Costa Rica: Day 2 - The First Full Day

"We're on a mission from God."

After a very pleasant night at the Hotel Bouganvillia outside of San Jose, we woke up to our 4:40 alarm. By that, I mean Dad woke up at 3:00 due to the excitement of having also woken up at 11:30 to the sounds of a Tropical Screech Owl out in the garden.  I, on the other hand, slept as any reasonable person would.  

Dad went out into the garden in the pre-dawn darkness and I made myself a cup of coffee and considered showering. I spotted a pair of Lineated woodpeckers and got some pictures from the balcony. I then enjoyed another cup of coffee in the shower. 

I was very happy to hear that Dad had seen the same woodpeckers, as he very much likes them and he was already a little perturbed that I had seen and photographed the motmot and the rail.  If he had not seen the morning's woodpeckers after his early rise and pre-dawn stalking, and I had while simply enjoying my coffee, I think Dad would be writing this now and I'd be in a shallow grave somewhere between the pool and tennis court in the Bouganvillia garden. 

Lineated Woodpecker

At breakfast, we met our guide, Noel.  After some discussion about our birding style (I have none) and goals, he took us out to the garden. In an effort to clearly curry favor with Dad, he impressively called out the motmot, allowing Dad to get some photos. 

From there, we headed up to the Poas Lodge on the Poas volcano. For my friends in Hawaii, it's very reminiscent of Waimea. After dropping our gear, we got back in the truck and went to the Lapaz Waterfall Gardens. 

Noel and Dad

Poas Scenery

At the Waterfall Gardens, we spent a ton of time with more hummingbirds than I can count.  After a while there, we went further into the park and Noel tried to call out a nightingale thrush.  There was one around, but they were having a difficult time locating it. I think Noel could tell I was getting a bit antsy (read: bored) with the waiting game, and they weren't going to switch to my "I'll just wander around and the birds will come to me" preferred (and to that point, effective) way of birding.  So Noel wisely suggested that I take a hike down to the series of waterfalls, which sounded great to me.  

As you may have already guessed, 50 ft down the waterfall trail and 6 minutes later, I had a photo of the nightingale thrush. No way I was telling Dad. 

I went down the path and many stairs to the waterfalls (lovely) and saw a few other birds, and then headed back up the steps. At the top I wandered a bit, got some shots of a tree creeper, then went looking for the guys.  As I was turning down the trail where they'd been before, I happened to look over and see Noel running in my general direction.  I figured he had spotted me and was trying to catch me before I got too far down the trail. Turns out, he had been headed down the waterfall trail to look for me, then saw the nightingale thrush they hadn't been able to find, and was now running back to get my Dad to show him the bird. 

Thankfully, they found it again. 

After the Waterfall Gardens, we went to a little cafe overlooking the San Raphael Falls, where we had coffee, multiple near-misses with hummingbirds, and saw our first Toucanet.  Very cool. 

Leaving there at a leisurely pace back to the Poas Lodge, we saw some kites, a short-tailed hawk, and a few other birds. 

Before dinner, we met up with Noel. He gave us some great bird lists all spiral bound with plastic covers. We counted up our sightings. As of tonight, we've seen 57 different kinds of birds, 3 bugs, a squirrel, and a large herd of Canadians.  The 57 birds puts Dad somewhere over 1,800 different species sighted on his life list, and puts me somewhere over 50 on mine.  

Dinner was delicious, and afterward we went looking for an owl that didn't care to be found, which means there is no way I'm going out there alone tonight after writing this, because with my luck I'll see it, accidentally get a photo of it, and that would certainly not end well for me. 

Some photos we took today:

 Violet Saberwing

Tropical Parula

Sooty-faced Finch

Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush

Passerini's Tanager

Swallow-tailed Kite

Butterfly on a banana

Emerald Toucanet

 Common Bush-Tanager

Eastern Meadowlark