Thursday, September 25, 2014

See that red dot? It's a scarlet macaw!

I went to Costa Rica with only my phone for a camera and joked with other phone-only photographers about what we'd say when showing friends our photos. No casual tourist could have captured our best sighting of the macaws when they suddenly appeared high above the Tarcoles River, the sun flashing off their brilliant red, yellow, and blue as they flew quickly over the trees. Later we saw them perched in distant wild fig trees at Punta Leona Beach Resort on the Pacific coast.

The upper center red dot is the bird; the lower red dots are hibiscus.
 
Here's what they really look like, photographed in the same kind of tree. Because the photo is from www.upload.wikimedia.org, I think it's open source.

I was on a 12-day ecotour. Every time the guide pointed out a bird, reptile, or mammal, we went "Oooo" and "Ahhh." Every time the guide pointed out and talked about particular trees, we listened attentively and then asked each other, "What did he say that was?"
I got close to Green Violetear hummingbirds at 7,000 feet.
 
Tropical rainforest with iguana.
 


Returning home, I sighted a couple of these:
Temperate rainforest dog.

Canis messus.
 
They greeted me with three seconds of jumping excitement before turning to sniff the suitcase, needing no words to convey, "Great to see ya. What'd ya bring me?"

 

6 comments:

  1. How supercool for your mom to see a macaw in the wild! He's just beautiful!

    Love ya lots♥
    Mitch and Molly

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  2. Welcome home. Very nice Macaw pics! My folks visited there and loved the friendly people. They did not see a single Airedale.....
    Thanks for asking about my foot. I broke my pinky toe and have to wear a splint for 8-12 weeks. Only on week 6. Sigh, Wyatt

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  3. That's awesome! I've always wanted to go to Costa Rica. Thank you for sharing these wonderful pictures. Love the welcome home you got. :)

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  4. The best presents are the ones people bring home for you :-)

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  5. So - what DID they bring you?? (Perhaps a bird to play with?)

    Licks,
    Cobi

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