Arenal area

Tim Waring

The first place we stayed on our week long exploratory vacation with the Quirks was a hotel on the flanks of the great Arenal Volcano.

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Arenal had a serious 3-part eruption in 1992, destroying a couple of villages on its slopes, and adding a new peak.
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Katie and I fell in love with morning birding. It became addictive. And in this region (and Costa Rica in general) you can just go walking to see amazing birds.
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For instance we say this little beauty, called the red-legged honey creeper.

On  Feb 12th we saw:

  • a caiman in the ponds at the hotel
  • passerini’s tanager
  • a purple gallinule in the ponds at the hotel
  • the red-legged honey creeper (above)
  • a rufous-collared sparrow
  • a black mandibled toucan ( a whole bunch of them in the national park)
  • and a couple of very large crested guans
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We went for a nice and silly walk in Arenal National Park.
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Various people climbed various trees. They were happy.
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Reid accompanied us one morning for a birding walk. He was a determined wildlife spotter.
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We saw a variable seed eater which we first thought was a blue-black tanager, then a thick billed seed finch. But no, it was a variable seed eater.

on Feb 13th, we saw:

  • Passerini’s tanager
  • blue and grey tanager
  • grey headed chachalaca
  • northern Jacana (swamp bird)
  • red-billed pigeon
  • a rufous-collared sparrow
  • a variable seed finch (above)
  • and a red winged black bird (old friend)
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Reid inspects the variable seed eater.
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This is a blue-grey tanager. We saw these a lot on the hotel campus.
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Finally, we visited the hot river that flows from Arenal volcano. Here, Tim and Reid soak it up.