Category: Birds

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First 9 Birds from Tarcoles River

I still haven’t processed all the bird photos from the 2-hour, pre-breakfast float on Tarcoles River last Saturday morning. Maybe I’ll finish them tomorrow, a week after the trip to a favorite place!

Boat-billed Heron, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Cerulean Warbler, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Mealy Parrot, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Great Egret, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Green Heron,  Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
(I’ve many photos of them, but none like this front view)

Ringed Kingfisher, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
White Ibis hanging out with Black Vultures, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica

Black Vulture, Tarcoles River, Costa Rica
Wikipedia on Tarcoles River
It has been declared our most polluted river in Costa Rica, so birding may diminish here. But for now it is the closest place to my house I know of for this kind of birding and bird photography. 
No matter how high a bird flies, it has to come down for water.

MORE BIRDS TOMORROW!
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Scarlet Macaws, Lapas, Guacamayo Rojo

Scarlet Macaw flying over the mouth of the Tarcoles River at Pacific Ocean.
All Photos by Charlie Doggett, Tarcoles, Costa Rica

Scarlet Macaws were the main reason I spent a couple of nights at Carara National Park, where one of the two breeding colonies of Scarlet Macaws live, the other being at Corcovado NP and the surrounding Osa Peninsula which I visited in 2009 and got a few distant photos there. I also photographed a couple of the macaws on my 2010 and first Tarcoles River Crocodile & Birds cruise. But there were more macaws this time as June and July is the breeding season. My guide for two days here was Victor Mora Shaves of VicToursCostaRica. He is not a serious birder, but knows most of them and many of their songs or calls. And he did know we could get closer to macaws in Tarcoles Village than in the national park, thus we went there first thing Friday morning where all but one of these photos were made. We returned to Tarcoles Saturday morning for a mangrove boat tour with just me and him for a lot of other birds but no Macaws except flying way overhead. A separate post on that is coming with other bird photos. I’ll also do a post of our hike in the park for tomorrow, though it was a little disappointing compared to other parks I have visited (for the quantity of birds). Well here are some of the decent shots of Scarlet Macaws, not a single great one here, but okay and typical of shots birders get. You just can’t get close like in the zoo. But no zoo shots here!

Names used in Costa Rica are  Guacamayo Rojo  o Lapa  Note that I stayed in Hotel Villa Lapas which in English would be The House of Macaws. This artwork of Lapas is between the rest rooms off the lobby area helping define their location and name: 


The blue is Guacamayo Azul and the red Guacamayo Rojo and both are Lapas.
Hotel Villa Lapas is the closest to Parque Nacional Carara.
Problem with painting is that there are not blue & yellow macaws here!
They’re in South America and more rare than scarlet. Blue or Hyacinth
Macaws are even more rare, but did live in Central America once.

Scarlet Macaw, a typical shot in the trees.  Tarcoles, Costa Rica.
The one on right is upside down, also common.
Scarlet Macaw “loving couple” – they mate for life! Tarcoles, Costa Rica.
“Double-Dating” with one upside down!  🙂  Tarcoles, Costa Rica
Scarlet Macaws in different light – Tarcoles, Costa Rica

Scarlet Macaws above the Tarcoles River Mouth, Tarcoles, Costa Rica
Colorful birds! And beautiful flying!

Scarlet Macaws inside Carara National Park, Costa Rica.
Photo made across pond with cell phone through spotting scope.
Better photo ops with the fishermen in Tarcoles!

Rainforest Alliance article “About Scarlet Macaws.”  in “Kids Corner” 

Color is a power which directly influences the soul.
~Wassily Kandinsky
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Tarcoles Village

Dog on Porch Roof, Tarcoles, Costa Rica

Tarcoles Village is where the Tarcoles River goes into the Pacific Ocean near Jaco and Carara National Park. It is where I have taken four boat trips on the river including the one today. It is where we got our good photos of Scarlet Macaws yesterday morning before going into the park where they are even more difficult to photograph. (Sharing those photos in tomorrow’s post.) And it is just a typical Tico small town, quiet, lazy, hot, and humid with sights like above and below before you get on your boat for the cruise. 

