ENHS Nature Trails Apr. 98 Article 3

Costa Rica Visit (part 1 of 2)
by Herb Wisner

Costa Rica runs kind of slaunchwise across Central America, Caribbean coast to Pacific coast. Continuing this northwest to southeast trend is the countrys spine the Cordillera Central, a range of mountains extending from near the Nicauraguan border to Panama on the south. This structure splits the country into regions with a Caribbean facing slope and a Pacific facing slope. The former tends to be wetter than the latter. In both coastal regions however the climate seems to be hot and humid. At least our trip there during the first 2 weeks in February 1998 gave that imprression. Admittedly, El Nino may be calling some of the shots there as elsewhere in the world. Heavy rainfall was not part of the menu here. Only once did we experience any substantial rain and that was quite short and near the end of our journey.

The topography of Costa Rica is, in general quite rugged except for the coastal plains. The result is a varied vegetation cover. Rainforest would be the most abundant type, especially on the eastern side, but it spills over to the western slopes in central and southwestern parts of the country. Forests have been removed over considerable areas to make way for agriculture pursuits (coffee, bananas, a variety of other fruits and nuts as well as vegetable crops). Large areas have been set aside as parks or protected areas to try to hold back some of the pressure to clear more land or harvest more trees. The northwestern region, known as Guanacaste tends to dryness. Their are relatively few coniferous trees anywhere in the country but the mix of species of deciduous broadleaved trees differs depending on rainfall and elevational variations.

During our 2 weeks we sampled a good cross section of types, primarily concentrating on birds but contemplating a lot of the ecological aspects and seeking to find other types of life and understand the relationships among them. We had an excellent guide, Cabeto Lopez, who was eager to have us learn about his country, not only its natural history but also its developmental and political history. We were most impressed with his broad knowledge and expertise. Annemarie Housley, who some of you readers may know, of Full Circle Tours in McMinnville, organized and led the trip. She kept us well organized and content and supplemented Cabeto in the identification departement very ably.

We flew into San Jose, the capitol, on Friday and set off on a 3 day journey to Tortuguero, a small town on the northeast coast, on Saturday morning. This involves about a 3 hour drive to a small dock on the canal that parallels, and lies close to, the coast. En route we paid a visit to Brauillo Carillo National Park which, in total occupies a very large portion of the higher elevations of the Caribbean slope. A short walk on a trail there gave us our first real feeling for the definition of the word "rainforest." A dense canopy overhead greatly restricted the amount of light on the forest floor. Even using fast film shot at double its rated speed required supplemental flash for a number of closeup pictures, and relatively slow shutter speeds for the more general views. A Broad-billed Motmot perched nicely visible presented a light problem. And this was my first new, well seen lifer. Oh well. It would take a lot more time and study and reading to begin to understand the variety of plant life in these forests. The number of species of trees alone in a single acre (hectares in countries other than the U. S.) disrupts a northern hemisphere mindset that sees relatively few species in a comparable area. Our guide could identify and comment on many of the plants we asked about but time did not allow pursuit of in depth knowledge. A visit to the U. of O. library will be in store after the return to Eugene. In retrospect, it would have been wise to have done this sooner. A number of birds could be heard in the upper canopy but visibility in such a situation is obviously a problem. Hummingbirds would buzz by, too rapidly, but two Buff-rumped Warblers cooperated by bathing, in view, in a pool of the stream that flowed below us.

Now, back to the canal. It was a two and a half hour boat ride up to the town of Tortuguero and a couple minutes more to Mawamba Lodge, our nicely appointed, comfortable, well provisioned headquarters for the next 3 nights. En route the most obvious birds were the herons of several ilks (Green, Little Blue, Great Blue, Tri-colored and Great, Snowy and Cattle Egrets). A special treat was the sighting of a Green Ibis on a nest on a branch overhanging the water. A few shorebirds, Black-winged Stilts and Northern Jacanas aplenty and lots of Black Vultures in the air overhead.

