Sunday, January 07, 2024

One Day of Birding

We are now at home, but thinking of our fabulous trip to Costa Rica, which ended yesterday. Our tour company is Field Guides. If you want a birding tour, I recommend them; website here: 

https://fieldguides.com/

One Day of Birding: January 1, 2024

First light from the balcony outside our hotel room around 5:15 AM.

After breakfast, our bus drove us to a beautiful dirt road. We walked for several hours, looking for birds.
The bus followed us — so we went only down, not up!

To my surprise, one of the retaining walls along the way was painted with a neat mural.







We didn’t see the hotel up the hill that was announced by the mural.

All sorts of traffic along the road




Birds and cows




Swallows on a TV antenna.


Amusing that this hummingbird had nested on the electric wires!



More art


A traditionally painted farm cart on someone’s front porch.

After lunch

From a bridge across a stream, we saw an Amazon Kingfisher.

We walked along some farm fields and saw these beautiful lapwings.

The Red-Breasted Meadowlark is like the one in the US but so different in color!
Late in the afternoon, we stopped at a lake where there were some nice water birds.

As we rode the bus back to the hotel for dinner, the sun was setting.

Blog post and all photos © 2024 mae sander

16 comments:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Oh my goodness! The birds are startlingly beautiful.

I'd love to go birding there. Maybe someday...

My name is Erika. said...

Your photos remind me of Costa Rica (well obviously), but I am thinking of when I visited in 2013. We rode horses on a similar style road. My first (and only) ever horse ride. And how cool to see the hummingbird in its nest. Wow. hugs-Erika

eileeninmd said...

Hello,
You saw a wonderful variety of Costa Rica birds. The mural is beautiful.
Great collection of photos. Take care, have a great week!

Jeanie said...

This looks fabulous, Mae. I loved the murals!

Helen's Book Blog said...

What a wonderful trip you had! Beautiful scenery and birds.

Emma at Words And Peace / France Book Tours said...

Gorgeous, thanks for sharing!

Jenn Jilks said...

Mae, you have wonderful adventures! I love the photos. I travel vicariously.

Jenni Elyse said...

Love all your pictures. They're beautiful. I'm jealous of the sunny skies and lack of snow, lol. Have a great week!

https://jennielyse.com/sunday-news-50/

JoAnn said...

Absolutely lovely! Thanks for shraing.

Literary Feline said...

Such beautiful photos, Mae! I am glad you had a nice time on your trip to Costa Rica.

magiceye said...

Beautiful captures of the birds!

Iris Flavia said...

Great murals and oh, such beautiful birds!

Sami said...

Beautiful birds and scenery and what an unexpected place to find such a beautiful mural. Thanks for participating in Monday Murals Mae.

Marja said...

My friend went to Costa Rica She loved it amazing nature and animals
That's what's stand out in this beautiful mural as well

Bertiebo said...

Wow... Mae!! that must have been a wonderful and exiting trip. I'm a bit jealous.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

I note your recommendation for Field Guides. While I have no doubt that it is fine organization with skilled guides, I always use companies based in the country I am visiting. That way I don’t have to pay for guides to fly in from North America, and their high salaries too. In Costa Rica I have always used Costa Rica Expeditions and it is hard to find a better guide than Charlie Gomez. He is nothing less than superb.