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As wildlife and birding was for what we have come to Costa Rica, staying at Arenal Observatory Lodge - https://www.arenalobservatorylodge.com - was our only real option. Every birding group that goes to Arenal stays at AOL. There are several hiking trails on the property, all of them can be self-guided or guided, and newest addition is an observation tower. It is the place to stay at, or least to visit for 1/2 day, for any wildlife and nature lover out there. But don't be fooled by all those glorious sunny photos posted on the web site above; this can be very wet, rainy, gloomy part of Costa Rica also. And it did presented its wet, rainy, gloomy side to us.

 

Accommodation wise, we have stayed in rooms in the main building where each room has a balcony with the view to volcano. Not much of use due to weather conditions. But I was told by a person who woke up one night and got out to have his smoke that for a brief moment the clouds have opened and the top of the volcano was seen in glorious full moon silver light! Yes, as it happens, he did not have his phone with him.

Other rooms are in the garden, about 5 min walk from the main building, and in a couple of private villas further away. Next time I would opt for the garden room; not only they are more affordable, you have the garden and its birds right outside your room.

Food was always a hit and miss with people staying at AOL; if judging by the quality and quantity of breakfast, those who disliked the food must be from France (aka gourmets). Michael will explain more about the dinner fare.

 

About the best photo from our balcony towards Volcano Arenal

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We could anticipate what awaited for us in Arenal, weather wise, by the sad look on the face of this Black Vulture we passed by on our way.

 

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Both the birds and the mammals were soaked wet in the grounds of AOL. Not a good sign. And heavy clouds were lingering over Lake Arenal. Not much to do but to hit the room andd the bed, hoping that next day will be nice to us.

 

Montezuma Oropendula

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White-nosed Coati

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Lake Arenal

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Heavy rain droplets were hitting the roof with loud sound throughout the night. Yet we were dedicated to go out and to explore the trails; the male part of the group anyway as Zvezda opted to stay on the balcony after she saw the wet to the bones bird on the feeder.

 

Great Currasow female

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It rained less but on and off all the time, dark clouds and dense forest has made the photography very difficult. And there were not many birds out in the plain anyway. Only frogs would enjoy in such wet conditions.

 

Brilliant Forest Frog at Frog Pond

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When the rain has stopped also the mammals came out. This was the first sight of a Howler Monkey. Usually you can hear them loud and clear early in the morning but here, they were all quiet.

 

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And a bit of light helps a ton when taking photos of colourful birds ... as long as they are of a decent size!

 

Young Yellow-throated Toucan

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Afternoon was not much better; rain was on and off all the time. Even birds looks miserable. 

 

Great Kiskade

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Portrait of female Great Currasow (taken at 12800 ISO)

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That was our first full day at AOL. We have photographed a number of birds but far from what a normal count for a full day of birding should be. Luckily we still have one more day in that area. 

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Although a male Great Currasow has greeted us early in the morning, it was raining again, so we have decided to try our birding luck elsewhere.

 

Great Currasow male

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On the way to the car park we were lucky to find (with a little help) a beautiful yellow Eye-lashed Pit Viper.

 

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There are 2 options if you want to hike the old lava flow trails: Arenal Volcano National Park run by the state, and Arenal 1968 View and Lava Trails, privately owned property, which we have chosen to explore. The below satellite map shows the area; one can do 2 trails; shorter goes through the forest up to old lava flow area (dark brown) while the longer follows the edge of the rain forest up to a larger pond (almost parallel to the road).

 

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We all come determined to do the longer trail but as we have reached the edge of the forest, the trail becomes really muddy and slippery and Zvezda wisely decided to return to more safer ground, while Michael and Andreas, properly equipped and in true explorer's mood decided to continue.

 

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As soon as we parted our ways the rain started and the two of us quickly found the shelter at the observation deck/cafe (unfortunately cafe was closed). When the clouds stopped crying the volcano was still shrouded in thick clouds.

