MAIACETUS: bird photography

Thursday, December 11, 2014

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

Red-crowned Woodpecker (melanerpes rubricapillus)

Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus) likely scanning for insects

Tropical Kingbird (Tyrannus melancholicus)

Yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima) on a palm frond

Yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima) getting ready to take off

Yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima)...launch time!

Yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima) in flight

Red-crowned Woodpecker (melanerpes rubricapillus)

Palm Tanager (Thraupis palmarum atripennis)

Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus)

Red-tailed squirrel (Sciurus granatensis)

Lineated Woodpecker (Dryocopus lineatus)

I love this view of this Lineated Woodpecker's (Dryocopus lineatus) feet clinging to the tree!

Crimson-backed Tanager (Ramphocelus dimidiatus, Probable female)

Red Howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus seniculus)

House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)

I believe this is a Greater Ani (Crotophaga major) which is the only Ani species found exclusively in forested habitat adjacent to water

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

December 9, 2014: Surfs Up!

Despite my shoulder injury I still went surfing for about 45 minutes this morning. I probably shouldn't have gone but I couldn't be in this beautiful place with the opportunity to surf nice warm, relatively friendly waters (good for beginners!) without having at least one more go at it. I was sure to be careful though and didn't overdo it while paddling and took lots of breaks.

It was actually very nice to have the opportunity to slow down, take it easy and enjoy my time on the water even if I wasn't getting a lot of waves. I spent much of the time sitting behind the breakers enjoying the view of the palm fringed beach and watching the other surfers catching waves. Even though I took it easy I still managed to get a couple okay rides but, obviously, with a shoulder in less than ideal form my surf pop ups weren't that great so catching waves was not very easy. I didn't care though...I was still having fun!

Speaking of fun, or should I say funny, myself and a couple who were surfing near me had an amusing incident while we were hanging out behind the waves this morning. I was a few metres away from them and was out paddling around mostly minding my own business and enjoying the moment when I heard a bunch of squealing coming from their direction. When I looked over to them I noticed they were splashing around and ducking under the water and making a bunch of noise. I soon realised they had a big black bug flying around them and thought to myself, "Oh geez, what's the big deal" and rolled my eyes that they were so worked up about a bug!

Well, I shouldn't have had that thought because soon enough I was this big, black unidentified (but very possibly biting/stinging) bug's next target...and I did indeed regret that I thought they were silly for acting in such a way. That bug was persistent and would not leave me alone no matter what I tried! I tried to remain as calm as I could but it was buzzing in right close to my face and apparently even landed on my head for a while. I did much of the same as they did trying to splash at it to get it to fly away, hid under my board and dove under the water hoping to lose it. I don't think it helped that I had a bright pink surf board, ha ha! In the end it eventually flew away but it certainly was amusing and a good lesson to myself to never judge others until you're in their situation; a bit of a humbling moment for me and who would've thought a big, black bug off a beach in Colombia could teach you a lesson!

After my relatively brief but fun morning surf session I called it a day for surfing and spent the rest of the afternoon photographing the other surfers. A few Australian guys who were new to the camp were obviously quite a bit more experienced than most of us and I had a great time photographing them catching some waves and making some great moves. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon and they certainly appreciated getting some photos of themselves surfing since they almost never have anybody to photograph them riding the waves.

One of the sleeping options at the camp...these little huts have beds on platforms inside them and when you wake up you can poke your head out and see the ocean :)