Costa Rica, Part 1: Savegre Hotel

Getting here was none of the fun, but birding here has been a hoot.  We were over six hours on the plane, followed by a nearly three hour drive up the mountain Savegre Lodge. The flight was fine, and I took a Dramamine prior to our car ride, and it helped for nearly the entire trip. But watch out for those final 6 miles.  They are a doozy!  Once you get up to an elevation of about 2600 metres, you then take a long series of narrow roads and many dozens of switchbacks, back down to about 2200 metres, and though I wasn't on a boat, I was sea sick by the time we arrived.

But it was worth the trip, as we were greeted by several species of Hummingbird at the feeders near the office, including White-throated Mountain Gem and Green Violet-ear. They have only one sparrow up here, the lovely and melodious Rufous-collard Sparrow. We had 3 lifers before dinner the first night. Sue was already one bird ahead of me, having seen a Sooty Robin on the way up to the hotel as I was sleeping off the Dranamine.

We were up and out the door the very next morning at 6:30am, and before our guide for the day, Raoul showed up, we had seen a Long-tailed Silky Flycatcher and a Silver-throated Tanager.  When Raoul arrived he took us up another nasty, twisty, back road to the forest, where he hoped, along with seeing a lot of other birds, we would get to see the main event bird of the trip to San Gerrard de Costa, the Resplendent Quetzal.  After a very long hike up the mountain where we heard a few birds and saw even fewer,(I had spotted the first bird, a Sooty-capped Bush Tanager), Raoul said he had heard a Quetzal.  I didn't, but he had us looking in the trees and while he was down in a valley, Sue spotted it above out heads.  We got some great looks, and photos for about 10 minutes before we continued on with our day.  We had seen over 40 species by the time he dropped us off for lunch, most Lifers, and agreed to meet him that night for some "Owling."

Over the next two nights we were able to see a Bare-shanked Screech Owl and Costarican Pygmy Owl, and hear a Dusky Nightjar.  During the days we added even more lifers, including today, our last full day here.  

I'd love to write more, but with intermittent internet service here, and a 5:00am flight to Golfito in southern Costa Rica, I must leave you until we return to San Jose on January 30.

To be continued...