful birding site run by kind, birder-friendly people; some of whom may have perished in the quake. Costa Rica has become quite developed for birding. Although lacking in canopy towers, the field [...]
