A 4 day trip to the Sierpe area was productive for several year birds, including 3 new species for my Costa Rica list and one lifer! On a boat trip to Cano Island, we managed a few pelagics, including:
641. Wedge-rumped Storm Petrel
642. Black Storm Petrel
643. Red-necked Phalarope
644. Red-billed Tropicbird- very happy to get this one for my country list.
645. Red-footed Booby- finally, got this lifer! There were several nesting on rocks near shore. Seems like the Cano Island boat trip is just about guaranteed for this one. All dark morphs.
646. Wandering Tattler- another country list bird. Two were at the Booby rocks.
Other new ones were:
647. Common Yellowthroat- uncommon wintering species in Costa Rica.
648. Chuck wills Widow- excellent find, I wasn't sure if it was this or the very similar Rufous Nightjar until checking images of undertail patterns just now. Jan Axel did a nice post about that on his
blog. We had the bird at night and couldn't see the undertail until it flew. Luckily, I got a good look at it and it had extensive buff on what appeared to be the entire length of at least the outer recs- in short, a feature for the chuck. The Rufous would have been a lifer but I'm still happy to see a Chuck for the year!
649. Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet
So, one more to go for 650 for the year. A Cape May Warbler was seen at Cinchona recently so I might go for that tomorrow. That vagrant would make for a nice 650!
With a good amount of effort, I could actually hit 675 for 2013. I hope I find time for that!