By Susan Mahr

January 24, 2019

Those of us staying at Trogon had a relaxed morning, with breakfast anytime after 7:00, luggage needing to be outside the rooms by 7:30, and departure at 8:30. It was a little bit warmer this morning than yesterday (53) and there were a few birds around, including the ground-foraging large-footed finch, a Talamanca hummingbird feeding on fuchsias and other plants, rufus-collared sparrows flitting around, the tiny volcano hummingbird busily zipping from orange flower to flower on the marmalade bush, and flame-colored tanager moving through, but no quetzal sightings. There was a red-tailed squirrel running up into the tree tomato shrub, grabbing ripe orange fruits and running off with them. The five staying at Savegre arrived in the dining room about 7:45 and hung out for a while, but most people drifted off to pay bar tabs, return to their rooms for a bit, or wander the grounds looking for birds and flowers.

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By Susan Mahr

January 23, 2019

It was quite chilly overnight, but between the propane heaters, hot water bottle left under the covers and the thick, snuggly comforter on the bed it was very nice for sleeping. And it was pretty quiet, with few sounds other than the soothing hypnotic sound of the river running and crickets humming faintly. Some people were up early to look for birds on the grounds, but there wasn’t a formal bird walk because of logistical reasons (Margherita and Andreas had to leave before 6:00 in order to drive the bus to Savegre, join the smaller group for breakfast (which started earlier than at Trogon), and then get back to Trogon. If they did a bird walk at Trogon, they’d have to miss breakfast all together in order to make the transfers from Savegre).

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By Susan Mahr

January 22, 2019

The birds and people started making noise around 5:00. Most people were up early, leaving their bags outside the rooms and up to the dining hall by 6:30 (or before to watch the same assortment of tanagers and other small birds we’d seen the previous day coming in to the feeder. We were on the bus at 7:30 and departed Wilson Botanic Garden under bright blue skies. We made our way down the mountain, driving between lush roadside plantings and living fences of variegated dracaenas and other plants. We drove through the town of San Vito – with its large regional hospital and lots of businesses – and continued on down, jostling through an area of road construction to drive through more open areas of pastures and houses, with just little patches of trees around. We continued descending through the isolated, rural area on Highway 237, seeing a few blooming poró trees and a roadside hawk in a tree, then Andreas slowed for four yellow-throated toucans in a rainbow eucalyptus. We crept along, with Andreas keeping to the should of the road for a while, as Margherita pointed out plants – especially the small tree Croton draco (targuá colorado, not the same ornamental plant with colorful leaves that has the common name of croton but is actually Codiaeum variegatum) that is distinctive-looking because it always has a number of red or orange senescing leaves – and other birds including a yellow-headed caracara, cattle egrets and swallowtail kite flying.

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By Susan Mahr

January 21, 2019

The students were noisy for a while, but by 11:30 they had dispersed to their rooms, and things were quiet outside other than the occasional rustling of foliage in the breeze, and a brief shower in the middle of the night. The kitchen workers started clanking and banging in the kitchen above us around 5:00, and the birds started up soon thereafter. It was comfortably cool with patchy clouds this morning. Most people gathered on the patio near the dining area by 6:30 for coffee and to watch birds coming in to the fruit feeder. Andreas rescued a blue-chested hummingbird that had crashed into the windows of the dining area and brought it out for Margherita to resuscitate. After blowing on it and giving it some sugar water, it had recovered enough to fly off (after the bird paparazzi had its way with the little thing!) Many birds came in to the fruit feeder, including deep turquoise male green honeycreeper and the less flamboyant bright green female; several species of euphonias, little bright yellow and navy blue males and duller yellowish-females of the same size and shape; speckled tanager, silver-throated tanager, palm tanager, scarlet rumped tanager (both deep black males with a brilliant scarlet patch on their rear and the drab-colored females, both with a silvery beak); and a single rufus-winged tanager. After a while a red-tailed squirrel decided to join the party and hopped down on the feeder to gobble up the plantain, then decided it would take the whole fruit away. Susan successfully thwarted the little animal, although on the second try it did manage to drag the cut fruit away but it was a bit too big to manage on the run, and it was retrieved and replaced on the feeder. The few clouds that lingered from overnight dissipated as we watched the birds.

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By Susan Mahr

January 20, 2019

Howler monkeys started up around 5:00 and kept going for nearly an hour in the trees in the near distance. The bird dawn chorus started up around 5:30, with a diversity of twittering, cawing, peeping, chirping, whistling and squawking. By 6:00 the clouds out over the ocean were tinged pink as the sun, and soon the bird noise began to diminish slightly. We met in the restaurant for breakfast at 6:45, hastily eating the many buffet items so we could load the bus by 7:15 (the early departure necessitated by the tides, since we were taking a boat to get to our destination this morning).

