On this episode Scott and I talk about his start in birding as an adult, his quest to see all of America’s lower-48 raptors, his writing career and more.
Find Scott’s book on Amazon or at his website.
I found Scott’s morph from a beginning birder later in life to a passionate raptor enthusiast pretty interesting. Scott is not one to go into a hobby casually. He has made the leap to birder with gusto. I would not have guessed that finding some of the winter visitor raptors to be the more difficult for him, as birds like Northern Hawk-Owl and Gyrfalcon create such buzz when found that the birding community usually knows where to find one. Goshawk, one of his other tough finds nests in enough areas that I’d have thought it would have been pinned down more quickly. The little owls, like Boreal and Flammulated Owls can be really tough, and it looks like he found local experts to help with them. Anyway, it was fun to hear about his quest and his new book.
His next project is to see many of the birding spectacles in the U.S. I’d love to hear what you’d list in the top 10 birding spectacles in the U.S. Here is a list of mine without great thought (The Ones in Bold I’ve seen, the others just heard about):
Most of the group.
On July 5th 26 other birders and I met Matt Stolmeier, Marian’s nephew, and captain for Outer Island Excursions at the Skyline Marina in Anacortes, WA for a chartered trip on their 30/person boat hoping to see the Horned Puffin that has visited the Tufted Puffin colony on Smith Island for the last few summers. We had tried last summer, and though it was a great trip, failed to see the Tufted Puffin. Matt takes many whale watching tours annually, and also has three scheduled bird watching trips this year planned. You can book one here.
Matt is an excellent spotter, and has several other boats on the water, which turned out to be really a good thing. We left the dock at 4PM, with the hopes that as the evening approached more puffins would be nearing the colony ready to feed their young at dusk. On the ride out we saw moderate numbers of Rhinoceros Auklets, cormorants, gulls and enjoyed the great weather and calm seas.
On arrival at Smith Islands we began to see good numbers of the breeders there.
As you can see Smith Island has the prerequisite soil for burrowing birds like puffins and auklets.
We sorted through dozens of Tufted Puffins like this but for our first couple of hours failed to find the Horned Puffin. We focused on finding the hoped for Horned Puffin, but for the first couple of hours saw only Tufted Puffins like this
There were hundreds of Rhinoceros Auklets to admire too. California Gulls were present in small numbers as it’s early for the huge flocks seen later in the summer. Heermann’s Gulls were seen in good numbers for this early in the summer. This species breeds in the Gulf of Mexico, coming north to feed and molt post breeding. After looking for a couple of hours Matt suggested we circle the island and check back at the kelp beds later. We saw this pair of Marbled Murrelets on the other side of Smith Island. We also saw several Common Murres.
As we headed back to the area by the kelp beds where most of the Tufted Puffins were staying Matt got a radio message from one of the captains of another Outer Island Expeditions boat that he had the Horned Puffin in sight. We headed back and after a few minutes of tension, got killer looks and photo ops. My and most other participants first Washington State Horned Puffin. Horned and Tufted Puffins for comparison.
After we got long and great looks at the HOPU, Matt offered a treat. He gave us about an extra hour and we headed out to see the T-99 pod of Orcas not far away. There were 5 Killer Whales in the T-99 pod, a transient pod of marine mammal eating Orcas.
After enjoying the whales, Matt also gave us a nice time at the Williamson Rocks, which is a rocky island near the harbor. Williamson Rocks Most of the time we were at the Williamson Rocks up to 8 Black Oystercatchers noisily circled the island and the boat. A Brown Pelican, uncommon in Skagit County was on the tip of the island.
We got back to the dock about 8 PM with happy faces and expanded state and many life lists.
Be sure to think of Matt if you want a trip to see the birds.
Good birding!
Over the last week I’ve had the chance to get out twice with friends, last Friday June 30 with Ken Brown, and yesterday with Bruce LaBar.