 

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Not much to photograph but the plants.

 

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Slowly the cloud layer has thinned off and birds came out from the depths of the brushes.

 

 Swallow-tailed Kite

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Olivaceous Piculet

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Passerini's Tanager female

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Gray-crowned Yellowthroat

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Tropical Kingbird

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Pacific Screech-Owl

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A great read, @xelas, as are all your trip reports. I had already learned that rain played a  major part in your trip, so it is good to see some excellent photos by you and Zvezda in spite of that! I remember the grounds of the Arenal Observatory Lodge well and also saw my first Montezuma's Oropendola there. Zvezda's photo does it  more justice than mine: what a beautiful bird! Thanks for all the added info, very useful for us, less experienced CR travellers!

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15 minutes ago, PeterHG said:

A great read, @xelas, as are all your trip reports. I had already learned that rain played a  major part in your trip, so it is good to see some excellent photos by you and Zvezda in spite of that! I remember the grounds of the Arenal Observatory Lodge well and also saw my first Montezuma's Oropendola there. Zvezda's photo does it  more justice than mine: what a beautiful bird! Thanks for all the added info, very useful for us, less experienced CR travellers!

 

Thank you very much for your nice words, @PeterHG. Stay tuned as more beautiful photos will follow when @michael-ibk will add his. And we have just in the opening stage of TR, many more will come this way :).

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After regrouping our forces, we all needed a good boost of sugar! That leads us into the town of La Fortuna. In past 10 years it has grown considerably yet it has retained its basic character of a small Tico town with a central park, a church and many narrow streets. What has changed is the number of tour operators, restaurants, coffee shops, basically all the town has become one big souvenir shop.

 

Luckily we have found quickly the best parking place in the whole town ... just in front of the chocolateria and the park. The coffee was artistically presented, and the cakes had 1 billion calories each, but what a spledid calories those were! And voila, also the clouds have finally decided to open and gave us the blue sky and the bright sun. Just perfect.

 

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While trails at Arenal Observatory Lodge are without a doubt the best way to find all kind of birds, spotting mammals there is a different story. Specially in conditions that we have had. That is why we have decide to visit the one small, local attraction: The Bogarin Trail https://lafortunasancarlos.com . The Bogarin brothers have bought a patch of land and have resisted the urge to make money by selling it to the real estate developers. Instead of, they have decided to make what themselves calls "an urban park". As this wooded area is only such and encircled by lodges and other developments, whichever animal finds its way into the park has no urge to leave it. Specially so sloths, and that is why they can offer the 2money back guarantee" to see a sloth on their trails.

 

Our group started about 15 min past 2 pm; one would think not the best time to find any wildlife, but quickly enough we have had to point our lenses upwards as there he (or she?!) it was! And not only one, there were several sloths (all 3 toed) and one of the Costa Rica bucket list items for Andreas was checked.

 

This way to sloth

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Looking up

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Sloth, sloth, sloth!!!

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And for the change of the pace (literally) a Variegated Squirrel

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And the most obliging Motmot and maybe even the most obliging bird we have encountered in Costa Rica.

 

Broad-billed Motmot

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Edited by xelas
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At the entrance there is a small pond with feeders, and the quantity and the quality of birds have really surprised us. I will leave to Michael to show you what we have seen there. Myself, I must post this old friend of mine, the one animal that lured me to Costa Rica in the first place, back in 2008 - The Red-eye Tree Frog!

 

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Also found at Bogarin Trail was this Blue Jeans Poison dart frog.

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Edited by xelas
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The Bogarin Trail looks very good. I am pleased @AndMic got to see the Sloth.

I think you all deserved the cake

Edited by TonyQ
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OOh sloths, motmots and froggies! Love it! 

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That Red-eyed tree frog is absolutely adorable.

Great start to the trip report @xelas

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Could the second photo be a two toed sloth? Beautiful frogs!

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21 minutes ago, Patty said:

Could the second photo be a two toed sloth? Beautiful frogs!

