Guy and Jeanne Lawrence. Christian and Karin Roth.

I had the placer to lead a trip for Neblina Forest, this time 4 friends came to explore for first time Costa Rica.

Amazing people, all of them share their enthusiasm for nature. One week to travel. Regions: Sarapiqui, Carara and Highlands of San Gerardo de Dota. The best of one week to see different habitats like: Transitional dry forest, coast line, low land wet forest, paramo and cloud forest of high lands.

All of them were so friendly and passioned for nature, that was inspiring. Besides birds all possible animals and general overview of nature and culture were reasons for their trip.

Thank you amigos, you are that nice people we want for our trips, help to conserve nature, interested and giving.

Hope we meet again

Ann and Jim, excellent friends, happy and the most adorable couple you can imagine. They have been more times in CR than me I think (Im costarican) . Not only for birds and general nature lovers but also for spanish lessons.

Ana speaks better spanish than me!. They know the country so well and birds. Again another target list that Ann called wish list with no pressure!! They had never been in North pacific of this coutry (dry forest) so we focused on that region, we knew the list wasnt gonna be too high but some targets for them were still there. We had over 275 sps

Some of their targets were ghosts, some one of the questions: Carlos, could we get Umbrellabird and Lovely Cotinga? when you have to answer that question if you are positive then you say » maybe» but inside of your logic, NO.

Anyway to try for those and otherones we needed rain forest, so Arenal volcano, Tenorio and Caño Negro regions were listed on this trip.

We were punished by the rain in Arenal and Tenorio, it was bad..But our good vibes were there.

Stayed for 2 nights at Observatory Lodge and told them that days before Lovely Cotinga had been seen around. Our two days rained straight, Last morning before breakfast under the rain, just before leaving the area we sat for one hour and a half, accompained by other guides we were all giving the last try, when suddenly when we were all about to leave the area !!!!!!!! a blue bird perched one hundred feet away from us, eye level!!!!!!! Lovely cotinga.

Not only that after that high blood pressure moment, we walked along lake arenal, and I saw a black bird about the size of Brown Jay, I knew it!! A juv male Bare necked Umbrellabird!!! one of the most elusive birds of CR.

After that all birds remaining were coming one by one, our pockets were full of targest, so much we needed a sac to carry all those moments.

Some of the top birds:

Yellow eared Toucanet, Jabiru (mating, yes that´s right, I know),Pinneated Bittern,Great Potoo, Palm Warbler, Black collared Hawk, White fronted Nunbird, Bare crowned Antbird, thicket Antpitta,Dull mantled Antbird, Thicket Tinamou, Elegant trogon, Tody Motmot, Centralamerican Pygmy Owl, Keel billed Motmot.

Jim and Ann had many furnarids and nesting Ornate Hawk-Eagle with Esteban Viamontes in Monteverde!!

David Larssen, take 4 CR, target trip. Feb 2018

This amazing man came back for 4th time with me in CR. I know how much he loves birds, pushing him self despite back and knees problems, he goes wherever is needed to for his targets and this man was decided to wipe out some species remaining in Sarapiqui, Poás Volcano and Highlands of San Gerardo Dota.

Having one week we packed our binoculars, scope, camera and the best spirit.

Our list went up to almost 200 sps. I gotta say one of my favorite moments is when I saw that snowy cotinga while driving, David´s most wanted target, we were almost giving up after 2 days looking around, going to especifc areas to see it, all of them failed. I remember one location where my wife Maribel saw it a few months ago, then in my positive thinking we drove there and banggggg, a white unmistakable bird perched on top of  a tree possibly half a mile away from the road ( yes I still dont believe it ). My second electrifying moment: Bare shanked Screech Owl and Dusky Nightjar together!! Thanks God, that was amazing.

some of the top targets:

Slaty breasted Tinamou, Barred Hawk, Green fronted Lancebill, Vermiculated Screech Owl, Snowcap, Ochraceous Pewee, Dark Pewee, Buffy tuftedcheeck, Yellow eared Toucanet, Collared Trogon, Red headed Barbet, Spotted woodquails, Silvery fronted Tapaculo, Golden bellied Flycatcher

http://2 ladies, no fear !! rain forest targets. Nov 2017 Leer más

We had a wonderful trip on april 2017. This time was a photography tour, Richard and Joyce brought their new toys to spend 2 great weeks taking photos of all kind of wild life, from birds to reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Sloths, monkeys, peccaries, kinkajou, snakes, agoutis, coatis, iguanas, crocodiles, caimans, lizards, toucans, quetzals, etc.

