Costa Rica Day 4

Day 4 of my Costa Rica trip brought some wonderful birding opportunities. We started the day with a drive up some very steep inclines to a beautiful farm, then another drive up some even steeper inclines and on some seriously scary mountain roads to a fabulous overlook, then a drive back down to safer elevations for our next resort and a visit to a biological reserve.

The signature bird for Day 4 is the Toucan. We saw a few different species that I will lump together here. We really saw quite a few but most times they were perched in the upper most branches of the trees and getting a clear picture of them was difficult. 

Chestnut Mandibles Toucan. This is the Toucan we saw on our very first morning in Costa Rica and several more times throughout our trip. Fabulous looking bird!

Collared Aracari.  This guy has to take the cake for craziest looking paint job on a bird bill. The colors and markings were absolutely vibrant.

 

We also saw a few Keel-billed Toucans, which are very similar to the Chestnut Mandibles, except they have a multicolored bill. Unfortunately, we were unable to get any clear pictures of them because they stayed very far up in the trees. 

 

Emerald Toucanet.  This is the smaller cousin of the Toucan. He was more social than the other Toucans as well, happily visiting the bird feeders (aka fruit on a nail) so we were able to get a close look at his beautiful colors.

 

Red-headed Barbet. This little guy is in the same family as the Toucan. Our guide, Carlos, told us that this was a very rare bird and that we were lucky to get such a wonderful glimpse at him; it had been years since he had seen one. When he landed at the feeder, the crowd went wild snapping pictures.

Now, for a few highlights of Day 4.

We started with breakfast and a walk through the jungle at Albergue El Socorro, which is a family run farm that welcomes tourists and guided bird walks as a method of supporting the family and local community. 

Jose, the property owner.

This is where we ate breakfast. Again, no screens and no bugs. The flowers were gorgeous!

These are Jose’s cows. Not sure why they are in the road, exactly, but they seemed content and nobody was rushing them off. A leisurely stroll from one pasture to another, I guess.

The rain forest was amazing… and humid.

That’s Jen down there, way ahead of me on the hike, as usual. 

I must have been doing more gawking than walking, 

I am a very slow hiker!

On our drive away from the farm, I snapped this picture from the bus window to capture the living fence. Everywhere in Costa Rica, property owners used live trees as their fence posts. What a terrific idea! Rather than chopping down trees and cutting them up into ugly posts, they plant live trees and string barb wire around them. The trees provide habitats for birds and shade for the pasture, not to mention the carbon load they are storing by simply being alive. How can we get this practice adopted in the US?

I wasn’t kidding about the scary mountain roads. Our bus was super close to edge… and the drop offs were massive. Thank goodness for Harrison, our driver extraordinaire!

After eating lunch and getting ourselves settled into our next resort, we visited the Tirimbina Biological Reserve where Carlos found a cute little Strawberry Poison-dart frog.The hanging bridge leading us into the reserve was impressive, and a bit bouncing toward the middle. For those leery of heights, it was not a pleasant crossing, but actually, I was okay. I only get scared when there is no railing… like the miles of mountain roads we had just traveled over! Compared to that, the bridge crossing was fun.

All in all, I wonderful day in Costa Rica. Once we were back at the resort we had free time for a drink at the bar or a walk around the property to look at their resident gators. The story was the gators were there first, so when the owners developed the resort they kept an area natural for them to survive. Thankfully, there was a chain link fence separating us.