Costa Rica, a nostalgic view

[moloch05]

Greetings everyone,

It seems hard for me to fathom, but 30 years ago, I was a grad student in Costa Rica. I just looked back at my field notes and realized that 30 years ago today, I saw my first ever Bothrops asper as it crawled across a clearing in front of the dorm/dining hall of La Selva. I ventured to Costa Rica first as a student in the O.T.S. program and secondly for a short research project. The course took me and the other participants to a number of research stations and national parks scattered around the country and included La Selva, Palo Verde, Monteverde, Corcovado and Las Cruces. Memories of this wonderful experience still flash through my mind every day.

My second visit was at the end of the year to Palo Verde. I visited at this time since the ephemeral marshes were full of water and waterfowl were present in enormous numbers. "Los Pichiches" made a huge racket at night as they left to feed in the surrounding agricultural fields. This post will include photos from Palo Verde where I studied Muscovy and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. Photos in this post are all scanned slides. Palo Verde is located in the monsoonal northwest of Costa Rica at the base of the Nicoya Peninsula. Access to the site was awkward back then and required a 4x4 trip along difficult roads. On my trip in, the driver misjudged a flooded area and nearly rolled the truck. We had to get a tractor from the reserve to pull us out of the muck.

This was my home for nearly 6 weeks. It was the headquarters and dorm at Palo Verde. Has anyone been out there recently? I wonder if the building is still there. It was apparently an old ranch house that had been converted for use by researchers and staff.

... I like the quaint sign:

Here are a few of the locals. I believe that they are Black Ctenosaurs (Ctenosaura similis). These were pretty tame and walked around the veranda of the headquarters. Sometimes, these would visit me in my room in the afternoons while I sat quietly and wrote up my notes.

I loved this view of the wetlands, the Rio Tempisque and then the hills of the Nicoya Peninsula from one of the hilltops:

The hills near the headquarters were steep with cliffs. There was a trail up these and I headed up there early most mornings with my scope. From the clifftops, I could see a substantial portion of the flooded wetlands of the reserve. I always expected to find a rattlesnake on rocks along the trail but I never did.

I also spent a good deal of time wading through the swamp. I regularly saw small caiman but rarely encountered snakes. My best find was a large Boa constrictor at the edge of the swamp. It bit my knee when I foolishly nudged it with my gumboot.

I once saw a Jaguarundi trot across the airstrip in this photo. They are weird looking cats with a flat face.

Waterfowl were concentrated in these marshes at this time of the year. Black-bellied Whistling Ducks and Blue-winged Teal were the two super abundant species but Muscovy were also present in good numbers. The following is a photo of a male Muscovy ... so much nicer than the domestic version:

At times, the air seemed to be filled with Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. The Costa Ricans called these "pichiches", a word that is similar to the sound of the calling birds:

I saw other waterfall as well including Fulvous Whistling Ducks, Common Pintail, Northern Shovelor, American Widgeon , Lesser Scaup and sometimes the secretive Masked Ducks pictured below. My best find was of a single White-faced Whistling Duck. This bird was part of a tiny, isolated population that now has become locally extinct in Costa Rica.

Masked Duck:

I saw many other water birds including the huge and spectacular Jabiru, Limpkin, the common herons and this Bare-necked Tiger Heron

A grad student from the Univ of Kansas stopped in at the end of my visit. He was studying hummingbird territoriality and he worked mostly around clusters of Combretum flowers. These flowers attracted large numbers of hummers including Steely-vented, Cinnamon, Fork-tailed Emerald (Canivett's?), Plain-capped Starthroats and Little Hermits.

Steely-vented Hummingbirds were the dominant species:

Fork-tailed (Canivett's?) Emerald:

Little Hermit:

I also helped another researcher who was studying forest birds. He had up a few mist nets and was catching and banding the birds.

Long-tailed Manakin: There were several leks of these amazing birds near the headquarters. Males would cooperate at the lek with one dominant male and then a couple males in training all working together. I don't remember any wing snaps like so many other manakins but they had a distinctive "toledo" song:

Mixed species flocks were numerous. They included various migrant warblers, vireos, gnatcatchers and frequently two similar flycatchers.