A boy brings in part of the morning catch at 8:30.
You can buy fresh fish along the road.
He caught those fish in a boat like this.
Then repair the nets for tomorrow’s catch.

The main road through Tarcoles.

And the only sign seen more than Coca Cola,
Costa Rica’s own, locally made, Imperial Beer.

For you Nashville readers, Kevin Hunter has ridden through this village with me for our birding/croc cruise. I came here two mornings on this trip; Friday for Macaw photos and Saturday for photos of other birds from a private boat. Someday I will just come and photograph the village. 

Growing up in a small, hot, humid town like this in South Arkansas near Louisiana and Mississippi brings me to a quote by Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird.  Life in Tarcoles is like this:
“Maycomb was a tired old town, even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow, it was hotter then. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon after their three o’clock naps. And by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frosting from sweating and sweet talcum. The day was twenty-four hours long, but it seemed longer. There’s no hurry, for there’s nowhere to go and nothing to buy…and no money to buy it with.” 
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
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Tropical Kingbird

Tropical Kingbird, on one of my Yellow Bell trees, Atenas, Costa Rica, by Charlie Doggett

I’ve seen them nearer the coast but today is the first time I have noticed one here. The yellow breast makes one think of the Kiskadee and several flycatchers, but the short beak, different head markings, and v-tail label this guy! The next is not as good a shot, but fun to catch any bird in flight! Photographed from my balcony/deck/patio, whatever.

Tropical Kingbird just barely caught in flight! Atenas, Costa Rica
Charlie Doggett

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Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Atenas, Costa Rica   (Cool hair-do, huh?)

Yellow-bellied Elaenia,  Atenas, Costa Rica
Both shots from my breakfast table on the balcony

For the birders seeing this, I studied dozens of photos of both the Yellow-bellied Elaenia and the Dusky-capped Flycatcher before I determined this identification. I’m satisfied but never positive about my identification of birds, especially these grayish tan ones! The breast is much more yellow than these two photos show, which is a factor. He would not face me!

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A Scorpion in the Sink & A Lizard on the Wall

Four-lined Ameiva or Four-lined Whiptail found only in
Costa Rica and our two neighbor countries of Panama & Nicaragua
Okay, this one’s on the floor, but I tend to notice them more on the walls
They crawl in under closed door, so no keeping them out!

Yeah, I told a lot of people I was going to live in the rainforests of Costa Rica. Thus some envisioned me in the pith helmet fighting off wild creatures and vines overtaking my house. Then I start showing photos of my apartment and its great views and four months later photos of one of the nicest houses I have lived in anywhere. One friend in Nashville wrote, “It doesn’t look like you are roughing it!” And for me who loved camping for years, I am not! But let me tell you of a few things that some of you might consider “roughing it:”

BUGS
As I type I’m watching a strange one crawl up the wall next to my desk. Each morning one of the first things I do is sweep out the bugs from my house. Even with screens they manage to get in and most die during the night. It’s the lights that attract them and even though I eat most meals outside on my balcony, I try to avoid eating out after dark when the lights attract hordes of insects. This was especially true last month with the “May Bugs” (called June Bugs in the states). They were everywhere. No night lights! If you don’t want to attract bugs! And yes, I get bug bites regularly, not knowing what bit me. I use Cortisone cream or Caladryl Lotion to treat the itch. 
     The scorpion at the kitchen sink was a little scary, but my can of spray Raid ended him quickly. No photo! The rain is sending in more millipedes which is aggravating to me. And now the houseflies seem to be increasing. But it is all the other flying things that I have brushed off several times while typing this that keep me busy shushing. I even had a beautiful dragonfly in the house the other day who wouldn’t shush out. He was on the floor dead the next morning. I had a photo of him, but lost it. During the day I leave the front door and sliding glass doors open and just live and let live! It is coexisting with bugs when you live in any tropical country! Bugs were different in the apartments. I wrote once about a Praying Mantis and a Walking Leaf Katydid and the aggravating Millipedes.  
LIZARDS
The lizards in garden are bigger than what come
in the house – at least so far!  🙂

They are good things you want because they eat bugs and especially mosquitoes when they come.