On Friday Ken and I headed for Mt. Rainier via Paradise. It was my first trip to the mountain this year, and I hoped to add to my Pierce County year list. Ken met at my house at 6 AM and we drove straight to the Paradise parking lot, finding one of the few parking spaces still available. We had a great day with beautiful weather and managed 25 species. There was lots of bird song on the hike up, with Olive-sided Flycatcher, Pine Siskin (unbelievably the FOY for Washington State for me as it’s been a siskin free winter here.) Sooty Grouse and good numbers of White-crowned Sparrows and Chipping Sparrows. There was only a modest amount of snow on the trails, and we took the Panarama Point trail up to where it meets the Pebble Creek Trail just before Panarama Point. We added my county first Townsend’s Solitaire along with American Pipits as we approached the Pebble Creek Trail where a week earlier Heather and Marcus had found White-tailed Ptarmigan. We didn’t find the ptarmigan but found Bruce, Heather and Marcus at a lunch stop there. While eating we found a distant perched Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, and another solitaire landed behind us. We explored the area hoping for ptarmigan without success and walked down as a group of 5.
On Monday Bruce and I visited a new road out Greenville looking for Black-backed Woodpeckers that Michael Charest had seen over the weekend. We again met Marcus there, this time with Bryan Hansen and Wayne Sladek. We quickly found a BBWO which flew by and then landedand drummed steadily. It appeared to be a female, but we didn’t learn until later that females of this species do drum. Other than fabulous vistas the stop was otherwise notable for a Sooty Grouse that called steadily near the end of the road, and when I turned my back fluched giving Bruse a quick look in flight.
We decided to make a quick parking lot stop at Sunrise parking lot stop, but changed our minds when the line at the entry gate was really long, so instead went to Lake Tipsoo for a walk around the lake, and to get our FOY Mountain Chickadee. The Chickadee was found easlly, but nothing else new, so we had lunch at a beautiful Hwy 410 pullout and called it a day.
Bruce Labar and I hiked the Grand Park trail again yesterday with a few differences from our last trip. By far the biggest difference was that yesterday was a sunny, warm and clear fall day, unlike the overcast and drizzly day we chose last week. Second was that we had no need to get back early, so had plenty of time to get to the “park” itself.
Our primary goal again was to look for the American Three-toed and Black-backed woodpeckers that had been previously reported from this area. We started up the trail and shortly after entering Mt. Rainier National Park, maybe 1/3 mile from the trailhead I heard a woodpecker tapping. We looked for some time and I managed only a very brief look at a woodpecker that I think was black-backed, but the look was so unsatisfactory that I just couldn’t list it as such. We also had a N. Pygmi owl far away tooting.
Later, well past the lake, we had a woodpecker drilling off to the right of the trail, and we were able after a bit of searching to locate an American Three-toed woodpecker very close and only about 20 feet up a tree. As we watched the bird and tried to get photos and a video, a second bird joined it and they squabbled and chased each other around for several minutes. We rejoiced and continued up the hill. Both of these birds we took as juveniles, lacking any yellow in the head. A bit farther up the hill we located an adult make ATTW, with yellow on the back of the head. It had feeding and tapping behavior as expected with some bark peeling noted.
A bit farther yet we heard a much louder and more emphatic tapping, in the same area we had identified a drumming BBWO on our last hike on this trail. We located an adult female Black-Backed woodpecker working up a tree just beside the trail. We had great views and felt confirmed in our prior ID, and blessed with such good fortune.
From here we continued up the trail, finding the Grand Park meadow itself, with great Mt. Rainier views and lots of Mountain Bluebirds. It was really fun to see several Rufous-type females, as neither Bruce nor I were familiar with this color morph. We spent nearly 2 hours relaxing there, primarily on a raptor watch. It paid off with distant looks at two eagles, an adult Bald and an adult Golden eagle. The tail and head differences were the primary way we IDed the GOEA. Bruce’s great eyes found a soaring Prairie falcon and a fast-passing Merlin, in addition to a Red-tailed hawk.
