Costa Rica is a jamb packed birding wonderland.
Just got back Thursday night, late, with birding friend visiting here till Sunday. Am recovering - and she, I am sure, couldn't wait to be home as well!! It was the most amazing, wonderful, exhausting trip - nicknamed, with love, the Birding Expedition from Hell, the Birds of Doom, Forced March, the Blair Bird Project .
We were unprepared.
Not only did we walk suspension bridges in rainforests, 
but we had to climb every one of the 140 feet upwards! Not to mention our rooms were all charmingly UP HILL!! Get the picture?!?! Everything in Costa Rica is UP HILL! 
We walked through 8 jungles - highland rainforests, lowland rainforests, mangrove rivers and drylands. 11,000 foot high mountains with thousand-year old oak forests, India-brahman cattle ranches, abandoned cocoa farms, suspension bridges, and mucky leaf or walking brick trails, all at the mercy of a masterfull Costa Rican guide, hellbent on finding the smallest, most obscure, unique, colorful,
endangered and shy birds in the world. Did I mention he found birds which first appear as nothing more than vague specs on the horizon, in the canopy's, under branches, behind leaves, beyond the trees, over the rivers and through the woods.
Each bird was magically ferretted out by our guide who knew each song and call and sound, and who interpreted comings and goings and movements and who set up his viewing scope, then moved it, maybe moved it again, so we could all witness and share the magic. "Hurry up now, give everyone a chance..." - before it flies away.
I enjoyed every amazing botanical bit of it.
It was an incredible tour of what is desperately left of a country that is no longer its own unique national park treasure. Its 'virgin' forests and densely concentrated variety of unique creatures in the world is in very real danger of being descimated, demolished, exterminated and wasted by the encroachment of civilization.
Early morning birding (begun at 5:45am) on the grounds encouraged curiosity. The 4.5-hour bird walks twice a day stretched the body (no pain, no gain). Finding 395 species of birds in 12 days exhausted my mind. Moving every two days exasperated my awareness and preparing for the death walks (packing your pants with water, bug pads, neck bands, plastic bags, poncho, first aid kits, spare camera batteries, cameras (and, ooohhhh yes, I will never live down the lost glasses on my head and little digital camera stowed in bra strap - hhhmmmmm!!), tums, and aspirin) unnerved my spirit, and... quick birds flirted with my photography.
The 2 hour (advertised) hike was more like a 4-5-plus hour 'forced march' (someone said) - in heat and humidity, and seemingly always UP HILL, did i mention UP hill. Second trail at 7:30 to 12:30-1pm, then again at 2pm, generally, the afternoon trail of torture lasted till 6pm or so, before a late dinner - did I mention I was 2 hours ahead from Florida (most of the group was 2 hours behind which made them from the same time zone as Costa Rica) so, to me, dinner was usually around 10pm :-) . AND, did I mention the daily debriefs?
Every evening 23 pages of "check the blocks" of birds we saw that day. Our Guide remembered pretty much every single one of the sometimes over 100 birds seen that day - amazing~~ Whatta Guide!! Ahhh the visuals. Ahhh the mountains and forests and birds.....Ahhhhhh, we survived, and the memory of the birds we saw will last in infamy.
We were shooting under varied extreme conditions: low light, dot in the sky shots, through dense growth and we were using only about 3% of the camera's high tech digital options. What broke me early on was that I found about 98% of my photographs were out of focus. This was an uphill learning curve deteriorating at a disturbingly lightening pace.
In all fairness, we had a magically incredible guide, and the best, well-muscled, attentive driver racing us around the Costa Rican roadways, able to clear up traffic jams with a single wave of the hand when no one else would give way nor get out of their vehicles!
He spotted a few birds too. Witness the rock colored Sun Bittern we searched for up and down the Rio San Jose for an hour, and the fantastic 4-beach and cow-pattied field search for the green macaws!
We walked country roads, 
city streets, well-traveled checker-boarded wooden bridges, searched endless huge flatland fields, all looking like tourists in OZ as the group gazed up and out with binoculars calling out the names of birds spied. How can they see that... "That was a what.............??? Where is it?" "Which tree exactly are you looking at?" Despite myself, I learned more about birds and almost 400 names of birds I never knew existed. And, surprisingly enough, I might even be able to point some of them out to you in my backyard, like the pileated woodpecker!
Altogether it was a little more strenuous than we had imagined, albeit trekking through Costa Rica from sea level to 11,000 feet and back again on both coasts was remarkable.
Did I mention watching this volcano erupt all day and spit boulders the size of Macy's down its side ?
The accommodations were superb,
the food was delicious, but we were often so sweaty, sore footed and tired we slept like a rock. Our beautifully mahoganied rooms had screened portals, fans, 5 watt light bulbs and iffy hot water. And each one more spectacular than the last. Lodges, reserves, cattle ranch, desert lowlands, rainforest bio-stations. I am bio-eco-geo'd OUT!!
Thank goodness I'm home.
