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Where to begin! We were up at 4:30 again so that we could leave at 5 to meet our birding guide Michel (pronounced Michael). To our horror, however, the main entrance gate across the bridge was locked. Yes, it locks from 9 pm to 5 am. We walked up and down the steep entrance road trying to find someone, anyone, to help us. Tried every phone in the info kiosk and on the outside of reception. Finally, around 5:30, a woman was driving out and I flagged her down. She must work here, and knew the man who should have opened the gate – he was still asleep. Fortunately we have bars on our phone here and David could WhatsApp Michel to explain the delay.
We drove up the steep and winding road to the main road in record time, fortunately only encountering 2 other vehicles, plus a few groups of avid birders birders. We ended up meeting Michel at the entrance to the Quetzal National Park, and were only 15 mins late. He drove us down tiny lanes to a stream where he knew of a Quetzal nest and there she was – Mama – on a branch. Soon
Papa came with food, including once a fair sized cicada! Mama also found a lizard!! Yum. We could tell that the nest was in a hole in a dead tree just behind. They were on the other side of the rapid torrent, so probably felt very safe, but we were probably only 30 away. David got SO MANY wonderful photos. Success! Interestingly, they both left for at least 20 mins, which is not unusual, to find more grub, and we made good use of the time finding FOUR new lifers. Sadly, the camera couldn’t capture the amazing “glasswing” butterflies we saw.
We didn’t hurry from there, but then drove off to another unknown road where we simply pulled over and listened and photographed our brains out. I was taking notes like mad; David was photographing everything that moved. A bicyclist was on his way up – and not one togged out in racing gear, but just a local citizen!!
Then we went to a well-known place like ours called Paraiso Coliebries, where they have hummingbird feeders and many plantings. It was interesting how hilly it was, how many varieties of fuschia, succulants, and lovely colored bushes it had,
and how the gardeners were digging around each plant to make a sort of tub to catch the rain, I guess. The thrushes were having a field day digging in the fresh dirt.
At last we had lunch there – Jean just a strawberry salad, and David another trout meal, and Jean tried the Aguadulce con leche that Wendy that suggested – as a hot drink, because it was pretty chilly all morning. Still IT DID NOT RAIN until we were having lunch – the Fell effect, John? It was a miraculous day, even though it was probably 2 hours shorter than Michel had first outlined – but we saw it all. Oh, on a non-birding note, we found a squirrel that excited Michel – a Montane squirrel – which he said was quite rare.
We stopped at a famous coffee shop, Miriam’s Quetzals, to have a coffee and to photograph the birds on her feeders and fruit trees. Very tasty coffee – Copey – which is a proud local coffee – so we bought some beans. Michel is a local young man, so virtually everyone waved to him as they passed.
Finally back to home base,
we retrieved our clean laundry, David complained nicely about the gate, and was promised a boxed meal tomorrow, and then we set about the onerous task of downloading and identifying 380 photos. Correction, he reminds me that HE did that while I took a much-needed nap. We tried to wander down to the stream but the mist turned to drizzle and then to rain, and it’s been raining since then – and now it’s 7:30 as I type. In fact we decided to just eat our left-over queso fresca and crackers tonight and not even go to the restaurant.
We know you are all EAGER to hear how many new life-birds we photographed today??? 19!!! The new ones are named (so that David can take them over to his lifer subdirectory). The unlabeled photos are just ones we thought were too pretty to omit - some birds and some plantings. Lucky you, there would have been more but the small camera had a memory card issue. Fortunately David brought a spare.
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