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SNOW IN COSTA RICA!

albicilla RSS / 16.06.2018. u 20:37

rnaturalista01.jpg&w=640&h=224It was already dark in mid-October when we arrived to the Costa Rican birding mecca of Rancho Naturalista to have dinner on the veranda but then were interrupted with a call: There’s a Mottled Owl at the other side! You can imagine the rest: everyone jumped from the table to look for the owl. Lisa Erb, the manager and owner, but also a former bird guide, perfectly understood her guests. 

After dinner, some teams walked around hoping for some more birds. My team, the Redstart Wranglers, was still on the veranda when our guide Abelardo Benavides called us out: There’s a potoo calling! All Wranglers went to the other side of the lodge listening… a potoo mixed with human voices. That’s another team playing potoo calls from a smartphone. You have to be extra careful when on a bird race… Hey, wait, let’s play them back some other bird! 

Belonging to the Caribbean (Talamanca’s) foothills biome, Rancho Naturalista protects 60 ha of secondary premontane forest and has the fourth longest eBird list among the hotspots of Costa Rica: 478 species, including 36 raptors and 38 hummingbirds. But, beside the ranch itself, up to two miles away there are six more hotspots whose names often end with “near Rancho Naturalista”. Curious to see what the combined list would show, I used the eBird polygon tool to sum them all up to 502 bird species. Now, how many lodges can you tell of with such a list? 

Morning started with coffee and sweets and some more birding along the four ranch trails ranging from 400 m/0.3 mi to 2.5 km/1.6 mi. I spent the morning with Lisa among the hummingbird feeders at the upper terrace of the lodge, observing White-necked Jacobin, Green Hermit, Green-breasted Mango, Violet Sabrewing, Crowned Woodnymph and the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. 

“Hmmm…. well I moved in 1984 to live at Rancho and it was a coffee and sugarcane farm back then. We tried everything, Hawaiian pineapple, black pepper, even jalapeños, and we could not make money from farming,” Lisa told me. 

“We loved the forest and had never cut it since we first owned the property. Then my dad spoke to some friends that lived up in the Costa Rican highlands who said they were going to have birdwatchers come to stay with them. My dad asked how did they do that? And they said they put an ad in Bird Watcher’s Digest and people would came, so we did that too! It started small and grew bigger. Over the years we had to expand but we never stopped being a strictly birding lodge. 

“We started at the exact perfect time when ecotourism was starting – it was lucky! Plus, I love birds and birding and I begin to guide and did that for 12 years. That background helps me feel what birders want and need in a lodge. We have also been lucky in having awesome guides and they go on to guide for different companies all over the world.” 

That background certainly helps, I noticed that. Lisa knew what I wanted way before I knew it, making Rancho Naturalista the kind of place – the rarest kind, actually – where one comes as a guest and leaves as a friend. 

Later that day, we went to the El Copal Biological Reserve (about 20 km/12 mi from the Rancho) where while climbing the stairs I found the gem I missed that morning. In a flowering bush maybe two feet from me, there was the snow! I found the snow in Costa Rica, the endemic Snowcap hummingbird, that is. Just imagine how handsome they can be… Well, this one tops that!

Read more at:  http://www.10000birds.com/snow-in-costa-rica.htm

 



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albicilla albicilla 21:16 16.06.2018

Navijam za Kostariku

Ovo je cetvrti i poslednji nastavak moje proslogodisnje kostarikanske avanture.

Kako sam ih redom postavljao, priblizise se izbori za gradonamesnika, pa sam poslednji nastavak odlozio, koliko da ne upadne u pred i post-izborne diskusije.

Malo po malo, oduzilo se to i evo sad tek postavljam #4 pred utakmicu s Kostarikom. I, mrzite me slobodno, ja navijam za Kostariku.
aureus aureus 22:25 16.06.2018

Re: Navijam za Kostariku

albicilla

Malo po malo, oduzilo se to i evo sad tek postavljam #4 pred utakmicu s Kostarikom. I, mrzite me slobodno, ja navijam za Kostariku.

A zašto da te mrzimo, dobri blogeru?

O Kostarici ima mnogo lijepog da se kaže.

