Costa Rica 2013
Fifteen Years Later

January 18, 2013 - Esquinas Lodge, Tarcoles River, San Jose and Hotel Bougainvilla

Another 6 AM pre-breakfast walk, with some good birds. After breakfast, we slowly birded our way out of Esquinas through the village of La Gamba.

Then a long-ish bus ride up the coast to the Tarcoles River for a river cruise. We had lunch in the same restaurant and rode with pretty much the same boat company as we did 15 years ago. Much better birds this time, including a Boat-billed Heron, seemingly in the same roost as in 1998, but with better views.

A few notes here on Costa Rica cuisine: it's beans and rice although, in fairness, sometimes it's rice and beans. Every meal it's a part of the plate. Again, in fairness, there are different kinds of beans, cooked in different ways. And there are some very good sauces to improve the flavor. Or, if you prefer, to give the rice and beans some flavor. Especially including Lizano Salsa, a/k/a "Lizard Sauce." But breakfast, lunch and dinner: beans and rice. It won't make you forget Ecuadorian cooking.

Anyway, after a very nice cruise in the fiberglass dugouts along the Tarcoles, we drove back to San Jose through brutal traffic, strangely timed construction projects and San Jose's insane traffic congestion. As a result of two or three different traffic jams, on completely different roads, we had a late arrival and supper.

We're at the Hotel Bougainvilla, in the suburbs. Very posh. And ten acres of manicured grounds to bird tomorrow morning.

But a sad farewell to the Haennis and the Blunts. I wish we could persuade them to invest another week of leave in these trips. As it is, they will be up at 3:30 AM for the long taxi ride to the airport and a flight back to Missouri.

Birds
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Great Curassow
Wood Stork
Magnificent Frigatebird
Neotropic Cormorant
Anhinga
Brown Pelican
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Boat-billed Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
King Vulture
Osprey
Common Black-Hawk
Roadside Hawk
Gray Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk
Gray-necked Wood-Rail
Common Gallinule
Southern Lapwing
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
Northern Jacana
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Whimbrel
Least Sandpiper
Rock Pigeon
Pale-vented Pigeon
Short-billed Pigeon
White-winged Dove
Inca Dove
Ruddy Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
Smooth-billed Ani
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
White-necked Jacobin
Long-billed Hermit
Charming Hummingbird
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Black-headed Trogon
Gartered Trogon
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Ringed Kingfisher
Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Black-mandibled Toucan
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Hoffmann's Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Yellow-headed Caracara
Peregrine Falcon
Orange-fronted Parakeet
Scarlet Macaw
Orange-chinned Parakeet
Barred Antshrike
Black-hooded Antshrike
Northern Barred-Woodcreeper
Pale-breasted Spinetail
Yellow-bellied Elaenia
Paltry Tyrannulet
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Panama Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Social Flycatcher
Gray-capped Flycatcher
Tropical Kingbird
Rufous Piha
Masked Tityra
Rose-throated Becard
Southern Rough-winged Swallow
Gray-breasted Martin
Mangrove Swallow
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Rufous-naped Wren
Clay-colored Thrush
Prothonotary Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Cherrie's Tanager
Blue-gray Tanager
Palm Tanager
Golden-hooded Tanager
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Blue-black Grassquit
Variable Seedeater
Bananaquit
Streaked Saltator
Buff-throated Saltator
Orange-billed Sparrow
Black-striped Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Red-breasted Blackbird
Melodious Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
Scrub Euphonia
Thick-billed Euphonia

Roadside Hawk with a Freshly Caught Lizard

Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
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