Author: birdbanter

5 Days of Birding with Alan and Carlos Urenas, March 23-27, 2023

Spotted Wood-Quail

I had planned a 5-day guided birding trip with my favorite Costa Rica guide, Carlos Urena and Marian, but as the time for the trip approached it was clear that Marian was not feeling well enough to do the trip, so on short notice Alan, my son-in-law and an accomplished botanist, farmer, and all-round nature lover agreed to join us.

We met in San Isidro de el General by the central park at 6 AM on March 23. We headed north into the mountains to the San Gerardo de Dota area, famous for Resplendant Quetzals, and high elevation birding. We went to the Sevegre Mountain Lodge trails, where if you have a meal, we had breakfast, you have access to the resort trail system. It’s a fabulous place. Carlos took Marian and me there a few years ago on a day trip, but this time we got there earlier, and hiked higher. We started the day with a lifer species for me right in the parking lot where three Spotted Wood-Quail were hiding under a car and gave great close-up looks. We also had Lesser Violetear, Green-crowned Brilliant,, Scintillant and Talamanca Hummingbirds around the gardens and feeders. We got a Landrover ride up to the base of the trails, and then walked 7.12 miles of trails (per eBird tracking) and ended with a list of 48 species, with excellent looks at Silvery-fronted Tapaculo, Lineated Foliage-gleaner, Spotted Barbtail, big numbers of Ruddy Treerunners, Barred Becard, Ochraceous and Dark Pewee, Gray-breasted Wood-Wren, Black-billed and Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush, and Spangle-cheaked Tanagers. Maybe the most impressive thing though, in this primary forest, were the massive oak trees, some towering high above and seemed as large in circumference as the largest Douglas Fir trees at Mt. Rainier.

Ochraceous Pewee

After lunch we checked into our hotel, had a walk around, and spent a good deal of time watching a pair of Resplendant Quetzals perched right off the deck of the lodge restaurant for photos and many oohs and ahhs. After dinner went owling. No owls but several Dusky Nightjars were singing.
Resplendent Quetzal

In the morning we birded around the area on foot from 6-7, then the hotel breakfast and off to get a CR first for me American Dipper at the Trogón Lodge as we headed back up the valley to the Pan American Highway. We spent about 2 hours on the Providencia Road in PN Quetzales where we parked, walked, Alan retrieved the car, and we repeated the process. We called for Costa Rica Pygmy Owl without luck, but got second looks at several good birds, and again enjoyed the primary forest.

Black-cheeked Warbler

Golden-browed Chlorophonia

From here it was a travel day, with Alan and Carlos as drivers, we headed for the La Frotuna area where we planned to bird for the next 2 days. Stops along with way for Fasciated Tiger-Heron (successful) and Nicaraguan Seedfinch (not) brought us to our one-night stop at the Lavas Tacotal Hotel.
Barred Becard

The next morning Carlos arranged for early access to the Arenal Observatory Lodge grounds where we spent the day birding. On the way in on the access road I got two lifers, Great Curassow and Buff-rumped Warbler. The lodge is spectacular, developed as a place to watch the Arenal volcano put on it’s show, it is now primarily a nature lodge with birders and other nature lovers gathering to use the trail system. The gardens, trails and deck with feeders make this a very birdy spot. We had 86 species that I put on my list and I’m sure Carlos had many more heard-only species.
Great Curassow

Highlights were many Great Curassow, White-necked Jacobin, Green Throntail, Black-crested Coquette (a little slow-flying hummingbird that is really cool), Crowned Woodnymph, Semi-plumbeous Hawk, Broad-billed Motmot, Golden-olive Woodpecker, and lots of birds with “ant” in their name. Dusky Antbird, Dull-mantled Antbird, Bicolored Antbird, Spotted Antbird, Oscellated Antbird, Streak-crowned Antvireo, and Thicket Antpitta. One of the commThey on but tougher to see was a tiny flycatcher, Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant.