We almost danced down the trail after such a terrific morning of birding Pierce County. Here are a few phone photos from the trip:
Maybe my favorite bird of the trip, Lark Bunting in Columbia County on Jasper Mountain Road.
I’ve set a goal for myself for 2023 to wrap up the last 4 counties in WA to put me over 100 species reported in eBird for every Washington county. Not unexpectedly all of these counties are far from Tacoma in Pierce County where I live. Three of these counties are in SE Washington, an area I’ve birded primarily in winter when some of the northern visiting birds are possible. That said I made a trip to Asotin County in July 2020 when Marian and I camped at Field Springs State park, amnd between that and winter trips I have reported 134 species for the southeastern most WA county. That left Whitman, Garfield and Columbia counties as the other three SE counties where I had yet to see >100 species.
Marian had a family gathering in Wenachee for the weekend, and I decided to take advantage and hjead off birding.
On Thursday June 1 I headed out after a good nights sleep, not leaving until about 8 AM. I drove pretty much straight to Whitman County, with Kamiak Butte the planned first stop for the afternoon. I managed Lazuli Bunting and Brewer’s Blackbirds as roadside ticks on the entry road, then got to the park at 2:15. I had little idea what to expect, and it was a busy forested butte with two busloads of school children at the playground. That said I was pretty happy to immediately hear Veery singing, and lots of other bird song. ON a 2-hour hike I managed 12 county lifers, including Pacific Slope (I didn’t have the inclination to call them Cordillaran) and Hammond’s Flycatchers, and a good variety of forest species. On the ride back to Colfax I flushed a Wilson’s Snipe from a roadside ditch, and spotted a Wild Turkey beside the road. Black-headed Grosbeak was a common sight and sound for the trip. I like the background for this photo.
After checking into the Best Western in Colfax, and getting Mexican food for dinner, I walked the Colfax Trail as the sun dropped, and finished the day with with Whitman County species #102 with a singing Canyon Wren on the cliff beside the trail. This was the only eagle I saw on the trip.
The next morning I headed for Steptoe Butte, a place I’ve been wanting to see for years. It is a pretty cool place, and I got theere at 6:34, and it was cool and sunny. I walked near the bottom parking lot and then drove to the top and birded my way back down. It was spectacular, with great vistas of the Palouse, and lots of birds. Rock Wrens were singing everywhere near the top, Yellow-breasted Chats and Vesper Sparrow were great to see, and I left Whitman County with my list at 109 species
From there I drove back through Colfax to start my Garfield County birding at Central Ferry where Osprey, Violet-green and Cliff Swallows were easy county firsts. I drove down Deadman Creek, a nice backwater area with singing Common Yellowthroat, an American White Pelican, and the usual riparian species were added. I went to lunch at Willow Landing where I enjoyed Marian’s lasagna, and added Blue-winged Teal, Lazuli Bunting and really enjoyed a Yellow-breasted Chat that flew high in the air, singing loudly, and then fixed its wings upward and parachuted back to its perch like a skylark. A behavior I’d never seen. Just as I left it was fun to see a male Northern Harrier perched on a “Feel Free to Hunt” sign.
From here I headed for the higher elevations of the county, hoping for breeding species of the Ponderosa Pine forests and agricultural areas. My favorite stop was Bosley Grade Road, a forested area on a dirt road down a steep grade. It was pretty birdy, with a creek beside the road and I added 9 county firsts there, including typical singing birds, Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Dusky and Hammond’s Flycatchers, Cassin’s and Warbling Vireos, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.
