Costa Rica Birding Holiday - February 21 to March 5, 2007
February 23
San José
We weren’t meeting the rest of the group until evening, so had a full day for activities. However, we decided to spend the day in San José sightseeing and birding.
Bill decided to try our GPS to see if a geocache we had found
on the web was close enough to walk to. It took forever for the
unit to figure out that it was not in Canada and home in on the
satellites. It turned out that the geocache was too far away, so
he put the GPS away, never to be used again.
Meanwhile, Barbara had found some interesting birds, right
outside our hotel. So we decided to go for a walk around the
block and bird. Within one block of our hotel, we came to a huge
fence around a large park-like area that we took to be the zoo.
The trumpeting of elephants soon confirmed our suspicions, so we
decided to spend some time there. However, we found that it was
closed for no apparent reason, so had to be content with birding
around the perimeter.
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| Western Kingbird | Western Kingbird |
 |
 |
| Great Kiskadee | Common Ground-Dove |
Then we decided to hike to the National Museum. It was a good
choice, and only a few blocks away. There were interesting
historical and natural exhibits around a garden courtyard full of
birds! We spotted a brilliant red summer tanager, a clay-colored
robin (the national bird of CR), and some white-winged doves.
While looking for a washroom, Bill spotted a sign to a secret
garden. We descended down below the old stone fortress of the
museum and opened a huge screen door to discover a garden full of
butterflies.
 |
 |
| Rufous-tailed Hummingbird |
 |
 |
| White-winged Dove | Summer Tanager |
 |
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| White-winged Dove | White-winged Dove |
 |
 |
| Clay-colored Robin | Clay-colored Robin |
On the hike through town returning to our hotel we stopped for
a cold cerveza (beer is the word you quickly learn). The
favourite brand is Imperial; refreshing.
We then went to a park and saw some parakeets, apparently mating,
and great kiskadees, right in the middle of the city.
 |
 |
| Crimson-fronted Parakeets |
San José Airport
After dinner, we took a taxi to the airport to meet our
birding group. The airport security was such that we could not go
inside, so were forced to wait on the sidewalk, with all our
luggage, with everyone else, for a long long time. There was a
monitor outside so we knew that the flight had finally arrived.
Still no sign of our group! We started to worry because we had
never met anyone in the group, and had no means of contacting
them. We were also looking for our driver, José Vargas, among
the sea of other drivers and hawkers offering taxis and other
services. We asked several if they knew him, but none did.
Finally, more than an hour after the flight arrived, we spotted a
short guy holding a sign saying Dave Milson(sic) Group. He was
not José, but rather Alvaro. What a relief. Soon after the group
exited the airport and we met everyone. Their lateness was due to
Carole’s luggage going astray in Houston.
We lugged our stuff to the parking area where Alvaro’s
bus awaited us. We passed everything through the window to
Alvaro, and set off, at almost midnight, for the two hour journey
to the Pacific coast and our lodging for the next three days.