#3 Hotel Quelitales and the Sunbittern March 14-16
After leaving Paraiso Lodge the second time with my Apple wallet secured in my travel pouch we headed down the mountains from 9,000 feet to about 4,000. feet. Costa Rica traffic is slow but almost everyone is patient. The roads are narrow with almost no shoulders and sometimes only wide enough for one car where the downward traffic has to yield to all the upcoming traffic. The roads are used by large transport trucks, cyclists, motorcycles and then random dogs and people. The speed is usually between 40-60km but seldom do you hit the 60 to be honest. Because of the slow speeds people pass at curves, hills and under what I thought were insane situations – 4-5 cars all passing 2-3 cars or trucks at the SAME TIME WITH CURVES! But the expectation is the opposing traffic is also going slow and will stop or at least slow down. There were a few hair-raising moments but we did not witness any accidents.
Our planned stop was to see Tropical Screech Owls in the local park in Paraiso but when we arrived all the streets appeared blocked. We realized that Saturday is market day and the park was packed with tents and people, music playing and no parking within blocks of the park. We had our suitcases with us so we opted to not stop and leave our car far from the park unattended. We have another opportunity on Monday when we have to come back through to get to our next Lodge. The next planned stop was at the Ruins in Ujjarra a nice ebird hotspot to add some new birds. The parking had two security guards so we felt fine leaving our stuff although Jerry still brought the backpack containing our laptops. Apparently we are fine with all our clothing being stolen but electronics and camera stuff are never left.
As soon as we got out of the car Merlin reported a Yellow-green Vireo. We listened and quickly had no problem locating the song – it is almost identical to our Red-eyed Vireo song and also looks the same. We spent 10 minutes looking for the bird and never seeing it. This has been the frustrating part – so many birds we are able to ID correctly to species with Merlins help but then not able to find them even when the song is repeating in front of you. Dense leaves and tall trees are the reason. But, darn it – we want to SEE the bird!
We moved on and added Common Tody Flycatcher which I saw first but then Jerry saw it later in another part of the park and got pictures. We also added Variable Seedeater, Montezuma Orpendola, Scarlet-rumped Tanager and Yellow-olive Flatbill. We spent a lovely few hours wandering the park and listening to birds before being driven out by a worker using a leaf-blower. I detest leaf blowers and after a few minutes the noise just makes me have to leave. So we never had a second chance to see the Yellow-green Vireo.
Our last stop was at the Cachi Dam 10 minutes away where a Bat Falcon pair were known to nest. It was a one lane road over the bridge with food tents on either end for tourists to stop and see the dam and have something to eat. We stopped on the far side with just one tent and parking on that side. We paid the man $1 to watch our car and walked over the bridge. There was a raptor sitting on a pole down by the dam and we were very excited thinking it was the Bat Falcon and took some pics and video and then left. But both of us were thinking that the bird we saw just did not look like a falcon and the colouring was not right for a Bat Falcon. maybe it was a female or juvie? We would have to check it later. This trip has not left me with time to research birds before we go for them and so we rely on what we remember from going through the birds before we left and really that is not much. Sure enough, that evening we checked pictures and the bird we photographed was a Gray Hawk, a lifer but still, no Bat Falcon. What a rookie mistake, the excitement , the tiredness, all compounds to make your brain switch off from asking the questions to verify a sighting. Anyway we will not dwell on it. We have another opportunity to try for the Falcon on our way back out from the lodge. We did see our first Palm Tanager at the dam as well.
We were only 10 minutes further to our lodge and the last few hundred meters were over a ridiculous rough road. See the attached video. A local explained to us that keeping the roads rough ensures that the people visiting really want to be there. If everything is readily paved and available then it will quickly be over run with “those” kinds of tourists. LOL We had to laugh that they were actively working against having too many tourists but there is some truth to the matter. There are many places world-wide experiencing too many tourists and too many problems from the overcrowding. It was nice to see that greed was not part of the equation, making a decent living was what it was all about and all the lodges we stayed at were family run.
Hotel Quelitales is in the Highlands complete with a waterfall on the property with gardens and trails to search for the many species of birds that reside there. Our cabin, the Orpendolas, was large and beautifully appointed. They also had a few covered blind areas and a covered hummingbird viewing area. We dropped our suitcases off and headed back out to explore the property.
There were now many birds that we had already seen at the last lodge so we concentrated on seeing or hearing something new. We added Dusky-capped Flycatcher, White-breasted Wood Wren, White-throated Thrush, Yellow-throated Euphonia and Yellow-bellied Elaenia. Yes, the names are often difficult and intriguing, leaving us to wonder where they came from? We walked down the road to the waterfalls and checked out the one blind and then headed to the Hummingbird blind where we sat for a bit through a rain shower and added another 4 hummingbirds to our life list.
