Peter C.
...just zis guy, you know?
Tuesday, February 16 - Santa Rosa N.P. & Punta Morros
One of the reference books we had brought with us to Costa Rica was Wheatley & Brewer’s Where to Watch Birds in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. This book includes a short description of Santa Rosa National Park by Mr. David Brewer, in which he describes the road down to Playa Naranjo from the park HQ as a good place to look for Double-striped Thick-knee. He also describes it as a rough track “posted only 4WD, but with care and some disrespect for one’s exhaust ... perfectly negotiable by car." I really wanted a thick-knee, so we decided to try it.
Well, we did have a 4WD (if a tiny one) but let me tell you, it was barely negotiable in that! It’s not that Tim was ever in danger of getting stuck – the road was very firm - but there were places where they seemed to have paved it with the largest and sharpest stones available, and I started to think we might blow a tire. Anyway, by the time we were heading out on this road, it was getting on to about 1030 in the morning, and increasingly hot, so bird activity was really dropping off. So, as it seemed that we were doing a lot of tedious bouncing around for little or no reward, we decided to turn back after about four or five (very slow) kilometres.
However, we wanted to get something out of this drive, so we found a place that was wide enough to pull over (and still allow others to get past), and continued on a few hundred metres on foot. This way, at least, I figured we’d have some chance of finding things by ear. But “things” were pretty quiet along here – aside from some more Nutting’s, and a poor lonely gnatcatcher who seemed to have lost his flock, we didn’t find much of anything. I was particularly disappointed in the complete lack of any raptors here. I mean, we were in relatively open country (much of it was savannah-like), and it was a nice sunny day – why wasn’t anything up there soaring!? I thought, perhaps, that they might have been staying low on account of the wind.
But then, on the way back to the car, we had another one of those incredibly lucky breaks. Just off to the side of the road, I heard another rustling in the leaves - louder, this time. Out of the corner of my eye, I just caught the movement of some sort of animal – a dark shape, scuttling along the ground. From the way it moved, I was almost sure it was a lizard of some kind. Took a look with the bins anyway; saw that is was a bird after all, but apparently one that didn’t want to fly too much. I noted that it had a long tail, cocked up slightly – upperparts of grey, with a darker smudge on the crown - a brick-red breast (“just like a robin” said DMM) – a decurved bill – and, wait a second ... an eye set in a mask of funky blue facial skin - holy [another colourful expletive deleted] Batman!, it’s a Lesser Ground-cuckoo! I’m not normally one to set “targets”, but for this trip, this definitely was one; the kind of thing I knew I wanted to see, but don’t really dare hope for.
Well, Tim survived the bumps back to the nice paved blacktop (Aaahhhhh! we all sighed when we got to it; well, not Trillian, she was turned off at the time). For lunch, we found a relatively cool spot, in a shady ravine; and then headed out for the highway, stopping at the kiosk on the way to fork over or US$20 entrance fee – a bargain, at twice the price!
On our way back "home" to Castilla, we took the road down towards Cuajiniquil again. I figured, we’d come all this way to a “tropical vacation destination,” we’d better bloody well at least look at a beach one time (lest people back home think we’re odd or something). It wasn’t that far to the ocean, anyway, only about 10 km. off the main highway. I was surprised, though, at how much of a vertical drop we had to negotiate – when you’re drive around near Santa Rosa N.P., the terrain is largely flat, so it’s easy to forget that you’re on a plateau about 200 m. above sea level.
When we reach the Pacific, we did find a beach, of sorts – but not at all the “touristy” kind. In fact, it was a rather smelly one, at an unnamed fishing settlement near Punta Morros (Of course, you all know what I was thinking: “Stench! Decaying organic matter! Possibility of shorebirds!”). There were a few frigatebirds cruising about, and a sandbar in the bay with some gulls, terns and Brown Pelicans loafing on it. However (and isn’t it always the way): today, on the one day that it might actually have been useful, the scope, which had weighed down my luggage , and which I had lugged half-way across Costa Rica – was back at the cabañas, leaning against the wall in our room! Oop, ack.
Mind you, as we were now out in the open, and therefore contending with unobstructed Guanacaste gale-force winds (the Pacific was no match for them – I’m serious, we could see the waves being blown back out to sea!), I suspect that it would not have been terribly useful. We just walked along the shore to get as close to the sandbar as possible, and were able pick out the birds with binoculars – Royal Terns and Laughing Gulls, mostly. The only shorebirds in attendance, as far as we could tell, were a dozen or so American Oystercatchers, always nice to see.
There may have been more to see here, but it was a question of “return on investment” (of time), which seemed to be rather low. Besides, it was approaching siesta time …
February 16: Birds of Santa Rosa N. P. and Punta Morros
110. Magnificent Frigatebird
111. Crested Bobwhite
112. Muscovy Duck
113. Stripe-headed Sparrow
114. Banded Wren
115. Nutting’s Flycatcher
116. Western Tanager
117. Black-and-white Warbler
118. Bay-breasted Warbler
119. Lesser Ground-cuckoo
120. Brown Pelican
121. American Oystercatcher
122. Great Blue Heron
123. Laughing Gull
124. Royal Tern
Photos:
1) Small lizard at Santa Rosa (possibly juv. Ctenosaur? going by the black stripes across the body.)
2) Don’t you just hate this? When you really have to go, and you find that it’s already occupied?
3) Tim and me on the Playa Naranjo road – not a representative shot of the road really, this section was atypically smooth...
4) Nutting’s flycatcher in Santa Rosa – there was something in this stump that he was really interested in.