An uncommon bird for the area was Golden-bellied Flycatcher, and two gnat-wrens, Long-billed and Tawny-faced Gnatwrens were cool to see. Emerald Tanager was one of the many tanager species seen often. Scarlet-thighed Dacnis were mixed in with the Red-legged and Green Honeycreepers.
White Hawk

We checked into the Paradisio Lodge and Hot Springs, and we had fun that night introducing Carlos to sushi. The next morning we returned to clean up some missed species, and finally see two common singing birds I couldn’t see the prior day, Nithtingale Wren, and Song Wren. Bonuses were great looks at a White-hawk (I’d only seen at a distance in the past), a Purple-crowned Fairy building a nest, Middle-American Leaftosser, White-ruffed Manakin, a Piratic Flycatcher doing it’s “piratic” thing to a pair of nesting Gray-capped Flycatchers. The Piratic was incredibly aggressive, and I have no doubt that the nesting birds will eventually give up and abandon the nest.
Bicolored Antbird

In the afternoon we went to a nearby cutoff road where we loved all the motmots, three species, with Broad-billed, Keel-billed and Rufous all giving great looks, along with Black-headed Tody-Flycatcher, and finally a great look at a Nightingale Wren that had eluded us at the observatory. At the end of the road by the dam we added Crimson-collared Tanager at the end of the day.
That night another new experience for Carlos with Indian food, and our last day was a morning of stops for a few more lifers for me on the long drive back to Tinamaste and San Isidro. First was a “Soda” in Chinchona by Mirador San Fernando. It had feeders and a great valley view, with Prong-billed Barbet as a lifer, and great looks at lots of other tanagers, hummingbirds and N. Emerald Toucan. I missed a look at the hoped for Buff-fronted Quail-Dove that Carlos saw a glimpse of on the ground below, and Alan saw from the kitchen while he chatted with the staff.
Our last stop was on the road access to La Selva, where 43 species included lifer Fasciated Antshrike, Canebreak Wren and Shining Honeycreeper. It looks like a great place to spend 2-3 days at a later visit.

The long drive home included heavy rain on the Caribbean slope going up to San Jose, and fog on the road from San Jose to San Isidro, but Carlos and Alan safely got us home.
Trip totals were:
223 species
16 checklists
54 Lifers
67 new birds for Costa Rica.
In addition it was super-cool to spend great time with Alan, really getting to know my son-in-law better.

The Bird Banter Podcast #149 with Mikuláš Řimánek Additional Information


I first met Mikuláš Řimánek in 2018 when he was a Rotary Exchange Student with the Tacoma 8 Rotary Club, and Fred Matthei introduced Mik to me and other local birders. Mik joined us on a multi-cay winter trip to North Central WA and it was obvious that he was talented. I was disappointed to miss the chance to reconnect on his recent brief trip to Tacoma, but when Fred called to tell me about his extraordinary work with young birders in the Czech Republic I knew that I wanted to learn more and see if Mik would share his story on the podcast. He agreed and it was very informative and left me hopeful that WOS can find a way to encourage the development of such a program in WA. If any readers have suggestions or feedback use the Contact Page above to reach out to me.
You can find Mik on Facebook or Instagram and see his profile on eBird with these links.
Thanks for listening. Until next time, good birding and good day!

March 8-9, 2023 in Costa Rica

Marian and I left Big Pine Key, Florida on a Greyhound at 5:40 PM on March 7 and got to our hotel in Miami by 9:30. A fast sleep at the Embassy Suites near the Miami airport then on an 8:35AM Amerian Airlines flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. An uneventful flight, no lines at customs, got our SIM cards switched out, and our rental at the Firefly Car Rental, which seems to be a part of Hertz. We then drove just a few kilometers to the Hotel Monte Campana Heredia where we spent the afternoon and evening. Jean and Alam met us to visit and pick up some Subaru parts we brought for them. I got out the road above the hotel about 3:20 PM for an hour and managed about 20 species, including nice looks at a few familiar species, and one , though no new species for Costa Rica.