The beaches at Tortuguero are famed as the breeding grounds of sea turtles which return in large numbers from July to Oct. The beach is only a stones throw from the lodge. The grounds of the lodge were planted with a number of native species of trees and shrubs as well as a smattering of exotic individuals. And birds were ever present. The most obvious included several species of kingbird style flycatchers (Tropical, Boat-billed, Social, Great Kiskadee), some North American breeders wintering here (Summer Tanager, Yellow Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Baltimore type Northern Oriole), Montezuma Oropendolas, Slaty-tailed Trogon, several species of tropical style tanagers. Trogons are, in general, "sit tight" birds, not anxious to get out of binocular view as soon as possible as is the wont of some other species, many of which I missed seeing because of that trait. Journeys each day were by boat into some of the sloughs and backwaters of streams entering the canal. These gave closeup looks at such species as Boat-billed Herons, a couple of Sungrebes, Anhingas, Neotropical Cormorant, Bare-necked Tiger Herons, Purple Gallinule, White-crowned and White-fronted Parrots, Groove-billed Anis, Mangrove Swallow, some high flying swifts, several kingfishers most impressive of which was the Pygmy Kingfisher which landed on a branch no more than 5 feet from our boat and which would have made a fine picture had it only told me ahead of time that it was going to do that, so I could be ready. Other very mentionable species "back at the ranch" were the White-collared Manakins snapping their wings in typical lek behavior and 2 Toucans, Chestnut-mandibled and Keel-billed. That's not the total list of observations but we don't want to put readers to sleep. Our final day here was spent, in part, walking a trail in a nearby reserve observing insects (Phil DeVries Field Guide to Costa Rican Butterflies would have been useful here), some bats in a tree hollow, termite nests (which are found on tree trunks and branches all over the country), some poison dart frogs and a variety of trees and plants. A White-fronted Nunbird put in an appearance here too.

Our three days over, it was back down the canal - low tide made the water a little shallower in depth than the draught of our vessel but the attendants pushed us over without our haveing to do any walking. On the way back to San Jose we spent a little time to watch a banana processing plant located in the midst of a huge plantation and another stop to see a plantation of Hearts of Palm. We had already become acquainted with the tastiness of these in salads and as appetizers before meals. These are grown and harvested nine months after planting in contrast to the original wild harvested ones that took many years. While making these observations a glorious male Golden-hooded Tanager landed on a branch in the sunshine. If only all bird sightings could be like that one.

Almost equally interesting was a pair of Masked Tityras nearby.

A night in San Jose for some repacking and its off to Monte Verde, northwest and up in the mountains just barely on the Pacific side. It's a bouncy, jouncy ride on a rocky, gravel road for more than an hour but the destination is worth it. Our lodge, Fonda Vela, was fairly new and certainly had comfortable quarters and a restaurant with both a good menu and a nearby tree sporting a number of new birds - a parrot that got away from me but a Blue-crowned Motmot that didn't. Brown Jays were constant around the grounds, as well as Chestnut-collared Sparrows and Blue and White Swallows. A walk on a trail in the reserve got us a good look at Resplendant Quetzals (probably the particular species most birders hope to see in Central American tropics). Two more trogons (close relatives of the Quetzal), Collared and Orange-bellied were added here also. A Black Guan was visible but not well seen. It's a turkey sized bird of the forest, often in the trees. It was probably on this walk that I missed seeing more species because of dense vegetation, than I missed elsewhere. That's the breaks. It leaves something to be gained by a return trip, which is what I say about any place that we ever visit and don't get back to. At a gift shop just outside the reserve there are many hummingbird feeders around a patio. Finally we can really look at these birds which are too often transitory elsewhere. Violet Sabrewings, Steely-vented, Rufous-tailed, Purple-throated Mt. Gems, Green-crowned Brilliants were frequent. It seems like most hummers require hyphenated names to distinguish them. Correctly reflected light is necessary to see the named features. And females just don't cut it. Bananaquits were frequent visitors to the feeders as well as the Common Bush Tanager. Several species of North American breeders were on hand including a Wood Thrush visiting a bird bath at a residence we visited. Companions to the Wood Thrush were 2 species of Nightingale Thrushes and a Clay-colored Robin (the National Bird of Costa Rica). It was at this location that we talked with the owner (an American) about the work of the Nature Conservancy here. This organization has been very instrumental in helping preserve critical habitats and obviously deserves support abroad and at home. On departure day we stopped briefly at a bridge over a narrow stream to check for the Sunbittern. Darned if it wasn't there. A good sighting.

[to be continued next month]

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