On our last Bird Walk (Sunday, January 12) we were surprised and delighted to have seen a White-winged Tanager. These beautiful birds stay high in the canopy and are easy to miss, but this one was lower than usual and gave us a thrill.
Photo by Charlie Gomez
This Sunday (January 26), we will have another Bird Walk at the Wilson Botanical Garden/OTS Las Cruces Biological Research Station, at 7:00 am. As usual, we’ll meet at the Reception building and have binoculars to lend. Who knows what wonder awaits — this is why we go!
Dinner to Support the Arts
From natural beauty and art to created beauty and art, please make a reservation for a fundraising dinner at Cascata del Bosco on Saturday, January 25 to support the forthcoming Arts Fest Coto Brus 2025. Go to the website: http://www.artsfestcotobrus.com or use WhatsApp +1 (970) 759-9262 to reserve your dinner choice. In addition, music to dine by will be provided by Roger Madison — a wonderful evening is in store
And here is the White-winger Tanager again, from a different angle (because we just can’t get enough of this bird…..):
We look forward to a New Year with its accompanying opportunities, challenges, frights and gifts.
Thank you for your interest in the San Vito Bird Club and your support over the years. Our new motto is: Let’s Survive 2025!
Yesterday, we had a wonderful Bird Walk at the Las Cruces Biological Research Station’s Wilson Botanical Garden. Highlights included two Swallow-tailed Kites, South American migrants who return each year to nest; a brilliant Baltimore Oriole; a young, male Summer Tanager in transition plumage — from yellow to orange to red — and a Wedge-tailed Woodcreeper! (Considering we started in a damp, thick fog, things went our way in the end.)
Additionally, two outstanding members — Anna Bilberry and Terry Farling — brought baked goods to share at the Coffee Hour. Yum yum and thank you!
Please join us whenever and however you can.
P.S. We’ll update you shortly on our efforts to support travel for María Sandi and Alisson Vargas to Bird Banding Training in the Dominican Republic — life-changing for them and uplifting for us. We proudly work on this project with the Finca Cántaros Environmental Association.
During the past 20 years, the SVBC has gradually and naturally changed. We still lead Bird Walks and regular forays to birdy spots like the rice fields near Cuidad Neilly and the Tres Ríos River. But we also have a ‘How Can We Help You?” sensibility, especially if your concern will help birds and people of the local community.
Along those lines, we have some history of contributing to educaton and project enhancement for our volunteer mist netters — many of you will remember the Avian Monitoring Project that ran from 2003-2013. Back then we encouraged — and financially supported — participants to travel to other countries to take part in a bird banding training workshop in Peru and an international bird conference in El Salvador.
Now Finca Cántaros Environmental Association (FCEA) has begun a new bird banding program which combines nicely with projects that emerged as a result of installing Costa Rica’s second Motus Station on site in 2020 (motus.org).
Coming up this year, we have an exciting opportunity to help fund travel and education for two young women who are being trained as banders at Finca Cántaros.
Meet María Sandí and Alisson Vargas, dedicated naturalists who have also been trained to teach Detectives de Aves classes and want to do more — and know more.
In February 2025, NABC certified bander and ornithologist Holly Garrod (who has been leading the banding trainings at FCEA this year) will offer intensive training in the Dominican Republic — this is our chance to help María and Alisson. If we can provide a stipend of $1,000 each, they are off — off to a world of ornitholgical collaboration, new colleagues, international sensibility and professional skills enhancement.
Academics and practicitioners in the field of conservation have repeatedly highlighted the importance of engaging young people in the local community and creating jobs for rural youth. Longtime loyal SVBC (and Detectives de Aves) supporters can feel proud that our investment is really achieving this goal. María Sandí was one of the first students in the Detectives de Aves classes when we launched the program in 2013 — she credits this experience with inspiring her interest in nature and her motivation to pursue this path, personally and professionally. Flash forward 10 years and she is actively involved in many programs at FECA in additional to the bird banding and Women Committed to the Earth.
