Birding trip on May 14-15
I am bugged to post something and I really don't have much!

The outing was my first with the Birding Club of Costa Rica. For those who know me, I am not much of a "social" birder and have never enjoyed the club scene.
What a pleasant surprise I had here! Even though it was the first meeting, I can say that it was really nice. Nice people, nicely organised, lovely place and good birding. I will be active with the club for sure!

The outing was to an upmarket lodge/hotel about 60km NW from home, at an altitude of 1700m. Primary & secodary rainforest, and open veld areas provided a pretty good variety. I have to mention that on any single location, I have never seen so many insects drawn to the lights at night in my life. It was simply amazing to just stand by any light and watch what is coming. Having only started with the insect collection, I was totally unprepared and without any means of taking any, but well, ..boer maak 'n plan... and I managed to bring back one borer (long horn), one click beetle, two scarabs, and one fancy catydid with super antennae!

I attach the writing of the bird club (Tico Tweeter) with the list of bird seen for interest.
As this was a birding club trip, I did not bother much with shooting pics, I was really just enjoying the birding and I managed to pick up 10 lifers on this trip!!.
The album is minute and not much to look at, but better than nothing....no comments on the hopeless quality of the Jacamar please! it was taken with Shir's little Nikon at full zoom handheld!



Tico Tweeter
The Newsletter of the Birding Club of Costa Rica
Vol. 17, No. 5
May, 2011

Lessons in Listening
Villa Blanca May 14-15
Our experiment in “up scaling” our usual standards of accommodation did not disappoint. The Villa Blanca Resort in the Los Angeles Cloud Forest is a place you can take your most demanding guest, or go to renew your vows in the beautiful chapel on the hill. We arrived Saturday morning to coffee and sweets, and a good variety birds. The very first sighting was of a Black-thighed Grosbeak. Then, a lovely Blue-and-gold Tanager, a lifer for some of us, joined the parade of Silver-throated, and Common Bush - and Olive Tanagers feeding from fruiting trees just off the restaurant terrace. The only disappointment was to learn that Patrick had come down with a fever and flu and would not be joining us. With the help of Warner, one of the hotel guides who worked with us for ½ hour that first morning, and Roy, another guide who pinch- hit the rest of the time, we were able to see and listen to a good variety of birds during our stay.
However, for three hours on Saturday morning we were on our own to see what we could find. Eight of us struck out on the self guided trail with Susan Blank gamely carrying her new scope and the rest of us balancing the frequent focusing of binoculars with the frequent references to our field guides. The trail had a section with hummingbird feeders that offered us great looks at a family of Green-Crowned Brilliants, a Green Hermit and Violet Saberwings. We heard the Slaty-backed Nightingale Thrush and the Black- faced Solitare everywhere, but didn’t get a good look at either that morning. However, fluffy, baby, Gray-headed Chacalacas stole the show from a very large peccary that was along the same path, and we had good sightings of Scarlet- thighed Dacnis, Green Honey-creepers, and Bay- headed Tanagers while listening to a Laughing Falcon in the distance.
The operative phrase for this trip was “listen to”. After a productive morning by ourselves on the self-guided trail, we went with Roy onto some restricted paths deep into the secondary forests. Roy is not as facile with the binoculars as he is with his mouth and ears. So we had “lessons in listening” to the forest. There were long periods of quiet, (believe it or not!) after which he would point out the songs he was picking up. And often we were rewarded with a great sighting after Roy called in a bird, such as: the Scale-crested Pygmy Tyrant, the Tufted Flycatcher and the Rufous -tailed Jacamar. Roy was also able to pick up the scent of “pigs” (peccaries) and “cats” (jaguars) as we were walking in the dense understory.
We had an interesting debate about the sighting of a Rufous Mourner. It is not on the Villa Blanca bird list, the habitat is a bit off, but with some extra research and consulting, we were all pretty sure we had added a new bird to the list.
Our stay ended on Sunday morning after another three hours of birding with Roy, a quick introduction to the Inbio butterfly research station, a big breakfast, and then, an impressive and informative talk by Jim, the General Manager of the hotel about the various sustainable practices the Greentique hotels (Si Como No and Aguila de Osa) have implemented. We learned a lot, and it was a good way to end a very successful trip.
-- Lyn Statten
Participants: Lyn Statten and Fred Boden, Susan and Landy Blank, Laurie Patching and Jean Odle (friends of the Blank’s), Ann Antkiw, Penny Houghton, Shirlene Aguilar, Dewald Reiners, Sara Clark, and Myrna and Bill Draper
Bird List: 108 species total.