We took another walk back to a small pond for the bird we really wanted to see, the Sunbittern, a heron with a gorgeous wing pattern in flight. We had checked the pond when we first went out but nothing was there so we went back just before dusk. Jerry saw something move into a small canal past the pond but thought it was a Green Heron. I thought nothing of it and we continued to hang there for another 20 minutes adding a Sulpher-bellied Flycatcher to our life list. We decided with the light fading to head to dinner when Jerry saw something further down the canal. A closer look revealed it to be the Sunbittern!! It was the “Green Heron’ he had seen and we almost missed it. Crazy how silly we can be sometimes – we really should have checked it the first time he saw it. Anyway, we at least get to add it to the list and hopefully we will get good photos of it over the next two days. The photo everyone wants is with its wings spread.
Another delicious dinner followed at this new lodge, not included but reasonably priced. We are not on the birding diet of one meal a day with this trip. We are eating full breakfasts and full dinners every day. It gets dark early in Costa Rica – every day is 12 hrs of sun being so close the the equator – 5:30 am to 5:30pm.
It rained a bit during the night so the morning was wet and humid and Jerry had difficulty with his camera steaming up for the first hour or so but it did finally clear as the sun came up. Immediately outside our cabin, Merlin started reporting numerous birds to us but of course we could not see them. We started systematically trying to match the calls with birds we were seeing in the trees. This got a bit frustrating as we often cannot find the bird to confirm and so we at least try to confirm the call or song. We do not add all the species that Merlin tells us it hears, if we did we would probably have another 20-30 lifers already. Our rule remains that we must hear the bird after Merlin alerts and then confirm later with ebird that it is indeed the right call for that bird. We headed in the general direction of the Sunbittern to get better pics and picked up some lifers along the way. The Sunbittern was happily feeding and Jerry got some nice shots but the crisp wing shot remained elusive for him. We worked the area around the lodge for a few hours, met up with the owner who shared some stories of the lodge and showed us some new birds as well.
Breakfast turned out to be continual birding as we bounced up to watch Montezuma Oropendolas feast on fruit while we did the same and then later an Elegant Euphonia made a brief appearance. Birders with cameras moved to open windows to catch the next beauty that showed up.
We spent the next 3 hours walking the roads again and then taking a few trails into the forest. We scanned trees high and low and listened for calls that Merlin alerted us to and we found a number of lifers on our own with each one giving us a thrill. Crimson Collared Tanager, Bay-headed Tanager, Golden-hooded Tanager, Red-faced Spinytail were awesome and we got better looks at other birds we had already seen. Jerry attempted pictures in between the leaves or over great distances but it was not easy. It was cooler in the forest and very hot and humid out on the road.
At noon we headed to our cabin for showers and a few hours to catch up on photos, figure out what birds we had seen and just rest. Jerry was feeling like a cold was coming on or maybe just some allergies. In the evening we went back out for more pictures of the Sunbittern and then walked the road again adding 4 more lifers in the same stretch we had walked 5-6 times during the day. There seems to be always something different flying through. We had our first views of Keel-billed Toucans at a distance but then they flew over us for a bit of a closer look.
Our second dinner was just as good as the first and we filled up on yummy bread and soup to start. We are finding ourselves falling asleep really early – Jerry at 8:30-9 and me just past 9 which inevitably means we are both awake at 3:30-4am. We then have a bit of time to still catch up on pics and blog notes and figure out what birds we might see or should be looking for. Jerry is already behind by a few checklists. It is daunting work when you take hundreds of pictures and you need to also figure out what bird it is you saw. Merlin is helping a lot with that although it is also not foolproof so we usually double-check with ebird pictures and I’ve used Cost Rica Bird ID Facebook to help us as well.
We were out early for our last morning and only added one lifer before breakfast, the Buff-rumped Warbler. It was only heard as it was in the next yard behind a gate and we could hear it singing and singing but no visual. Hopefully, we will get a view of one somewhere else. We had a larger turquoise and green bird flush when we walked into the blind by the small pond and wondered what it might have been. We spoke with the owner and a guide later and we all came to the conclusion it was likely a Northern Emerald Toucanet. We had heard them but not seen one yet and that view was still not very satisfactory as we did not see the bill, just the back as it flew away. Another one we hope to eventually get good views of.
We headed into breakfast and then while Jerry went to check out I finished putting things in the car and then heard a different song, I pulled Merlin out and it reported Cinnamon Becard. A lifer – I quickly scanned the trees around the car and saw a cinnamon coloured bird with its back to me. I grabbed my camera knowing that Jerry would want me to get a pic. My camera is set on automatic so focusing is a problem when trying to get a bird in a tree of moving leaves but I snapped away and also took a video just in case. Woohoo! Somehow I managed to get a picture of it! We left the hotel with plans to make stops at the Dam and the Park for the Falcon and Owl we missed on the way in.
Birding stop and Hotel Quelitales 55 more species seen 44 of them lifers