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By Susan Mahr

January 19, 2019

Today was a free day, with a few people going off on the optional tours to learn about mangroves or visit Corcovado National Park. We met for breakfast around 7:00 to partake of the typical buffet with fruits, pastries, eggs, gallo pinto, bacon, plantains, pancakes, etc., sitting at the same long table we were at the night before.

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By Susan Mahr

January 18, 2019

This morning we had to get up early and eat hastily, with a request to have the luggage out when we came down for breakfast at 6:30 when the restaurant opened. While we quickly enjoyed the same buffet – this time with pancakes – Andreas and the bellboys loaded everything onto the bus.

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By Susan Mahr

January 17, 2019

Everyone was on their own for breakfast in the restaurant any time after 6:30. The buffet offered a large variety of selections including tropical fruits, assorted pastries and breads, and hot dishes of scrambled eggs, gallo pinto (rice and beans), fried plantains, and more, along with juices and coffee. For those who were interested, there was time for strolling through the garden to look at plants and watch for birds.

Everyone gathered in front of the hotel by 8:45 to wait for Andreas to arrive with the bus. We loaded into the medium-sized bus ready for departure at 9:00, under bright blue skies with puffy white clouds over the distant mountains. As we drove, Margherita talked about the different provinces of Costa Rica, as we drove from Heredia Province to Alajuela Province, and the geography of the area, coffee production, and other things. We drove the crowded streets of the metropolitan area, going by some small coffee plantations mixed in with lots of small businesses, colorful houses, and interesting tropical plants used as ornamentals or growing wild in open areas. Margherita pointed out cloud-covered Barva Volcano with its three peaks (Tres Marias) not visible off on the north side of the Central Valley, and talked about some of the other volcanos in the area. She pointed out the orange-flowered poró trees, Erythrina poepiggiana, planted among the coffee plants in places – a leguminous tree that helps fix nitrogen in the plantings and provide light shade.

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By Susan Mahr

Tuesday January 15

A few of us flew down the day before since flights wouldn’t get in until very late in the evening. Larry and Judy from the Minneapolis area were the first to arrive in late afternoon, followed by sisters Sandy and Kaye from different places in Wisconsin that evening, and finally Susan, Dan (WI) and Susan’s father Richard (California) near midnight.

A few of us flew down the day before since flights wouldn’t get in until very late in the evening. Larry and Judy from the Minneapolis area were the first to arrive in late afternoon, followed by sisters Sandy and Kaye from different places in Wisconsin that evening, and finally Susan, Dan (WI) and Susan’s father Richard (California) near midnight.

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By Susan Mahr

January 12, 2018

We had to be up early this morning to have the luggage set outside the rooms at 6:30 and down to breakfast when the restaurant opened at 7:00. It was cloudy with a heavy mist, enough to have the gutters dripping from the accumulated moisture, so there was no glorious sunrise to admire, only leaden seas blending into dark rain clouds out at the horizon. Normally this is the middle of the dry season, so rain at this time of year is very unusual. Still, a quick walk on the beach along the receding surf before breakfast was rather pleasant.

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By Susan Mahr

January 11, 2018

The sound of the surf crashing on the sand just a few hundred feet from our rooms was a constant white noise to lull everyone to sleep. With no activities scheduled for the day, everyone got to do their own thing – sleep in, take an optional excursion, hike around on the property, swim in the ocean or take a dip in the pool (both of which were popular activities as the temperature got into the high 80s later in the day), get a massage, or read a book in the shade. Nancy and Susan got up before sunrise to join Margherita on the optional 6:00 am walk. It was already warm and humid when we met in the restaurant shortly after the sun had risen over the water of the Gulf of Nicoya. Margherita had asked local guide Jesse to join us, and he led us on the path up behind the restaurant to go to the lookout point. We slowly made our way up the hill and along the road, stopping frequently to look at plants and birds. There was a pochote tree or spiny cedar (Bombacopsis quinatum) with its bat-pollinated white shaving brush flowers and pale greyish-brown trunk and main branches covered with hefty, hard conical spines. They can grow quite tall, often with a buttressed base and a rather wide spreading crown. The degree of spininess is extremely variable; some trees are completely spineless. The spines can be especially dense on the saplings. Then Margherita pointed out a Panama tree (Sterculia apetala, a fast-growing native tree used for timber); some blooming madroño (Calycophyllum candidissimum), the national tree of Nicaragua with its white flowers (really white bracts around tiny real flowers) and distinctive reddish, striated bark; and a caimito or star apple tree (Chrysophyllum cainito) with the undersides of the leaves a beautiful mahogany red and green fruits (when ripe, the edible fruits are a purple color).

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By Susan Mahr

January 10, 2018

It had rained overnight and skies were partly cloudy this morning when we met on the deck near the restaurant at 6:30 to watch the birds coming in to the feeder in the cool air. The howler monkeys that had been howling in the distance had stopped making noise, but the oropendulas and crested guans were still calling loudly, along with the little bird songs. Misty clouds obscured the top of the volcano, moving back and forth as we watched. It was a similar assemblage of birds coming to the feeder as the previous day, with the dominant oropendolas and a few brown jays, and a few smaller birds trying to get in on the action: golden-hooded tanager, emerald tanager, silver-throated tanager. Down below the feeder a coati foraged for dropped bananas, and two male and four female great currasows wandered around.

