Costa Rica! Part 1

Ok, enough of a wait. I said that I would write a mini trip report, and what better time to do so, one month after saying that?

We went to two different places in Costa Rica. We spent two days in the Peninsula Papagayo, near Liberia, CR. For the next five days, we were at an ecolodge called Lapa Rios, in the Osa Peninsula. Lapa Rios was incredible. You'll see why.

On March 19th we left for Costa Rica. Since we had to take a few flights, we got there while it was already dark. The next morning though, we decided to go exploring.

Birds were everywhere. In the first 15 minutes, we had about 15 different bird species, and some variegated squirrels and iguanas. While having breakfast, the birds were watching our every move. Drop that piece of food... The grackles were very noisy, and you could hear them from a mile away.

For the rest of the day, Virginia and I wandered around, ticking off many bird species and seeing lots of iguanas and variegated squirrels. We also went paddle boarding, and saw some pufferfish, not to mention the ever-present pelicans.
In the late afternoon, we saw our first monkeys. They were Howler Monkeys, and sleeping up in the trees, trying to avoid the heat.

In the evening, the whole family went for a walk. We went up a hill, and saw quite a few more birds and... more monkeys! This troop was very active though, foraging and literally swinging from tree to tree. There was also a little baby monkey with them, which at one point was much farther behind the troop. The mum went back to it, and threw it on her back. No monkey business there.

This little guy was only a foot or two away.

Day 2 - My Birthday!

Yeppers, I'm 13! Yippee, a teenager.

In the morning, Virginia and I went on a walk back up to where we saw the monkey troop yesterday. We saw quite a few birds, and the monkeys again. The coolest birds we saw were the White-necked Puffbirds and Black-headed Trogons. Oh, Costa Rica. Such diversity..... And colour.

 White-necked Puffbirds

Black-headed Trogon

At breakfast, we met up with the grackles once again, along with a Rufous-naped Wren.

Very humanized

In the evening, we went on the 'Trail of the Giants' tour. This involves taking your own golf cart and zipping around the golf course, supposedly while being lead by the tour leader. Well, we were dropped off at the mini golf at first, so we weren't with the leader for the first part. That's fine, we'll have some fun. We saw quite a few birds, and some more Howler Monkeys. About halfway though, we met up with the group. They had stopped and were looking at the view.

I guess that's a nice view....

We continued on, and came across a herd of coatis. There were probably around 20 individuals in all. 

Besides more birds, we didn't see much else on the tour. The next day we left for Lapa Rios, and our Costa Rican adventure only truly got started then.

-Bridget

Bracken and Jasper, the New Foals!

Yesterday evening, we were lunging Fancy and a friend stopped by. He mentioned that in a stable next door there were two newborn foals, one just a day old (born on Sunday, at 3:30) and the other a couple days old. We asked if we could go and visit, and he said yes. We walked over and the manager of the stable and two other people were there with the foals. The foals were so cute!! Bracken was the younger one and he was more active at the moment, and Jasper, the older one, was asleep. We didn't bring our cameras, and since the sun was setting, we decided to go back the next day (today).

This morning we went with one of our neighbours to see the foals. They were both lying down when we got there, but Bracken soon got up. He wandered around, quite cautious of us, so he didn't socialize. After a while, Jasper got up as well and he was very social. He wandered over to us and allowed us to rub him on the neck while he nibbled on our sleeves. His teeth are just barely coming in, so it didn't hurt at all. They were both super cute, and we may go back later this afternoon.

 Little Jasper

 Sleepy Bracken

 Bracken feeding

 Jasper resting

 Who can resist a face like that?

 Bracken

 Jasper

 Jasper likes people already

Tomorrow morning we are getting up bright and early to catch a plane to Houston. After a 5 hour layover at the Houston airport, we will take another plane to Costa Rica! We'll be in Costa Rica for 10 days and 9 nights. When we get back I'll write a long trip report of everything we saw and did. We can't wait!

Boundary Bay and Reifel

Today our neighbours took us out to Boundary Bay and Reifel. We were hoping for some owls, and though we didn't see any, we still had fun!

We went to Boundary Bay first, hoping for Long-eared Owls, Short-eared Owls, and Snowy Owls, and a lot of other birds. We did see Northern Harriers and 35 (at least! There were 14 in 3 trees right beside each other alone!!) Bald Eagles among other things. The harriers were flying around everywhere, passing over the trails and looking for food. I didn't get any in-flight shots, but I wish I did. It was just so cold!

Virginia did spot this harrier on the ground with prey. It was so windy though, so I could barely get a shot. This was my best:

We didn't see much more so we headed off to Reifel.

At Reifel we were greeted with the usual parking lot suspects such as Mallards and American Wigeons, this time with a Sandhill Crane. There were 8 other cranes on the lawn of the caretaker's house.

 Seemingly endless hordes of mallards

Pretty American Wigeon

 7 Sandhill Cranes

 Parking lot Sandhill

 Cool-looking Mallard

We started down the trail and saw plenty more birds including lots of ducks, swans, sparrows, herons, blackbirds and others. As usual, the mallards were swarming around us, eating the seed and the chickadees were landing on our hands.

 Black-crowned Night-heron

 Northern Pintail

 Tame Black-capped Chickadee.

I love the feeling of the chickadee's feet on your hand (even through two layers of gloves!), you feel as if you're holding something so precious and fragile.

 Cooperative female Mallard

 Northern Pintails

Some Handsome Mallards

We walked the rest of the loop and saw so many birds and got so many good, closeup photo opportunities

In all, we had a good (and cold!) day, despite seeing no owls.

You can click on any of the photos to make them bigger.

Golf Course Floods

Yesterday I went on a bike ride to the golf course. With all the rain we've been having, it was quite flooded. The ponds had doubled in size and where there used to not be any ponds, there are now. All of the water meant lots of ducks and other birds though, so I took lots of photos.

 The geese were out in numbers

 That water's not supposed to be there...

 The wigeons were having plenty of fun

As were the flickers, except they didn't

care about the water.

Southlands Mock Hunt

Every January 1st, riders in Southlands get together and have a mock fox hunt. One person dresses up as a fox, some people dress up as hounds, one person dresses up as the hound-master, and other people either wear normal riding clothes or some people may wear fancier 'hunt' clothes. It's quite crazy as all of the horses gallop around the track and lots of horses will freak out and buck or bolt. Luckily, no one fell off today but it was still quite dangerous. It's really fun to watch though, and I got lots of photos. The objective is for one of the hounds to pull of the tail of the fox. It's attached to the fox with velcro.

 Getting Ready

 The Fox

 A Hound

 Trying to catch up

 The Fox and a Hound

 Almost got the tail!

 Cooling out

•