Well, I’m back from la ong delayed and much anticipated, 4 week trip to CR to visit my daughter Jean and her husband Alan in Costa Rica (CR). I had planned to see them in April 2020, but Covid…

In this episode I ponder the dichotomy that birders face when vising family in a place where there are birds to be seen. This is also issues with visits to the coast, the mountains, the city park, the playground, and really everywhere, but for me it becomes more of an issue on a visit to family far from where I live and bird regularly. As with most big family trips, the primary purpose of my recent trip to Costa Rica was to visit family and spend time together, but always there was the lure of birds. I feel like the trip was successful in both regards. I had a nice visit with both my son and daughter, practiced my Spanish, caught up, and yet got in some birding every day and got off on a few day or longer trips too.

For more photos and less words, see my flickr album of photos fromt the trip.
We flew to San Jose on Feb 25th, arriving after a 3-leg trip through San Francisco and Houston, arriving in San Jose at 11:55 PM local time. After a quick sleep at a hotel beside the airport Marian and I got outside the next morning and birded the local eBird hotspot with a great name, the “Alajuela Walmart Woods” is a riparian area with a small creek between a Walmart and the highway to the airport. Yellow Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, White-winged and White-tipped Doves, Great Kiskadee, and GBH and Great Egret were birds I could identify, and as was usual for this trip for this inexperienced tropical birder, a few more that I had to leave unidentified.

We spent a couple of days in San Jose because my daughter had some business to attend to on Friday, and by CR Covid restrictions where everyone had one of the two weekend days with driving privileges based on license plate number, we could not leave until Sunday. It was fun to experience the city, but we were excited to leave Sunday. I did get up early each day and bird an hour or two in the little eBird Hotspot around the Hotel Aranjuez, adding a few birds to the trip list that were to be almost seen almost daily for most of the rest of the trip. Rufous-collared Sparrows seem to be everywhere there is open fragmented terrain, Blue-gray Tanagers and Palm Tanagers were nice to see, two of the yellowish flycatchers with black and white heads, Great Kiskadee, Social Flycatcher were fun to get reacquainted with, along with Tropical Flycatchers were all around. We also enjoyed meeting several of Jean and Alan’s friends and sampling the fruit and vegan food at the bid organic market on Saturday morning.

Jean is active in a project called Jungle Foods that aims to help small landowners use breadfruit and sustainable agroforestry techniques to feed their families and have breadfruit as a cash crop by being a market-maker for their breadfruit crop. It is a really cool project, and I’ll leave a link to Jungle Foods website and Facebook page in the podcast notes and on my BirdBanter.com blog. Jean was excited to show me the experimental farm their project uses as a source of seeds and to work on agroforestry techniques, so Sunday, Jean’s weekend day to drive, we headed toward the coast with a stop at the experimental farm. It was a wonderful place, located about 20 minutes outside San Jose, on a steep hillside, and Paul Zinc and Gustavo Angulo, the cofounders of the project showed us around and fed us some fabulous fruit while we all sampled the new breadfruit crackers the Jungle Project is working with Patagonia Provisions to bring to the world market. It was a great visit. My highlight was when after Paul tried to harvest a breadfruit from a tree on a very steep hillside he inadvertently knocked the fruit off the tree and it rolled down what looked like a cliff. He promptly dashed onto a nearly hidden path, disappeared for a while, and emerged carrying a giant Jackfruit on his shoulder. If you have not seen Jackfruit, it is a large, watermelon sized fruit with an outside rind that has a thorn-like covering where the thorns look like rose thorns but are much larger. Marian and my jaws dropped when he reemerged from the steep jungle ravine with this monster of a fruit. It made for great eating at lunch. It was late morning and midday while we were there, but we managed to point out a few species to our hosts, maybe almost earning our lunch.
From here we headed for the coast. For listeners not familiar with the geography of Costa Rica San Jose is located in a central valley between mountains really in all directions. Almost due west is the mouth of the Gulf of Nicoya, and the west coast of the country runs diagonally from North-west to south east with much of the shoreline facing almost more south than west if you are looking straight offshore once south of the Nicoya Peninsula. We got to the coast just north of Jaco, and drove along the coast for just over 100 KM to Dominical. The road passes through a long stretch of Palm Oil plantations, passes the surfing town of Jaco, the Rio Parrita and PN Carara, south-east to Quepos near where PN Manuel Antonio is a very popular stop for nature lovers and beach lovers alike. From there it continues to Dominical, and the junction of Hwy 243 and coastal Hwy 34 meet. Dominical is a very popular destination with nice beaches, some surfing, and a small shopping area that caters to tourists primarily. It has a nice restaurant where we had vegan lunches a few times on the trip, and an ice cream store with great vegan ice cream, much enjoyed on hot days there. From Dominical it is only a 20 minute drve to Tinamaste near Jean and Alan’s farm. The alternative route to Tinamaste from San Jose is on the Pan American Highway that winds through the mountains making for a completely different experience. More on that later.