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By Susan Mahr

January 9, 2018

Birds started chattering and howler monkeys could be heard in the distance well before dawn (and people in adjacent room jabbering). The volcano stood out against the pale sky, with tendrils of clouds streaming across its slopes when we got up around 6:00, but 15 minutes later it was completely gone from sight, enveloped in white. We met at the restaurant for breakfast at 6:30, but it wasn’t open, so we watched the birds coming in to the feeder. It was cool with a slight breeze as we watched the constant activity. At first it was just oropendolas dominating the watermelon quarters skewered on branches on top of a tall pole, but a few brown jays came in as well. Down below a trio of great currasows – one black male and two brown females – foraged on the ground, and we saw another pair below the deck just sitting there preening. Commotion in the distant trees attracted our attention as a troop of spider monkeys swung through the trees. After a while a few smaller birds came in to the feeders, including golden-hooded tanager and blue-grey tanager. Several rufus-tailed hummingbirds and a female violet-headed hummingbird zipped among the purple porterweed flowers, with a small yellow and black bananaquit joining them. There was a fair amount of blue in the sky, but misty clouds still streamed across the volcano – periodically clearing to reveal a thin plume of smoke trailing out the top – but no direct sunshine on us. Off in the distance the sun shown on parts of Lake Arenal.

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By Susan Mahr

January 8, 2018

The rain continued for much of the night, but it was just incredibly damp when we woke in the morning. As the avian dawn chorus diminished a few howler monkeys could be heard in the distance. Margherita was waiting with her spotting scope near the dining area at 7:00, but only Nancy, Joanne and Susan were there early to eat breakfast and look at the birds coming in to the fruit feeder in droves.  Today the buffet had scrambled eggs and little discs of spicy sausage to go with the gallo pinto, fruit, milk oatmeal and other things. Although there were a few tiny breaks in the clouds, it was still too dark for taking good bird photos. But that didn’t stop the birds from visiting to eat bananas and papaya. In addition to the tanagers and other colorful small birds, a flock of a dozen grey-headed chachalacas took over the feeder for a little while, completely covering the large platform. Later five collared aricaris (small toucans) came in to gulp down bananas. The sun was trying to break through the clouds as Bev and Kathy were eating their breakfast, having slept in a little. Instead of doing a garden walk, we ended up just watching the interesting bird show until 9:00, when we returned to the rooms for final packing. We loaded up for departure around 9:15, made a brief stop at reception to drop off keys, a nd were on our way at 9:25.

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By Susan Mahr

January 7, 2018

It rained on and off all night long, with the soft pitter-patter of raindrops on the foliage outside mixing with the whirring, trilling and buzzing of insects, chattering of geckos, and clicking and plinking of frogs for a lovely background serenade that was only occasionally disrupted by noisy trucks on the nearby highway. By morning, the birds had taken over the chorus with a mixture of whoops, whistles, and songs. Since breakfast wasn’t until 8:00, there was plenty of time for an early morning walk around the property or just to lie in bed longer.

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By Susan Mahr

January 6, 2018

The skies were brighter this morning, but still plenty of clouds around and a bit breezy when we met for breakfast at 7:15. The blue crowned motmots were not cooperating and didn’t visit the feeders at all while we were there. We were back in the lobby with our luggage at 8:15, and while that was being loaded in the van, we went out to explore the garden for about an hour. It was very pleasant in the sunshine (and occasional bursts of very fine mist from distant clouds) as we wandered around, inspecting the various trees (now most with labels) and beautiful flowers. Some of the distinctive trees included the very spiny Ceiba speciose, the less-spiny Ceiba pentandra, and the similar-looking but smooth-trunked Pseudobombax ceiba, as well as orchid tree (Bauhinia purpurea) and Pachira aquatica with its flamboyant flowers. We saw a few blue-grey tanagers, many clay-colored robins, and a couple rufus-tailed hummingbirds, but no motmots. For those looking closely, there were some interesting insects, including a small mantid, a huge robberfly, and a net-winged beetle.

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By Susan Mahr

January 4 & 5, 2018

Thursday January 4

This was the smallest group we’ve ever had, with only four participants. Kathy, from Tucson, came on a redeye, arriving early in the morning, while everyone else got in late afternoon on the same flight. Nancy, from Houston, and Beverly, from Fort Atkinson, WI, were on their regularly scheduled flight, joined by Joanne, from Milwaukee, who had her original flight through Newark cancelled the day before because of the “Bomb Cyclone” heading for the Northeast US, dropping lots of snow and disrupting travel. They had a little time to walk around the beautiful gardens behind the Hotel Bougainvillea despite the strong, blustery wind and occasional mist from the patchy clouds.

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