Tails of Quetzals,Trogans,Tanagers, coati mundi and other animals

Well I wonder if I can actually keep the blog this time !!

Just returned from Central America...Costa Rica. What a wonderful country. No army and an education system that has a very high literacy rate. The people whilst very friendly are clearly educated and only in some rural villages did I find any who couldn't speak at least a little English.
My spanish has improved from haltingly dreadful to a bit better!! Evening classes will be a must as tapes in the car dont check your spoken pronunciation!
Ok so the Ticos speak a slightly different form but do understand ...well I think they were too polite to say anything!!

Birding was super fine with over 330 birds seen by myself...many more seen by our Guide Paco
from Cotinga Tours - yes we could have seen even more but it wasn't only about the numbers game. Much more with seeing the actual bird and watching it au natural.

Read about Paco and his guiding here
www.cotingatours.com

I went to Peru in August 2005 and was utterly overwhelmed with seeing 315-20 birds all new.
The different names and families.....
This time it was great, knowing the families helped and some were the same species but since CR has birds migrating from North America and South America there was a range of known birds.

The heat and humidity was sapping at times. When I returned to find my car covered in ice and had to defrost it before driving home through foggy weather on the M23 I was sooooooo
cold!! The contrast could scarcely have been greater!

I particularly liked this chap, spotted in Miriams garden. Perched in a tree for 20 minutes at least.A top bird and a top target for me. I also saw my second top target the same day but no photos.The Long tailed Silky Flycatcher. I bought a copy of a photo home with me but to enjoy this bird look here.
www.pbase.com/rod_ostoski/image/62627577


with all acknowledgements to rod ostoski ...what a bird and stunning photography.