I'm Just Here for the Bird: Costa Rica, Part 2: Playa Nicuesa Rainforest Lodge

Dear Diary,

I am in Costa Rica and the birds are just amazing. As I write, we have just finished day two at the lodge, which requires a 30 minute boat ride to get to after a 2 hour drive from Savegre and an hour flight to Golfito. I did not get sea sick, as I was all hopped up on Dramamine and that motor boat ride was petty smooth, as boat rides go. Of course, I didn’t escape being sick, as many of us caught a dose of land sickness the first night we arrived. It must have been the fish. Should have ordered the chicken.

However, that did not dampen our birding hopes. It just delayed things here and there on the second day as both Sue and I had to dig “cat holes” to bury our “output,” so to speak. But let’s get back to the beginning. We arrived in Golfito around noon, at what I would be generously calling an airport. It was more of a landing strip with red taxi cabs parked at one end. We were greeted by Molly, who does both yoga and massage, and whisked to the small outboard motor boat and a 30 minute ride to the lodge. We saw our first bird before we even left the dock, a Royal Tern. My first Lifer was a Mangrove Swallow. Sue had already seen one in Belize.

And that was only the beginning. After getting settled and going for a brief walk on our own on one of the hiking rails, where we saw my second Life bird, a White-shouldered Tanager. I would be getting a lot more Lifers than Sue here, as her birding travels had taken her to places in Central American I have never birded in. The “friendly” competition was on. Sue had no desire to have me pass her on our personal Life Lists on this trip.

When we got back to the lodge we were greeted by Gustavo, who would be our birding guide for the next few days. He’s only been birding in this area for six months, but he really knew his birds and always showed us in his field guide the bird we were seeing or hearing. We got right to work and by the time we had to break for dinner we had added another large handful of birds, including a Red-capped Manakin, Short-billed Pigeon, and a hard bird to find back home, a Kentucky Warbler.

By the time we got back to our room we had to get right to bed, as we had an early date with Gustovo to bird in the morning. And bird we did...

It’s now the evening of our next to last day, here and we have walked most every hot and sweaty trail, taken a boat ride to see pelagic birds and racked up 97 species between us. Obviously, as you can guess, I have not had time to spend writing. By the time we have finished dinner we are in bed so we can get up early and bird again. Our guides, Gustavo and his mentor Melo, have taken us out at the crack of dawn and well into dusk to get some amazing birds. Sue and I found a Chestnut-mandibled Toucan and a Baird’s Trogon on our own after climbing a very long and windy staircase built into the side the rain forest to a viewing platform.

We have found a King Vulture, Bare-crowned Antbird and Gray-headed Kite on our own. Together with our guides and on our own we have heard and seen the very unusual Three-wattled Bellbird, which sounds nothing like a bell, I’ll have you know. One of the prize birds of the trip was seeing another bird with a wattle. the Wattled Jacana, while out on the river with our guides. Even they hadn’t seen this bird in this part of Costa Rica. In fact, we had seen so many new birds for the area, on our own and with our guides, that Gustavo has been spending some of his free time updating the lodge checklist.

Personally, I loved seeing the Southern Lapwings, completing the set with the Northern Lapwing I saw near the end of my Big Year. I got to see a Bananaquit, a rare bird for North America I missed on my Big Year. Sue and I have had fun trying to remember all the crazy, long bird names, including all the confusing Antshrikes, Antthrushes, and Antwrens.

Some of the more interesting birds to see were the Boat-billed Heron, which really lives up to his name, and the Great Curassow, a big, black chicken looking thing that roams the forest floor. But one of the best birds of the trip, so far, has been the Bare-throated Tiger Heron. We saw that very well on the river boat trip and like the Boat-billed Heron, is aptly named.

Aside from how good the birding is, that is where my love for the rain forest ends. I have had to keep my body constantly sprayed with Off, lathered up with all manor of anti-itch creams and can’t get to sleep for the itching unless all doped up on Benadryl. There is no air conditioning besides a fan and a faint breeze and the humidity is about 97 percent. We have to sleep in a bed protected by mosquito netting, yet the bathroom is open to the outside, so monkeys can look in on you as you shower, but also allows the very bugs you are trying to keep from biting you, in. And they have bitten me in some very unmentionable places. And for all that, no monkeys have appeared at our bathroom window! We have seen monkeys out in the woods, though. Spider and White Faced Monkeys, and we have heard the howling and “barking” of the Howler Monkeys day and night.

