La Selva Biological Station
La Selva Biological Station
As a last highlight of our trip we visited La Selva. This site is comprised of 1,614 hectares (3,988 acres) of old growth and disturbed tropical wet forest. The species diversity here is spectacular as La Selva is home to more than the half of the 886 species of birds in Costa Rica, with hindsight we should have stayed here to get access to the trails which seemed much better than Tirimbina.
A mix up with our booking meant we were on the 8.00am general wildlife walk, but Danny contacted them and asked if we could do the 5.45am birding walk. We were told it at this time it was a longer walk and therefore we needed to pay an extra $10 each. No problem.
On arrival at 5.30 we had time for cups of coffee and then we were introduced to another UK couple who we would be going round with. They seemed a nice enough couple but had just arrived yesterday, hadn’t slept or eaten and clearly had no idea of even common birds as I pointed out a few Tanagers to them; only the lady had binoculars (guy had a camera but was more of a birder), she was mainly interested in seeing Frogs. So while the guide tried his best to find birds we didn’t see anything new – best we saw were Stripe-breasted Hermit, Brown-headed Parrot, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Paltry Tyrannulet, Long-tailed Tyrant, Buff-rumped Warbler, Broad-billed Motmot and Black-and-Yellow Tanager. We did see White-capuchin and Howler Monkeys, Basilisk Lizard [/B]and lots of Strawberry Poison Dart frogs.
However we arrived back after two hours not the three and half I expected, Danny wasn't fue to pick us up for another couple of hours.
I wasn’t happy and asked to just do the trails on our own – not allowed but we could join the 8.00 general walk that was just setting off, while not ideal I thought we could just walk behind the group.
In any event my mood soon lifted as we made our way to join the group I spotted a female Snowy Cotinga which was soon joined by a showy male. I got Sarah on it and then managed to get the group led by Jorge (who was a keen birder) on the bird – Sarah said I sort of shouted in a whisper “Cotinga”, - talking to Jorge later he had only seen the Cotinga 3 or 4 times in the last couple of months. Fortunately there were a few birders in the group so the next walk went really well. We got a nice Cinnamon Woodpecker in the next tree to the Cotinga and as soon as we entered the trail Jorge pointed out a Vermiculated Screech Owl that we would never have found ourselves, bearing in mind we were with a mixed group and couldn’t really spend time looking for skulkers to add Black-throated Wren was really good. There was also the nice showy birds like Yellow-throated Toucan, Double-toothed Kite, Collared Aracari, Rufous Motmot, Buff-throated Saltator, Passerini’s Tanager and Montezum’a Orependula.
We saw the same monkeys and added Collared Peccary and just as the heavens opened we saw a Two-toed Sloth in the trees near the cabins where we sheltered from the rain.
Last bird of the walk was a nice Black-faced Grassquit.
We decided to have lunch at Selva Lodge where included in the price of the buffet lunch is access to the trails, some of which are covered. In the entrance area there was a Three-toed Sloth but we didn’t see a lot of birds life, just Green Honeycreeper, Grey-capped Flycatcher, White-crowned Parrot and Orange-billed Sparrow.
On the drive back we saw a large movement of hawks, we jumped out the car and counted over 150 Swainson’s Hawk and around 100 Red-tailed Hawks.
Just a quick walk around the garden trail before heading over the bridge and trying the longer trail in the reserve. In the garden we found a very confiding Slaty-tailed Trogon, Clay-coloured Thrush and female White-collared Manakin.
Onto the trail it was mainly the same birds as yesterday but we did see Chestnut-headed Oropendula, Variable Seedeater, and a nice Olive-backed Quail-Dove – the trails were really quite muddy and we only added Rufous Motmot and Swainson’s Thrush before fast tracking it back as torrential rain started to fall. It rained right through until the next morning.