Hooded, Kentucky...and forest creatures

Warblers are here.....

This juvenile female Hooded Warbler is our 3rd in four Fall seasons, and our first away from our Cano Palma site, Kentucky Warblers are far more numerous and maybe a winter resident ?

A change in the wind and some rain this evening, we are hoping - and expecting an upsurge in variety and numbers in the morning...

Our first Swainson's Thrushes this morning - with 7 captures. More no doubt tomorrow

This adult female Green-breasted Mango. The first that we have captured at a Tortuguero site.

Yesterday, our first visit of the season to Cano Palma  and we were greeted with enthusiasm by the team based here, another multi-national.... and multi-lingual challenge !

This Chestnut-backed Antbird ---the best, and barely out the nest.

Immediately banded and released, the adult male a retrap was captured too.

 This Streak-headed Woodcreeper, is the lowland relative to the commoner Spot-crowned Woodcreeper that we find in the Highlands..

Cano Palma....one of our best sites for frogs...

But at our Aero site this morning there were many lizards including this one with a blue tail that we still have to identify.

This rather large bodied stunning moth was also at our Aero - secondary forest site today

Hmmm....what species?

Many thanks to Bea fom Chile- our latest  banding assistant and photographer.

Bats, Bees and C is for Catharus Thrushes

Our banding here in Tortuguero in the lowland Caribbean forest of Costa Rica is underway.

Five Veerys today, and no other thrushes. On a previous visit on these dates Veerys were the first Catharus thrush species too before the waves of Swainson's then Gray-cheeked.

The day got off to a poor start !!

First hiccup... lovely early start but the bats still flying....and two in the nets...ok....bitten but sorted.
Next...net ride 5 and disaster. Leaned the pole against the tree for a second and bees came pouring out. Not a bat nibble, but pain and and current agony from many bee stings to the head.

A couple of Prothonatory Warblers lifted the day ..

Variable Seed-eater and White-collared Manakin brought us back to Costa Rica

Both species are common here and have good moult pattens to aid teaching.

Hummingbirds too, this the wing of a Rufous-tailed.

This showing the well known Hummingbird wing moult, moulting descendantly and ascendantly around P9

A Migration Monitoring visit to the beach....

This very juvenile Common Black-Hawk, rather caught our attention, whilst counting swallows overhead.
Bea, an STC - Sea Turtle Conservancy Research Assistant photographed this Slaty-tailed Trogon whilst carrying out an area search for us too

Bea is from Chile, and more about all of our helpers as our visit progresses

Poles cut and ready for loading on our 0445am boat to our banding site at Cano Palma  in the morning..

A final look at the Tortugureo Canal from our boat dock at STC, confirmed 2 Glossy Ibis coming in to roost with the herons for the third night. The local species is the Green Ibis. Also our first American Black Tern for the site....

A magical end to the day.......
(That started with bats and bees)

Photos by Bea and Wendy

More from Costa Rica...

Ochraceous Wren - a little stunner that lives amogst the Epiphytes...

Both the Wren  (yesterday) and this rare Peg-billed Finch today were the recent highlights.

Ruddy-capped Nightingale- Thrushes has been the commonest capture so far

followed by Chestnut-capped Brush-Finches, a mixture of adults and juveniles.

136 residents ringed in Madre Selva in the last 7 days, 37 resident species and only 3 migrants species.
Some of the residents included Hairy Woodpecker

 Black and Yellow Silky-Flycatcher

and more Hummingbirds like this Green Violet-ear

When not busy ringing, maintaining sites and recording birds seen there are plenty of daily chores to do. No refuse collections here so Richard had mastered the art of the incinerator

and lighting the stove!

2 more days in the cool highlands then off to hot and humid Tortuguero for a whole new range of birds

An unexpected chance to post from the Costa Rican Highlands

No Acadian Flycatchers in the Highlands - no doubt some on the Caribbean coast in a few days !

This Spangle-cheeeked Tanager is a bit brighter to look at, and this Flame-throated Warbler stole the show at our Lake banding site today.

Four species of Hummingbird at our Home site added some irridescence, photos of Fiery-throated and magnificent soon ....

White-throated Mountain Gem - our most frequent !

Great to pick out some Swainson's Hawks migrating with Black Vultures here, masses of Turkey Vultures soon.  A great find for Wendy at our CRBO site this juvenile Barred-forest Falcon..

Not a flycatcher, but like an Acadian Flycatcher, this Louisiana Waterthrush nice to find before the much more numerous Northern's next week....

Our migration to the Caribbean coastal forests has been delayed......
....Chespi has asked us to stay, bird and band with some visitors who are important to the organisation...
Costa Rica Bird Observatories.

Motmot and Iguanas before the mountains..

Our work with Costa Rica Bird Observatory began today with a morning ringing in INBioparque, in San Jose.

The national bird of Costa Rica, Clay-colored Robin, was the first bird ringed and 7 more followed.

The highlight of the morning though was a Blue-crowned Motmot, a resident commonly seen around the park.

As well as residents, there are now an increasing number of migrants passing through. A good variety of species were recorded on our area search during ringing including Red-eyed Vireo, Blackburnian Warbler and Yellow Warbler. American Redstart and Alder Flycatcher were ringed.
 Although we are used to seeing lizards on our net rounds on the Teifi Marsh, they don't quite match the thrill of seeing these massive Iguanas that roam around here!

The trip to and from the park was a different experience too, by train with interesting platforms which only reach part of the train, involving a big jump down from the other carriages!

Off to Madre Selva in the mountains tomorrow to ring at 2,500m. No internet for a while so we hope the group back on the teifi will be ringing some good birds to blog about instead...

From September on the Teifi ....to forests and mountains of Costa Rica

This likely our final post before Wendy and I go on our regular Fall Migration Monitoring visit to Costa Rica - our fourth year. Chris goes to Spain, and Dawn and Karen go to Bardsey !

This juvenile Spotted Flycatcher the September highlight for me, one of two we caught this Autumn.
Other highlights on posts below...and more flycatchers in Costa Rica soon !

September totals to the 13th, have Chiffchaffs leading the way with 175 new birds and Blackcaps with 104.
Of the acros... Sedge Warbler  with 23 and Reed Warbler with 18, we did expect a few more.
10 Willow Warblers, only 5 Common Whitethroat and 1 Lesser Whitethroat, likely a reflection of the change in effort and location this early September.

Off we go !

From ringing from the back of a Land Rover here with Chris, to the humidity of the Caribbean Lowland Forest, and 70 species of Flycatcher on the Costa Rican list...

Here Wendy is at our Aeroporto banding site at Tortuguero, surrounded not by flycatchers on this occasion but by Swainson's Thrushes - we banded over 400  in Sept /Oct 2013

On our first visit in 2012, this Royal Flycatcher was one of the first birds to great us on our first banding session at Cano Palma - COTERC..the Canadian Organisation for Tropical Education and Rainforest Conservation.

This is our home for the first couple of weeks. Madre Selva in the Costa Rica Highlands where we operate three Constant Effort Sites.

More from Costa Rica soon...we arrive in San Jose on Wednesday afternoon, and band at INBioparque on Thursday morning...
A Blue- crowned  Motmot for Wendy maybe..

On two previous trips, Wendy has left Costa Rica without seeing a in the hand Blue-crowned Motmot.