Costa Rica : Part 2

A few more images from our holiday in Costa Rica......

Squirrel Cuckoo

Turkey Vulture

Social Flycatcher

Crested Caracara

Scarlet Tanager (Non breeding)

Black-headed Trogon

Little Blue Heron

Laughing Falcon

Cattle Egret

Osprey

Harris Hawk

Cinnamon Hummingbird

American Oystercatcher

Yellow Warbler (Migrant)

Tropical Pewee

Rufous-naped Wren

Groove-billed Ani

Hoffman's Woodpecker

Streak-backed Oriole

Cinnamon Hummingbird

Pacific Screech Owl

Grey Hawk

Turquoise-browed Motmot

Bare-throated Tiger Heron

Willet

Costa Rica : Part 1

This year's main holiday at the end of September/beginning of October saw Teresa and myself make a return visit to Costa Rica ten years after our first in 2008.
We stayed in the same north west region of Guanacaste where we had stayed previously our hotel being about 15 miles south of our location in 2008, the Riu Guanacaste hotel didn't quite live up to expectations (that's another story) but the birding made up for that although we were not as adventurous as we had been previously taking in only one excursion this time.
 This was the Paulo Verde river boat trip giving me a few species that I would not have otherwise encountered.
Whilst the birding is wonderful the country is taking full advantage with prices for guided tours geared to rich Americans, these have now become extortionately expensive.
Anyway I lugged my big lens around early mornings and late afternoons and these are some of the pleasing images I obtained......

Pacific Screech Owl

Northern Waterthrush (Migrant)

Mangrove Black Hawk

Inca Dove

Yellow-green Vireo

Pale-billed Woodpecker

Tropical Kingbird

Double-Striped Thick-Knee

Double-Striped Thick-Knee

Great Kiskadee

Melodious Blackbird

Spotted Sandpiper

Bare-Throated Tiger Heron

Stripe-Headed Sparrow

Rough-Winged Swallow

Plain-Capped Starthroat (Juvenile)

Hoffman's Woodpecker

White-Collared Seedeater

Mangrove Swallow

Banded Wren

Brown-Crested Flycatcher

Sanderling

Brown Pelican

Great-Tailed Grackle

Squirrel Cuckoo

Red-Necked Grebe : Roath Park Lake, Cardiff

Although I've seen a few over the years I'd never photographed a Red-Necked Grebe so my mission today was to try and get some photos of the juvenile bird that had turned up on the lake a week ago but wasn't properly identified until the middle of last week.
My first port of call though was the Ogmore-By-Sea to try and also photograph the Red-Breasted Merganser which unusually and chosen to linger on the river opposite Portobello House for the last couple of days.
There was an extremely high tide when I arrived at 8.15am and there were very few birds present which included my target bird, within minutes of me arriving a pair of shooting twats turned up on the opposite side of the river and quickly brought down a Canada Goose and male Mallard.
They even had a go at shooting a pair of flyover Goosanders but luckily for the birds the shorter chubby twat missed !!
I have heard of shooting at the site but had never witnessed it before and suffice to say they scared off every living creature within half a mile.
I'll be shaming the twats on social media and may report them to the police.

Having 'dipped' on the merganser I headed on to Cardiff and met up with Paul Bowden who wanted to try my big lens, it was also nice to bump into Colin Harvey, Della and Hadyn Lack, Dave Palmer and later Cliff Woodhead.
The grebe never came close enough for any really meaningful photos but I came away with some 'record' shots that I was reasonably pleased with........