Spiders on Drugs

What happens when spiders are given various drugs? :)

Cardinal shot dead by columnist

Guest Newsweek Columnist, Walda Cameron (in the Feb. 12, 2007 issue), writes
about shooting a Northern Cardinal, which she admits she knew was illegal. I hear NY Audubon is already on the case.

Dastardly Duos

Confused by Red-naped and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers? Does separating the gnatcatchers give you hives? The Tucson Audubon Society has a great web site called Dastardly Duos. It's a series of articles related to separating those confusing species and many others. It's easy to print them out for future reference too.

I'll be back later today or tomorrow with Day 4 of my Costa Rica trip. Stay tuned!

Costa Rica: Day 1-3 Videos

Here are a few videos from the first 3 days in Costa Rica:


Close-up of Arenal Volcano


Montezuma Oropendula eating at a feeder


Some birds at the feeders at the Arenal Observatory Lodge

Costa Rica: Day 3

After a great day on the grounds of the Arenal Observatory Lodge, we woke up bright and early for some AM birding. Unfortunately, the guy whose job it is to stock the fruit feeders wasn't coming to work until 7:30, so we had very inactive feeders. We birded the grounds a bit and explored a new trail that was known to host a Thicket Antpitta. Antpittas are funny little birds with stubby tails, long legs, and an upright posture. They look like some kind of wind-up toy. Lucky for us, the Antpitta was singing away. With some whistled impersonations, we were able to get him to come check us out. These little guys are the definition of the word "skulk". Luckily, everyone got a great look.

After a scrumptious buffet breakfast with great fresh fruit, we headed to the rainforest canopy bridges about 30 minutes from the lodge. The area we went to has a series of steel suspension bridges with the highest being 100 meters off the forest floor.

The weather was a bit rainy and the birding started out a bit quietly. Lucky for us, a Morpho butterfly flew by and caused us to pause and admire it. I happened to look to my right and spotted a perched White-fronted Nunbird, a very difficult species to find. It was joined by another Nunbird that was beating the heck out of a giant, creepy, centipede-looking thing. The theory is that they beat their prey against a branch in order for the prey to excrete any toxins before the bird ingests them. Yummy!



We continued through the trails and across many of the bridges until we reached the top. There was a crippling view of the rainforest with a waterfall down below. Birds were few and far between with only some Tennessee Warblers and some random flycatchers. A local guide tipped us off to a perched Broad-billed Motmot, my second sighting of a member of the Motmot family. Unfortunately, it was too far for a picture.





We headed back towards the entrance. On the way back, we saw a very cooperative Buff-rumped Warbler that practically landed on my shoe and a Dusky Antbird. I also saw these workers below who were building a new trail. These guys were carrying some extremely heavy blocks and I give them huge amounts of credit.



We spent the afternoon birding the grounds of the lodge. We didn't see anything new that I can recall, but I did get this sweet picture of a Summer Tanager.



We closed out the evening with another nice dinner and the sounds of calling Pauraques. Tomorrow, it's off to the Monteverde Cloud Forest!

Great Macro Photography

A friend sent me a link to this guy on Flickr who takes some amazing macro photos of insects and other arthropods. Enjoy!

%$^#^# Blogger

I was forced to finally make the upgrade to the new Blogger. So, if you see anything quirky, please let me know.

Costa Rica: Day 2

After breakfast, we boarded a small, but comfortable, van and headed to our next destination: The Arenal Observatory Lodge. The lodge, located about 2.5 hours from where we were, is situated right next to the Arenal Volcano. On our way to the lodge, we had to make one stop. We had received a tip that a field near the town of La Fortuna was hosting two rarities: Tropical Mockingbird and Southern Lapwing. These two birds are not even in the CR field guide! It took us a few minutes to find the Lapwing, but the Mockingbird was nowhere to be found. Another group of birders located a second Lapwing, but still no Mocker. As a consolation prize, our views of the Arenal Volcano from this spot were astounding!

We packed up the van and continued our journey to the lodge... and what a lodge it was! Nice rooms, balcony views of the volcano, good eats, lots of trails, and an amazing deck with a view of some fruit feeders. We dropped our bags off and headed to the feeders. Watermelon, banana, and canteloupe attracted Montezuma Oropendulas, Yellow-bellied Euphonias, Olive-backed Euphonias, and a host of different Tanagers. I also saw a life mammal, a Coati, searching for scraps under the feeders.


Feeders at Arenal (Blue-gray Tanager, Olive-backed Euphonia Female, Passerini's Tanager, Bananaquit)


A Coati

Lunch was decent. They make some surprisingly great french fries in CR. By the end of lunch, our views of the volcano were becoming clouded over and we wouldn't see the peak again for the remainder of our stay.


No more Arenal...

After lunch we hit the trails around the lodge. This lodge was historically used as a monitoring station for the volcano, so there are many buildings around. Our first find was a fruiting tree that attracted lots of tanagers: Bay-headed, Rufous-winged, Palm, Golden-hooded, Emerald, and Blue-gray at least. It was hopping. After getting our fill of tanagers, we continued towards our destination: The Waterfall Trail. On the way we encountered White-necked Jacobin and Violet-headed Hummingbird (lifer).


Violet-headed Hummingbird

The Waterfall Trail was our first exposure to rainforest birding. Birding in the rainforest is tough. The foliage is incredibly dense and many birds are only seen passing by quickly in back-lit feeding flocks high near the canopy. It's not for the faint of heart. On the trail we were greeted with our first view of one of the Antbirds - a single Ocellated Antbird - a great sighting. We also saw Slaty-tailed Trogon and heard several other birds. A steep decent to the waterfall lead to a view of our prized find - a Green-fronted Lancebill that loved to sit on a rock in the middle of a river. He would fly up, swirl around a bit, and then come back to the same rock over and over again. Funny little guy!



It was getting late so we headed back towards the hotel. We watched the sunset over Arenal Lake. We then enjoyed a pretty decent candlelight dinner. The sounds of the night were a calling Pauraque and many katydids. Until tomorrow!



P.S. I know I said I would have one post for each place we stayed, but I've been writing too much about each day. It'll be one post per day spent in CR.