 

Nope, the close inspection of the hind legs shows 3 claws on each leg.

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1 minute ago, xelas said:

 

Nope, the close inspection of the hind legs shows 3 claws on each leg.

 

Both species have 3 hind claws, only the front is different.

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2 minutes ago, Patty said:

 

Both species have 3 hind claws, only the front is different.

 

Indeed you are right, as below photo of the same sloth clearly shows only 2 claws on front legs. And the are also having a very different heads/faces; looks like I have to learn a lot about sloths. Thank You, @Patty, and please, if you will find any more mistakes, do correct me!

 

Two-toed Sloth

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On our last day at Arenal we have hired a guide to increase our bird's score. The guide name was Nestor Villalobos Rojas, and he did a great job at spotting many birds that would otherwise escape me. While the weather was mostly dry, it was again cloudy and as such conditions for taking good photos were again difficult. 

 

Our birding was in two phases; before breakfast (cca 06:00 - 08:00) we have explored the garden and the lower trails. After the breakfast (08:30 - 10:00) we went along the road towards upper part of the property. Nestor has sent us his list of birds seen: 51 different species on lower trails in 114 min, 38 different species on upper trails in 102 min (there are same species on both lists). If only we could also photographed everything Nestor has spotted.

 

Here are the best of the bunch from Zvezda:

 

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

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Passerini's Tanager male

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Common Tody-Flycatcher

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Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

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And something different, just to show that there are snakes in Costa Rica, and that some are quite large - luckily only about 30 out of 130 different snakes are poisonous.

This one is not; meet Ebony Keelback:

 

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A beautiful close-up of a Strelitzia reginae; this plant is indigenous to South Africa (the Cape Provinces and KwaZulu-Natal), and it is a proper photo to end our Arenal part. For Zvezda and me, it also represent the fil rouge of our past (Western Cape), present (Costa Rica) and future (Kwa-Zulu Natal) trips.

 

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Around midday we have left Arenal Observatory Lodge, and on the parking lot, (yes, it has started to rain hard again), we have seen these very optimistic campers. Whoever might think that roof top tents in Namibia or Botswana are PITA think twice; I cannot even imagine what was the camping experience for these folks.

 

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more than 25 birds per hour! Wow.

 

Great shots of the snake. I hope that tent is best quality!

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I´ve chosen to take the easy route with this report, just as with the trip itself - @xelas masterfully organised everything, booked  and took care of everything and was the undisputed master behind the wheel, my international driving license never had to be used. So @AndMic and me only had to hop on and enjoy, and enjoy we did. You could not ask for better trip organisors and companions than Alex and Zvezda. So I continue with the lazy part, let Alex carry the main narrative and will just add some tidbitds and photos about our respective destinations.

 

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The Pura Vida Hotel was a great and nice little place, I really enjoyed the freshfruity breakfast and the beautiful gardens. Whenever I am on wildlife holiday I can´t wait to get out on the first day and discover what new species I might find. And in a bird-rich country like Costa Rica it´s easy to feel like a kid in a candy store.

 

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Plenty of interesting species even in the garden in this urban area, the Motmot already shown definitely being the highlight. But other nice stuff as well.

 

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Hoffman´s Woodpecker - the only sighting of the trip.

 

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The very first mammal - a Variegated Squirrel. A strictly Central American species. Unlike some other squirrels in colder climates, it does not hoard food and therefore plays little part in the dispersal of seeds.

 

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Rufous-Naped Wren

 

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One of the things I had most been looking forward in this trip was Hummingbirds, and we would certainly not be disappointed in that regard. The Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird would be our constant companion, seen in almost any habitat. After a while, we´d disappointedly go "Oh, only a Rufous-Tailed" when we´d see a Hummer and IDed it as our old friend. A very unfair sentiment, it is a striking bird and I was super-excited about this first one in the garden.

 

The first morning drive turned out to be pretty rainy but we did not mind too much. After all, the weather could not stay like this for long, we were here in "little summer", right? Well, our optimism would prove not to be entirely justified. Much better to have a pessimistic outlook on such things, then you can never be disappointed but will always be pleasantly surprised. But unfortunately just not in my nature. ;-)

 

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Where is this Lago they were talking about?

 

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Our first Howler Monkey at Lago Hule, not looking like he was really happy about the weather.

 

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A Yellow-Faced Grassquit, one of the most common birds in this area and also in Arenal.

 

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We made a stop after Lago Hule in a small village for some Green Iguanas.

 

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This Fasciated Tiger-Heron was guarding the last bridge on the way to Arenal, later on we´d see the offspring.

 

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Edited by michael-ibk
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Arenal Observatory Lodge is definitely a great wildlife place in Costa Rica but it was a bit frustrating for us - it was easy to see its huge potential but the constant rain was of course a huge problem and I´m sure we´d have seen much more in better conditions. Still, I enjoyed the well-kept trails which gave us our first glimpses of Central American jungle.

 

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Golden Orb-Weavers were everywhere, so Arachnophobics would probably not have the very best time here.

 

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But if Snakes are your thing Costa Rica in the rainy season definitely is a good idea. ;-)

 

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Beautiful and tiny but deadly - this little snake can absolutely kill a man. The Eyelash Pitviper is responsible for a large number of snake bites in Costa Rica and ranks among its most dangerous snakes. Young ones like this one pose even more of a threat - they haven´t yet learned to control their bites and spend all their venom.

 

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One of my ID nightmares - there are dozens of Woodcreepers in Costa Rica, and all of them look absolutely the same. So if I tell you this is a Streak-Headed don´t believe a word I say, I´m just making stuff up as I go - fortunately my friends over on the Big Year threads were foolish enough to take my word for it. :P

 

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Crested Guan

 

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One of the trails, very easy to walk.

 

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The feeders were not too prolific, mostly the Montezuma Oropendolas, but once in a while also something new like this Green Honeycreeper.

 

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For the very first time I brought an external flash and used it from time to time when it was just getting too dark - like with this Social Flycatcher here.

 

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Edited by michael-ibk
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The lodge itself is ok. Quite a huge compound with dozens and dozens of rooms, and I´d describe it as effective and functional. The rooms are spacious, clean and have all necessary amenities. The tiled floor is not very atmospheric but very sensible - with the amount of mud everybody inevitably brings in on their shoes it´s really the best solution.

 

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Food? Breakfast is ok, dinner very good to excellent - though absolutely overpriced. They know their guests here have no other options so they charge accordingly.

 

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Even though they have signs that it´s forbidden to try to dry stuff with the hairdryer I bet everybody does - I certainly used it on the shoes. And contrary to what they say it absolutely does help. B)

 

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I liked the little touches the maid tried - like the towels shaped everyday in a different form. Of course this elephant was my favourite.

 

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My little favourites the Coatis. Delightfully bold and often seen in the garden. There are four different Coati species, the South-American Coati, Eastern Mountain Coati (Venezuala) and the Western Mountain Coati (Colombia and Ecuador), in Costa Rica it´s the White-Nosed Coati

 

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On the first afternoon we drove along Lake Arenal and enjoyed a nice cake in a German bakery. We had planned to walk down to the lakeside but the heavy rain quickly made us abandon that idea. A White Hawk seen on the way.

 

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And our first Keel-Billed Toucan, a fantastic-looking bird which would fortunately give us better sightings later on.

 

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The Great Curassows had chicks, very cute and confiding.

 

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A young Canivet´s Hummingbird in the garden doing his thing.

 

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And a Collared Aracari enjoying the many fruits in the garden.

 

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An early morning walk I did by myself gave me rain in all intensities and variations but also my very first Spider-Monkeys.

 

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Great additions @michael-ibk lovely photos.

I think this is going to be a fine combination making this trip report.

