Yesterday, a small group of us when off birding for the day, tying in a trip to fill the truck up with fuel in San Isidro. We took in a number of locations on the way and way back, and ended up seeing a good number of species, 18 of which were new.
The first stop was a riverside scrubby area around some houses, where we saw
Yellow-olive Flycatcher,
Rufous-capped Warbler,
Grey-headed Chachalaca and
Thick-billed Seed-finch. Overhead, 15+ small swift sp. were flying around with the much larger
White-collared Swifts, and a
Great White Egret flew up the valley with 20+
Cattle Egret.
 |
| Thick-billed Seed-finch (fem) |
 |
| Great White Egret |
 |
| Yellow-olive Flycatcher |
Next, we went up a hill to an area of farmland with some trees and scrub along the track. Here we saw
Black-striped Sparrow, a very confiding
Roadside Hawk, a small group of
Vaux's Swifts, and an elusive
Slaty Spinetail which stuck stubbornly deep within cover.
 |
| Roadside Hawk |
 |
| Grey-headed Chachalaca - feeding from within a bush. |
 |
| Black-striped Sparrow |
The third location was an area of larger mature trees along a river. Here we saw a
Long-billed Hermit feeding on banana flowers, a
Grey-crowned Yellowthroat, a
Lesser Elaenia, and best of all, a male
White-crested Coquette.
 |
| Long-billed Hermit |
 |
| Long-billed Starthroat |
 |
| White-crested Coquette - not the best photo, but look at those head feathers! |
Then we took a long winding road that gradually reduced into a narrow, rocky track, up to the top of a hill, overlooking San Isidro. The natural forest had been completely decimated in this area to make space for grazing pastures, and as such, the bird diversity was extremely low. However, a couple of
Bat Falcons perching at the top of tall dead trees made the journey worthwhile, especially as they put on a real show for us, bombing around at high speed, seeing off approaching
Yellow-headed Caracaras, four times as big as the Bat Falcon itself. A group of
Smooth-billed Ani were seen in a field on the drive back down.
 |
| Bat Falcon |
 |
| Smooth-billed Ani |
Two
Southern Lapwings in a field were nice to see as we drove to our final location; the grounds of a bird reserve holiday park, where we saw
Masked Tityra,
Blue Dacnis,
Scaly-breasted Hummingbird and
Boat-billed Flycatcher. A pair of
Yellow-bellied Elaenia were seen by the roadside on the drive back to Cloudbridge.
 |
| Southern Lapwing |
 |
| Masked Tityra |
 |
| Scaly-breasted Hummingbird |
 |
| Blue Dacnis (fem) |
 |
| Boat-billed Flycatcher |
 |
| Yellow-bellied Elaenia |
 |
| A glimpse through the clouds to a mountain lit by the evening sun. |
No comments:
Post a Comment