Day 2 of Costa Rica

On day 2 in Costa Rica, we drove from our hotel in San Jose all the way to Tamarindo, but before we left, I was able to spot another bird called the Blue Gray Tanager. It was perching near a garden at the hotel. A picture is shown below.
After that, we started the long, 4 hour drive. Along the way, I saw 6 monkeys. The first sighting was of a baby monkey hanging from a tree, and the second was of 4 monkeys crossing the road. It was very neat. One of the monkeys crossing the road even had a baby on its back. It was an amazing sighting.
We got to the hotel that night. It was a great travel day. The picture below is the view from our deck.

Day 1 of Costa Rica

I'm back from Costa Rica. I had an excellent time and saw lots of birds. I will do a post about each day of my trip this week.

Day 1 was a travel day. Once we got to our hotel in San Jose, the capital city, I saw some birds. These sightings included the Rufous Naped Wren, shown twice below, and the Rufous Collared Sparrow. I was able to get a picture of the wren, but not the sparrow. The sparrow looks similar to normal sparrows we see here in America. I will have more pictures tomorrow!

Going to Costa Rica

Tomorrow I will be leaving for my trip to Costa Rica! I will not have internet access there, but I will blog when I arrive back home. I will take lots of pictures and do lots of birdwatching. It is going to be great!

Mockingbird in the Morning

On Sunday, I saw this beautiful mockingbird perching on my deck. I have not been updating as often due to school and sports, but I will try to more often. Enjoy!

American Coots and Winter Birds

Last week, I was riding a boat on the local lake when I saw a giant flock of American Coots. They were awesome! The males had a black body with red eyes and a white bill. The females had a brown body and a white bill. The birds were just moving in for the winter. I hope I will be able to see them again.

Today, I spotted the first Yellow Rumped Warbler of the season. It was a female. I am sure I will see more of these birds and get some pictures.

Chipmunk and More Vultures

I saw this cute chipmunk sitting outside my window on Sunday. It looked very cold, as it was about forty degrees outside.

I also saw the vultures again. This time there was not as many, but still a lot in large flocks. I finally got a blurry picture of them. Enjoy!

Strange Vulture Sighting

Yesterday, I was on my way to the local library when I saw a ton of Turkey Vultures flying around, however, they were not just circling over one section of land. They were everywhere! I think that there was at least fifty or sixty of them. Some of them were high while others were lower. A few even made tornado-like shapes.

This sighting really confuses me. According to my bird books and a few websites, vultures are in my area year round, so that means that they probably were not migrating. I was also looking for any carcasses, but I did not see any. What in the world were all of those vultures doing? Whatever it was, it was very Halloween-like.

The map is from www.allaboutbirds.org.