Cerro Lodge to Hotel San Ignacio

 

From the sea back to San Jose

Our observation deck was "invaded" by another tour group, this one focused on bird photography. That meant, much more than in our group, it was festooned with two foot lenses, tripods, and $12,000 cameras. This started me thinking about what we all are actually doing here.

My thoughts rambled like this: First a chess analogy (sorry, that's how my brain works!) It used to be fun for everyone to play chess and to try to get the best moves and strategies. But chess (not to mention Go) has now been "solved" by computers, and if you want the answer to any position, the algorithm can supply it. So is chess dead?

In the analogy, we like to get the best shots of various exotic and colourful birds. But all these have already been posted in Merlin, or many other locations. If you try your best to position for the shot, and bring to bear your $12,000 rig, you may get a shot equivalent to the one on Merlin. So then, it looks like a Merlin shot. On the other hand, if conditions are difficult, or you only sprung $8,000 for your rig, then your shot will be "crappy". Who wants that?


Actually, some of this stuff could be worth $30,000 +  !!


Anyway, I think my nose was just out of joint seeing newcomers to our little birding tour world, and since size does matter in this game, mentally measuring up their focal lengths. But as for any doubts on what is this all about, as soon as I saw my next good photo op, it was as joyous a click, click as ever!

Click, click:White Throated Magpie Jay

How about this, we found a pair of nesting Macaws. Macaws nest in hollows.

Our big chance for some great shooting came as we drove down to the Tarcoles River. I remembered this from Youtubes and such from before we came - it's the spot with the crocodiles! Alex says in his usual way that you can swim in this river, but only once!


The boat tour company had a huge space, with many washrooms, a large gift shop, and many stable, covered boats. We started off more in the main river channel, where there were all sorts of large birds as well as waders along the shore. This was the kind of shooting we like. But Alex, in his way, had a trick up his sleeve. He had put us in a boat small enough to navigate the mangroves, and so once again we were staring into a leafy tangle, looking for some sort of rare hummingbird. We didn't find it, but anyway a cruise through mangroves is always fun.



Large stable boats

They are all covered

No swimming!

Chomp!

Bill, ID?

Roseate Spoonbills





Little Blue Heron

White Ibis juvenile

Tiger Heron



Black Hawk shot by Bill Rideout from our group.


Black Hawk 

Magnificent Frigate Bird male and Brown Pelican

Roof full of Vultures

Boat billed Heron

Northern Tropical Peewee

Yellow Headed Caracara




In a couple of hours, it was time to begin heading back toward San Jose, and our final night's destination. We stopped along the way at a sort of buffet, the sort where you choose foods on offer in trays behind the counter, and your plate is assembled. The things were reasonable and kind of unique, but not the best.


After we arrived at the hotel, Alex, active as always, organized a walk of the grounds, where we did nab a couple of additional species. I am coming to understand a bit of how this birding hobby works for a large class of participants: You go to a region, like a country, know to have, say, 400 species. Of these, your life list only contains 100. Therefore your chore is to see 300 species. So you may swarm around, trying to bag as many of these as possible. But perhaps some certain few are known to be rare and to exist only in a certain limited range. Then you will go there specifically and attempt to see those few specimens. That was the case this morning with the hummingbird. It exists only in 2% of Costa Rica's area, and it feeds on the flower of only one tree that lives among the mangroves. We went to one of those trees, and I was shown the only flower that happened to be on it. However I failed to photograph even the flower, let alone the bird. So that's how the advanced game goes. For us, if we see a Motmot at a feeder and get a shot, we're happy. What newbie losers!


This is our last night in Costa Rica, something we are greeting with a mixture of disappointment and relief. The program for us has been exhausting, and we will be glad to return to our restful practice of cycling 1000's of km, in the cold. In a later post, we'll review the whole thing and give some conclusions. But for now, I need to put some photos in here, so we can go attend the group "farewell dinner"! Wake up tomorrow is a 4:00 a.m., so we can begin the long slog home!

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