MAIACETUS: December 11, 2014: Goodbye Costeño Beach

This was our last morning at Costeño Beach Surf Cam p and though I was a little sad to leave I was looking forward to moving on as we were heading back to Santa Marta for our last ocean adventure...scuba diving with Quimera Divers in Tayrona National Park!

Our taxi was not arriving until noon so I went for one last walk to spot any wildlife lingering in the area. This proved to be fruitful because, although I re-sighted many bird species from previous days, I also spotted some new ones to add to my Costeño Beach wildlife list, and these included: a Red-crowned Woodpecker (melanerpes rubricapillus), a Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus), Crimson-backed Tanager (Ramphocelus dimidiatus) and Greater Ani (Crotophaga major).

Overall, I had a great time at the camp and though I didn't do as much surfing as I'd hoped, due to my injured shoulder from an overenthusiastic first day out, I still gained further knowledge about surfing. I also had a great time chilling on the beach, hanging with fellow surf campers, tubing in the Palomino River, watching fireflies (and their glowing larvae!) in the dark of the night and observing birds and other wildlife of the Caribbean coast of Colombia. I was pretty happy with my final list of wildlife species observations and I identified 18 bird species, 5 insect species, 2 mammal species and 1 reptile species.

Here's the final list of species I saw these past five days:

Birds (18 species, 13 new):

Orange-chinned Parakeet (Brotogeris jugularis)

Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus)
House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)
Bi-coloured Wren (Campylorhynchus griseus)
Yellow-headed Caracara (Milvago chimachima)
White-tipped Dove (Leptotila verreauxi)
Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum atripennis)

Blue-grey Tanager (Thraupis episcopus)
Streaked Flycatcher (Myiodynastes maculatus)

Female Green Kingfisher (Choloroceryle americana)

Squirrel Cuckoo (Piaya cayana)
Panama Flycatcher (Myiarchus panamensis)
Clay-coloured Thrush (Turdus grayi)
Orange-crowned Oriole (Icterus auricapillus)

Red-crowned Woodpecker (melanerpes rubricapillus)
Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus)
Crimson-backed Tanager (Ramphocelus dimidiatus)

Greater Ani (Crotophaga major)

Insects (5 species, 3 new):

Gulf Fritillary or Passion Butterfly (Agraulis vanillae)

Immature Common White-Tail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia)

Blue Morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides)
Crimson-patched long-wing buttefly (H eliconius erato hydara)

Golden silk orb weaver (Nephila clavipes)

Mammals (2 species, 2 new):

Red-tailed squirrel (Sciurus granatensis)

Red Howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus seniculus)

Reptiles (1species, 1 new):

Colombian Black/White/Gold Tegu (Tupinambis teguixin)

Not bad! 19 new species for me :)

By the way... if anybody sees a mis-identification of a bird species feel free to let me know...I still consider myself a novice birder so appreciate any input!

Streaked Flycatcher (Myiodynastes maculatus)

Clay Coloured Thrush (Turdus grayi)

These Red Ginger Lilies (Alpinia purpurata) is an ornamental herb and invasive species in Colombia. It is native to Papuea New Guinea and the SW Pacific