Only two more nights here before heading north to the Hotel Bougainvillea. Tonight, though, we are going to look for owls. We were up before light today to see a Common Pauraque, so no reason we shouldn’t be out after dark looking for owls.

After dinner, Sue, Gustavo, Melo and I set out in the dark, with flashlights and a recording of the Crested Owl. Melo was confident there was one in the woods and as we headed up the Monkey Trail, he stopped and played the call, and shone his flashlight in the trees. Nothing. So we made our way to the Butterfly Trail, where I had, earlier today, heard and seen the Bellbirds. Melo played the call. Off in the distance we heard a return call and, flashlights in hand, walked along the Butterfly Trail to a certain point where the owl was closest.

This is where it got interesting. We turned out our lights and waited and listened. It was pitch dark, except for Melo’s iPhone screen. He played the owl call once, twice, a hundred times, perhaps. Time stood still. I had already taken my Benadryl and was feeling kind of sleepy in the dark. I closed my eyes and swayed in the dark. The recording played. The owl called. Perhaps 10 minutes went by, maybe it was an hour. I was thinking we might have been there owl night. Sorry...

It seemed, for the longest time, that the owl was right above us. Then, without warning the flashlight came on and we looked up in the tree above our heads. Staring down at us, with, I am sure, a bemused look, was the Tufted Owl. He looked at us and we looked at him. It was way cool.

On our last full day we birded with Gustavo in the morning and after breakfast, on our own, we went into the rain forest to look for yet another hummingbird. There was only one spot along one of the paths where this bird could be found and when we hit the spot we could hear them, but not see the birds. We continued on, looking for a Blue-crowned Motmot, but didn’t find it. On our return trip, at the same spot, we once again heard the hummingbird, and after about 5 minutes of scanning high in the trees, Sue found the bright red beak of the Blue-throated Goldentail. Way up in the tree, it was sitting on a vine, all by its lonesome. But we had our bird and over 100 species since we arrived at t Playa Nicuesa Rain forest Lodge.

Some of the things I have noted over the last 10 days:

I have walked, and walked and climbed up more steep hills in the last 10 days than I have in the last two years. The last was to the viewing platform, hoping for the Firey-billed Aracari, on of only two target birds we missed leading up to our last morning. Sue nearly had a stroke on the way up.

I have sweat more in the last 10 days than I have in the last 10 months. The humidity here is a constant 97% during the day, and only a little less at night. It was for places like this that Dry-fit and quick dry clothing was invented, not sweaty athletes.

If you come to Costa Rica to photograph all the birds you see, you will be disappointed. Getting a good photo of even 50 percent of the birds would be considered a success. The move too fast and are deep in trees or high in the canopy. Focus has to be done manually much of the time and a flash is a must.

Now we are preparing for our last morning before heading out on the small motor boat to the tiny airport and our flight to San Jose and the luxurious comfort of the Hotel Bougainvillea. It was also our last chance to get a look at the Yellow-headed Caracara. And this morning it did not disappoint. We had an early breakfast and were on the boat dock looking back toward the lodge, waiting for the morning fly-by. I had taken a photo of something and was looking at it in my camera when Sue slapped my shoulder and pointed out the bird flying in. Like a gunslinger at an old west showdown, I pulled up my camera and was able to shoot 5 good photos of the last bird we wanted to see here at Playa Nicuesa.

The birding didn’t stop there. After a 30 minute boat ride to the mainland, which included Brown Pelicans and Osprey, we waited for our flight to San Jose at one of the smallest airports I’ve ever seen. Just a shack for checking in, a few benches to sit on and a runway. And birds. We added Neotropic Cormorant at the boat dock, and two lifers while waiting for the plane, a Plain Wren and a Blue Black Grassquit.

After having seen more than 65 species in Savegre, we added over 100 while at Playa Nicuesa and 4 in Golfito. As we head to the Hotel Bougainvillea, we have a combined total of about 174 species so far in a week of birding in Costa Rica. We will spend the evening birding around the gardens of the hotel and tomorrow birding at the La Selva Biological Station.