Richard and Joyce handled very well the equipment, even in the forest trying several shots of diverse wild life. Richard was overwhelmed when we saw a big troop of central american spider monkeys jumping over the trees in Carara. They both really enjoyed this trip and had close to 4000 pictures!! Hasta la vista amigos!

During part of Jan and Feb 2017 , Ave Nativa was required to lead 2 birding groups from Goteborgs Ornithological Asoc, Sweden. Sponsored by Birding CR. Great groups !! We scored over 388 sps on first group and 444 sps on second trip. Inclunding: Spotted Wood-Quail, Sunbittern, Great green Macaws, Barred Hawk, Black Hawk-Eagle, Vermiculated Screech Owl, Great Potoo, White tipped Sicklebill, Mangrove Hummingbird, Black crested Coquette, Buff fronted Quail-Dove, Resplendent Quetzal, Keel billed Motmot, Pied Puffbird, American Pygmy Kingfisher, Thicket Antpitta, Snowy Cotinga, Blue and Gold tanager, Cabannis’ Ground- Sparrow, Nicaraguan Seed Finch.

One of the best animals we saw, was Margay !! Plus Sloths, monkeys, snakes, frogs, lizards,etc were part of these trips..

My deepest appreciation for the assistace of our tour leaders: Berndt Lindberg and Rudy Jelinek.

The winning bird:

Scaled Antpitta!!! Excellent views a few meters away from us, seen in 2 different days.

Diana and Rick Werezak.

Great amigos from Canada, we had a very nice trip of 9 days.

Carara, San Gerardo de Dota, Sarapiquí, Arenal and Monteverde were the selected locations. Birds from central pacific, north caribbean, high lands, north zone. Besides avian fauna, sloths, monkeys, peccaries, coatis, snakes, frogs and more wild life were part of this trip.

The black spot along our journey was the huricane that affected part of CR´s north zone. Even when we had lots of rain whiile we were in Sarapiqui we still saw lots of birds and other animals.

The good spirit was all around us and we had a super good trip.

The winning area: CARARA..

The best bird: Olive backed Quail Dove, we found at least 5 slow walking individuals at La Selva OTS station, covered under the leaves of aroid plants..

Very special species: Great green Macaw, Rudy quail Dove, Quetzal, Red headed Barbet, Royal Flycatcher, Russet Antshike, Dark Pewee, Magenta throated Woodstar, Cape May Warbler, Streak chested Anpitta.

Gracias Rick and Diana..mi casa es su casa..!

Nov 8th-12th, 2016

We costumized a short trip for Elizabeth and Michael Collins, two enthusiastic birders and nature lovers.

Our trip started from Dreams Las Mareas in Guanacaste. First bird found: an elusive Ferruginous Pygmy Owl at 10 am, great beginning!!

This time we stayed at Heliconias Lodge Tenorio Volcano and Observatory Lodge so we could end near San Jose on the last day. We had our last stop on highlands around Poas Volcano. The locations as planned gave us lots of tanagers, antbirds, motmots, Trogons, hummingbirds and some raptors

Best bird of the trip: The winner this time is Ocellated Antbird!! second place for Ornate Hawk-Eagle.

Michael and my self  we had a short but complete body view of this bird just a few meters away from us, I´m sorry Ilizabeth !!This bird came out at Tenorio Park. Also we had fantastic eye level views of Black capped Pygmy Tyrant in this park. Some very special birds to mention not only here but the rest of the trip: Rufous winged Tanager, Black and yellow Tanager, White throated Shrike-Tanager, Fiery throated Hummingbird, Black and yellow Silky-Flycatcher,Smoky brown Woodpecker, White Hawk, Dull mantled Antbird.

