day 4: the early birds

astonishingly (for us) we decided to take the 6am early bird tour, hoping to see some of the wildlife that we’re hearing constantly. just by being up at dawn you see more animals out and about— squirrel monkeys were jumping around the trees and the roof of our cabin as we awoke. it turned out that our wake up call was 20 minutes too late, so we had to rush up to the lodge, but on the paths at that early hour there were coatis scurrying about, as well as toucans sitting in the trees. there were lots of birds that we spotted and as a bonus we met a three toed sloth on the way back!

in the afternoon, standing in the shallow water just off the deserted white sand beach (unknown for the area), i watched the pelican and the many smaller birds as they fished. the pelican would fly up, glide around briefly, and then plunge down into the water, digging around with its beak, coming up with a fish that he quickly gulped down. sometimes the smaller birds would hand on his back or even his head as he was digging around, which made for a funny sight. as i watched this, fishes splashed and jumped around me. perhaps they were showing off, knowing they were safe from the birds for the moment?

it’s hard to describe how wonderful it is to be able to walk out of your room and see a horde of monkeys playing in the trees, jumping around, little ones awkwardly hanging upside down by their tails. and then the toucans fly in and perch, while the hummingbirds flit around the nearby bushes.

seen:

• coati
  
• squirrel monkey
  
• 3-toed sloth
  
• white ibis
  
• toucan
  
• kingfishers
  
• black vulture
  
• king vulture
  
• turkey vulture
  
• cattle egret
  
• parrot

Posted at January 9, 2007 6:06 PM