Bicolored Hawk in San Ramon de Tres Rios

Today, June 17, I saw a bicolored hawk (accipiter bicolor) at a private farm in San Ramon de Tres rios, approx. 3.5 km from the Iglesia San Rafael.

It was an adult and it had just killed an Emerald Toucanet. We discovered the kill site and the hawk flew away with the Toucan in its claws.

Sharpbill y el Correcaminos en San Carlos

Hola todos. Gracias a Lance por permitirme entrar al blog.

Primero es para reportar un interesante sitio para pajarear en CR que comienzo a conocer realmente hasta ahora. En el poco conocido Parque Nacional Juan Castro Blanco, parte de la area de conservacion ACA-HN, San Carlos. Especificamente entrando por el lado Norte del cerro Platanar, no por la entrada Ciudad Quesada, Tapezco sino mas bien por Aguas Zarcas. Hay unos "casi senderos" utilizados por los pocos que todavia cazan en el Cerro, estos senderos ascienden sobre el cerro desde 800 msnm hasta unos 1800 msnm es un poco dificil pero vale la pena. Algunos de los mas interesantes registros de un par de meses atras; (27-10-08) Neomorphus geofroyi (Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo) individuo bastante oscuro (juvenil?) pasando el sendero a las 12:45 md en condiciones atmosfericas nubladas, altura promedio de 900 msnm. Tambien hace un par de semanas atras observe y pesimamente fotografie, en el mismo sendero Oxyruncus cristatus (Sharpbill) en unas copas de arboles basante altos, bastante activo se mantenia en una misma area (quiza mas de un idividuo).
Entre otros bonitos y un poco mas constantes registros estan:

Harpyhaliaetus solitarius (Solitary Eagle)
Spizaetus ornatus (Ornate Hawk-Eagle)
Selenidera spectabilis (Yellow-eared Toucanet)
Bangsia arcaei, (Blue-and-Gold Tanager)
Myrmeciza immaculata (Imaculated Antbird)
En la parte mas alta, Empidonax albigularis, White-throated FC, entre otros.
En el area mas baja y mas abierta se ven pajarillos como Icterus mesomelas (todavia incluso con los muchos jauleros que hay en la zona) y Passerina cyanea.

En conclusion me parece que el lado norte del Cerro Platanar es un buen sitio para pajarear por la variacion de alturas y por las grandes extensiones de bosque primario.
Aqui estan las cordenadas del parque por si tienen tiempo para visitarlo, a la entrada de Aguas Zarcas pueden llegar preguntando. (10° 10’ y 10° 20’ latitud norte y 84° 15’ y 84° 25’ longitud oeste)

Saludos

JD

April 3-5, 2009: Pacific pelagic proves productive.

1. Parkinson's Petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni). We saw 15 individuals (1 on Apr.3 and 14 on Apr.4). All birds showed pronounced flight feather molt. The species is endemic to New Zealand (as a breeder) laying eggs in November and December. It flies across the Pacific to pass the non-breeding season in waters off Cenntral and South America. The total world population is estimated at only 10,000 birds. Photo by Jim Wolfe.

2. Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius). This bird's bill color was changing from dark (non-breeding) to yellow (breeding.) Photo by Jim Wolfe.

3. Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus) carrying a prize. This immature bird dropped out of nowhere crashing into the water near the boat to catch this squid. As is typical, we saw only one individual of this species. Photo by Jim Wolfe.

4. An adult Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus). This species has been the most common jaeger on almost all of our recent pelagic trips. We saw 79 birds over the course of three days including a raft of 16 birds settled on the water at dusk on April 4th. Photo by Jim Wolfe.

5. Long-tailed Jaeger (Stercorarius longicaudus). A bird in first summer plumage. The first we've seen after a number of voyages - a new addition to everyone's Costa Rica list. Notice how light-bodied and narrow-winged it is compared to the hulking Pomarine pictured above. Photo by Jim Wolfe.

6. Christmas Shearwater (Puffinus nativitatus) April 3, 2009, 51 km west of Cabo Blanco. This was one of our target species. It was first identified in Costa Rica by Bruce Mactavish in March-April, 2008 when he had several different sightings in this same general area. We saw two individuals of this species and managed to get some nice photos of one. Photo by Jim Wolfe.

