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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Costa Rica: Day 6 - La Selva to Arenal

Another fine day of mostly cruising in the car. There were many stops along the way, each in the name of birding.

First we stopped at a Nature Center, although it's in it's early growth stages. The gentleman who runs the place was very nice, very talkative, and very enthusiastic. The most exciting part of that visit was this guy: 


Or maybe this guy:  

Blue-gray Tanager

After that, we stopped at a hotel for lunch. It was fancy as well as delicious. It didn't hurt that the grounds around the open-air restaurant were riddled with iguanas of all sizes. According to Noel, our guide, a group of iguanas is called a "lounge".  Go figure. Noel also hung some bananas out for the local birds, and Dad got a great pic of the following: 

Blue Dacnis

We also were lucky to see the Emerald Basalisk. 



After lunch, it was up (and around) the hill through Paraiso to the Arenal Volcano. Beautiful country. We looked for some birds, did a bit of work to get the Thicket Antpitta, and then headed to the Volcano Observatory Lodge. I can't speak for Dad, but I dunno how they let a schlub like me in to this place. No photos now, as I'm planning on a Places We Stayed post at the end of the trip. 

Upon settling in, I was on the back porch working on this post and I spotted this guy:

White-nosed Coati

While at first I was amazed as it went loping past the back of the porch, I later figured out it was not fate or divine intervention at all. 

Yup.... That is our "neighbor" feeding it Cheetos. 

Awwwwwwwwwesome. 

Anyway, here are a bunch of other things that we did not feed Cheetos to toda:





Long-tailed Tyrant

White-necked Jacobin

Orange-billed Sparrow
Fasciated Antshrike
Plain Brown Woodcreeper
White-throated Magpie-Jay





















2 comments:

  1. Sounds fantastic
    So hence the expression "lounge lizard" ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. love the frog!

    The bird is the word.

    ReplyDelete