13-20 June 1998

by Larry Gardella

On June 13, Andrea and I flew to Costa Rica for a one-week beach and birding vacation.  I tried posting a complete trip list, but my computer and modem are apparently too old and slow to transmit that much information.  I will try soon to post it from another computer.

We stayed 5 nights at the beach resort Blue Bay at Papaguyo, so I did most of my birding within a kilometer or 2 of the beach.  I recorded 70 species there, fully half of the birds for the whole trip.

A morning trip to Palo Verde brought many waders, including a jabiru, but the best birds came from Rincon de la Vieja.  We were there 48 hours.  For me, the last 4 were the best.  I got up early enough to leave the lodge by 4:30, hit the park by 5, the cutoff for the crater at 5:10 and the 4-kilometer sign by 6:10.  I had gained 2300 feet and was able to watch birds such as black guan, common bush-tanager, mountain robin, black-faced solitaire and emerald toucanet before heading downhill.

Larry Gardella (Montgomery)
Tanagerlfg@aol.com