7. Route of the Floating Bear 3-5 April, 2009. Map created by Bruce Young.

8. Christmas Shearwater (Puffinus nativitatus) with two light morph Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus pacificus). Wedge-tailed and Christmas Shearwaters often share breeding sites on islands in the central Pacific. Photo by Bruce Young.

9. Masked Booby, adult (Sula dactylatra). These impressive, long-winged birds would invariably fly straight towards the boat and circle us one or two times before heading off in another direction. Photo by Bruce Young.

10. Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus). About 104 km west of Tamarindo on April 4 we came upon 3 of these amazing creatures, the largest animal that has ever lived on earth. We were able to get close to one as it made short dives (staying down 5 minutes or so) near the boat, close enough to hear it's lungs filling with air as it inhaled. Individuals can be identified by the shape of their tiny dorsal fin and the pattern of dark blotches on their back. We sent these photos to some whale researchers in California but they didn't recognize this individual. There is a resident population in the Pacific off the Central American coast but individuals from other populations may occur here as well. Photo by Bruce Young.

On April 3-5, 2009 Paul Murgatroyd, Bruce Young, Richard Garrigues, Jim Wolfe and Jim Zook went on a pelagic birding trip out of the Los Sueños marina at Playa Heradura aboard the Floating Bear, a 52 foot Beneteau 500 sailboat, with captain Greivin Prado and deck hand Juan Lopez. Our goal was to get out to the southern end of a deep water canyon (the Middle American Trench) that runs parallel to the coast off the Nicoya Peninsula. In March and April of 2008 Bruce Mactavish compiled an impressive list of birds while working as a marine mammal observer aboard a siesmic vessel operating in this area off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In three days we managed to see most of the species that Bruce picked up on his 28 day cruise (we missed Red-footed Booby, Sabine's Gull, Brown Noddy and White Tern).

High on our list of objectives was to find and hopefully photograph a Christmas Shearwater, a species that Bruce Mactavish found last year. His sightings were the first ever for Costa Rica. He took some photos of birds in flight that provided evidence. Luck was with us on the afternoon of our first day when we spotted an all dark, relatively small and short-winged shearwater flying off to one side that we recognized as something different. It was rapidly winging away from us, but we were able to get on it with a pair of 12x image-stabilizing binoculars, and just as it was disappearing over the waves way out in front we saw it plop down in the water among a compact little group of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters. Trying desperately not to lose sight of the birds we cautiously moved past them at a distance and then came around so as to have the sun at our backs and approached slowly, managing to creep up to within about 25 m of them. It was nice to have the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters right there for comparison.

Here is the species list for the three days at sea:

15 - Parkinson's Petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni)
2 - Pink-footed Shearwater (Puffinus creatopus)
380 - Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus pacificus)
2 - Christmas Shearwater (Puffinus nativitatis)
19 - Audubon's (Galapagos) Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri)
4 - Petrel/Shearwater sp.
63 - Leach's Storm-Petrel (dark-rump) (Oceanodroma leucorhoa)
4 - Wedge-rumped (Galapagos) Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma tethys)
107 - Black Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma melania)
1 - Least Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma microsoma)
1 - Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus)
11 - Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra)
3 - Nazca Booby (Sula granti)
463 - Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster)
11 - Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)
310 - Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)
2 - White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
2 - shorebird sp.
51 - Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus)
11 - Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius)
1 - Swallow-tailed Gull (Creagrus furcatus)
4 - Franklin's Gull (Leucophaeus pipixcan)
2 - gull sp.
6 - Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus)
2 - Least Tern (Sternula antillarum)
413 - Black Tern (Chlidonias niger)
2 - Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)
45 - Royal Tern (Sterna maximus)
7 - Sandwich Tern (Sterna sandvicensis)
15 - tern sp.
79 - Pomarine Jaeger (Stercorarius pomarinus)
3 - Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus)
1 - Long-tailed Jaeger (Stercorarius longicaudus)
24 - jaeger sp.

Results - March 7 Golfito pelagic

Wedge-tailed Shearwater, photo by Juan Diego Vargas.