Fun to see Band-tailed Pigeons here. I like this photo too.

We had a nice dinner with Jean and Alan at the resort though vegan options were pretty slim. This morning Marian and I got up early and repeated the walk from the evening prior, with some good finds, including one lifer for me, a new split from Rufous-capped Warbler, Chestnut-capped Warbler. I have to say from my memory it is a duller reddish cap than the Arizona bird Ken and I found a few years ago. Oveerall a pleasant and easy hour or so of morning birding, with as is usual here lots of unidentified songs.
This species, Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, was #17 pn my Costa Rica list, when I saw it at Jean’s Caribean side home in 2018.

Aptly named, Long-billed Starthroat

After breakfast we headed for our first planned stop, the Tilajari Hotel Resort, which is about half way from San Jose to Caño Negro where we will make our next multi-day stop. It is a beautiful place, with nice grounds. We set up a bird walk with a guide in the AM, and I’m hoping to find a local guide for the next day for a bigger outing. Dinner here was great, and we stopped at a roadside Soda for lunch.
#2000 world species for me, Chestnut-capped Warbler.

Pretty tired tonight, so hoping a good sleep makes all new and well.

Red-masked Parakeet, my ABA lifer for this trip to FL. Found at a roost outside Miami on the morning after our Everglades trip.

Well, I’m wrapping up 2 weeks in the Florida Keys, and although it has been a delightful vacation, the birding has been surprisingly slow. I didn’t expect much in terms of migration in the last week of Feb and first week of March, but I thought that there would be more wintering passerines here.
Any day with a Purple Galinule is a good day!

The mangrove stands, the small pine and mixed hardwood and hardwood hammocks that remain, and neighborhoods are surprisingly devoid of birds. The species that seem to thrive in proximity to people seem present, like N. Mockingbird, Eurasian Collared Dove, and to a lesser degree Palm Warbler, RW Blackbird and N. Cardinal are pretty prevalent, but overall surprisingly few birds.
Great Crested Flycatchers are relatively common here, though as is usual more often heard than seen by me.

My warbler list is thin. Small numbers of Palm warblers most places, Prairie warblers in wet mangrove areas, and one of two Black-and-white, Black-throated , Myrtle’s Yellow-rumped, and Ovenbird completes my warbler list in the Keys. At the everglades I saw Pine Warblers in the pine forests and one N. Waterthrush, but otherwise nothing. I expected to N. Parula (in fairness they are being reported).
Wood Storks were a bird I tried hard to find many years ago before finding my lifer. This trip Marian and I saw several at Eco Pond in the Evergla

Marian and I took an overnight trip to the Everglades. She has never been there, and it is where Kay and I want and I cought the “birding bug.” One of the places really dear to my heart. We had a great day, and on the morning after visiting the park, and after I got my lifer RMPA, we drove out the Tamiani Hwy Rte 41 and took a short airboat ride. Marian then felt like she had seen the Everglades she expected.
Thankfully White-eyed Vireos have an easy to recognize song and are singing here.

That said, it’s been a blast staying here. Mikuláš ŘimánekI like the Blue Hole trail here on Big Pine Tree, and especially the Bahia-Honda State Park. At the latter is a good beach for shorebirds, with lots of Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstones, a few Lesser Sandpipers, and we also saw a Lesser Black-backed Gull, a Common Ground Dove, and a few other fun birds. In Key West we birded the Botanical Gardens one day, slow but interesting place, and the Fort Zachery Taylor SP another day. Both enjoyable, but not terribly birdy.
We named our property in Costa Rica tha tthe kids and I bought laast year Finca Cometa, in English the Kite Farm, after the many Swallow-tailed Kites we saw there. Seeing several in the Everglades was a real treat.