5) Somewhat wonky-looking Frigatebird in the bay near Punta Morros.
One of the reference books we had brought with us to Costa Rica was Wheatley & Brewer’s Where to Watch Birds in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. This book includes a short description of Santa Rosa National Park by Mr. David Brewer, in which he describes the road down to Playa Naranjo from the park HQ as a good place to look for Double-striped Thick-knee. He also describes it as a rough track “posted only 4WD, but with care and some disrespect for one’s exhaust ... perfectly negotiable by car." I really wanted a thick-knee, so we decided to try it.
Well, we did have a 4WD (if a tiny one) but let me tell you, it was barely negotiable in that! It’s not that Tim was ever in danger of getting stuck – the road was very firm - but there were places where they seemed to have paved it with the largest and sharpest stones available, and I started to think we might blow a tire. Anyway, by the time we were heading out on this road, it was getting on to about 1030 in the morning, and increasingly hot, so bird activity was really dropping off. So, as it seemed that we were doing a lot of tedious bouncing around for little or no reward, we decided to turn back after about four or five (very slow) kilometres.
However, we wanted to get something out of this drive, so we found a place that was wide enough to pull over (and still allow others to get past), and continued on a few hundred metres on foot. This way, at least, I figured we’d have some chance of finding things by ear. But “things” were pretty quiet along here – aside from some more Nutting’s, and a poor lonely gnatcatcher who seemed to have lost his flock, we didn’t find much of anything. I was particularly disappointed in the complete lack of any raptors here. I mean, we were in relatively open country (much of it was savannah-like), and it was a nice sunny day – why wasn’t anything up there soaring!? I thought, perhaps, that they might have been staying low on account of the wind.
But then, on the way back to the car, we had another one of those incredibly lucky breaks. Just off to the side of the road, I heard another rustling in the leaves - louder, this time. Out of the corner of my eye, I just caught the movement of some sort of animal – a dark shape, scuttling along the ground. From the way it moved, I was almost sure it was a lizard of some kind. Took a look with the bins anyway; saw that is was a bird after all, but apparently one that didn’t want to fly too much. I noted that it had a long tail, cocked up slightly – upperparts of grey, with a darker smudge on the crown - a brick-red breast (“just like a robin” said DMM) – a decurved bill – and, wait a second ... an eye set in a mask of funky blue facial skin - holy [another colourful expletive deleted] Batman!, it’s a Lesser Ground-cuckoo! I’m not normally one to set “targets”, but for this trip, this definitely was one; the kind of thing I knew I wanted to see, but don’t really dare hope for.
Well, Tim survived the bumps back to the nice paved blacktop (Aaahhhhh! we all sighed when we got to it; well, not Trillian, she was turned off at the time). For lunch, we found a relatively cool spot, in a shady ravine; and then headed out for the highway, stopping at the kiosk on the way to fork over or US$20 entrance fee – a bargain, at twice the price!
On our way back "home" to Castilla, we took the road down towards Cuajiniquil again. I figured, we’d come all this way to a “tropical vacation destination,” we’d better bloody well at least look at a beach one time (lest people back home think we’re odd or something). It wasn’t that far to the ocean, anyway, only about 10 km. off the main highway. I was surprised, though, at how much of a vertical drop we had to negotiate – when you’re drive around near Santa Rosa N.P., the terrain is largely flat, so it’s easy to forget that you’re on a plateau about 200 m. above sea level.
When we reach the Pacific, we did find a beach, of sorts – but not at all the “touristy” kind. In fact, it was a rather smelly one, at an unnamed fishing settlement near Punta Morros (Of course, you all know what I was thinking: “Stench! Decaying organic matter! Possibility of shorebirds!”). There were a few frigatebirds cruising about, and a sandbar in the bay with some gulls, terns and Brown Pelicans loafing on it. However (and isn’t it always the way): today, on the one day that it might actually have been useful, the scope, which had weighed down my luggage , and which I had lugged half-way across Costa Rica – was back at the cabañas, leaning against the wall in our room! Oop, ack.
Mind you, as we were now out in the open, and therefore contending with unobstructed Guanacaste gale-force winds (the Pacific was no match for them – I’m serious, we could see the waves being blown back out to sea!), I suspect that it would not have been terribly useful. We just walked along the shore to get as close to the sandbar as possible, and were able pick out the birds with binoculars – Royal Terns and Laughing Gulls, mostly. The only shorebirds in attendance, as far as we could tell, were a dozen or so American Oystercatchers, always nice to see.
There may have been more to see here, but it was a question of “return on investment” (of time), which seemed to be rather low. Besides, it was approaching siesta time …
February 16: Birds of Santa Rosa N. P. and Punta Morros
110. Magnificent Frigatebird
111. Crested Bobwhite
112. Muscovy Duck
113. Stripe-headed Sparrow
114. Banded Wren
115. Nutting’s Flycatcher
116. Western Tanager
117. Black-and-white Warbler
118. Bay-breasted Warbler
119. Lesser Ground-cuckoo
120. Brown Pelican
121. American Oystercatcher
122. Great Blue Heron
123. Laughing Gull
124. Royal Tern
Photos:
1) Small lizard at Santa Rosa (possibly juv. Ctenosaur? going by the black stripes across the body.)
2) Don’t you just hate this? When you really have to go, and you find that it’s already occupied?
3) Tim and me on the Playa Naranjo road – not a representative shot of the road really, this section was atypically smooth...
4) Nutting’s flycatcher in Santa Rosa – there was something in this stump that he was really interested in.
5) Somewhat wonky-looking Frigatebird in the bay near Punta Morros.