Swarming around the lodge with our van, we climbed 1200 meters over 60 km.

Just outside our room this morning we could look up for our sloth. He was still rather hiding his head, but was very stretched out. He sure is furry!

Three toed Sloth

Up on the deck at Talari, we could see some birds before breakfast:
Aracari


Shining Honeycreeper
Red Legged Honeycreeper




Green Honey-creeper





Red Legged Honeycreeper



Blue-gray Tanager



Our first travel target today was the property that used to belong to Dr. Alexander Skutch. He bought it in 1941 and from there wrote at least 30 books, including a definitive guide to the birds of Costa Rica. The place is called Los Cusingos, which is local parlance for the Fiery Billed Aracari. In a way it was a most boring morning, since we walked through the jungle with the main group, who repeatedly stopped to peer into the impenetrable leaves and to call out the names of distant flitty birds. Still, we could look at the amazing forest, with trees like the Fishtail Palm, featuring a spray of buttress roots from about three feet up the trunk, with some of the roots sporting thorns. Then there were the more well known tree types with broad flat buttresses. These were big and straight and immensely tall.

Skutch's house is still preserved on the property, with the room contents still there, including the office where he wrote his books. It's amazing how he achieved it all with such to us now crude gear.
I think Henry David Thoreau once quipped that he had a shelf of books that he had written himself, only that they were all the same book that had not sold. But in the case of Skutch, the books are all different, and they did sell!





On the wall at the cabin





A Ceiba, so tall and straight





Footing could be tricky on the trail






Cocoa Woodcreeper










Especially cameras have changed so much in 80 years!




"A Naturalist in Costa Rica" (right) is said to be well worth reading.





It was then back in the van, and over to a property facing a mountainside owned by Canadian York University. The owner of the property had bought it eighteen years ago as a cattle farm, and spent the time planting trees and restoring the land. 







Eco heros




Alex climbed the feeder and put some papaya. All sorts of colourful birds then appeared.






Speckled Tanagers







Summer Tanager


Bay Headed Tanager



Yellow Throated Toucan

This is the York mountain that was opposite us. 





Everywhere we went there was lush growth and flowers. Dodie used her camera to capture many examples. Here is a sample:





















Tomorrow the group moves to the coast. Instead of freezing at altitude or slightly gasping for breath around the elevation of Banff, we will fry at 37 degrees, maybe. Still, everyone is looking good:


 


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