Costa Rica: Day 9 - Arenal to Cerro Lodge

Today was a long one. Up at 5 (a little late), on the road at 7, lots of stops for photos, and to the new lodge at 7:30. It's now 9:15 and we just finished dinner and our bird list. Time for bed, as we have a boat trip on the Tarcoles River tomorrow at 6am.

Sorry, but it looks like no photos or vids for at least the next three nights, as the internet here is a bit more tortoise than hare. No worries, though. We'll make up for it later. 

Costa Rica: Day 8 - Arenal Volcano

Hey everyone. Apologies in advance for the short post again.

Here's the sum-up:

Lots of birding around but not in the lodge grounds, mostly around Lake Arenal. We spent well over 2 hours trying to call out and get pictures of just two birds - the Thicket Antpitta and the Bare-Crowned Antbird. Later in the afternoon, I also spent nearly half an hour trying to get the perfect shot of a Long-tailed Tyrant (more on that another day). 

To add to the excitement, we also got chased off by a swarm of Africanized bees, and we saw both a vine snake and a bird-eater snake. Dad got right up in the latter's face (Mom is gonna be soooooo pissed). 

Great food all day. Tomorrow is mostly on the road. Bird count is 226, putting Dad's life-list somewhere over 2,000' and mine somewhere over 50. 

Since all yesterday's pic were mine, tonight's are all Dad's. Enjoy. 

Spotted Antbird

Plain Xenops

Thicket Antpitta

Cinnamon Becard

Rufous Motmot

Vine Snake

Bird-eating Snake

White-fronted Nunbird

Updates and Info

Hey everyone. Seems that some of you have figured out the commenting. If it helps, I think it's best to log into google/gmail through your browser, and then go to the blog to view/comment. Hope that helps. 

Also, it appears that the public permissions for the video has been fixed, so you should be able to view it now. I dunno what happened, but apologies for the trouble. 

As a bonus, this:

Costa Rica: Day 7 - Arenal Volcano

Busy day all around the Observatory Lodge and all on foot.  The weather wasn't terribly cooperative, but we muddled through and got some good shots.  This place is pretty amazing. I recommend it for anyone who is planning on visiting the area.

Here's what we woke up to:

Here's what it looked like for the 3 minutes that the clouds left the peak today:

Without getting into too much detail (as I'm tired, and the room doesn't have wifi so I have to go to reception or the bar), I saved the bird pics for Dad, but due to some slight technical difficulties, we'll be posting his pics another day. 

Key points not included in the photos:

- I saw a whole herd(passel? troupe?) of coati walk past us in the forest today. I fully expected one to look up at me and say "Oy! Ake!" as they are the closest thing to billybumblers I have ever seen. 

- Bavaria Dark beer is pretty good. 

- My aunt Marcia is really good at yelling in Italian. 

On with the pics: 

Hepatic Tanager

Dualling Clay-colored Thrush (C R's national bird)

Tropical Pewee

Great Curassow

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