Seven Wonders - Fleetwood Mac (The Beat Goes On)

Good Morning All and a suggestion might be that our new regiment of Highly Valued Readers ‘scroll back’ to Sunday, 31 October 2021 or ‘search’ Seven Wonders - Fleetwood Mac - Part One, and follow on subsequent Sunday’s to catch up on our Central American adventures!

Costa Rica cannot claim, as a country, to having the most Species of Birds in the World, a distinction held by Colombia with a total at time of writing of 1878, but at 857 are well placed to claim more species per acre (hectare since we have been forced into going foreign) than any other, especially our own humble 266’ish. It was this fact that was foremost in our minds while crossing the border with Nicaragua as the penultimate Country on our weeks long journey. This took a while as the unmentionable 'C' word was upon us and among others the

FAITHFUL

along with the Three Wise Men hampered our progress a little - Great Buzz!
  but took no more than a few minutes to add the first new Bird to the World Lists the

outragously beautiful and bizarre, at the river crossing on the border,

SUN BITTERN
  (what a start but borrowed images)

Once again Billy got the 2 of us (Jim having had to return to medical duties on the Foating Production Oil Platform Buchan Alpha in the North Sea - bit of a culture shock which would also soon be awaiting us)

the best of accommodation but before even putting our bags down there was an alert to launch the Crash Boat!!

A life lost at sea is not part of the makeup for a Mariner and our new found pal here was soon Returned to the Wild.
  The 2-pronged thrust of our short stay was a no-brainer as priorities were the still active

VULCAN ARENAL
and Wildlife continuing with

GREY-HEADED CHACHALACA
with the hotel able to provide a guide for both if we were happy joining a small group,

Lead on MacDuff but this was to be something extra special. Guides in such countries are usually good at worst, very good like the young boys we employed previously but this chap was off-the-scale, with a technique never even heard of before. Issuing the few of us with an on loan Field Guide

GREEN HERMIT
at each bird found

MASKED DUCK
he would relate the page and plate number

SCARLET TANAGER
so none of us should have difficulty in ID'ing the bird and committing it to the log.

THREE-TOED SLOTH

VIOLACEOUS QUAIL-DOVE
hoardes of

BLACK VULTURE
some even seen on bird-tables.

CAPUCHIN MONKEY

RESPLENDENT QUETZAL
which is not only the national bird of Guatamala but also the monetary unit
and from a down-right beauty to maybe the

direct opposite

MATAMATA TURTLE
and this was also notable for our first ever attempt at Digi-Scoping,
offering the camara up to the telescope with sometimes, after practice, to great effect

BARE-SHANKED SCREECH OWL

GREAT POTOO

GOLDEN-HOODED TANAGER

GIANT ANTEATER

BLACK-FACED SOLITAIRE
also known as the Garden Gate Bird as sounding like a rusty one swinging in the breeze, and to finish this instalment the mighty

GREATER HORNED OWL