Talari Mountain Lodge Part I

Squirrel Cuckoo is one of my favorite tropical birds. Sure they are widespread and relatively common, but I still cannot bring myself to get over them. They cripple me. Call me a cuckoo-stroker, I am not ashamed.

Sunday. As you read this I am on Brian Patteson's pelagic trip in North Carolina, hopefully lifering hard. Full and total coverage of this bird blitz coming soon. Until then, check out some pura vida.

After descending from the Talamacas, our group of nerds were surprised to find ourselves at Talari Mountain Lodge (not that it's anywhere near a mountain), which was the first stop we made on the Pacific Slope and completely unscheduled. By the time we got out of the car, we were all drooling for new birds, and Dipper Dan had already decided that he wanted to move to San Isidro del General (the neighboring city) for the rest of his life, although I have no idea why. We got our lifer Fiery-billed Aracaris as soon as we got out of the car, and we were quickly apprehended by the lodge's lady in charge and shown rooms. Their cabinas were very nice and reasonably priced, and with hardly anyone else staying there and new birds everywhere we looked, we had no choice but to spend a night.

This spot was a great introduction to the birds of the southern Pacific Slope, and many lifers were had, including stuff we did not get anywhere else on the trip. After getting relatively few new birds on our last day birding the Talamancas, we were back in the realm of multiple birdgasms.

These are enormous birds, making look most squirrels look puny, underdeveloped and hideous in comparison.

Yellow-headed Caracara is one of the commonest raptors on the Pacific Slope of Costa Rica. This was not a bird that one has to make an effort in order to see, although I was beside myself when we saw our first one at the lodge.

A male Red-legged Honeycreeper joins a female Cherrie's Tanager on a cluster of bananas. The cluster of banana trees next to the lodge's deck attracts a variety of frugivores (as do their fruit feeders).

Red-legged Honeycreeper is one of the most accessible cripplers in Costa Rica, where the Economy of Style is not in fashion. They are pretty much feeder birds, which I find to be a ridiculous concept. Above the honeycreeper, a Palm Tanager contemplates its dullness.

Crippling.

We saw a number of Tropical Gnatcatchers on the grounds at the lodge. Like gnatcatchers of the north, they are easy to detect by call. Males have black hoods...we never did catch up with any White-lored Gnatcatchers, but one new one is good enough for me.

A number of Blue Dacnis were members of the mixed flocks at Talari; this female was kind enough to actually pose for a picture. 

Lineated Woodpecker, about the size of a Pileated, never fails to bump up the heart rate.

This bird was coming in to the previously-mentioned banana cluster. Very un-pileated like.

A BB&B Costa Rica post wouldn't be complete without a bad photo of a drab bird; to fulfill my obligations, here is a female White-winged Becard, member of many a mixed flock.

Next to our cabina (above), we had Gray-headed Chachalaca, Gray-necked Wood-rail, Charming Hummingbird, Blue-crowned Motmot, Rufous-breasted Wren, etc. Dinner wasn't the cheapest but they did eventually cut us a deal; overall, a great place to stay. More to come on the next Costa Rica post.

Birding Hotel Gavilan Rio Sarapiqui

Life. Bird. Gray-capped Flycatchers are widespread and common on both slopes of Costa Rica. Thankfully, they are not hard to tell apart from their Social Flycatcher cousins. All photos today from Hotel Gavilan.

Hotel Gavilan was our base for the first leg of our trip. From there we could strike out towards La Selva Biological Station (a grueling 5 minutes away), the Savegre lodge, the El Tigre fields, Sarapiqui Eco-Observatory and La Virgen Del Socorro. Gavilan both came recommended by Pat "The Dude" O'Donnell (who runs Costa Rica's dominant birding blog) and the extremely valuable "A Bird-finding Guide to Costa Rica" by Barrett Lawson. In fact, I planned practically the entire trip using these two resources, as well as taking advice by birding giant (literally) Dave Pereksta.

The hotel has a lot going for it. It's cheap, it feeds birds, it has food, it has beer, it has coffee, it's clean, and has high-quality birding on the property. What's not to like??? Nothing.

Our first morning there was grueling. The lifers were overwhelming. New woodcreepers, woodpeckers, tanagers, sparrows...it was disgusting. Dipper Dan (formerly TPAD Dan), famous in the birding community for his acute addiction to chewing tobacco (not American Dippers), was up way before dawn making feeble attempts at bird identification...the birder's Christmas Morning was in full effect. The lifers came at such a furious pace we were all giddy on nerd endorphins (the worse of all endorphins), and the long lost but familiar feeling of being a beginning birder had set in again. Our earbirding skills were practically useless, and some of the birds we were seeing we couldn't even remember hearing of...these were dubbed "brain birds", a lifer for the brain, if not in reality.

This was the only Bronzy Hermit of the trip that I'm aware of. It had a territory in Gavilan's courtyard. It's easily identified as the most basic-looking hermit, lacking any tail craziness or freakish bill length.

Strawberry Poison-dart Frog, aka the Blue Jeans Frog. It's pretty damn cool to see animals in the flesh that you've only seen on nature shows for your entire life.

Moncho, the hotel's awesomely-named security guard, pointed out this pair of Spectacled Owls to us our first morning there. They had found the perfect day roost with huge overhanging leaves to keep them out of the multiple torrential downpours that happened every day and night. We saw them there 3 out of 4 days of looking.

This Scaled Pigeon was found during a flurry of lifer activity on our first morning. It ended up being the only one of the trip...cool looking bird!

Part of the hotel grounds. A mix of gardens and mature second-growth, the birding was quality.

A basilisk lizard faces off with a gang of Palm and Passerini's Tanagers. I've never seen a lizard come to a bird feeder before...bananas and plantains are in high demand down there.

Another gratuitous feeder shot...you better get used to them. Left to right, the crippling Golden-hooded Tanager, the ghastly gray Palm Tanager, and a molting Red-legged Honeycreeper.

Scarlet-rumped Cacique has basically the same exact color scheme of Passerini's Tanager (at right), but don't share many similarities otherwise. This is the only Carribean Slope site where we had this blue-eyed wonder.

The Basilisk will meet you in many places in Costa Rica. You may know this duder as the Jesus Lizard; it has the ain't-nature-fucking-amazing? superpower of being able to run across water.