Greenish Elaenia:

Yellow-olive Flycatchers:

This was the only Northern Barred Woodcreeper that I observed during my visit. They must have been secretive birds:

Olivaceous Woodcreepers were common:

I rarely saw Banded Wrens but heard their rich trills and warbles from thickets on most days:

An odd looking cousin of the Gnatcatchers was this Long-billed Gnatwren:

Scarlet Macaws were a daily sight and sound at Palo Verde. One pair was nesting in a tree hollow not far from the headquarters. Their calls were impossible to ignore and I never tired of their dazzling combinations of colour. In addition to the macaws, I saw flocks of White-fronted Parrots, Yellow-naped Parrots, Orange-chinned Parakeets and Orange-fronted Parakeets.

White-throated Magpie Jays were big and beautiful:

There was a concrete lined pool near one of the buildings. This was a death trap for animals like this unfortunate Coral Snake (Micrurus nigrocinctus):

One night, this huge Lyre Snake (Trimorphodon biscutatus) visited us:

Leptophis mexicanus:

I saw many Norops but I don't know the species. Any ideas?

Collared Peccary (Javelina) were numerous. I saw small herds of these at times as they clacked their teeth and then ran across the trail. I only saw a few other mammals and these included a Collared Anteater (a.k.a., Tamandua) that emerged from the edge of the swamp and Prehensile-tailed Porcupines.

Howler Monkey were impossible to ignore. One troop lived near the headquarters and their powerful roars were a common sound even at night.

My visit spanned Christmas and New Year. While I was there, President Rodrigo Carazo and his friends stopped in at the reserve for several days. It was so low key with no security at all. The president was a nice guy and was interested in the birds and other wildlife. I took him birding one day. He also organized a launch on the Rio Tempisque and invited me along with his party to observe nesting waterbirds and also to fish. I googled Carazo and found that he lived to a ripe old age and passed away last year. He was the president of Costa Rica from 1978-1982.

I am not certain but think that this distant peak was Volcan Arenal, an active volcano that was visible from the reserve.

Regards,
David

 

[gus11]

Wicked! those hummingbirds are amazingly small. why was the pool a death trap? things in it just got attacked? certainly seems like there was no shortage of waterfowl there. You've hardly changed a bit since this trip!

 

[jessb]

I always love your pics Moloch! Thanks!

I can't believe that you can even band those tiny hummingbirds - I've always wanted to see them in real life!

 

[Asharee133]

how the hell did you catch those birds LOL

 

[Retic]

Fantastic photo's of one of my favourite areas, not Costa Rica in particular but Central and South America generally as it has the most amazing wildlife and particularly reptile life.
The iguana is definitely C.similis and beautiful examples

 

[GTsteve]

Wow!

 

[moloch05]

Thanks, everyone.

Gus,
I forgot to mention that there was a about a half a meter of water at the bottom of the concrete pit. Animals that dropped into it eventually drowned. I saved a couple of Ctenosaurs but I saw other casualties floating in the pool.


Jess and Asharee,
Hummers are amazing birds. They have the ability to suddenly appear in front of one's face, hover there for a second or so and then instantly vanish. Their speed and maneuverability makes them fearless. We caught these and the other birds in mist nets. These nets were 5m+ in length and about 2m in height. The meshing was very fine and a little like that of a hair net. Birds tend not to see this and crash into the net and become entangled.



boa,
I think that Costa Rica would be the pick of the Central American countries. They have succeeded with establishing an ecotourist business so there is accommodation in the wild areas. They are used to birders in particular but I noticed on FieldHerpForum that there are reptile guides as well. As you indicated, the diversity there is staggering. Costa Rica is tiny but it has more species of birds than Australia. Reptiles are also diverse. Although the country is small, it has many habitat types in close proximity and this is what allows such a diversity of animals.

Thanks, steve.

Regards,
David

 

[moloch05]

Here are more photos from Costa Rica. Most of these were taken with my faulty camera on my first trip.

Corcovado National Park
The wildest place that we visited was Corcovado National Park. It is located at the tip of the Osa Peninsula in the southwest of the country. At the time, the only access was by plane, boat or a multiday trek across unbroken rainforest.