Great visit to local family for night walk near Heliconias Lodge, named Bijagua Ranas ( phone: 8435 9792) where we were guided by the family who showed us over 9 sps of frogs in their garden!! I loved the 3 year old kid who spot some of the frogs for us!! During the trip we had 5 species of mammals and including some beautiful snakes as Eye lashed Pit Viper and Fer de Lance.

182 sps for 4 efective birding days.

I designed a program from Feb 11th to 19th, 2016 for David and Bob, two retired friends from USA.

Both of them had been previously in Costa Rica so we wanted to increase their list, places like Poás Volcano, Sarapiqui, Caño Negro and Arenal volcano were put together to keep short driving distances among places but also David had never stayed on these places before so I knew many species were new for him and also for Bob.

The winning area this time goes for: Caño Negro; all the kingfishers of CR in one day plus several great birds like Yellow breasted crake, Pied puffbird, Sungrebe, Black collared Hawk, etc..Very few times one area can defeat La Selva but it happened!!.

Even with hot temperatures and a lot of rain at Observatory Lodge, these two gentlemen took an amazing amount of hard species in their pockets..

The Best Moment:  I took Bob and David at night on Caño Negro to look for Common Potoo, well we saw it perched really clear, even we scoped it, while the potoo was calling, we saw a black figure that came down, right in front of us a beautiful Black and White Owl decided to stay in the middle!! was wonderful..very nice surprise..

The best species:

Total seen: 295 sps..

I was recommended to Elena by a friend, we took a half day birding tour around Cinchona since they were staying near Póas Volcano. We visited Virgen del Socorro and Cinchona. Down to Socorro we had great views of 2 White Hawks soring around, road was in bad shape so we drove back to main road and used our time to see the feeders where we had white bellied mountain-gem, green thorntail, rufous tailed hummingbird, violet sabrewing, green crowned Brilliant, a couple of prong billed Barbets and emerald Toucanet (blue throated). After that productive stop we went up road towards peace lodge where we had 2 amazing Sooty faced finches to end the day..Great family and very nice afternoon.

Todd is a great and avid birder, fit and able to walk difficult terrains. We had two weeks of birding from early mornings to dusk, also he learned pretty well the id pages of Garrigues´ Book.

One rule was clear, I´d find him the birds and take him to the hotspots but he would call the ID. That was tottally new for me and sometimes  I called the id of some birds spontaneuosly since my rutine. I got to say Tood did a great job telling the IDs of the species we found, I was so amazed with his memory and enthusiasm that we barely ate our meals to maximize time on the birds and general fauna.

The best moment: We faced a slow walking PUMA!!! 10 feet away from us at La Selva right before dusk, after that adrenaline shock we had a Vermiculated Schreech Owl eye level in the same place!!! Amazing, Tood I will never forget that moment amigo!!

We scored 452 sps, the best species:

Mach 17^th– April 6^th 2015.… ALL COTINGAS AND MORE!!!!JHON CLARK, STEVE LISTER AND TIM DORAN. Target Trip.

I had the pleasure to lead a great target trip with Tim, John and Steve. Three fantastic and avid birders from England, having 20 effective birding days we went out to get some of the most elusive birds of Costa Rica, plus some of regular targets that were part of the journey. I created a program according what they needed; some birds were skipped since some regions were too far to get one or two birds or negative possibilities for some species seen few times during the last 50 years.

One important part of the trip was based to see all cotingas of CR (except for Rufous Piha and Purple throated Fruit-Crow already in their seen list). I´m glad to say WE FOUND THEM!!!

We had a 4 wheel drive car and I was driving, all lodges were small to give a convenient budget price, these places were out of the regular hotels we normally stay at. It´s one of the benefits to travel with a local birding guide where we are flexible and not overpriced as many international companies are.

Blessed with great weather conditions for good part of the trip, empty trails in many areas and few places were typically touristy as Monteverde and Arenal Volcano, considering we had this trip during high season.

Some of the best species seen in this program:

Even when all these are amazing birds, my favorite Ochre breasted Antpitta!! We had wonderful views of 2 individuals, about 2 meters high in a little tree.

Special recognition to Central American Pygmy Owl and Bare necked Umbrellabird, really hard work to be seen. Two memorable battles and we saw them.

