Sevegre Lodge - Resplendent Quetzals

The first objective for today was to spot the Resplendent Quetzal. There is a spot near here where the Quetzals are known to come every morning to dine on miniature avocados. The only thing is, the Quetzals dine early, from sunrise - about 5:30 a.m. until about 7:00. This spot is known to every guide in the region, and consequently quite a crowd can form at the conveniently trampled viewing spot.

5 a.m., you gotta be nuts. Even the laid on coffee was cold and not ready to go.

Steve at the lodge, with Quetzal poster, does seem ready to go.

The spot was here, up a hill somewhere. The Quetzals theoretically like those horizontal perches.

Hopeful birders

All of the  crowd would have arrived on some sort of tour bus, and this of course included us. I am feeling quite ambivalent about this. Normally we look on tour bus crowds with disdain, but here we have put ourselves in a situation where we are equally gormless as the rest, just being ferried from one activity to the next. On the other hand the luxury of food and accommodation and transportation and information all readily on hand is quite a novelty and is enjoyable, though I would not want to get used to it, if perhaps even repeat it.

Anyway, there we were at dawn, staring into the forest. At first nothing happened, but then a male Quetzal exited the forest and flew over the crowd, chittering at us. Maybe he did not like tours either?  Next, after a while, we had a repeat of our guide Alex's standard performance: "Hey guys, look look, I got it!! Come see, just by my pointer, get it get it!" He then set up his scope, and sure enough there it was in all its glory. But that is not to say I could find it in the camera, and nor could Dodie, at first. But we did get something, by the time Alex declared time to go. We started to walk down the hill, but Alex glanced back and and waaa, went back into his standard routine! This time Dodie saw it and even I saw it, in the cameras! So here is what we have:

First sighting. Male

Clearly a male, colours slightly enhanced in the computer.

I seem to have joined the cult!

On the way down the hill, we triumphant birders also shot this Spotted Wood Quail

When we got back to the lodge, the day had not really begun yet, for normal folks. But the lodge did have a nice buffet breakfast laid on. Unfortunately, my digestion is still totally upset, ever since La Selva, and all I could eat was some fruit and toast, and ok, a little bit of nice looking cheese.

Ther non-stop itinerary then continued as we took a lift up to Batsu Gardens. This is another of the operations that combine a restaurant with a bird viewing area. In this case the restaurant while still up a hill, is at a lower level than the viewing. To get to the viewing we had to park the tour bus and switch to smaller vehicles. From the viewing platforms, trails ran higher on the mountain, and we gave these a try as well. But the platform was great, with a good roof, chairs, and feeders to look at. Unlike other spots, like Cope's, there were not swarms of birds, but rather a steady supply of visitors. This kind of slow feed meant that you could sit calmly for hours, absorbing the arrivals and departures. The other model is the overwhelming not knowing where to shoot first.

Here is a bit of what we saw. (Once again, this is not the whole list, and we will need to work on the ID's). This section is all shots taken by Dodie - thanks to Susan Carpenter for the camera!

The environment by the Quetzals:

At Batsu Gardens:

The Savegre River runs through it.

The Sevegre

Our way to get up the mountain

Trail system on the mountain

Ther "bunny" trail

We are off on a mountain trail

Invitation to hug an 800 year old tree

Many trees blow down due to their shallow roots

Jungle walk

Our guides

Viewing platform up the mountain

Some of the forest is cleared for orchards

Very steep mountain road

Steve rides down the mountain

We have been totally impressed by the quality of organisation from our company, Costa Rica Focus, including the knowledge (and perfect language ability) of the guide, the information about where we are going, and when plus why, and the coordination with the various restaurants and accommodations, that have been universally superb. So this time we descended to the Batsu Gardens restaurant, which featured top quality food and service. I was feeling a little better, and went for the local rainbow trout, plus superb raspberry cheescake,and  a rosemary and cinnamon tea infusion. I would pay for this later, because I am not actually well. As an example of the level of service, at this place in particular, it happened that the zoom dial on my camera began to stick. I asked the proprietor (a family member of the original founders of the valley) if he had any very very light lubricant. He came up with WD-40, but also took the time to check the internet, and to advise me not to use it. I countered with the idea of not using even a drop but just a moistened Kleenex. So he went off and returned with one of his wife's makeup pads. See if you get that kind of service in France!

Lunch at Batsu. The trout is under the avocado, and there are potatoes under the trout.

From Batsu, seeing the relatively feeble nature of not only us but of some others in the group, the company specially laid on two jeeps, to boost us up the mountain, where there is a network of hiking trails. The jeeps were of course a help, but the ride still very rough. The seats were arranged on either side of the cargo beds, and Dodie was really at risk of being "thrown off the back of the truck."

Now, although there was a viewing platform at one point, we were on rough mountain trail, though again the company by-passed  the longest and steepest, in favour of the "bunny trail". And here we shifted to the Grampies' not so favourite mode, the "Guys, guys, guys, look) in which only those with powerful binoculars had much of a chance. Still, a mountain forest walk - cool! And though this was not a rainforest, it was a cloud forest. and the canopy was way way up there. 

Quick note on binoculars. We have never been into birding this way, though we do own a small pair, that we didn't bring. The gold standard seems to be Swarovski. I looked through a pair, and wow, you see tons more and much clearer than in my camera. And as an example of the amazing service on the tour, one of the participants somehow decided she needed a pair of  Swarovski.  So Alex phoned a distributor friend of his, and magically in the middle of nowhere while passing near San Jose the other day, our bus stopped and here were the binoculars. Alex also stick handled the money transfer. The lady got a discount too, because the binoculars had just come back from being at a show and were slightly used, $USD 2500. As far as we could see, the money transfer was handled quickly and smoothly. For better or worse, on this luxury kind of tour amounts like that are no big deal.

Alex had the idea of going back to Batsu for dinner. Ordinarily going again to such a first class place would be great. But I declared myself too sick to eat anything. And Dodie, hungry or not (mostly not, because of the great lunch) took the chance to dive into bed. I bet Alex found all kinds of new birds on the way over to the restaurant. Oh well!

Tomorrow is another big day, as we transfer to another zone of this amazing country. But in truth we are getting exhausted. All this intense luxury touring is way harder than cycling. For example, as we saw from tonight, just having to eat all the great food is harder than nipping into the supermarket for some meagre grub. I guess I admire for their stamina/or pity rich people who have to live like this all the time.

Before we leave today, a few more shots, a selection as seen by Steve:

Stained glass at the lodge

Near the river