On March 7, 2009 a pelagic birding trip took place aboard the "Reina del Sur" (25 foot covered ferry-panga type boat with 175hp outboard) from the dock at Mar y Luna, Golfito, Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Birding particpants: Andrew Robertson, Alison Olivieri, Julie Girard, Dionisio Paniagua, Victor Pérez, Carlos Gonzalez, Janet Peterson, Juan Diego Vargas, Jim Zook. 06:10-15:05. Farthest point out into open ocean was 41.7 kms (25 miles) SW of Cabo Blanco (tip of Osa Peninsula/mouth of Gulfo Dulce). We had planned to be out until 16:00 but decided to cut it short because of wind and a choppy sea. Overall it was pretty quiet. We saw very few marine mammals, though perhaps the best sighting of the trip was a female Orca (Killer Whale). Also no fisihing boats. We had good looks at all species except for the Bridled Terns and some flying Phalaropes. Here is the species list: 10 - Wedge-tailed Shearwater 4 - Audubon's Shearwaters 14 - Brown Booby 17 - Brown Pelican 9 - Magnificent Frigatebird 3 - Phalarope sp. 43 - Laughing Gull 2 - Bridled Tern 126 - Black Tern 14 - Sandwich Tern 36 - Royal Tern 6 - Barn Swallow

Tropical Mockingbird in Santa Ana, March 8, 2009

A Tropical Mockingbird (Mimus gilvus) hung out in my backyard in Santa Ana (Valle del Sol, Lindora) all day today. I heard it singing earlier in the morning (I was able to get some song recordings). It continued to sing until early afternoon.

I'm not aware of a Mimus gilvus sighting in the Central Valley. Does anyone else have a report of the mockingbird in the Central Valley?

Lance

March 8, 2009

Golfito Pelagic trip - Mar.7

(Red-necked and Red Phalaropes seen off Osa Peninsula, Apr.7, 07. Photo by Juan Pablo Elizondo)

March 4 - The boat has been filled. Thanks to all those who inquired about participating. Results will be posted here shortly after March 7. Thanks, JRZ.

There will be a full day pelagic birding trip out of Golfito on March 7, 2009. The trip is being organized by the San Vito Bird Club and will be led by Jim Zook. There are still four spaces available (out of 8 total birders). Cost is $100 per person. Beverages will be provided but everyone will need to bring their own food/lunch. We will be taking a typical 30-35 foot sport fishing vessel captained by fellow birder Andrew Roberston. We'll hope to get out into deep water 30 miles or so off the S tip of Osa Peninsula. Based on past trips around this time of year we can expect to see Audubon's and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, Black Storm-Petrel, Brown Booby, Red-necked Phalarope, Black and Bridled Tern, Brown Noddy, Sabine's Gull, Pomarine and Parasitic Jaeger. Possible also would be Least, Leach's and Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel, Red-billed Tropicbird, Red-footed and Masked/Nazca Boobies, Red Phalarope and other migrant gulls and terns. Costa Rica's first Black-vented Shearwater was seen in waters off the Osa Peninsual this past November so there's always a chance for the unexpected.

If you are interested in reserving a space (with a $50 deposit) please contact Julie Girard at girardwoolley01@sympatico.ca for further details.

Swainson's Hawks wintering in Guanacaste

During a recent two week trip to Guanacaste I ran across a group of 102 Swainson's Hawks sitting on the ground in a recently tilled field that was being flooded by irrigation waters. This was on February 11 in the rice and sugar cane fields just West of the entrance to Palo Verde NP. The wind was really blowing hard and the birds appeared to be resting more than looking for food. I see Swainson's Hawks regularly in this area during the winter months but usually in flocks of 10-20. Never seen a group this big outside of migration periods. The majority of these birds appeared to be dark morph individuals. In early January Richard Garrigues sent me a note he received from a visiting Canadian birder (Ian Platt) who on January 1 saw a group of 35 mostly light morph birds kiting and circling over the east end of the Liberia airport.

There were also a good number (15+) of Tree Swallows mingling with hundreds of Barn Swallows over the flooded rice fields near the entrance to Palo Verde NP, a fairly unusual sight.