Last Day
Trip Start
Feb 14, 2003
1
22
Trip End
Mar 07, 2003
Cahuita, Province of Limon, Costa Rica
Friday, March 7, 2003
We then walked out of the grounds of Aviarios, as we had heard a fair bit of bird song from across the road, whilst walking the trails. There is a small shop/snack bar called Pulperia Las Brisas just opposite the entrance and a dead tree behind it held a pair of Long-tailed Tyrants - another target bird which, though apparently quite common, had eluded us until then. A pair of Black-crowned Tityras were also in this tree and with the Blue-headed Parrots that flew in, we were suddenly on 299 species. More puzzling were a pair of Woodpeckers using a hole in this tree, presumably as a nest hole. We looked at these birds for quite some time. With strongly contrasting black and white facial markings, Black-cheeked Woodpecker was ruled out. We took fairly extensive notes on these birds but on checking the field guide over breakfast both candidates seemed unlikely, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker because it is a rare winter visitor and does not breed in Costa Rica, and Acorn Woodpecker, which these birds most closely resembled, because they are described as a bird of middle and upper elevations occasionally straying down to 3000 feet. It was only when we got back to the UK and listened to our tapes that an almost throw away comment “err … pale eye” allowed us to completely rule out the Sapsuckers (and indeed every other woodpecker species found in Costa Rica except for Pale-billed, which is much larger and probably unmistakable). Unless there is a very similar species that has recently colonised Costa Rica, these were Acorn Woodpeckers. A rather unexpected 300th species.
In truth we had forgotten to include both Least Bittern and Common Gallinule in our records, so we had actually comfortable past the 300 mark that morning, and we had a few species that we thought we might eventually identify, but we left Aviarios believing that we had seen 299 species, with a ‘plane to catch and a real desire to see another allegedly common bird, Eastern Meadowlark.
The Dutch birder we’d met had told us that he had seen this species near the bus stop to the Lankester Gardens in Paraiso so we thought we’d try and find this location. The drive back to the Valle Central was quite easy and we stopped for lunch at the first restaurant after the Braullio Carillo NP, hoping that there might be a few birds in the area - there weren’t. We then missed the turn off on to a road that should have past San Jose to the east and ended up driving right into the middle of the capital. We spent an unbelievable two hours trying to find our way towards Cartago/Paraiso before deciding that we risked missing our flight and turning back. The traffic was horrendous and road signs non-existent so we navigated by the sun and after a number of wrong turns finally found a motorway which we followed for ages before finally finding a sign for the airport.
Our final experience in Costa Rica was at the airport itself. Our car rental company gave us a ride to Departures and as soon as we got out we were surrounded by people wanting to sell us exit visas. We asked our driver if this was normal and he said it was, so we parted with about $30. The immigration official at the entrance took these visas and said they were probably fakes (they are being sold within about 5 metres of the door!) but after a rather unscientific scrutiny allowed us in. We had intended to sort out our hand luggage in the airport but were given no opportunity to do so as we were directed straight to the check-in desk. This meant that we took our binoculars and field guides with us in our hand luggage but had no warm clothing for the flight. Hardly the end of the world but a minor inconvenience that could easily have been avoided with advance notice.