Would I come back. For sure for the overall great weather and to get out of the WA winter rain and cold, but less so for the birding this time of year.
One more day here before we head to Miami and then on to Costa Rica.
Of note, I talked with Mikuláš Řimánek, a Czech Republic birder that I met when he was in WA as a Rotary Exchange student a few years ago for an upcoming episode of the podcast. I got excited about how much success he has had encouraging and mentoring young birders in his country.

The Bird Banter Podcast #148 with Holly Merker Additional Info.


On The Bird Banter Podcast #148 I talk with Holly Merker, an accomplished birder, educator, and therapist who has been a leading advocate of using birding, and being in nature as a means of therapy through mindful birding and an intentional process.
Check out her neew book on her website. Note the coupon for free shipping.

Holly has long been a well respected and recognized birder. She leads field trips for George Armistead’s new birding company, Hillstar Nature Tours, she is a leader at both the Hog Island ABA Birding camp for both adults and youth, as well as at acting as the director of the ABA’s Camp Delaware Bay. She has served as a member and as the chair of the Pennsylvania Bird Records Committee, is an eBird reviewer, has served on the board of the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, and most recently was awarded the 2022 Conservation and Education Award by the ABA.
If you get the feeling that Holly is an accomplished and highly respected birder you’d be correct. In addition Holly has been a leading advocate of intentional birding, and for the use of birding and nature as a means of therapy. Holly mentions that the term Ornitherapy was first coined by a British physician, Dr. A.F. Cox who wrote an article in the British Journal of Medicine in 1979. I have not been able to find that article, and if anyone can send me a copy or a link, I’d love it.
You can see the Ornitherapy.com website at this link.
Holly also started The Mindful Birding Network, and on the website you can find lots more on that topic., as well as join and participate in online workshops and meetings.
To see more about Forest Therapy and Forest Bathing check out this website.
The Ornitherapy Facebook page is here.
Here is a link to the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy
Here is some information about phytoncides that Holly discusses on the episode.
Here is an article about Attention Restoration Theory.
You can get Holly’s book at her website, with a free shipping coupon here. Https://ornitherapy.com/
I feel like I was so blessed and lucky to have the chance to spend an hour talking with Holly about Ornitherapy, her experiences and insights. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Good birding and good day!

Getting Settled in Big Pine Key, Florida


Marian and I had the fortune to be offered the chance to stay in a home on Big Pine Key, FL for a couple of weeks before continuing on to Costa Rica to visit Jean and Alan at their home there where they practice regenerative agriculture. I really did not know what to expect here in terms of birding. It is arguably the key in the southern keys area with the most remaining somewhat undisturbed land, in a major effort to save the endangered Key Deer. They are certainly populous in this one key. They walk by the pool every hour or so at the home where we are staying, and you need to drive slowly here to avoid running over these tiny deer, which are a small subspecies of White-tailed Deer.

A Key Deer in a preserved area of Big Pine Key, FL.

Overall the birding here is pretty slow right now. I’ve reviewed eBird bar charts and it looks like the passerine migration really doesn’t get going until about the first week of April, and a relatively small number of land-bird species winter here. So far the best places I’ve visited were the “Blue Hole” platorm overlook, a short trail through some small trees to a freshwater pond, where I saw a pair of American Wigeon (the only birds here to make eBird review lists, along with three species of warblers, Palm, Prairne and Black-and-white.
American Wigeon pair

Black-and-white Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Overall a much more interessting spot was Hahia-Honda State Park, a park that straddles the Overseas Highway, has part of the abandoned old railroad bridge and overlying auto highway that has been declared an historic landmark and is decaying in place, and has three beaches where good numbers of Sanderling and Ruddy Turnstone, a few Least Sandpipers, Laughing Gulls, Brown Pelicans, Osprey, DC Cormorants, Ring-billed Gulls, and Royal Terns were fun to watch. This Lesser Black-backed Gull stood out immediately with its very dark back, (Marian spotted it first and commented on the vary dark color) and bright yellow legs.
Lesser Black-backed Gull with a White Ibis