... forest along the airstrip. This area was untouched and there were few people out here. We saw many animals that are rare throughout the remainder of the country. Baird's Tapir were numerous along creeks and one of the course participants was followed by a Jaguar at Llarona, a really isolated portion of the park. Great Currasow (turkey like birds) and Crested Guans (related but smaller) were numerous. Scarlet Macaws were abundant birds here.

... we stayed in this building at the headquarters known as "Sirena":

Several of us set off late one afternoon for a long walk to Llarona at the opposite end of the park. This place was incredible. There was a natural rock arch on the black sand beach. We stayed in huts that bordered an escarpment with a waterfall that served as our shower. The forest on top of the escarpment consisted of huge trees with buttressed roots. To reach this Llarona, we walked for hours into the night along the beach. We timed our walk to coincide with low tide since we had to cross three rivers. The walk took longer than expected and by the time that we reached the final water crossing, we had to wade through waist deep water. Looking back now, I realize how foolish an activity this was and how it could have ended tragically for one or more of us. Crocs lived here but we were ignorant of these so forged ahead.

Birding here was excellent. I saw a number of species that I found no where else. The most interesting was probably the rare, mangrove inhabiting Yellow-billed Cotinga. Other exciting birds included White-tipped Sicklebill, Orange-collared Manakin, Red-capped Manakin, Blue-crowned Manakins, Thrushlike Manakin, White Hawks, Long-tailed Woodcreepers and Brown-billed Scythebill.

... Orange-collared Manakin display site. These little birds would clear an area and then dance on the ground or flit back and forth between a couple small saplings. They were one of the wing snapping manakins. The snapping sound was loud for such a little bird.

... Pauraque nest. Pauraques are members of the nightjar family.

Cerro de la Muerte
We spent a couple of nights at a place with a catchy name: Cerro de la Muerte ("Mountain of the Dead"). This was at high altitude oak forest that often was gloomy and cold at night. We saw a few interesting herps despite the cold conditions. Salamanders were numerous beneath rocks in a pasture.

Birding was good with many high altitude species. My favourite was the Resplendant Quetzal, the species that I think to be the most spectacular of all birds.

... this high altitude was the northern distributional limit of a number of the paramo plants. These species extend south through the high Andes.

Monteverde
We visited Monteverde for 10 days. Monteverde is cloud forest that is habitually wet. As a result of the moisture, most trees were covered with epiphytes. This area is one of the best for Resplendant Quetzals and we saw these incredible birds nearly every day.

I am including a bad picture of a gorgeous animal. It is sad but none of us will have the chance to look for this toad again. The photo is of a Golden Toad (Bufo periglenes), a species that vanished in 1989. Its decline was sudden and the population crashed from being locally abundant in 1986 to extinction in 1989. When I was there in 1980, these amphibians were still common in pools along the trails through the elfin forest that straddled the continental divide.

... bad photo of elfin forest. This forest was on the crest of a mountain and it was extremely wet. The trees here were stunted and draped with mosses, ferns and orchids.

... and equally bad of the beautiful Golden Toad:

Blue Tanager:

Silver-throated Tanager:

Crowned Woodnymph, a gorgeous hummer:

Long-tailed Hermit, a heliconia specialist:

Regards,
David

 

[gunny]

Wow absolutely amazing seeing threads like this fuel my thirst for adventure.

 

[moloch05]

Thanks, gunny.

I learned on another forum the identity of the two anoles. They are:

1) Norops pentaprion (first);
2) Norops cupreus (second).

I also learned that what I called caiman were baby crocodiles. The adults usually stayed in the river and I only saw small animals in the shallow swamp.

Here are links to a guys blog about Palo Verde. He had an amazing encounter with a croc earlier this year.


Living Alongside Wildlife: Act like you've been here before...
Living Alongside Wildlife: This ain't like the swimmin' hole back home
Living Alongside Wildlife: Palo Verde National Park
Living Alongside Wildlife: Monkeys of Palo Verde
Living Alongside Wildlife: The Land Iguanas that Time Forgot


Regards,
David

 

[thals]

Amazing pics in a spectacular location! Those hummers are gorgeous, and am loving that parrot snake too! The views are spectacular especially the misty hills of El Cerro de la Muerte.

Cheers for sharing as always

Thals.