Endemics and migrants in the cloud forest

The next two weeks of our trip were in  highland cloud forest at 2,400m. The air certainly felt rather thin on the first day running round putting up 18 nets scattered on the hillside.
We were staying at the recently renovated Costa Rica Bird Observatory house at Madre Selva in the Talamanca range, an area of high biodiversity richness and home to many endemic birds.

Three different ringing sites are operated from the base each with slightly different species being caught. This is the ringing table at CRBO ready for action.

Some birds we caught there included several Yellow-thighed Finches

 

 Nice legs!

 a Black-faced Solitaire which has a wonderful flutey song which unfortunately makes them targets for capture for the caged bird trade.

These were nice to age, hatch year birds having clear contrast in the Greater Coverts

Black-cheeked warblers 

 Ruddy Treerunner

 Sooty -capped Bush Tanager

 and a rather smart Collared Trogon

 As well as residents we were catching some migrants too like this Black and White warbler

 and a Louisiana Waterthrush

 

Residents and Migrants have different record sheets and rings which kept us on our toes

 At the "Lake" site the nets are in forest around a lake with a sheltered ringing base in a summer house

 

 We cleared some old net lanes with a machete  to increase the number of nets.

Our star birds here were a Common Paroque which we had seen displaying around the lake at dawn on previous days

 

 this Flame-throated Warbler

 a Streak-breasted Treehunter which lives in a 2 foot burrow!

 

Black and Yellow Silky-Flycatcher, a highland endemic

 and a Brown-capped Vireo.

 Collared Redstarts were fairly common

but nice to catch a Slate-throated Redstart too

Of the migrants caught, Wilson's Warblers were the commonest

with a few Black-throated Green Warblers

and quite unusual, a juvenile Ovenbird

and a Summer Tanager

The third site is more open woodland and farmland

but sometimes the cows took rather too much interest in the nets!

 Spotted-crowned Woodcreepers spent the day squabbling in the trees overhead and several were caught here.

 

This Hairy Woodpecker was nice

 and several Grey-breasted Wood-Wrens too

Two beautiful  Resplendent Quetzels sat in a tree above but not in a net one day.
Hummingbirds were frequent captures at Madre Selva - more about those in the next blog.....

Some Teifi recovery news

Back to Teifi news before the next installment of our Costa Rica trip.

This Oystercatcher with a deformed bill that we controlled in Newport back in October was ringed as a pullus in 2008 at Lingley Green, Warrington by Leigh Ringing Group. That name rang a bell and then we realised it was the group of our friend Dr Richard Charles who travelled to Uganda with us.
Another close connection was a  3J Reed Warbler that John Hayes from Pembs RG ringed in Pembroke on 22nd July and it traveled north 48km to us 31 days later.

Our first control Cetti's Warbler in Oct 2012 was ringed in Nov 2011 at Farlington Marsh, Portsmouth. It will be interesting to see if either of us catch it in the breeding season.

Two other recoveries of our birds were a Chiffchaff  ringed by us in Sept 2011 and caught at Sandwich Bay estate, Kent this September and a juv Sedge Warbler ringed by us on the 14th August 2012 and caught 14 days later at Squires Down, Dorset.

Deeper into the rainforest

Half an hour in a boat took us to our next place to stay, Cano Palma where we caught this stunning Royal flycatcher mentioned in a previous blog.Cano Palma is the Canadian biological station  for COTERC

It is the fifth site that has been part of the Tortuguero Integrated Bird Monitoring Programme since 1994.

We were fortunate in being accomodated in this characterful thatched house on stilts.

We were welcomed as part of the team which included being on the cooking and cleaning rota. Luckily Richard was on a team with two girls who loved cooking! The volunteers were very enthusiastic about ringing with us in between their other activities of turtle and herp monitoring.

 Some birds ringed there included Cocoa Woodcreeper

 Chestnut-backed Antbird

 Tennessee Warbler

 

Chequer-throated Antwren

 

  Kentucky Warbler

 and a Northern Waterthrush (at the ringing table with Ian and Peter, two of the Canadian volunteers)

Each net round was an adventure walking through the lush vegetation

 

Like at Tortuguero, the day wasn't just about ringing. We also helped with Shorebird surveys walking along the beach to where the canal opened into the sea and seeing some good species including Willet, Collared Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs and Franklins gulls.

 

 Going anywhere from base was by canoe or kayak which we eventually mastered.

 

Plenty of reptiles were about, the most colourful being these tiny strawberry poison-dart frogs (Dendrobates pumilio)

and some larger green frogs

 But then the rain started

.............. and continued with 137mm in one 12 hour period! The water rose until the boats were floating on the boat deck (brief video). On the pre-dawn of leaving day we packed in the darkness of a powercut and the water was over the top of our wellies as we waded for the boat.
Even that couldn't spoil our brief stay in this wonderful location and we left for the next step in our adventure with a yearning to return.

Ringing in the rainforest

 

Back to the UK after a fascinating 4 weeks ringing in Costa Rica so here is the first episode of the adventure so far.  Richard is there for another month so more to follow in the New Year.

We started the trip in Tortuguero, a remote community situated on a landmass which overlooks both the Caribbean ocean and the fresh water river, Rio Suerte. The region has an average temperature of 71 degrees Fahrenheit year round, with a high amount of precipitation and humidity. Costa Rica Bird Observatories have been conducting research there since 1994.

We were based at the Sea Turtle Conservancy 

 but five sites are operated in the area. With no roads this means either going by boat along the canals

 or loading the back pack and walking a couple of kilometres.

 

  

The first morning we caught an exciting bird - a White-eyed Vireo. The textbooks describe only 2 previous records for Costa Rica!

Unfortunately the rain started in full flow that week and curtailed our ringing sessions. And people say Wales is wet. Just listen to this clip of rain!

 Some birds we caught between the downpours were this Red-capped Manakin

with bright yellow thighs

 a Northern Barred Woodcreeper

American Pygmy Kingfisher

 Western Slaty Antshrike

as well as several American Migrants including Chestnut sided and Kentucky warblers, Swainson's, Gray-cheeked and Wood thrushes and Grey Catbirds.

Some other wildlife we encountered that week -
Golden Orb spiders who can spin an incredibly tough web across a net lane overnight to catch unsuspecting ringers as we put up nets pre-dawn.

Large,colourful Iguanas wandered around the STC garden

 and of course the hatchling turtles for which the area is famous, scurrying out to sea for the first time

with Black Vultures watching and hoping for an easy snack.

As well as ringing we also carried out area searches recording all birds seen and heard. Migration counts every 2 hours involved a 10 minute count of flyover migrants every 2 hours from the beach.

Although the main migration period was over, we were still counting reasonable numbers of Barn Swallows, Ring-necked Ducks and Turkey Vultures.
Next installment tells of our move to Cano Palma, flooding and rainforest birds including a stunning Royal Flycatcher.