Visited Areas:

Rincón de Osa, Perez Zeledon, San Gerardo de Dota, Irazú volcano, Tapantí, central Caribbean, Sarapiquí, , Caño Negro, Arenal volcano, Tenorio, San Gerardo Monteverde, Monteverde, North Pacific.

Even when this was a target trip, we scored 470 sps. Usually general 20 day programs give over 500 sps.

Carlos Luis Jiménez

Birding Guide, Ave Nativa Travel.

MAY 20th – 11th JUNE  2014. Costa Rica. Jon Hornbuckle. One of the Top Five persons with the most seen species in the world. The Target Trip of Rufous vented Ground Cuckoo.

http://jonathanhornbuckle.webs.com/costarica2014.htm

I visited Costa Rica and the Pipeline Road in Panama with Mike Archer in March 1987 and returned to Costa Rica from Feb 23 to March 27 in 2001. The second trip included 19 days participating in an American ringing/banding project at Tortuguero. I decided it was the time to try to see more birds here as there were still some very good species I needed so I drew up a list of 23 possibilities. Brian Foster and Rod Martins kindly agreed to join me and we hired Carlos Jimenez to lead and transport us for 15 days, and stayed on a further week with a hire-car by ourselves. Carlos  ticomonklet@yahoo.com and www.birdingincostarica.com was excellent at finding and identifying the birds, and attending to all the logistics. We had a very successful trip, seeing many good birds including Buff-fronted and Chiriqui Quail-Doves, Great Green Macaw, Tody Motmot, Black-crowned and Thicket Antpittas, and Lovely and Yellow-billed Cotingas. To my pleasant surprise we saw all but 2 of my Wanted list and even had one unexpected addition, a mega Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo giving excellent views in trees.

JH Hit List                                Sites where recorded

Buffy-crowned Wood-Partridge  Volcan Irazu – heard and briefly seen, heard San Gerardo de Dota – more time spent trying to see this bird than any other

Black-breasted Wood-Quail       La Paz Waterfall gardens on Volcan Poaz and Finca Ecologica near Monteverde Lodge

Uniform Crake                           Esquinas Rainforest Lodge

Yellow-breasted Crake               Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge

Buff-fronted Quail-Dove            San Gerardo Research Station and San Gerardo de Dota

Chiriqui Quail-Dove                    Finca Ecologica, Monteverde

Great Green Macaw                   Sarapiqui

Rufous-vented Ground-Cuckoo  Volcan Tenorio road

Bare-shanked Screech-Owl        Santa Elena Reserve and Volcan Irazu

Central American Pygmy-Owl     Veragua RainForest Reserve

Spot-fronted Swift                     over the Ruinas de Ujarras

Mangrove Hummingbird             mangroves at La Gamba, well north of Golfito Bridge

Keel-billed Motmot                    old road to Arenal Observatory Lodge

Black-crowned Antpitta              Braulio Carrillo

Thicket Antpitta                         Trail below Arenal Observatory Lodge

Lovely Cotinga                          Forest below Arenal Observatory Lodge and Volcan Tenorio road

Yellow-billed Cotinga                 Golfito Bridge, Rincon de Osa

Ochraceous Pewee                    near Savegre Lodge, San Gerardo de Dota

Black-cheeked Ant-Tanager        Esquinas Rainforest Lodge

Cabanisi’s Ground-Sparrow        coffee plantations at Ruinas de Ujarras

Nicaraguan Grackle                   Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge

Spot-breasted Oriole                 road below Monteverde

JH misses

Maroon-chested Ground-Dove   Volcan Irazu (probably seen in flight) – not on JH list (too unlikely)

Unspotted Saw-whet Owl           Volcan Irazu and San Gerardo de Dota – tried hard

Veraguan Mango                       Rincon – not aware that it was a recent addition to Costa Rica

Bare-necked Umbrellabird          San Gerardo and Santa Elena Reserve – tried hard. Common at Veragua in Dec – Jan

ITINERARY

May 20: Fly Manchester to San Jose with KLM, via Amsterdam and Panama City. OVN Europa Hotel, downtown San Jose.

May 21: Braulio Carrillo am, La Selva/ Sarapiqui area. OVN Los Portones Cabins.

May 22: La Selva Biological Station am, La Paz Waterfall gardens at 1500m on Volcan Poaz pm. OVN Los Portones.