They don’t bother me and in fact I’m glad to have them! It is just not like living in Tennessee! It is more like living in The Gambia, but easier!

SNAKES
They are here, but I have not encountered one in either house yet! One of my neighbors here and one at the apartment have seen them close to their door. Hope not because both my doors are open all day long when I’m here. 

BIRDS
I’ve had two birds inside, both to leave fairly soon. The last one was a hummingbird of all things! Plus many on my deck or balcony. But you know that I love the birds!
NOISE
The happiest people in the world are not quiet about it! Ticos have fun and often with loud music or loud bands. I hear fewer here than in the apartments, but some. I don’t have the highway truck noise here that we had at apartments and the roosters seem further away. BUT, dogs barking are just as bad here with some lady living in Roca Verde with an animal rescue house full of dogs. Ugh! Then the people who don’t know how to manage their burglar alarms and we regularly hear them going off (like the boy who cried “wolf” too many times!). And oh yeah, the high school is on this side of town, so there is the noise of ball games, concerts and maybe parties or dances on weekends. But overall, it is quieter in the house than the apartments. My only traffic is the local residents and people working for them. 
SMELLS
Walking through town with all the flowers is often a sweet-smelling thing, but I wrote earlier about the misuse of “greywater” and possibly other sewage that some Ticos pour into the street gutters and town streams along with garbage piled on some streets that is not pleasant. So no place is perfect! Infrastructure is part of the problem here, but in a gated community, it is really more like living in the states with no smells, good services and infrastructure. And by the way, Roca Verde is not all American expats! There are many Ticos living here and as many, if not more, European and Canadian expats as Americans. It is very international and Spanish the most spoken language!

INFRASTRUCTURE
This is what really bugs some Americans because we are a developing country with roads, sidewalks, utilities, and other services not quite up to par with 21st Century United States (Like “Smells” above). As I have said before, some things about living here remind me of growing up in El Dorado, Arkansas in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. And there is something pleasant about the simplicity of a small town (el pueblo). Glad I chose both Costa Rica and Atenas!

And I have never yet considered myself “roughing it!” I love it here! Living here is like traveling and my favorite travel quote is by Mark Twain in his 1872 book titled, of all things, Roughing It. From my personal website travel page:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

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Blue-breasted Hummingbird, Great Southern White, & New Plants!

Blue-breasted Hummingbird grounded on my balcony.
Another first for me. He did fly away later. Guess he was resting.

Blue-breasted Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

They are in my garden, on my balcony, and I’ve even had one fly inside the house! This is the third species of Hummingbird I have photographed here. Yesterday I posted a Cinnamon Hummingbird and my first week here was a Blue-tailed Hummingbird. They and the butterflies are little flying jewels around my house! And below is the butterfly in my garden this afternoon:

Great Southern White Butterfly on my Tutti Frutti today!
You can also see where the leaf-cutter ants are eating it!
I’m treating the ants with Mirex-S!

Today I also planted some new plants in my garden after purchasing them in Spanish (with the help of my driver Nelson). My gardener will make some more improvements, but I couldn’t wait and went plant shopping today! 

 
Philodendron Xanadu, 6 plants added to garden. Leaves will fill in, in time.
I wanted to put them together in a blank spot, but only about 3 inches of dirt
there above my septic tank cover. So, I have to wait on ground cover.
The little light green leaves bottom right is my ground cover, Pilea.

Polka Dot plants were added along my back walk where there is more shade.
I think these are a type of philodendron too. Can’t remember what called in states.

A very full and fun day between my two Spanish lesson days! Doing what I enjoy!

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Ash-throated Flycatcher

Ash-throated Flycatcher is a rare migrant in Costa Rica.
Here one is in my Yellow Bells Tree at end of balcony, at end of rain.