Crested Guan
Gray-headed Chachalaca
Black Vulture
Barred Hawk
American Swallow-tailed Kite
Laughing Falcon
White-tipped Dove
Short-billed Pigeon

Brown-hooded Parrot
White-crowned Parrot
Squirrel Cuckoo
White-collared Swift
Vaux’s Swift
Violet Sabrewing
Green-crowned Brilliant
Green Thorntail
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Green Hermit
Violet-crowned Woodnymph
Purple-throated Mountain-Gem
Coppery-headed Emerald
Orange-bellied Trogon
Rufous-tailed Jacamar
Smoky-brown Woodpecker
Emerald Toucanet
Acorn Woodpecker
Golden-olive Woodpecker
Spotted Barbtail
Red-faced Spinetail
Spotted Woodcreeper
Plain Antvireo
Slaty Antwren
Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant
White-throated Spadebill
Western Wood-Pewee
Yellowish Flycatcher
Tufted Flycatcher
Rufous Mourner
Dusky-capped Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Brown Jay
Blue and white Swallow
House Wren
Ochraceous Wren
Gray-breasted Wood-Wren
Slaty-backed Nightingale-Thrush-h
Black-faced Solitaire-h
Mountain Thrush
Clay-colored Thrush
Tropical Parula
Slate-throated Redstart
Bananaquit
Common Bush-Tanager
Silver-throated Tanager
Blue and Gold Tanager
Blue-gray Tanager
Bay-headed Tanager
Scarlet-thighed Dacnis
Carmiol’s Tanager
Buff-throated Saltator
Variable Seedeater
Blue-black Grassquit
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch
Black-striped Sparrow
Black-thighed Grosbeak
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Melodious Blackbird


Click on the album and enjoy
D

Villa Blanca birding trip

ORCHIDS!

This post does not really belong here, but I will share it because of the stunning flowers.

I received a call from one of Shirlene's students while she was at work one day.
The lady invited us to visit her house to see the orchids in bloom.

The house is very close to ours, about a kilometer down our main road...
but the garden is something like a light year away from anything I could dream of!

Click on the image below and enjoy the shots I took on the visit!

Orquídeas Costa Rica

La Casa nueva

As I promised, this is the first post of the house as we progress, excluding the kitchen which is in a seperate post.
The pictures really tells the story, so I am keeping the post short.
Pozos is an area with traditionally huge stands and where you still see horses and cows every day, sometimes having to wait for a farmer moving his cows down the road to new grazing. This of course gives the area a laid-back farm feel.
The house is situated in a little dead-end with only 10 houses.
More pics will follow.
Enjoy.
CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW TO GO TO THE ALBUM

La Casa en Pozos de Santa Ana

La Casa nueva - la cocina

I arrived in San José, Costa Rica - "my new home", on the 7th November 2010..this time around I am here to stay.
The start of a new life.

If you have not read the previous posts, please do.

After two and one half years of planning, thinking, wondering, daring, more planning and then some planning, I am home.
The way I arranged my life before proved to be quite good, and for that reason I started the "new life" on the same principles...
mistake one....
Sit back, relax with a michelada...think...why did you decide to change...the new life calls for a different approach, a different way of thinking, and I really like this.

The first 4 weeks after arrival were absorbed by doing the mediocre "musts" like residence application, buy wheels,
and of course, buy a house, the one I found on the internet proved to be just perfect (with a LOT of help from Shirlene)
Shir went to see the place before I arrived and did all the checking and negotiation with the then owners. What a magic
wife I have!, I cannot think how I would have managed without the help from Shir.

Driving west from San José the road winds down a little escarpment to Santa Ana which has a lovely village atmosphere, and is also quite warmer than SJ. The house is situated in Pozos de Santa Ana which could be described as a "suburb" of Santa Ana.
It is a rather typical "Tico" house - referring to the building style, and is in a very good condition overall. The only disaster area for me was the kitchen...revamp?? I don't think so, try a complete re-do!

I started work on the house with the help of Shir's brother Pedro to prepare firstly the kitchen and then the rest. The new kitchen wil be fitted by Muebles La Robert, a nearby local business on the 12th of Jan. so I have to be ready before then.

It is both exciting and daunting to put everything together, like finding the appliances we want, fittings needed for the re-vamp and even simple stuff like basic tools needed (my stuff from SA will only arrive in a month or two) in a strange place where you don't know the shops and suppliers, and have to do everything in Spanish.

Today the kitchen was finished and ready for installation. I have been taking photos as the work progressed and am posting the kitchen work apart from the rest of the house. The house album will follow soon!
CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW TO GO TO THE ALBUM

La cocina

Hasta luego!