On the drive our first major stop was at the bridge over the Tarcoles River, famous as a place to see American Crocodiles near Parque Nacional Carara.

Here we saw the first of many Scarlet Macaws on the trip. They are awesome birds, with a voice even louder than their red, yellow, blue and colors. I got to show Marian how to differentiate juvenile Little-blue Herons from the other white herons there, and it was a nice break on the ride. Wood Stork, King Vulture and Yellow-headed Caracaras were the highlights of from-the-car-backseat birding as we drove the rest of the way to Jean and Alan’s farm, that they call Finca Tres Rios, i.e. Three Rivers Farm.
This was to be our home base for most of the rest of our visit. It is a hectare of land on a hill in what was previously a cattle pasture. It is down a 2-3 kilometer bumpy dirt road out of Tinamaste, which is midway from San Isidro to Domincal on Hwy 243, the main road from the Pan American Highway to the coast at Dominical. We stayed in a cute little Airbnb across the dirt road from Jean’s place, where the owner had just built two cottages for rent. My son and his girlfriend rented one, and we had the other. The great thing, besides the nesting Fiery-billed Aracaris and the constantly calling Slaty-tailed Trogons on the property was the pool. It was really hot there, at only about 250 meters elevation, and located in a valley between two taller foothill ranges to the Crodillera de Talamanca Mountain Range to the northeast, where it was modestly humid and quite warm. The dry season, when it tends to be hotter was just ending as we got ready to leave, and we had no rain at all until our last few days there when the afternoon cloudburst pattern started.
Birding at Finca Tres Rios was best in the morning, from about sunrise, more or less 6:30 AM until about 8:30 AM. Getting up was no problem as the Howler Monkeys started up about 4:30-5 AM most days, and by 5:45 the dawn chorus was in full swing. Still, few birds started moving until later, and I often got out by 6, only to see little for the first 45 minutes or so. Eventually I learned a few songs, especially Riverside Wren, Baird’s and Slaty-tailed Trogon, Yellow-throated and Fiery-billed Trogon, Great Tinamu, and a few others, but rarely saw any birds until after sunrise.

In San Jose I bought a couple of hummingbird feeders, and we put them up when we got to Jean’s. It took a week or so, but after a while Long-billed Hermit and Scaly-breasted Hummingbird became the frequent visitors with occasional visits by Rufous-tailed and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

Our best birding experiences by far where when I arranged guides for single and multiple day trips. The first guide I arranged came about in a round-about fashion. I contacted Patrick O’Donnell, who had been my guest o TBBP Episode #65, who suggested that I use Johan Chaves who is located near Quepos. Johan has had to take a regular job during the Covid-19 pandemic, so was unavailable and referred me to Carlos Ureña in San Isidro. I managed to reach Carlos and arrange to be his first client since before the pandemic. He arranged to take us to some high elevation areas near Cerro de la Muerte. You have to love the name, which translates to “Hill of Death” named for some travelling merchants who froze to death on a trip to the market in San José. It is a great birding area, at a seriously high elevation of about 3450M. We met Carlos in San Isidro at 6 AM, and headed towards the mountains with me driving the Subaru Outback that I had shipped to Jean a year earlier. The Pan American Hwy from San Isidro to the high mountains is an exciting drive, a well maintained but narrow 2 lane road with nearly no shoulders and many near-hairpin turns that is very steep in places, leading to an urge/ need to pass on corners when approaching a slow moving or at times stopped truck.

Our first stop was at a road to the communication towers at the top of Cerro de la Muerte. Besides the “fresh” air, near freezing, fabulous vistas, low shrubbey above timberline made for easy birding. We got great looks at several high elevation specialties including Timberline Wren, Volcano Hummingbird, Black-capped Flycatcher, Sooty-capped Chlorospingus, Large-footed Finch (seriously large feet), Sooty Thrush, and Black-billed Nightingale Thrush. I started our eBird list there at 7:54 AM, so it was less than 2 hours from downtown San Isidro to the area.