Kad je fudbal u pitanju, ti su ljudi na prošlom SP u grupi razvalili Urugvaj i Italiju, prošli Grke u osmini finala a u četvrtfinalu ispali od Holandije posle izvođenja jedanaesteraca.

Kad su ostale stvari u pitanju, treba reći da je u aprilu na predsjedničkim izborima kod njih trijumfovao Carlos Alvarado, profesor koji se založio za POŠTOVANJE ZAKONA, a u fokusu su bila gej prava, što je prilično neobično za predsjedničke izbore bilo gdje u svijetu. Evo, "ECONOMIST" je pisao o tome - LINK.
Nadalje, kad je u pitanju sloboda medija, Kostarika stoji bolje nego većina poznatih demokratskih zemalja u svijetu. "Reporteri bez granica" stavili su je na 10. mjesto, a i po "Fridom Hausu" Kostarika je bolje pozicionirana od SAD, Kanade, Australije, Njemačke, Francuske...

Tako da...švrćani se trude da održe svoju zemlju normalnom i da sačuvaju i održe demokratiju. Živjeli Kostorikanci i pozdrav iz Kostarike.



P.S. Ako pročitate da je Alvarado pobijedio Alvarada na predsjedničkim izborima, ne dajte se zbuniti, stvarno je tako bilo.
Karlos Alvarado je pobijedio Fabricija Alvarada.
albicilla albicilla 10:11 17.06.2018

Re: Navijam za Kostariku

Da, bio sam u toku s izborima.

Jos u oktobru kada sam bio tamo, objasnili su mi da su u neizvesnoj utakmici jedan liberal (za koga su glasali svi koje sam tamo imao prilike da upoznam) i jedan teokrata koji je imao ideju da zemlju vrati u srednji vek. Nisu bili sasvim sigurni u ishod i bili su zabrinuti.

A na planeti koja se sve brze okrece u desno, takav izborni rezultat je radak svetao primer do cega dovodi ukidanje vojske i preusmeravanje tog budzeta u obrazovanje.
c_h.arlie c_h.arlie 10:49 18.06.2018

Re: Navijam za Kostariku

albicilla
Ovo je cetvrti i poslednji nastavak moje proslogodisnje kostarikanske avanture.

Kako sam ih redom postavljao, priblizise se izbori za gradonamesnika, pa sam poslednji nastavak odlozio, koliko da ne upadne u pred i post-izborne diskusije.

Malo po malo, oduzilo se to i evo sad tek postavljam #4 pred utakmicu s Kostarikom. I, mrzite me slobodno, ja navijam za Kostariku.

Zbog ovoga te ne mrzim - ali te ni ne volim.
albicilla albicilla 09:12 17.06.2018

Fotokanta

A zasto sam stavio samo jednu sliku sa sajta Ranco Naturalista (i nijednu svoju), to je zato sto sam se punih 10 godina sluzio Photobucketom, da bi mi prosle godine oteli sve tamo postavljene slike i za njih trazili otkup od $400 godisnje da bi se igde videle. Ja sam ih radije poslao u materinu.

Vecinu postova i tako imam i ovde Dvogled i veslo.

Sada se slike iz Fotokante ponovo vide, a nisam im nista placao niti nameravam za uslugu koju su nudili besplatno, ali naprosto tamo vise nista necu da postavljam jer ne znam kada ce iznova da zatraze otkup.

Pa tako svoje slike ovde nisam niti postavljao. Sto i nije neki gubitak jer ja i nisam neki fotograf.
49 41 49 41 18:34 17.06.2018

Kostarika ti prirasla za srce?!?

Ima i zasta...
klima, jos mnogo tiga

https://superzena.b92.net/sudbine.php?yyyy=2018&mm=06&nav_id=1405626

p.s.
bas se nedavno zapitao, gde nestade pticar; ni traga ni glasa od njega.
albicilla albicilla 20:10 17.06.2018

Re: Kostarika ti prirasla za srce?!?

bas se nedavno zapitao, gde nestade pticar; ni traga ni glasa od njega.


Ma redovan sam, svakog drugog cetvrtka - samo ovde http://www.10000birds.com/author/dragan

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