A New Chapter in my Life

June 2010 was the start of a new chapter in my life.

After the pretty much fairy tale meeting and relationship with Shirlene for 2 years, we decided to change the amazing relationship for marriage. Living 7500km apart was not an option anymore, and as I have already made the decision to move to Costa Rica, it was logical to get married in San José.

With lots of help from friends and family, all the arrangements was made, and on the 25th of June the wedding took place at the lovely offices of the lawyer who married us (a very close friend of Shirlene), Don Arnoldo.
Afterwards, the small group of family and friends moved to "BBQ Los Anonos" a superb restaurant venue in Escazu for a dinner/reception.

The following morning Shir and myself left for our short honeymoon to our most special beach location on the south Pacific - Playa Ballena - (Whale beach). It is a bit dismal to have only a weekend honeymoon, but she has her business to run, and I have to get back to mine in SA.
BUT......we will be having our real honeymoon next year....two weeks in Cuba.

As always, look at the wedding pics in the Picasa show.

La Boda

Hasta luego

Welcome again,

As promised, an update of what is happening to me.

I just returned from my December holiday in Costa Rica and it really was the most amazing holiday of my life. From the flight there to the return home, just pure pleasure!

I left SA on Dec. 15 flying Delta airlines via Atlanta. Knowing that I had a full day (8 am to 7 pm) waiting for my connection to Costa Rica, I made contact through Birdingpal.com with Darlene Moore in Atlanta, and she agreed to take me birding for a few hours.

This turned out as the most wonderful start for my trip, and I would like to thank Darlene right now! We met on arrival at the airport and she took me some 20 miles south of there to a very nice wetland area. Very successful birding, I ended up with 42 lifers for the few hours.

Then on to San José, capital of Costa Rica where Shirlene was waiting for me at the airport.

What a delight! it's been two months odd since Buenos Aires.

From there to the hotel to sleep, after 41 hours of flights and birding.

The next day I was showed around SJ and took a day-trip to Cartago area (the old capital).

The 19th we left for Arenal volcano and later the pacific coast. Shir planned this trip after I told her the main points I would like to see, and she really did a fantastic job, the itinerary was PERFECT!!

After Arenal we drove to Guanacaste province, more specific Liberia, where Shir's mom lives, and also where she is opening the restaurant - Jicaro café. I designed the logo for it, and I am acquiring a small share in the business.

Staying at a small hotel in Brasalito on the pacific coast, we went on a afternoon cruise on "Manta Ray" - a nice big catamaran. This was lovely, and I had a chance to snorkel in the pacific! On returning to land, we had a real manta ray playing close to the boat!

We returned to SJ on the 24th, early enough to pick up some essentials, and then the Christmas dinner at Kata's house (Shir's sister), and as EVERYTHING else, it was to perfection. The 25th was recovery time and some more.

We were picked up by Alex for the "real" birding part of the trip in Sarapiqui, in the Caribbian slope (north-eastern lowlands). Birding with Alex was part of the original planning way back in May, when I planned the July trip (read more below). This was again a super time to say the least!

Alex returned us to SJ on the 30th and after some more good times with family and new friends, I flew back on Shir's birthday, the 1st of Jan...sorry about that mi amor.

All I can say now.....what a country! - ¡estoy impresionado!

I wish you all the best for 2009

Hasta luego

D

Enjoy the slideshow, click on it for more options.

Buenos Aires! meeting Shirlene in Tango Town!!

Bienvenido a Buenos Aires!  -  Welcome to Buenos Aires!

Buenos Aires - what a place to be!! 

And eventually Shirlene and myself met!

We decided to meet in Buenos Aires, it is about half-way 

between Costa Rica and South Africa, and it sounded nice, 

exotic and romantic! We spent a week doing our own thing, 

and what a week it was!!!!!

For those who don't know, Shirlene is from Costa Rica and 

we have been in constant contact for about six months. 

I was to meet her in real life when I was visiting Costa Rica 

in July past. The trip then turned out a mega disaster, 

and I returned home after being stranded in Brazil for 

two days. 

But that is history and we certainly made up for that 

during the week in BA!!

Enjoy the slideshow below, or if you want a better view, 

click it, and mess around by yourself!

Easter weekend visit to Ithala

The long weekend I had the opportunity to visit Ithala game reserve in KwaZulu/Natal. Last time I was there was way back in 1995, and what a pleasant surprise. I had more time to explore this time around and although nearly winter, the birding was quite good - even picked up a new lifer!
Some spectacular scenic views and very good game viewing. Must go back there in summer.