Costa Rica Day 10

Our last day in Costa Rica was just as wonderful and exciting as the other nine days. We woke up early and scarfed down breakfast on the bus (leftovers from our beach picnic, mostly cookies!) while driving to our final excursion, a safari boat ride on the Tárcoles River. This river is famous for its huge crocodile population. We weren't just passively floating down the river with the crocodiles, either. Every once in a while our guide would jump out into ankle deep water to hand feed the monsters! Crazy, I know! You’ll love the pictures, but first, our feature bird.

Our bird of the day (sniff, sniff, our final day) is the Green Honeycreeper. This is another bird I only saw once.  It was at the Wilson Gardens feeder where I also spotted the Golden Hooded Tanager. The male and the female Green Honeycreepers are very different in color and unless someone told me they were the same species, I never would have guessed. The trained eye can tell that the body type, beak, and other species characteristics were identical, but novices like me just look at the pretty colors. The male is a brilliant turquoise-green and the female is a more subdued lime-green.

 

We saw some terrific shore birds, as well as the crazy crocodiles, on our boat ride. Thanks to Bob for capturing such amazing pictures!

Anhinga

Great Blue Heron

Double Striped Thick Knee

Crested Caracara

Roseate Spoonbill

Snowy Egret

Tricolored Heron

Wood Stork

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Yellow Headed Caracara

There were hundreds of smaller birds as well; they were just too hard to catch on camera. The area we were in was marshy, brackish water so you can image the plethora of birds present. But now… for the crocodiles!

Oh yeah, before we get to the crocodiles, here’s me and Jen, binoculars glued to our faces. For those of you that have not tried it, birding is fun! Ten straight days of looking through those binoculars and we were still going strong, anxious to catch a glimpse of the next cool looking bird. And if you are a birder and have not yet been to Costa Rica, you have to go. I was truly amazing!

Muy Loco!!!

After the boat ride, we were whisked away to the airport where there were many hugs goodbye to Carlos and Harrison. What a wonderful trip, couldn’t have been better without those two. If anybody is thinking of going to Costa Rica, or hears of someone thinking of going to Costa Rica, I encourage you to contact Carlos. Smart, funny, kind, charming, organized, honest, adventurous. I just can’t say enough about how great a guide he was. And mad props to Harrison, driver extraordinaire!

Adiós Costa Rica, espero volver muy pronto.