Costa Rica- the Highlands

We ended our time in the highland cloud forest.  Our rain gear remained in our baggage because it is the dry season in February.  But, we were prepared! Next time I will only bring a small umbrella.

At elevation, we mostly saw little critters with a preponderance of rapidly moving hummingbirds. I prefer natural settings for  subjects so there are none showing feeding stations.  Compounding this is the speed for most hummingbirds.


There are a group of nectar feeders that rob nectar without pollinating the flowers.  They cut directly into the nectar site.  I believe this little brown bird is doing just that.  He perches beneath the cluster of blooms and .....

...  uses its sharp beak to enter at the right spot.

 Only occasionally was I fast enough to get focus and grab an image.

I never could do this with film.  It would take half a dozen rolls to get just one shot like this, or the next one.

There were unexpected visitors like this Red-tailed Squirrel.  It came in for the ripe fruit on a platform feeder.  It looks very similar to the Red Squirrels in New York.

While the hovering hummers only allow a few seconds to capture a photo, sometimes one will choose to perch in full sunlight.  Then you have maybe 30 seconds, which is a luxury.

That birds was clearly visible. This next image is a favorite for me because it offered a narrow tunnel of visibility.

There was one larger visitor, a Black-cheeked Woodpecker.  It seems all woodpeckers have sharply defined patterns.

The highland cloud forest, even in the dry season, offers a fine display of flowers including bountiful numbers of succulents.  This cluster was outside our lodging in the Savegre River valley.

Every lodging we visited had beautiful flower beds like these.

It is little surprise that Costa Rica is such a popular destination. The Tico are serious about maintaining a balance with their natural resources.  Pura Vida!  It reflects their philosophy.

Have to visit again, maybe in the wet season?

Paul Schmitt

Costa Rica Naturally!

John Muir famously counseled the traveler to saunter rather than rush.  On our second visit to Costa Rica, Pam and  I booked with Natural Habitat. We were drawn to the small group size and a pace better suited to actually seeing more of the flora and fauna in natural settings. Arriving in San Jose at midday a full day before the program began, our driver, Marko, delivered us to the beautiful Bougainvillea Hotel. Entering the grounds, one is greeted by lush beds of flowers and bird feeders at the restaurant windows. This is not a hotel squeezed onto a small tract of land. There are several acres of gardens with trails.



Arriving a day early reduced the stress of possible flight delays coming from the wintry USA. Our free day was easily passed exploring the hotel grounds and finding abundant birds, plus many vibrant flowers.  Everywhere one goes in the Bougainvillea, one finds creative architecture and decorations.  The attentive and friendly staff perfectly complements the hotel's beauty.

Here are a few of the discoveries we made walking the grounds. Orchids are found growing on the trees along a path.

A wide variety of palms and other trees offered a hint of the variety we would see later when we arrived at Tiskita Lodge in the extreme south coast near the border with Panama.

The grounds were not just manicured lawns. The tennis courts were hidden within a dense cover bisected by a path.



Many birds were there, including a Lesson's Motmot.  It was feeding on the ripe fruit of a tree.  Note the twin "paddles" at the end of its tail.  Beautiful bird.

Our time at the hotel passed comfortably, aided by abundant discoveries like butterflies,















...graceful flowers,










.....  and other pleasant surprises.


After a pleasant day in the gardens, we met our guide Roy and the other six members of our group on Saturday, and prepared our baggage for a Sunday morning charter flight to Golfito from the domestic airport. Our driver, Jimmy, would take us to the flight and then make the 5-1/2 hour drive to Tiskita Lodge with the majority of our bags.




We were each allowed 30 pounds for the flight. It went into a pod on the belly of the Cessna. My camera bag used up most of my allowance. Wisely, I kept Pam's small Fuji XT-1 travel camera with me. The weather was beautiful, and Roy convinced our pilots to fly along the Pacific coast for a view of  a feather called the Whale's Tail.  Our luck was that we were at low tide, so it was clearly visible.

Our second location on the itinerary would be only a few kilometers from the Whale's Tail and Uvita Beach.

As we flew over the Pacific coastal areas we saw a mix of mountain and coastal planes with large plantations of  palm oil trees. Soon the pilots  began our approach to Golfito. The dense cover of trees became closer as the aircraft began to follow a narrowing valley.  Soon, we were on a glide path defined by the tree tops.  Our guide, Roy, exclaimed "Welcome to the rain forest!" and seconds later we were on the runway. It was an exciting start to our adventure.

A local driver was awaiting with his bus to take us to Tiskita.  The roads very quickly switched from paved to otherwise as we rode through a mix of farms and forest.  Just short of Tiskita, one of our party shouted out "Scarlet Macaws!"  The driver quickly stopped and pulled off as everyone scrambled to pull out cameras or binoculars.  A brilliantly colored pair were high in trees right next to the road.  These are just two images of many that were captured.

What a start to the trip!  During the next two days, we began with a 6:00 am bird walk, and after breakfast explored some of Tiskita's trails as a group.  Here are a few of our discoveries.

Three-toed Sloth

 

Squirrel Monkey

 

 I noticed that some of the palms with a broad fan of leaves were crimped over as seen to the right. Rather than reaching toward the sky, they folded downward.  Odd, I thought, but my unfamiliarity just accepted it as the usual. On a morning hike  Roy became interest in a group of such palms, and went off trail (after carefully probing the forest floor with his extended tripod legs to confirm no snakes were underfoot.)  His interest was directed at some palms where the fronds were more upright like an A-frame roof.