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| Reused Photo - Left To The Imagination... Imagine Seeing This Bird In Flight (D.Philpot) |
18:30
QUETZAL!!! I actually got to see this incredibly beautiful bird, it is my
favourite colour and in my opinion the most gorgeous bird on our planet
today. I spotted a male (the best gender
to see as, like with most male birds, they are far more elaborate) in the Monte
Verde Cloud Forest Reserve and it was easily less than 5 metres away! The guide
we were walking with explained to me how the BBC, other film crews and
scientists come to this area and often pay £1,000 - 2,000 a time in order to
see this bird but normally with little success, and I therefore feel incredibly
lucky. Previously I was not too fussed
about seeing one but they are vastly more impressive to see in real life
compared to a book, ID guide or stuffed in a museum somewhere - their feathers
illustrated as a bold green appear more luminous and metallic under the suns
rays with hints of blue. Whilst scouting
tree branches using my binoculars above the path we walked on I saw the butt
and long tail of what I first decided was a 'large Manakin,' but that soon
changed as we all watched it gracefully swoop across in plain sight less than 5
metres away and perched for us on a nearby branch briefly. For the nerdy out there it felt like
witnessing a real-life legendary Pokémon in flight.
It
was a pleasure to walk around this reserve with Oscar as I heard many stories
of this guys wildlife imitations from a wide variety of birds to Howler Monkeys,
of which I tried my first Howler Monkey and I was told it was great! Here are videos of Oscar doing some impressive bird/animal calls:
We then also saw a slightly less impressive
female Quetzal for a split second as well as man other birds including; a Black
Guan, House Wren, Slaty-backed Nightingale Thrush, White-Winged Dove, Violet
Sabre-wing, Magnificent Hummingbird, Prong-billed Barbet, Long-Tailed
Woodcreeper, Ochraceous Wren, Collared Redstart, Slate-throated Redstart,
Black-faced Solitaire and of course the two sexes of Resplendent Quetzal. Some were observed using a tripod and scope,
but most were just through Oscar pointing followed by my student group and I
staring for awhile. My group had Dw, Ja,
Kar, Adrie and Em in, who were at spotting things especially Ja who claimed
most bird spottings - we were all very quiet and came across a few examples of
tourists and groups who were perfect examples of how not to behave.
Here are the best photos taken around the reserve, in no particular order:
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| Another Feeding Parakeet (D.Philpot) |
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| Millipede Defensive - Active (D.Philpot) |
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| A Toucanette (D.Philpot) |
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| Huntsman Spider (D.Philpot) |
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| Barbet Close-Up (D.Philpot) |
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| Evil Looking (Big Sweetheart) Host Family Dog (D.Philpot) |
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| Birds Foot Plant (D.Philpot) |
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| Teeny Snail (D.Philpot) |
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| Some Useful Spanish (D.Philpot) |
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| Red & Black Bug (D.Philpot) |
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| Spider On The Loose (D.Philpot) |
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| Flat Spider (D.Philpot) |
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| Funny Looking Weevil Bug (D.Philpot) |
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| Toasted Shrooms (D.Philpot) |
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| Deadly Looking Caterpillar (D.Philpot) |
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| Looks Friendly (D.Philpot) |
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| Huge Mite (D.Philpot) |
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| Pond Tadpole Thing (D.Philpot) |
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| Yet Another Friendly Caterpillar (D.Philpot) |
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| Centipede (D.Philpot) |
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| Bird Spotting (D.Philpot) |
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| Barbet In The Scope (D.Philpot) |
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| Barbet Feeding (D.Philpot) |
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| Dead Yellow Stick Insect (D.Philpot) |
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| How Many More Coloured Caterpillars Are There? (D.Philpot) |
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| The Same Moth I Got A Lucky Shot Of In Flight Before? (D.Philpot) |
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| Green Frizzle Caterpillar (D.Philpot) |
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| Golden (D.Philpot) |
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| "Hardest Bird To Get A Photo Of In Costa Rica" - Pfft! Yeah Right (D.Philpot) |
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| Settled Hummingbird (D.Philpot) |
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| Blue-Green Pigments (D.Philpot) |
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| Camouflage (D.Philpot) |
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| Dazzling Forehead (D.Philpot) |
The Colibri (Hummingbird) café was also a hit with the students, of course who wouldn’t want to have
20-30 hummingbirds flying around your head in close range - here's a short video and of course check out the images above.
Tonight
I had a lovely meal at the L's topped with mint-jam, sourdough bread and
chocolate cake. DL gave me white chocolate coated coffee beans, absolutely
delicious if not slightly odd to begin with. PS went with ML to collect ripe
guavas from a friends farm ready for the statistics session planned for Monday.