Focused on Nature Blog: Costa Rica

Today ended up being rain free all day. So we took advantage of that with a full day of hiking that started out with a pre-breakfast loop through the tropical garden. At one point along this hike it started to smell a bit "gamey" and we heard some rustling in the jungle. Peccaries immediately came to mind as being guilty on both counts (especially the smelly one) but we couldn't find the culprits.

We did see some Agouti and Coatis. Here is a compilation video of both that includes encounters from the entire week.

Yesterday, we learned from Philip that Agouti stamp their feet really loudly when there is a snake nearby. While we were in the garden, we heard a loud lumping sounds and traced it to an Agouti in the underbrush. So, we search all around it (since it didn't run until we got really close to it) looking for a snake but we didn't find one. But, this is good information to know for the future.

Tropical Garden

We returned from our hike to find a house guest. Somehow a Black and Green Dart Frog had found its way into our shower. It ended up hopping around and eating up some ants so we didn't mind at all.

After breakfast (today was T and G day…Tico for me which was rice, beans, eggs, and sausage, Granola for Karen) we took a long hike partially down the Saino Trail and then did the entire Titi Trail. The heavy leaf litter on the Saino trail coupled with the incessant cobwebs I kept walking into made us turn back on that trail. But, we still had a great hike and "went card" this morning by seeing all 4 monkey species. We had good luck with other wildlife as well.

Scarlet Macaw

White Faced Capuchin

Black-throated Trogon (Saw lots of them this trip)

Blue Dacnis

After lunch, and a short rest, the plan was to head out the main road and maybe do a little Titi Trail (Can you ever get enough Titi?....wait, I think I made that joke last year too…). Since no one was staying at Casa Miramar this week we made the short detour down its driveway as part of our main road hike. Besides encountering a wood rail previously, we hadn't seen anything there until today. As we were coming back up the driveway to the road, some dark movement caught my eye around 30 yards away. It was a mammal that ran on the ground and jumped up the trunk of a tree. I got just enough of a good look to confirm my initial gut feeling. It was a Tayra! But, just as quickly as we saw it, we lost it. Since it didn't run along the ground out of sight, we are thinking that it had a hollow tree or some other crevice that it slipped into. After looking for a long while we gave up and walked on without any pictures to show for the encounter. Still, it was our first ever Tayra and was very exciting.

The rest of the hike was not quite as exciting but was still great since we "went card" again all on the same hike. Only at Bosque del Cabo can you do see all four Costa Rican monkey species with such regularity.

Spider Monkey

While on the Titi trail, the Spider Monkeys started to bark loudly. Earlier in the the trip, Carlos (a great guide at BdC) had told us about this Spider Monkey alarm call and how it meant that a puma was nearby. Spider Monkeys chat alot back and forth but this alarm call was loud and unmistakable. We slowly crept along the trail until we were right under the troop giving the call. Our hearts were pounding as we stopped and scanned all around us. After about 15 minutes the monkeys moved away and stopped barking. Once again no puma was to be found but we really felt that we were close this time. Here is what it sounded like.

We decided to hike to the tropical garden tonight to see what might be active at the big pond. We only saw the usual suspects of frogs. But, we were serenaded by the wonderful call of the Great Tinamou. It is even a better call when heard at night since it seems to echo that much more.

Marine Toad