(on the Big Year thread we just let you get away with the Woodcreepers because we knew you were struggling for numbers:))

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The Arenal 68 Trail. Alex and Zvezda had more of a brain than us, they aborted before we got into the jungle. Stubborn Austrian mountain folks as we are, of course we decided to do the full yellow trail, after all a little bit of wet cannot hurt.

 

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I´m not sure these bedraggled White-Throated Magpie-Jays would agree.

 

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A Violet-Headed Hummingbird.

 

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Southern Lapwing, one of the few familiar birds from our Pantanal trip back in 2013. There´s surprisingly little overlap of birds between the two areas, many very similar-looking birds (like Great and Bare-Faced Currasow for example) are different species.

 

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The trail was quite difficult once we were in the jungle, very slippery and steep at times, and the heavy rain had turned into a deluge, coming from above, the sides and below. We debated if we should go back but were actually unsure how far we had already gotten on the circle and so just moved on.

 

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So at least we got to see the little lake of this trail, a very idyllic place.

 

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Actually we both quite enjoyed this very wet walk, felt like a good little adventure even though we were relieved when we finally got to the end of the trail and could leave the forest again.

 

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A distant Anhinga.

 

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This was probably the best look we ever got at Arenal - the iconic volcanic shape unfortunately never came out of the clouds.

 

Edited by michael-ibk
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Bogarin Trail definitely was the highlight of our stay at Arenal. Alex already showed you Sloth (one of our main targets) and Frogs but this was also an incredible place for birds. The feeders right at the entrance attracted an amazing number of species:

 

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Diversity we´d see nowhere else during the trip to this extent, and so we happily sat there before and after the walk and fired away at one bird after the other.

 

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Orange-Chinned Parakeet, a common species also around in the cities.

 

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Grey-Cowled Wood Rail

 

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Tropical Mockingbird, the only sighting of the trip.

 

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Blue-Grey Tanager, one of the most common birds in Costa Rica.

 

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But this one tops it number-wise, the Kiskadee, dozens, if not hundreds of them seen every day.

 

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The bird with the unpronoucable name - Chachalaca!

 

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Crakes are never easily found, so it was a surprise to see a White-Throated one as confiding as this one.

 

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Yellow-Throated Euphonia

 

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And one of my favourite birds here - a Crimson-Collared Tanager.

 

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And even though I could not get it away from the feeders this bird is too cool not too post it - Collared Aracari again. We had actually already left the place and were walking to the car when one of the guys working at Bogarin ran after us and said "Aracari, Aracari". Very nice of them, clearly our birding craze had not gone unnoticed. ;)

 

And sorry, I try to not repeat stuff Alex has already covered but can´t resist posting a few more of the Bogarin highlights - Sloth and Frog!

 

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I´m sure Alex just wanted to test if you are all paying attention, he absolutely knew we had seen Two- and Three-Toed Sloth, after all they do look quite different. :P One has a black mask, "seems to wear a perpetual smile" and a small dark snout, the other is more whitish (especially on the forehead) and has a broad, piglike snoat. And of course you can always count those toes. It´s "Hoffmann´s Two-Toed Sloth" and "Brown-Throated Three-Toed Sloth" actually. These are the two in Costa Rica, there are four other Sloth species.

 

Even though they are not too shy they are not always easy subjects, staying high up in the canopy in dim light, so just a dark blob somewhere in the middle of the leaves.

 

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Fortunately a few do make it easier, venturing out to more isolated trees - see it?

 

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And to cap this chapter off three more of our favourite little guy, the wonderful Red-Eyed Tree Frog. They are not poisonous and rely on camouflage to protect themselves. Hard to believe when you see them like this:

 

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But more plausible when they get back on a leaf. When a Red-Eyed Treefrog detects an approaching predator, it abruptly opens its eyes and stares at the predator. The sudden appearance of the red eyes may startle the predator, giving the frog a chance to flee.

 

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Edited by michael-ibk
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