Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Costa Rica Day 1-3 Rio Magnolia Lodge area

Speckled Tanager, Rio Magnolia Lodge, Dec 4, 2011

Bay-headed Tanager, Rio Magnolia Lodge, Dec 4, 2011

Golden-naped Woodpecker, Rio Magnolia Lodge, Dec 4, 2011

Roadside Hawk, Rio Magnolia Lodge, Dec 4, 2011

Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, Rio Magnolia Lodge, Dec 4, 2011

White-collared Swift, Rio Magnolia Lodge, Dec 4, 2011


I will begin my review of my trip down to Costa Rica by covering the first few days during which I stayed around the beautiful Rio Magnolia Lodge. The first day, December 4, I walked around the property on my own taking in one life bird after another with so many highlights I cannot even begin to come up with a list. Whole new families here that do not occur outside of the tropics. On December 5th I was joined by a local birding guide, Pedro, to check the area around the lodge. We started around 5:30 and went until noon spending time along the various edges and fields as well as later in the morning in the jungle.   The remainder of the time I spent wandering the area by myself continuously coming across one new bird species after another.  Some of the birds were familiar but the vast majority were new to me.  I managed to see or hear at least 71 life birds just in this area in the course of two full days...amazing!  The area around the lodge is a variety of habitats including edge and garden, a few pasture fields and a large expanse of primary forest.  The elevation here was somewhere around the 800-900m level. 

2 comments:

  1. Nice! I visited Costa Rica for 2 weeks in january/february 2011, almost a year ago. I loved it. And like you there were so many birds I can´t hardly think of it. I am setting up a birdblogg for "my" birds. Right now I am almost 110 birds posted and are not even halfway. :)
    The first two birds you have on the top I did not see. To bad. But I guess I had birds enough anyway. :)

    http://nfcrbird.blogspot.com/

    And, I have a Swedish birdblog as well. :)

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  2. It is a truly great place. I cannot wait to get back down there.

    ReplyDelete