Our last morning at Punta Leona was a relatively uneventful one - we had made no special plans for any trips, and needed to have our things back at the reception area by noon to meet the driver who would bring us back to the beautiful Hotel Bougainvilla near the airport for our last night before heading home. After breakfast we did wander a little bit up the main road, in hopes of maybe seeing or hearing Three-wattled Bellbirds which we had not even heard yet (although supposedly this is a good place for them), but by the end of breakfast, it was already oppressively hot, and we were not feeling up to an intensive trek. We did encounter our one and only ant swarm of the trip, which was amazing to see (although a little disconcerting to be so close to with Pam in flip-flips and me in my Keens) but it was unattended by any birds while we watched. We did encounter a few birds on our short walk, including both Masked and Black-crowned Tityras, as well as a having a small noisy flock of Orange-chinned Parakeets land close enough to see and photograph.
We also spent a bit more time watching the Scarlet Macaws (after all, seeing a magnificent bird like this in the wild really is something)
We also gave a little attention to the Groove-billed Anis that are regular on the resort.
Our driver arrived promptly and we headed out. On the way, he happily obliged our request to stop at the bridge that goes over the Tarcoles River - I had been told that it could be a good place to stop for birds, and that there are a number of American Crocodiles that hang out there. (Not to mention that there was a good souvenir shop right there.) I didn't pick up much in the way of birds from the bridge, but that might have had something to do with the fact that I was focused on the crocodiles - there were dozens of them and they were HUGE!!! I've never seen crocodiles so big. The photos have nothing to show a sense of scale, but I would venture to say that most of them were well over 15-16ft!
The rest of the ride back to Hotel Bougainvilla was uneventful - which was a little disappointing as we were supposed to stop in Orotina for the Black-and-white Owls there (which we didn't see well on our way down.) Apparently our driver didn't know anything about the stop, and we didn't ask him about it until we were about 45 minutes past where we would have needed to exit. We arrived and checked in again at the comfortable Hotel Bougainvilla at just about 3pm, which gave us a little more time to explore their beautiful gardens before we wrapped up the trip. In these last few hours I actually had a few targets - White-eared and Prevost's Ground Sparrows had eluded me on our first day here (and would again this day), as well as two birds which we had seen well, but that I had really wanted to photograph. The first one might surprise some people that have been to Central America - Squirrel Cuckoo. Not a particularly uncommon bird, and one that we had seen throughout the trip, but try as I might, I was never able to get a good photo. I love the colors of this bird - rufous on the head and back, becoming paler on the throat, with the chest fading to grey, then to black on the belly, with a yellow bill, bright red iris with pale green around the eye, an that long long patterned tail. Always the bird was either directly above us, or in bad light, or partially obscured by foliage, or something. Knowing that they were here in the gardens, I had hoped against hope that I would have one good opportunity at a photo. Thankfully, there was a pair that was working their way through the trees in the afternoon light, and I finally managed to get some photos I was pretty happy with.
I then spent the last half hour of twilight using the flash on the camera and trying to photograph the amazing variety of flowers in the garden (which will come in a different post), and then had a seat in the dining room for another wonderful meal and a few drinks to celebrate an amazing vacation.
We enjoyed a luxurious night's sleep and in the morning, headed to the airport for the long lines to pay our fees to get out of the country, to check in, and to go through security (yes, that's three long lines - that's what happens when you travel internationally on a Saturday) before the long trip home.