Every second of agony left when the orange, purple, turquoise, red and yellow of the birds appeared, then back to the agonizingly hurry up and wait treks. I had thought of bringing a portable seat - but that was substituted by a camera monopod (a useless and unruly thing for shooting UPwards). I was always looking down at my footing while everyone else was looking up for birds. Our cry was always "Where is it", "Can you tell me where it is"... "I don't see it." A camera is not binoculars! I never took my binoculars out of the suitcase, as there was never enough time for both seeing and photo-ing and I really couldn't hang anything more around my neck for fear of not being able to walk!
city streets, well-traveled checker-boarded wooden bridges, searched endless huge flatland fields, all looking like tourists in OZ as the group gazed up and out with binoculars calling out the names of birds spied. How can they see that... "That was a what.............??? Where is it?" "Which tree exactly are you looking at?" Despite myself, I learned more about birds and almost 400 names of birds I never knew existed. And, surprisingly enough, I might even be able to point some of them out to you in my backyard, like the pileated woodpecker!
Altogether it was a little more strenuous than we had imagined, albeit trekking through Costa Rica from sea level to 11,000 feet and back again on both coasts was remarkable.
Did I mention watching this volcano erupt all day and spit boulders the size of Macy's down its side ?
The accommodations were superb,
the food was delicious, but we were often so sweaty, sore footed and tired we slept like a rock. Our beautifully mahoganied rooms had screened portals, fans, 5 watt light bulbs and iffy hot water. And each one more spectacular than the last. Lodges, reserves, cattle ranch, desert lowlands, rainforest bio-stations. I am bio-eco-geo'd OUT!!
Thank goodness I'm home.
Every second of agony left when the orange, purple, turquoise, red and yellow of the birds appeared, then back to the agonizingly hurry up and wait treks. I had thought of bringing a portable seat - but that was substituted by a camera monopod (a useless and unruly thing for shooting UPwards). I was always looking down at my footing while everyone else was looking up for birds. Our cry was always "Where is it", "Can you tell me where it is"... "I don't see it." A camera is not binoculars! I never took my binoculars out of the suitcase, as there was never enough time for both seeing and photo-ing and I really couldn't hang anything more around my neck for fear of not being able to walk!
The dainty birds I saw through the guildes scope were always more spectacular than I could imagine... and... so frail looking - even the raptors. Birds are little magical creatures all around us and we hardly notice. Costa Rica is a unique last refuge.
One is loathe to miss a trek - who would want to miss a koatamundi, a quetzal, a sloth!?! However, I had to take off a couple afternoons when my thighs shook revoltingly. I do feel stronger for having experienced the torturous walks. I could do both marches by the end of the 12-day trip without breaking a sweat. Was I stronger? Maybe the weather just let up a bit!
I had to take off twice in the afternoon for R&R, to keep my thighs from falling off - this was not your relaxing, horizontal 'cruising' vacation! We walked. Did I mention UP HILL?
And, the food was delicious and fit for a tropical king. Every meal included beans and rice, Lizano sauce, fresh vegetables, and oodles of fresh mangoes, papayas, melons, and pineapples at every meal. Our hosts did a superb job! It was simple and delicious.
Am gloriously thrilled to be home in the good old USA! in my bed!
in my beautiful yard, in the pool in the woods, identifying all our own visiting birds and a racoon and deer and a huge woody woodpecker woodpecker! and softhearted, sweet, gorgeous, overworked, 'landscaper-poolcleaner-retired' guy Ron!
Life is miraculous! and I am blessed to have done it! but, damn it's good to be home!
Thank you, Ron for sending me (I will pay you back in kind :-D) and, Thank you, Carolyn for letting me travel with you.!!! and, Thank you, Kathleen for your invaluable and sanity-saving photographic help, and Edwin and Enrique who make the Majestic Feathers Birding experience one of the most intense and conscious trips a person could take!
What a Country! What a trip!
One is loathe to miss a trek - who would want to miss a koatamundi, a quetzal, a sloth!?! However, I had to take off a couple afternoons when my thighs shook revoltingly. I do feel stronger for having experienced the torturous walks. I could do both marches by the end of the 12-day trip without breaking a sweat. Was I stronger? Maybe the weather just let up a bit!
I had to take off twice in the afternoon for R&R, to keep my thighs from falling off - this was not your relaxing, horizontal 'cruising' vacation! We walked. Did I mention UP HILL?
And, the food was delicious and fit for a tropical king. Every meal included beans and rice, Lizano sauce, fresh vegetables, and oodles of fresh mangoes, papayas, melons, and pineapples at every meal. Our hosts did a superb job! It was simple and delicious.Am gloriously thrilled to be home in the good old USA! in my bed!
in my beautiful yard, in the pool in the woods, identifying all our own visiting birds and a racoon and deer and a huge woody woodpecker woodpecker! and softhearted, sweet, gorgeous, overworked, 'landscaper-poolcleaner-retired' guy Ron!
Life is miraculous! and I am blessed to have done it! but, damn it's good to be home!
Thank you, Ron for sending me (I will pay you back in kind :-D) and, Thank you, Carolyn for letting me travel with you.!!! and, Thank you, Kathleen for your invaluable and sanity-saving photographic help, and Edwin and Enrique who make the Majestic Feathers Birding experience one of the most intense and conscious trips a person could take!
What a Country! What a trip!
