Costa Rica Mar. - Apr. 1996 - Scanbird

A personal diary for the first two weeks.
March 24st
In the afternoon we assembled in San José, the capital of Costa Rica, where we stayed for
the night. Most of the group came with the KLM flight from Copenhagen via Amsterdam
and Panama. Two had arrived before and spent some days in the mountains of Cerro de la
Muerte looking at Silvery-throated Jay and other birds from the timberline area, and the
senior member of our group ahd been tumbing around for a week in the dry and deserted
northern part of the country staying in a tent on lonely campsites in the national parks. In
the confusion of the transfer a bag was stolen containing camera, binoculars and birding
taperecorder, and the owner - who used to think that such things only could happen to
careless people - had to accept the injury.
March 25th
In the morning we visited Braulio Carillo National Park. The park is created recently when a
road was built from San José to Limón opening up a previously inaccessible forested valley
on the very rainy caribbean slope, and the land was turned into a reserve. The road down
to Limón is the only access to the park, that is reached after one-an-a-half hours driving
from San José. A few tracks are made into this upper tropical rainforest wilderness where
many good birds occur and we had only this one morning to find them. Unfortunately, there
has recently been armed attacks on visitors on the upper trails, and we were
recommended to stay away from these. We started at sunrise somewhere at the roadside
with splendid views over forested slopes with ragged grey clouds drifting in, where a pair of
Blue-and-Gold Tanager was building a nest. Then we continued to the ranger station
where there is a good trail for birdwatching, but we were turned away as the park is closed
to visitors on mondays. We continued to a butterfly farm below the reserve proper where a
trail beyond the control of the rangers lead into the forest. The morning's walk gave a fine
male of Lattice-tailed Trogon and a pair of Dull-mantled Antbird in the forest floor. As we
returned to the butterfly farm for our packed lunch, a northbound migration of flocks of
Broadwinged Hawks accompanied by a few of the larger Swainson's Hawks passed above
us. Mixed species flocks passed by us with Emerald Tananger, Black-and-yellow Tanager
and Ashy-throated Bush-tanager. As it soon started raining we left.
Our guide Julio Sanchez had been with us form this morning on and had proven
outstanding. He was a skilled and experienced birder in the field, he had a deep scientific
knowledge of the birds and their environment, and he was a very kind person with a fine
sense of humour. He had a remarkable skill of imitating the voices of the birds. Almost any
whistle and many other kinds of calls he could reproduce to make the bird answer and
come in. We had a minibus with us on the journey driven by Santiago who had a long
experience of driving for birding groups and quite a keen birder himself. He had a -
sometimes usefull and sometimes irritating - habit of spotting rare birds by the bus when
we were out in the areas. Above the rain in the drier valleys near San José, Julio took us
for a walk in the countryside in a landscape of natural grass and brambles, the grassland
being habitat of Sedge Wren and the brambels being habitats of White-throated
Flycatcher. Both are rare species in Costa Rica, that Julio had researched in and knew
where to find.
We drove across the country in the afternoon from the lush rainforest to the dry pacific
slope. A landscape of wasteland, a few cows, acacia trees remaining in sheltered places,
a bushfire by the road. Towards evening we arrived at Carara where we stopped at the
bridge over Rio Tarcoles. The river is with reedbeds and sand banks with sleeping
Crocodiles. This is the place to watch the evening migration of Scarlet Macaw coming for
their nights roost after having spread out in the area during the day. Soon they started
passing by in pairs or flocks consisting of pairs, with raucous calls and fine colours glowing
in the light of the setting sun. As the last ones came as silhouttes aginst the sky we had
counted fifty.
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