May 23: La Selva 0700-0800, Medio Queso wetland, drive to Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge via Chiles. OVN Cabins at nearby Kingfisher Lodge.

May 24:  Caño Negro boat trip am, old road to Arenal Observatory Lodge. OVN Cabins Mayol, La Fortuna.

May 25: Trail below Arenal Observatory Lodge then rest of wet day on Arenal Lodge trails. OVN at Cabins Mayol, La Fortuna.

May 26:  Old road to Arenal Observatory 0600-0800, drive 3 hours to Volcan Tenorio road, birding there after brunch at 11.30, then to Heliconias Lodge at 4pm, OVN there.

May 27:  Heliconias Lodge trails in rain am, decide to leave a day early, drive to Monteverde. Walk down muddy trail to San Gerardo Research Station, OVN there.

May 28:  0500 take Tabacon Trail to Umbrellabird lek-site, then other trails all morning. Leave after lunch, walk up 400m elevation to Santa Elena Reserve and take Encantado Trail to look for Umbrellabird. OVN at Cabins Eddy, Monteverde.

May 29:  A dry day at last. 0645-1135 Santa Elena Reserve, then Finca Ecologia near Monteverde Lodge till 1515, back to Cabinas Eddy at 1645.

May 30:  Santa Elena Reserve 0600-0830, checked out at Eddy’s then long drive south to Rincon de Osa. OVN at Osa Palmas, La Palma, Osa Peninsula.

May 31:  0530 departure for Golfito Bridge – Yellow-billed and Turquoise Cotingas. 0710-0830 drive to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park for day’s birding. Slower return to Osa Palmas due to heavy rain. Carlos takes car to mechanic for repair but he shears a high pressure oil-pipe – no spare! OVN Osa Palmas.

June 01:  Departure delayed till 0930 while car is repaired then drive to Cerro de la Meurte with stops. OVN at Miriam’s cabins.

June 02:  San Gerardo de Dota area all day including a trail at Savegre Lodge. OVN at Miriam’s.

June 03:  Mirador del Quetzal am, drive down to Cartago and on to Grandpa’s Hotel. Pm wasted as Carlos tried to get the car repaired again in Cartago. OVN at Grandpa’s.

June 04:  Volcan Irazu am, Ruinas de Ujarras pm. then drive to San Jose and rent a car. Farewell to Carlos. OVN Hemingway Inn, San Jose.

June 05:  Drive to El Tapir Reserva Ecotouristica near Braulio Carrillo, then to Liverpool near Limon turning right for 16km to Veragua Rainforest Reserve – bird with the manager Daniel Torres. OVN at Cabinas La Uvita in Moin near Limon.

June 06:  0415 drive to Veragua for the day with Marco as guide. OVN at La Uvita.

June 07:  Brisas de la Jungla and Veragua road am, pm drive to Turrialba town,visit Guayabo National Monument ruins 1600-1745. OVN El Rio Hotel, Turrialba.

June 08:  0530 drive to Rancho Naturalista, stay till 2pm then drive to Silent Mountain. Back to Turrialba and up Volcan Turrialba to the Lodge – cold, low cloud, short of petrol so decide to return to El Rio Hotel, Turrialba.

June 09:  Set off for Guayabo ruins but as Volcan Turrialba looked clear drive there instead – entrance gates locked. Return to El Rio after some birding, then drive direct to Volcan Irazu in one hour without going through Cartago. 16.30- 20.30 birding with Ernesto as guide. OVN at Grandpa’s.

June 10:  0430- 1120 Volcan Irazu, including Prusia reserve. After brunch at café near Grandpa’s, meet Eduardo near his farm at Ujarras and bird with him in that area till he has to leave at 15.30, staying on till 5pm. OVN at Hemingway Inn, San Jose.

June 11: El Tapir near Braulio at 0600- 0945, some rain, drive to San Jose airport for Copa Airlines and KLM flights home.

If you want to read more, use this link:

http://jonathanhornbuckle.webs.com/costarica2014.htm

Carlos Luis Jiménez, Fito Downs, Paco Madrigal and Leo Garrígues went out for a big day, our destinations included:

Sarapiquí, Poás volcano and Central Pacific.