I headed up Mountain Road, adding Western and Mountain Bluebirds, and Vesper Sparrow. Mountain Bluebird
I headed back to Dayton, adding flycatchers (Eastern and Western Kingbirds and Say’s Phoebe) from the car on the ride as Columbia County birds, only to find that the Best Western rated had gone up to $200. + per night, so I settled for the barely adequate Blue Mountain Motel. I found a city park for dinner, and rather than spend time in the room, went to a nice city park with a fishing pond and riverside walk for a picnic dinner. The last of the lasagna was nice, as was the walk. I added Spotted Sandpiper and the easy swallows there. Cedar Waxwing from Steptoe Butte
After a decent night’s sleep, I quickly birded Lewis & Clark SP for low elevation species, before I headed up Jasper Mountain Road for the morning. There I enjoyed a Cooper’s Hawk hopping around on the ground after what looked like recently fledged Brown-headed Cowbirds, singing Veerys, I’d never been in this area, so dlot’s of singing Pacific Slope (Cordillaran) Flycatchers and a calling Pileated Woodpecker. I decided to try Jasper Mountain rather than the Toucannon Road area which is more well known for birding. It worked out well, with good birding, beautiful scenery, and new places to see. An unexpected Lark Sparrow on a wire, lots of Mountain Bluebirds, and a nice variety of dry forest species were found. In the afternoon I headed for Toucannan Road area, adding Red-eyed Vireo and Turkey Vulture (this was the only TV sighting of the trip). By then I was a bit weary, and as I had my goal >100 species in each county I decided to head for home. I made a few stops on the way, partly to rest and stretch, and partly birding. Most interesting was a very quick stop at Palouse Falls SP to easily add White-throated Swift at the Para Ponds in Othello where FOY Lesser Yellowlegs was found, and hoped for Forester’s Tern was not.
I got home by 9:30 and was happy to sleep in my own bed.
Trip totals:
Whitman: 109 life, 67 for the trip.
Garfield: 110 life, 65 for the trip
Columbia 111 life, 66 for the trip.
This bird gave us a great show, singing and looking around.
We had a really nice day seeing a nice list of species with lot’s of great views.
From here it was back to Raleigh-Durham for the long flight home and late arrival.
Ken’s youngest son John picked us up at Seatac and got us home safely.
On this episode I talk with Iowa birder and retired physician Dr. Jim Kettelkamp. Jim has rekindled his passion for birding, developed in his childhood, and become a top Johnson County, Iowa big year birder, as well as advocate for backyard habitat and visitor to several great ABA birding sites. We talk about all of this on the episode. One of the topics we talk about is the serious decline in grassland and insectivore bird species from Jim’s youthful birding to now. He mentions how the change in agriculture, from smaller farms with many hedgerows to giant farms with no habitat in sight, seems to be a major factor. This got me to remembering a visit to England a few years ago when I visited a large commercial farm. Although the scope of the farm was large, there were well established hedgerows between fields, and good numbers of birds using the habitat. I recall the owner talking about how this was financially viable due to subsidies and regulations that made if financially advantageous to leave these areas natural. In the agricultural areas of the U.S. that I have seen, the opposite seems to be true. Leaving fields fallow to recover is pretty common, but still there is little habitat other than bare fallow fields, with no shrubs or trees between the fields. Here is an article discussing some of the programs.
If anyone knows about similar programs in the U.S. I’d love to have you let me know about them. This Cropwatch article is the closest I can find.
You can reach out to Jim on Facebook here @jim.kettelkamp
Thanks for following The Bird Banter Podcast. Until next time, good birding and good day.
Today Ken Brown, Bruce LaBar and I left Tacoma at 6 Am to head east on what has recently been an annual trek for the three of us to get our FOY sage habitat species and a few early returning species for the year. Ken met me at my house, we picked up Bruce and headed east on Hwy 18 –> I-90, through Kittitas to the Old Vantage Hwy. Our first birding stop was at 8:41 AM at a spot we have had luck with in recent years, and we managed Brewer’s Sparrow and Sage Thrasher there, though it was less active than in past years. No luck with Vesper Sparrow or Loggerhead Shrike, a trend that continued all day with these two elusive species.
Next was just a bit east on the Old Vantage Hwy to the Wild Horse Wind Energy site. This area has been our most dependable spot for Sagebrush Sparrow in recent years, and it continued to produce with close-up looks at this favorite sparrow. Sagebrush Sparrow
Shortly after a pair of Mountain Bluebirds gave a show, but only the female lent to good photos. Mountain Bluebird
We made a few more stops on this road, but had little more success with new species. The area burned a couple of years ago, and the habitat is badly degraded.