I specifically asked Carlos for a day of more birding and less driving, and he took this to heart. I made only one other eBird list for the day, at San Gerardo de Dota, Quetzal Valley. It was a 6 ½ hour list and was fabulous birding. We made a quick stop at a small soda, the local name for a family-owned small eatery, where for the price of a nice juice we watched the feeders, getting great looks at many Flame-colored Tanagers, Blue-and-white Swallows, Flame-throated Tanager, a few hummingbirds and many Acorn Woodpeckers. Interestingly oaks are the predominant tree in the whole high-elevation area, and Acorn Woodpeckers are abundant.

We spent the rest of the day at a high-end resort using their trails. This is the location of the QREC, the Quetzal Education Research Center as well as a nice restaurant and resort. For the price of lunch, we also got to drive to a location up the hill, and from there get a truck ride to the top of the trail system, allowing us to hike back down on a several mile loop trail. I won’t try to describe it is detail, but it was really birdy, a well maintained but at times steeply up and down trail, and at >3000M elevation. Highlights were a couple of mixed flocks with 20+ species. I especially loved Long-tailed Silky Flycatchers which at one time lined the whole top of a nearby tree, maybe 12 birds, along with just lots of great looks at species like Collared Redstart, Black-cheeked Warbler, Golden-browed Chloropsingus, Ochraceios Wren, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, and many more.

By lunch, about 2 PM, Marian said uncle, and laid back to watch the hummingbird feeders while Carlos took me on a walk along the main road. We added one of my favorite birds of the trip, a tiny flycatcher that catches catch bugs from rocky perches in raging streams, hence their name, Torrent Tyranulet. By about 4 PM I said enough too, and we headed for San Isidro, with a few roadside stops on the way back to the highway hoping for a better look at the Resplendent Quetzal. While I drove up the hillside behind the resort Carlos spotted a perched young male quetzal on a branch over the road just as I drove under it. As I backed up to get a look it flew, so my only look was as it flew away. We heard quetzals a few times on the hike, but never got another look. A BVD bird for my list, for Better-view-desired.
A couple of days later Carlos took us on an overnight trip to the coast, with highlights of a stop at the Rice Fields near Playa el Rey. We were amazed as we drove on a farm road through a Palm Oil farm, at the workers carrying a pruning saw on a 50 foot long pole over their shoulders as they rode around on bicycles. Of course the Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Southern Lapwing, Mangrove Cuckoo, White-throated Crake, Northern Jacana, Prothonatory Warbler, Dickcissel, and the rest of the 60 species there were pretty cool too.
From here we drove north to our destination PN Carara. Several stops on the way were good birding, and near the park a fellow on a motorcycle pulled Carlos over, with a friendly in Spanish, Do you remember me? Carlos did not, but this fellow keeps track of a pair of local Black-and-white owls, so he took us to their roost for a small tip. Later we got twilight looks at Pacific Screech owls at another local stakeout stop.

We spent the night at a local resort, and the next day birded PN Carara and a roadside mangrove swamp. The birding at the park was great, and made for another great trip.
Carlos had his first major trip since Covid set for the next day, and was gone for the rest of our stay, so later in the trip I arranged for a 2-night stay at the Talari Mountain Lodge in the foothills just outside of San Isidro. The owner promised to arrange a guide for us there, and came through nicely. All of the local guides there have had to take regular jobs in the pandemic, but Andres Chinchilla is a great local guide who had just taken a job at a local Kombucha factory from 1 PM until 11 PM. He agreed to take us out both mornings, and did a great job. The first morning we birded the Talari grounds and then went to a feeder setup, primarily used by photographers, just outside PN Chirripo. It is in the cloud forest, on the side of a steep ravine, and the owner has a fabulous feeder setup, which you can watch from the shade of his veranda. We got some of the best looks at hummingbirds of the trip there, including Garden and White-tailed Emeralds, Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, Violet Saberwing, and Green-crowned Brilliant. A Red-headed Barbet was the photographers favorite, but I had trouble not favoring the Red-faced Spinetail and the hummingbirds.

One of the cool things about this stop was that we met Carlo’s older brother. Carlos’ older brother started a birding guide business when Carlos was young. When he was old enough to drive, Carlos became the drive and helper on his big brother’s tours. Apparently he became quite proficient, because when he was about 21 his brother informed him one day that the next week he was leading a tour, as he had double booked himself. Carlos said he was terrified, but did it, and did it well enough that the client has requested him for several later trips. He has now been guiding for close to 18 years.

On the next day we visited Los Cusingos, the home and now wildlife preserve of the god father of Costa Rica birding, Alexander Skutch. We saw our first army-ant swarm there, along with lots more great birds, and again Andres did a great job of getting us looks at everything.
For the trip I listed 295 species, of which 134 were lifers, and all were enjoyed. Until next time. Good birding and good day.