A few stars

One week left here in Costa Rica, with our last day of banding in Tortuguero tomorrow. Though we have been here for almost three months, I'm still seeing new species regularly, though most of them are North American migrants, leading the charge north.

Today we had our second day ever banding at Caño Palma, one of the sites down the canal. Usually another local bander, Charlotte, takes care of this site, but lucky for us we squeezed in another day there. Though only a 25 minute boat ride away, it's the only place I've spotted a few species (like the Checker-throated Antwren and Blue Dacnis) and it clearly has more to offer that we will not have a chance to discover, shucks. However, today (and yesterday actually) there was a good showing from a few stars and we caught a whopping 19 birds!

Our first Semiplumbeous Hawk, yesterday. When I first saw this I really hoped I was seeing two feet planted on the branch and a third one coming out of the belly.


But it wasn't to be, and turns out to be something that they just do, as this was a different bird from today.


By far the best looks I've had of these toucans were today. There were five of them hopping around, making frog noises and eating nuts and fruits. The Semiplumbeous Hawk made a swipe at one, but being much smaller was only laughed at. Keel-billed Toucan:


Beady-eye dinos. Pale-billed Woodpecker:


We really have not seen too many raptors since being here, but they do occasionally surface. Gray-headed Kite: