Tuesday 9 April 2013

Quick catch-up and holiday snippet

While I was away SHELDUCK and RED KITE were reported on the patch, the Shelduck only being the second record, otherwise WOODCOCK, WATER RAILS and BRAMBLING were all still around. My first visit was last Friday (5th) and I added COOT (70) to the year list, we seem to get one or two in spring that hang around for a few weeks, they've only stayed to breed once. FIELDFARE and REDWING were still well into double figures with the odd flock of Redwing flying north.
Another couple of short walks at the weekend added the latest ever first CHIFFCHAFF (71) on Sunday 7th. Other birds included 3 COMMON BUZZARDS and 3 KESTREL, MARSH TIT, COAL TIT and a NUTHATCH carrying mud to a potential new home. Hopefully the weekend will bring a few more birds as there is another guided walk on Saturday.
Nuthatch
So to the holiday, we ended up in Costa Rica, courtesy of last years redundancy! It was a beautiful country and the people were great, we struggled a bit with typical holiday tummy stuff from day 4 which did stop us doing a couple of things but not too much. It wasn't full on birding but we added new species on every outing. We met fellow holidaymakers at each place as you do, some birders some not but all great to swap stories and experiences with.
We stayed at 6 different hotels in the 2 weeks and enjoyed the drives between each place seeing a lot of the country, great mountains, volcanoes, jungles and wetlands. I'm not going to try to list all the birds of which we managed just over 200 species but I will just mention a few, with pics of a few too.
After a night in San Jose where CLAY COLOURED ROBIN (national bird) nested in the hotel garden we headed to Sarapiqui and a small hotel that had some nice grounds which we duly explored, the highlights here where the one tree that had nesting LONG TAILED TYRANT, COLLARED ARACARI and BLACK CHEEKED WOODPECKER  and the appearance of the beautiful GREEN HONEYEATER. STRAWBERRY POISON DART FROG was something else we were really excited to see, they are tiny!!
The pics below were all taken just in the hotel garden although we did visit a local Natinal Park as well.
Rufous Tailed Hummingbird, the most common Hummer on the trip

Green Honeycreeper

Collared Aracari

Golden Hooded Tanager, another stunner just seen here and at Arenal

Passerinis Tanager, common in the north and east

Keel Billed Toucan, I'm always amazed by that beak!!

Yellow Faced Grassquit

Long Tailed Tyrants

Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, it was a bit dark so the ISO was very high for this shot as you can see.
 

14 comments:

Marc Heath said...

Great set of shots Alan and certainly looks like a good trip.

Mike H said...

Some very colourful birds in Costa Rica Alan, makes our locals seem a bit drab, but still good to see also !

Maria said...

Wow, you got very exotic birds! a Toucan, and the frog are awesome!

Isidro Ortiz said...

Que aves mas bonitas,las capturas son estupendas.Saludos

Giga said...

Śliczne ptaki i żabka. Z dużą przyjemnoscią oglądałam zdjęcia. Pozdrawiam.
Cute birds and frogs. With great pleasure watching the pictures. Yours.

Eve Russell said...

Looks like a great trip and some lovely shots too!

Ingemar Pettersson said...

Hi!
Amazing birdserie, they are so colourfull.
Greetings from Sweden
/Ingemar

Warren Baker said...

Hi Alan,
I was hoping for a Brambling, for the year list, but it looks like i'll miss out this end of the year.

Love those Costa Rican colours :-)

Ana Mínguez Corella said...

Hi Alan.. Exotic birds!!!. But I prefer de lovely nuthnatch.. ha!!!.. Congrats and regards..

Greenie said...

Alan ,
Still haven't managed to see the shots from your holiday . I've got the text and black squares where the birds should be .
Hope it sorts itself out soon .

Greenie said...

Alan ,
Still haven't managed to see the shots from your holiday . I've got the text and black squares where the birds should be .
Hope it sorts itself out soon .

ShySongbird said...

Wow! What a great holiday Alan. Sorry you had gippy tummy but glad it didn't ruin things completely. You saw a wonderful array of exotic looking birds and took some lovely photos too. I also loved the much more familiar looking Nuthatch photo!

Boughton Moths said...

Alan,

Very nice pictures, especially the Toucan.

Pete

Helma said...

Here I am still a bit jealous hear Alan :-))))
What a great series and what a beautiful and colorful birds. These beautiful birds in the Netherlands we do not know. Also, your red frog I find a winner.
This really enjoy so many beautiful birds.
Regards, Helma