Overall we have primarily relaxxed, I’ve been getting out for a couple of hours early each day hoping for more passerine action, so far without much luck. It is beautiful here though. At the top you can see the view from the chair as I write this post mid-afternoon. I’m really trying to stay relaxed, not race around looking for birds, and just enjoy the beauty and warm weather. It is pretty much 75-78 here every day and night with enough of a breeze near the water to stay cool.
So far two new Florida species, the LBBG and AMWI.
Ed

The Bird Banter Podcast #147 with David Swain


On episode #147 I talk with David Swain, a BC based birder, trekker, supporter of high elevation village schools in Nepal, and an executive for a large tree growing company. Overall a really interesting person whom I met on my recent cruise to Antarctica.
David started and champions the Altitude Project, a Canadian charity that provides support for several schools and villages in the super-high elevation villages in Nepal that David visited on treks in Nepal. We talk about his trekking, his birding in Nepal, his work for a large Canadian tree growing company, and more.
You can find David on Facebook to follow him and his project.
Thanks for listening.
Good birding and good day!

King County 200th Life Species today

Actually 199th and 200th. I went to 212th St. Ponds in Kent looking for the Black Phoebe that has been seen there, and hoped to also see a Hermit Thrush that had been reported there too. It was a really cold morning, so I waited until after traffic and the sun to warm up and got there around 9:30. The HETH was easy, as it was perching on the low bushes and dropping down to the lawn between the path and the cattail marsh to feed. There may have been 2 but #199 was on the books quickly.

Hermit Thrush

I spent an hour or so looking for the phoebe with no luck, but got lucky when a couple of birders showed up and told me where to look, not at all where I was looking. The bird was flycatching far across the large pond near the road, not in the marsh area I had somehow thought it would be from prior descriptions. It was a very distant but definative look and I wrapped up almost 2 hours at the location after seeing the bird. #200! No photo even attempted.
I stopped at Saltwater State Park for a brief baywatch, with nothing special except nice sunshine and calm waters. Overall a pleasant morning of birding.
American Kestrel perched in morning light near the parking spot.

American Robin with an unusually large irregular white eyering.

Downy Woodpecker, oddly on a cattail

Gadwall
Great Blue Heron

Wrapping Up January in Pierce County with a Push for 100

A view of Mt. Rainier from Fort Steilacom Park this afternoon.

January has been a very good month for me, though not so much for birding in Pierce County (my home county). A group of friends and I made a foray to southeastern WA birding for 4 days, and my daughter Jean left just 2 days ago after a really nice 8 day visit, so my county birding has been less than energetic. I’ve spent 2 days birding in Kitsap County with Ken, the Vashon CBC on Jan 2, and a few hours last Friday, and have 78 species in Kitsap. For comparison starting today I had only 90 species in the rest of the month in Pierce. I felt like getting out birding alone today, and challenged myself to get 10 FOY birds in Pierce today to get over 100 species for January.
I didn’t set an alarm, but woke early, and got up at 5:30 and decided to try again for the usually reliable Barred Owl at Puget gulch. I tried both at the top and the bottom, submitting two eBird lists with zero species despite pretty good effort and use of recordings. I tried quickly at Garfield Gulch also well before dawn, but similar results there. From there I drove to Place of Circling Waters expecting a FOY Northern Pintail, and hoping for maybe a overwintering Spotted Sandpiper or Band-tailed Pigeon. Yes on the pintail, no on the others. It was getting lighter slowly and a slight snow fell while the temp hovered around freezing.
I made very quick stops hoping for some gulls at Gog-li-hi-ti and the 11th Street Bridge, but really very few gulls to scan over. I headed back on Portland Ave. towards I-5 and noted a big flock of gulls behind a fence on the R side so I made a U-turn and checked it out. It is a garbage transfer station, and I drove in for a look. There were hundreds of large white-headed gulls, mostly our usual GWGUxWEGU hybrids, and the worker there said I could look them over, but no luck spotting a Herring or Iceland Gull. The gulls were very active, going right into the building for garbage.
On to McNeil overlook, where I managed 5 Greater Yellowlegs and 2 Dunlin, but no raptors (not even 1 Bald Eagle) and as the tide was high not much was seen on the remaining mud. Still, 2 FOY shorebirds was good. No luch there for Hermit Thrush, Purple Finch, or Hairy or Pileated Woodpeckers that I had hopes of finding.
March Wren

