All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Costa Rica is home to about a hundred species of snakes, but we seldom see any of them on our trips to Guanacaste; this is partly because many of them are nocturnal. On one of their first nights at Buena Vista Lodge the 20-Tenners encountered the snake above slithering around on concrete outside the dining hall. We took several flash photos and then had to distract the night watchman who wanted to cut off the hapless animal's head. We're happy we could shoo the snake--as yet unidentified--into nearby vegetation where it was not seen again, even though the watchman went after it with a spotlight and a machete. It's hard to tell from the photo, but this 18" serpent had vertical-slit pupils and appeared from a wide section of its body to have eaten recently. (If you know this snake's identity, please send a note to INFO.)

In much of Central America, vultures are like pigeons in a city park in the U.S.--almost fearless of people and sometimes getting underfoot as they hop awkwardly toward refuse and dead animals along the street or trail. We almost tripped over the Turkey Vulture above while it was intent on eviscerating the carcass of a Cane Toad flattened by a passing vehicle. The vulture flew up onto a low-hanging branch and stared at us intently until we departed and left it alone with its lunch. Note the bird's head appears red because that's the color of the vulture's cranial skin; young Turkey Vultures have gray head skin. The bird's legs also are red-skinned, but they appear discolored in the photo because of dried fecal material. Vultures may defecate on their legs to help keep the animal cool through evaporation and/or to help kill bacteria from the vulture's decomposing prey.

And speaking of featherless heads on birds, this close-up (above) of the face of a male White-winged Dove shows a bare patch of cyan skin that surrounds an eye with a blood-red iris. Note also the iridescent feathers and blue-black spot on the neck. (The female dove will be somewhat paler.)

After our Santa Rosa tour we went on to Junquillal Beach Sanctuary for a look at the maritime forest. There, in trees along the Pacific Ocean, were troops of White-faced Capuchin monkeys (above) gorging themselves on flowers.

On the way back from Santa Rosa, we timed the bus ride to arrive at the intersection of the Pan American Highway and the road to Cañas Dulces just before sunset. After stopping there we surprised the 20-Tenners with a spectacle discovered a few years ago by Ernesto: The trees at this corner are the evening roost of perhaps 3,500 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (above). It was quite a sight to see these long-tailed Neotropical migrants swarming and perching in full view before settling into denser vegetation to spend the night.

Guanacaste this, Guanacaste that, but what does "Guanacaste" really mean? Above is the fruit of a Guanacaste tree, Enterolobium cyclocarpum, AKA for obvious reasons as "Monkey Ear Tree." (That said, we don't think guanacaste directly translates as "monkey ear.")

The road from Cañas Dulces aloe fields to our accommodations at Buena Vista Lodge passed through scenic country and often provided views of interesting flora and fauna. Shown at left above was a large Strangler Fig (Ficus sp.) that had long since choked out the host tree on which it grew. This particular tree had borne in previous years--beneath it we once saw a Coyote dining on fallen figs--but in 2010 it was literally blanketed with fruit. Normally the tree would look dark green as we approached but even in the photo above one can see the color shift caused by millions of white and red figs ripening on the branches.

Closer views of the figs (above and below) show they are tightly clustered along tree twigs. Interestingly, a fig is not really a "fruit" but a hollow, globular receptacle inside of which hundreds of small fleshy flowers face each other. Each variety of Strangler Fig is pollinated by a tiny species-specific wasp that enters the receptacle through a small opening; inside, the fertilized flower produces a tiny fruit with seeds.

Also along the road to Buena Vista Lodge was a small pond that most days was populated by a trio of Least Grebes. This year the water also seemed to attract Barn Swallows, including the immature perched at left on the wire above. On the right is what Ernesto said was a rare sight in Costa Rica--a migrating Violet-green Swallow. (NOTE: This species is best identified on the wing, which we did.)

On their last day in the field the 20-Tenners caught a couple of birds that were incredibly colorful. One was an immature Lesser Ground-Cuckoo undergoing molt from its juvenal to breeding plumage. Yet another Costa Rican bird with featherless facial features, this youngster looked like it had been made up with blue mascara and yellow eye shadow--all highlighted by a yellow-orange lower mandible and rusty throat. Imagine how it will look with less-scruffy adult feathers!

The other brilliant bird that last day was an immature male Canivet's Emerald (above), just beginning to bring in the jewel-like green feathers that eventually will coat its entire body. We had caught apparent female and adult male Canivet's before, but never had we seen an "in-between" male like this one.

In the photo above, Ernesto examines a hummingbird held temporarily in the mesh lingerie bags by which hummers are transported from mist nets to the banding table. We like these bags because they're soft and airy and we can quickly see what's in them. The blue tarp assured our bagged birds were always in the shade.

After the 20-Tenners departed for their homes in the U.S., the Omega Group continued banding and scouting for a few days. One afternoon at the Cañas Dulces aloe fields we got killer views of a pair of short-tailed, stout-bodied White-necked Puffbirds (above), one of which perched in full view as the sun neared the horizon. Richard Garrigues describes the near-passerine Puffbird Family (Bucconidae)--which includes nunbirds and monklets--as "a somber-looking group of sit-and-wait predators." With that big bill, you can rest assured a puffbird will make short work of an unsuspecting grasshopper or lizard.

If your first thought on the bird above was "Common Yellowthroat," you'd almost be right. It's actually a male Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, whose thick, bicolored bill is unusual for a Wood Warbler. This species occurs at lower elevations throughout Costa Rica.

The biggest hummingbird we net in Guanacaste Province is also the species with the longest bill: Plain-capped Starthroat. In macro view (above) this bird superficially resembles a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, but only the lower gorget is metallic red; the upper portion of the throat--the surface that accepts pollen from some tubular flowers this bird visits for nectar--is flat black.

When our work in Guanacaste was complete, the Omega Group packed up our hummingbird banding gear and headed for Ernesto's home in Paraíso, east of San Jose. Along the way we made a side trip to visit a butterfly and hummingbird habitat an enterprising Costa Rican had established north of San Ramon. As the route took us to higher, cooler, more humid habitat there was a marked change in vegetation. At one place, the shoulder was literally blanketed with bright orange flowers (above). Upon closer examination these turned out to be terrestrial orchids, Epidendrum radicans. Roadside orchids; what a glorious sight this was!

When we got to the hummingbird habitat at Los Cocoras, we found that the entrepreneur had installed hummingbird flowers and hung four sugar water feeders at just the right height for photography. Ela (above) and the rest of the group grabbed cameras and fired away--thank heavens for digital!--and managed to capture a few good images of several cloud forest hummers that came into view.