Retired Nomads: Canopy Tower Birding Tour

July 15 - Cerro Azul

We paid extra to go to Cerro Azul on a private tour because the elevation there has birds that we haven’t seen yet and are known to be there. Cerro Azul is the same builder as Altos del Maria which is the area near us up in the mountains. John had checked out as did the family so, we had the Tower to ourselves. It was an all day trip and Domi had brought a mid morning snack and lunch. At first it was so misty that we could hardly see anything. We saw a ton of new birds, but they were hard to see or photograph because of the fog.

houses in Altos de Cerro Azul

see the fog in the background?

Thick-billed Euphonia

Bay-headed Tanager

Domi on the foggy trail

Scaled Pigeon

Speckled Tanager - it's a bad photo, but it's the first we had seen one and despite the fog we got a great look at it.

Yellow-eared Toucanet - again the fog made for a terrible photo

Carmiol's Tanager

It cleared up at lunch time - the sign is much brighter now

our "snack" was small sandwiches, fruit, dessert

Hepatic Tanager - female

Hepatic Tanager - male

house at the end of the road

The morning did finally clear up. We set out again on the same trail and we met a couple (Jerry & Linda) on the trail and they were the ones where we were going to have lunch in their hummingbird garden later.

Golden-hooded Tanager

female Yellow-faced Grassquit

Emerald Tanager

Black and Yellow Tanager

pretty wild orchid

trail

wild ferns

we climbed to the lookout

Black Vulture

weevil

We drove to their house and OMG I have never seen so many hummingbirds in one place. Probably a hundred with several different varieties. They also had fruit and grain out and some regular birds came as well. What a great place to have our lunch. Jerry & Linda really designed a beautiful hummingbird garden. Feeders were hung and various levels and most at eye level for ease of views and photographing. It was a beautiful area and it was hard to stop birdwatching to eat the delicious picnic lunch Domi laid out for us.

White-necked Jacobin

White-necked Jacobins

White-necked Jacobin

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Crowned Woodnymph

Snowy-bellied Hummingbird

Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer

Thick-biiled Euphonia - male

Thick-billed Euphonia - young male

Thick-billed Euphonia - female

Black-cheeked Woodpecker

Yellow-faced Grassquit - female

Red-legged Honeycreeper

Shining Honeycreeper - male

Green Honeycreeper - female

Green Honeycreeper - female & White-necked Jacobin

Green Honeycreeper - male

pretty flowers in their yard

The Picasa Web Albums has tons of Hummingbird photos if you want to see them all. After lunch we did another short trail but it started to rain so we came back to the Tower.

Broad-billed Motmot

trail

Domi was going home and had a day and a half off, so tomorrow we would have a new guide.

We had a new arrival at the Tower, another single guy, Randeep from India. He is a photographer (hobby) and his main goal was to get really good shots more than just wanting to see them. We got to know each other over dinner.

moth on our window screen

We met Alex, our guide for today and tomorrow morning. He also was a very good guide with a great sense of humor. He was the one that discovered the night monkeys nest that Domi showed us.

July 16 - Pipeline Road & Summit Ponds

In the morning we went as far as we could on Pipeline road. A tree had fallen so we parked and got out and walked. Randeep was not a birder and his goal to get "the shot" was often times counter to the needs of birders.