Author: samm85

A former rural journalist who now lives with her two dogs in the capital of Arkansas.

Cancellation and a Meal

October 7, 2019

Last night’s tour to see the Northern Lights was cancelled and rescheduled for tonight (also cancelled due to weather). It was disappointing but, last night, we did find a great place to eat: the Hlemmur Food Hall. It is a reformed local bus terminal that hosts 10 vendors that offer a variety of food. It was pretty busy.

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Of the vendors, we tried Kröst where I got a glass of Riesling and a plate of Grilled Fresh North Atlantic Cod with caramelized cauliflower, creamy lemon sauce, potato slices and thyme breadcrumbs. It was delicious!  The grilled cauliflower and fried risotto balls were also a hit.

 

We also tried a coffee shop where my aunts (who are coffee addicts) got the fix of Americano coffee. They weren’t impressed with it.

 

Iceland: Day 1

October 6, 2019

I finally made it to Iceland!! We traveled overnight so I woke up on the plane this morning to a beautiful sunrise.

We arrived around 9 a.m. and, upon leaving the airport, was greeted by a rainbow. We immediately went to the Blue Lagoon where we tried silica face masks while relaxing in the geothermal seawater. We couldn’t check in to our apartment until 3 p.m. so it was a refreshing break!

Bald Knob NWR: Recent Finds

September 10, 2019
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Pectoral Sandpiper

Recently, I found several firsts at Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge: the above Pectoral Sandpiper and the below Least Flycatcher.

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Least Flycatcher

However, these weren’t my only finds. See more below. 🙂

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American Avocet
Blue Grosbeak 090119 BKNWR
Blue Grosbeak
Great Blue Heron 090119 BKNWR
Great Blue Heron
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Ducks at Sunset
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Great Blue Heron

 

Colorful view

September 6, 2019

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The good thing about visiting Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge is that I can usually find something for each member of my party (which typically includes family members). For my aunt, that means flowers. So, you can imagine we were happy to find these flowers this past May.

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Recap: Costa Rica

June 5, 2019

Monkies 3 060119 Bebedero River Boat Ride

Well, my trip to Costa Rica with 21 Arkansas Auduboners is now over. We saw around 189 species of birds despite three days of near constant rain.

Rose-throated Becards
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

Here’s our eBird lists as reported by our group leader:

26 May 2019
Liberia airport

Night walk
27 May
Prebreakfast birding
Santa Rosa National Park
28 May
Hacienda Guachipelin

Rincon de la Vieja volcano

PM birding walk

29 May
Cafeteria Horizonte

30 May
Monteverde Santa Elena prebreakfast birding

Monteverde Cloud Forest
Finca Life Verde Coffee farm tour

Curi Cancha Reserve Nightwalk
31 May
Prebreakfast birding Pig Farm Road

Selvatura Suspension Bridges
1 June
Prebreakfast birding walk

Tempisque River boating
2 June
Prebreakfast birding Playa Carrillo area
Chora island snorkeling trip

Purple-throated Mountain-gem3 053019 Monteverde Cloud Forest
Purple-throated Mountain Gem

Day 9: Costa Rica

June 3, 2019

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We went on one final walk before loading up to head back to Liberia for the airport.

Crested Caracara
Inca Doves
Banded Wren
Cinnamon Hummingbird
Dusky-capped Flycatcher
Lesser Greenlet
Orange-chinned Parakeet
Rufous-naped Wren
Yellow-olive Flycatcher

While the beach resort had killer views and great staff, it’s not a place I plan to come back to. One person in our group created a list comparing what Costa Rica bird we’d seen each person would be. She said I remind her of the Lessen’s Motmot. I’m pretty happy to be back – I was greeted by my dad and nieces who will be spending the next few days with me while my sister travels for work. 🙂

Day 8: Costa Rica

June 2, 2019

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Today was my final full day in Costa Rica. It was a “free” day for the group, although there was a guided ocean kayak and snorkeling tour to Chora Island planned for anyone wanting to go. I couldn’t say no. I pretty much spent the entire time at the island snorkeling.

I admitted to being extremely cranky yesterday and I’m embarrassed to say that I complained about the room I was assigned. When I arrived back to the hotel this afternoon, I learned that the hotel staff had switched me to another room to resolve my issue. It was sweet of the staff to help me, especially when they gave my roommate a choice of what rooms we could switch to and she picked the room that completely ignored my concern but had a better view.

We wrapped up the day with a group farewell dinner at a local restaurant.

Day 7: Costa Rica

June 1, 2019

I love Senda Monteverde Hotel! However after a final morning walk, we left Monteverde for our final destination in Carrillo Beach in Guanacaste.

Yellow-faced Grassquit
Blue and White Swallow
Northern Emerald Toucanet
Rufous-capped Warbler
White-eared Ground Sparrow

Along the way, we stopped once again in Abangares for gas, where I was entertained by the Macaws.

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Macaw

The views along the route were also pretty amazing.

*View 1 060119 Guanacaste

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We later stopped for lunch and a private, guided boat tour on the Bebedero River in the Tempisque River basin bordering Palo Verde National Park.

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Bare-throated Tiger Heron
Grey Hawk
Groove-billed Ani
Iguana
Pacific Screech Owls
Spot-breasted Oriole
Streak-backed Oriole
Wood Stork

We also saw so many crocodiles and babies!

We even saw monkeys, a giant anteater and bats! I need to emphasis how excited I was to see the bats!! I finally got a video of a basilisk running on water as well.

*Giant Anteater 060119 Bebedero River Boat RideJPG*Bats4 060119 Bebedero River Boat Ride

Our final days will be spent at Nammbú Beach Resort. I’ll admit I was not in the best of moods when I arrived – I was pure crankiness. I ended up taking a quick trip to check out the beach at sunset before getting in the pool to cool off and nab a drink from the poolside bar (which definitely helped).

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Day 6: Costa Rica

May 31, 2019

We kicked off the morning with a morning bird walk in a country road near Monteverde.

Boat-billed Flycatcher
Kell-billed Toucan
Northern Emerald Toucanet
Orange-bellied Trogon
Tropical Kingbird
Yellow-throated Euphonia

It was interesting: we were headed through Monteverde when suddenly our driver pulls over and says he’s found a sloth for us. Apparently, our driver is fascinated with sloths and he really did find one as he drove through town. It was a Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth, which our tour guide said we were lucky to get a good photo of.

*Hoffman's Two-toed Sloth1 053119 Costa Rica (Monteverde)
Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth

We then headed over to Selvatura Park, a nature and adventure ecological park with over 850 acres of protected land. We toured the cloud forest via the park’s many suspension bridges that took us through and above the tree tops. Among the birds we saw were an adult male Three-wattled Bellbird and a Resplendent Quetzal that flew over us.

Three-wattled Bellbird artwork
Slaty-backed Nightingale Thrush
Silver-throated Tanager
Blue Morpho
Black-thighed Grosbeak
Black-faced Solitarie
juvenile Black Guan

I ate lunch in town at Amy’s cuisine, where I had a typical Costa Rican lunch, and then sat in on a bellbird conservation talk back at the hotel, and then ate once again at the restaurant.

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