Zoomed in a little you see the hint of yellow on breast like the other flycatchers.

“The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.” 
― J.M. Barrie, The Little White Bird

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Inca Dove

Inca Dove on my balcony at breakfast this morning.
Looks like a wood carving doesn’t he? 

Then when he flies you see the rufous wings. A fun new bird for me.

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A Typical Day?

Ate lunch around the corner from these trees at the Catholic Church Atenas

There probably is no such thing as a “typical” day in anyone’s life, never-the-less mine! But this relaxed Monday in Atenas, Costa Rica seems worth reporting as almost one for me.

As always, I was awakened early by the birds singing, but stayed in bed until about 6:30 when I got up for a shower, breakfast of fresh fruit, nuts, cereal, and some Costa Rica Coffee, while overlooking a vista of the Atenas Valley and mountains, and watching birds in my trees. I put all the trash in one big bag making it easier to take to the gate and put in our big metal basket where we place only bagged trash for pickup.

With a backpack of Spanish learning materials, sunglasses, and my Panama Hat today (David calls it my “bonita sombrero.”) I walk the 1.1 mile under a sunny blue sky at around 80 degrees to my Spanish class in town. It is always a fun 2+ hours with two new students today and the temporary loss of others who are traveling for awhile. After class I walk back to my old apartments, Hacienda La Jacaranda, to return two cups I accidentally packed with my stuff and pick up my last electric bill there.

Then I walk to the center of town to the Post Office to see if a letter has arrived that was sent 4 weeks ago from the states. It has not. Make a note to tell people to use the Miami PO Box to get mail to me quicker! Then two blocks away (or here we would say 200 meters) to the Vargas & Sons Hardware for a couple of items I need for the house. Then I decide to eat lunch out today since I have not in awhile, preparing most of my meals at home. I was going to try a new place but it is closed on Monday, so I go to my old standby Tico restaurant, La Carreta.

For a little over $5 I get a casado (plate lunch) of fish, beans, rice, mixed veggies, and instead of my usual green salad, I choose the Picadillo de vainica y zanahoria, (right click on site for English Translation) always liking to try something new and it was great! Its a green beans and carrots relish or salad with delicious seasoning, my favorite item on the plate today. As always here, the meal was served on a banana leaf in a tray. But of course that was not all for this sweet tooth guy! For just the second time for me I ordered a Lechemulla which is their version of the Horchata rice & milk drink, but they use vanilla ice cream instead of milk which adds to the cinnamon flavoring and wow is it good! During all this delicious eating, I’m both watching people walk down the street and reading more in the lengthy Lord of the Rings book. I finished both the Happier than a Billionaire books which were fun, but I’ve had enough of Nadine & Rob for awhile! And yes, the Rings books are heavy and lengthy, but also some great writing and story-telling! My Kindle Fire says the typical reading time for it is 27 hours and I’m about half-way through.

Then I walk all the way back past Su Espacio, where my Spanish class took place, to CoopeAtenas supermarket for my little shopping list and pay the electric bill. While finishing there it begins to rain really hard. So I call a cab for the trip home with enough groceries that walking would have been tough anyway. It was about $2 for the taxi.

It was a good long rain, more than usual, that I’m sure made my new flower garden happy. Sun is shining now. After writing this, I have some bookkeeping to do, then  may read or try to photograph birds from the balcony or walk with camera through the neighborhood. By then a sunset snack and more reading or time on the computer before bed. I haven’t watched a single TV show here and no Netflix movies since moving to new house. Real life is more fun! Plus I’m working on three different books and about to have my shipped boxes delivered, so never a dull moment! And I have done very little of the traveling around Costa Rica I expected to be doing by now. Maybe soon!

I’m looking at the Strangler Fig Tree outside my office window and continue to be amazed that I really am living in Costa Rica! It is not paradise or perfect by any means, but it brings me more joy and relaxation than any place I have ever lived. The rain just cooled it off, the birds are singing happily while I smile and think to myself what a wonderful decision it was to move to Costa Rica! Pura Vida!