Rancho Naturalista 10-12 June, 2019
And so we found ourselves heading back for another visit to Rancho Naturalista. Rancho is such a great Lodge. The effervescent Manager, Lisa Erb is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face and the hospitality you receive is second-to-none. This family run, premier birding lodge is situated in the Talamanca Mountains with views over the nearby town of Turrialba and distant views of the smoking Turrialba volcano.
Our chief aim here was to film the lodge and some of the hummers that we missed due to poor weather back in June but we arrived late in the day and were just unpacking when a call came through from Lisa's bird guide, Harry to say that he'd found a Rainforest Hognose Pitviper,
Porthidium nastutum on the track just outside the lodge. This one was a real beauty - very nicely marked indeed.
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| Porthidium nasutum |
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| Porthidium nasutum |
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| Porthidium nasutum |
This bit of reptile activity prompted me to take a short herping walk along one of the nearby trails.
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| Unidentified species. It was large through! |
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Crowned Treefrog, Anotheca spinosa breeding site
in a broken bamboo stump. |
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| Atlantic Forest Toad, Incilius melanochlorus |
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| Atlantic Forest Toad, Incilius melanochlorus |
No snakes but I was quite happy to see some amphibians. With an early start planned for day two, it was time to hit the sack Next morning we headed down the hill to Lisa's parents house. They have some large patches of Verbena and reports suggest the snowcaps are feeding there.
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| Rancho Naturalista |
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| Garden Emerald - but few Snowcap sightings |
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| Monarch |
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| Monarch |
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| Short-tailed Flasher |
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| Red-billed Pigeon - not a good photo but a good bird. |
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| Grey-headed Chachalaca |
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| Common Tody Flycatcher |
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| Tropical Parula |
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| White-lined Tanager, female |
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| Variegated Squirrel |
After getting the footage we needed for the documentary, we set our sights on our next goal...King Vultures.
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