From here we headed for Othello, with a stop on the way at the County Line Ponds, which gave us Black-necked Stilt and American Avocet as Sandhill Cranes gave an overhead show. American Avocet Black-necked Stilts
At Othello we were hoping for Yellow-headed and Tri-colored Blackbirds, Cinnamon Teal, and possibly shorebirds or other new year birds. These three obliged, though not for decent photos, and Canvassback, Cliff Swallow, and very distant looks at Bonaparte’s Gull were a nice bonus. Two female aspect Canvassbacks in front of other ducks.
We then drove across the Columbia NWR, getting good looks at singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Orange-crowned Warbler, and lots of great vistas. This Ruby-crowned Kinglet was singing, something we usually have to go to the mountains to hear, but is sometimes heard in the spring. We got much nicer looks than this photo shows of the uncommonly seen Ruby Crown of this species.
From here we picked up close in Clark’s Grebes, including one calling its hoarse one-syllable note at Lind Coulee, and then the real surprise and awe of the day was a gigantic flock of Snow Geese from the Dam at Pothole’s Reservoir. We first saw a white sheen on the lake, and thought it was an unusually bright sun reflection. Distant Snow Goose Flock
We realized it was a gigantic flock of snow geese, estimated at >20,000 birds, with at least 3 “Blue Goose” morphs, and one FOY Greater White-fronted Goose in the flock. Snow Geese
From here it was pretty much a drive home, with a pleasant surprise of a FOY Long-billed Curlew flying across the road that I spotted as Ken and Bruce were distracted, but they ID’ed correctly and we turned around to relocate the bird not too far from the road. Long-billed Curlew
We made another stop to try for the previously missed Vesper Sparrow and Loggerhead Shrike off Old Vantage Hwy, but no luck and we got home safely about 7 PM.
A good day of birding with for me 14 FOY Washington State birds, a few less for Ken and Bruce who have been away from WA less than me. Always good to go birding with friends.
Here is the e-Bird trip list.
We wrapped up the 2-day trip with this stake-out Common Potoo. Somehow I had expected a much smaller bird. These guys are big. Greater Potoo must be gigantic.
It was a quick turn-around for Marian and me as we returned from a 3-day stay at Manuel Antonio with the family, to a 2-day birding trip with Carlos Ureña. We met Carlos at Elizabeth’s in Tinamaste, thanks to an early ride up by Brett, at 5 AM. We headed back through Dominical, turning north on Hwy 34, and were birding shortly after daylight. We stopped first by a large field where Carlos knew Red-breasted Meadowlarks are found, and they did not disappoint. Beautiful rose-red breasts, and many in the field. Red-breastefd Meadowlark
A short dirt road toward the coast after that yielded excellent birding, including the targeted Pale-breasted Spinetail, and also great morning looks at 32 species total. Best IMO were Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, 4 White-throated Crakes, a Yellow-throated Elaenia, and Blue-black Grassquits with lots more Morelet’s Seedeaters. Yellow-breasted Elaenia
Next stop was one of the trip highlights. We went to the Finca Martatima Rice Fields at Playa del Rey. The fields were mostly dry, but wet areas remained and the birding was really great. One of my hoped for trip birds, Southern Lapwing, were in a small flock very near the road. A very cooperative Mangrove Cuckoo posed for photos. Isthmian Wrens, Scrub Greenlet, Tropical Pewee, Northern Jacana, Purple Galinule, Gray-cowled Wood-rail, Green-breasted Mango, Groove-billed Ani and Wood Stork were among the list of 60 species there. Gray-crowned Yellowthroat
We made a trip to Boca del Rio Parrita where our only gull of the visit so far was a fly-over Lauging Gull, and a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron (wow!) posed. A few shorebirds padded my Costa Rica list, including Semi-palmated Plover, Willet, Whimbrel and Least Sandpiper, nice to see some birds I could ID.
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.