Next at Mounts Road I had better luck. A perched FOY Northern Harrier was easy, on a low post out over the frozen marsh. Lots of FPY Marsh Wrens were active right near the road, and a FOY Virginia Rail replied to a recorded grunt display call. The feeders are no longer in use at the end of Easterday Road, but I walked down and back the whole road hoping for a woodpecker or more likely a Purple Finch, but no luck.
I took the cutofff from Dupont to Steilacoom for a look from the platform where the expected flock of 110 FOY Western Grebes was easy, and a pair of FOY Greater Scaup not so easy. I continued on towards Chambers Bay, and while stopped by the fish ladder, a single FOY Eurasian Collared Dove flew and circled high overhead. On to the Chamber’s Bay Golf Course beach access bridge. I hoped for FOY Murre there, and a nice group was far offshore, and while looking at them at least 2 FOY Bonaparte’s Gulls flew through my scope view. They are easy in the fall in boig numbers, but only a few overwinter. The same is true for California Gull, and luckily an adule FOY bird was on the water close to shore. I had tried earlier to pick one out of the big flock of Short-billed Gulls on the water, but found none so this was a lucky find.
Golden Crowned Sparrow at Ft. Steilacoom.

This made 12 FOY species before noon, and I was feeling pretty great. I decided to get a nice walk and try the afternoon at Ft. Steilacoom Park. I had a nice walk, was pleased to see some sign of life returning to the pond after treatment for algae seemed to make it lifeless the last couple of years, with 17 Ruddy Ducks, 3 NOSH, and a couple of coots present. I hoped for Purple Finch, woodpeckers, California Quail, RBSA, HETH, or something new, but settled for a good walk.
I got home about 2:40 and had time for a short nap and a workout at the gym to wrap a really nice day, ending January with 102 species in Pierce. For perspective I think of >200 species in Pierce for a year is decent, and last Jan 2022 I saw 109, and in 2021 114 in Jan.

The Bird Banter Podcast #146 with Peter Kaestner additional information


On this episode you’ll hear from Peter Kaestner, the birder who has seen more species of birds than any living human, using the IOC checklist currently shown on IGoTerra Peter lists 9,729 of the 10,933 extant species on the IOC checklist. That is 89% of the living species in the world. I had thought that there must not be any places Peter could go and find more than a handful of new “lifers” but I was wrong. Peter has trips planned to the Phillipines and Viet Nam where he hopes to add more-or-less 50 new species to his list in each place.
Peter worked for a career for the U.S. Diplomatic Service. Before hearing Peter talk on my recent cruise to Antarctica I had little idea of what a career as a U.S. diplomat involved. It was a great career for Peter, leading him to life and see areas of the world most of us will never experience.
Peter and his wife now often travel for pleasure and birding, as well as diving, and Peter also works for Rockjumper Worldwide Birding Adventures as a part-time guide. This gives him the chance to help others experience the world of birding, as well as travel extensively.
You can reach Peter via e-mail. He keeps his e-mail address current on his eBird profile. It’s not hard to find him, just look under the explore Top-100 list for the world, all-time. He’s of course #1.
To read about the Antarctica trip, here is a link to my trip report.
As of this time, Peter’s most recent lifer I believe was the endangered and remote Hooded Grebe. You can see a great video of this bird by a previous guest, Paula (and Michael) Webster on YouTube here.
Thanks for listening. As always if you have suggestions for guests you’d like to hear from on the podcast, let me know
Until next time, Good birding and good day!