Are you reaching for your wallet? Before you make your contribution, please know that Finca Cántaros now has tax deductible status in the US. To make a tax deductible donation, please visit their website: http://fincacantaros.org/donate/
Please join us this Sunday, November 3 at 7 am in the Wilson Botanical Garden at the Tropical Studies Las Cruces Biological Station.
We meet at the Reception Building and have binoculars to share.
On our last Bird Walk, we saw two of these beautiful birds and one of them was carrying nesting material. Let’s go look for a glimpse of one, sitting on the nest!
After walking for about an hour, we will have coffee and social time in the dining room. These Nature Walks are free and open to the public. Please bring your friends, neighbors and families.
Please join us for a Nature/Bird Walk this weekend at the beautiful Wilson Botanical Garden (also known as ‘Las Cruces’). We will meet at 7:00 am at the Reception Center and, as always, we’ll have binoculars to lend and a guide to lead.
The walk usually takes about an hour; after that we have a sociable Coffee Hour in the dining room. If you feel expansive, bring a few colones to leave for the kitchen ladies who have to wash our cups and saucers.
Common Tody-Flycatcher, photographer unknown.
It’s a fun way to spend the morning! We look forward to seeing you there!
Just a reminder, as promised, to join us tomorrow, Sunday, June 16 at 7:00 am at the Reception Building at OTS/Las Cruces/Wilson Botanical Garden.
If it is raining, we will wait a bit and if it looks promising, we’ll venture out. Birds pop out too, after the rain, to look for food — enhancing our chances of seeing them.
All San Vito Bird Club Bird Walks are free and open to the public. As usual, we will have binoculars to lend. The Walk is followed by a coffee social hour in the dining room.
At the Annual Dia de Las Puertas Abiertas last Sunday at OTS Las Cruces, the SVBC Bake Sale was a grand success — we surpassed last year’s revenue by 25% thanks to the efforts of these industrious and generous people:
Tina Esquer Christopher
Caroljo Papac
Roni Chernin
Molly Rae
Joe Ippolito
Peter Wendell
Alison Olivieri
If we didn’t run bi-monthly Bird Walks at Las Cruces and occasional forays to local ‘birdy’ spots, we might be tempted to rename the group “San Vito Bakers’ Club”. But we will stick with our walks for now and are happy to welcome any newcomers with binoculars and bonhomie.
Speaking of which, the next walk will be Sunday, June 16. Please join us at 7:00 am at the Las Cruces Reception Building. We will walk through the Wilson Botanic Garden looking for birds and will happily help you find them. The walks are always free and open to the public. One of the guides, Peter Wendell, is fluent in Spanish so if that concerns you don’t give it another thought!
It’s a lttle early to tout the Sunday Walk so we will post a brief remnder later this week. We just couldn’t wait to thank our bakers for the cakes, cookies and breads.
Following in Co-President Greg Homer’s footsteps, we had three opportunities for members to show off their bird expertise at the recent Annual Meeting and I think we were all pleasantly surprised. All members were invited to participate in the Cornell eBird annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). The GBBC was one of the first online projects to collect information on wild birds and was also instrumental in the creation of eBird back in 2002. Our local winner was Anna Bilberry with 68 species!
Anna and her adorable dog, photo by Lydia Vogt
At the meeting, attendees participated in two challenging bird games: the Bird Call Contest required sharp hearing and quick recall as the vocalizations of 14 local birds were played, and answes had to be written down.
The second game of Bird Trivia required mostly general bird knowledge (members were warned before the meeting to bone-up on eBird facts), and ten questions separated the casual contestants from the eager.
In both of these games our members did very well, and Anna was again at the top, with Nancy Warshawer only a point behind! But one fairly new member exceeded the score of everyone — Rodney Briggs, of the Finca Cantaros Environmental Association (and Lilly’s dad). He has obviously spent the last two years doing more than planting trees.
Missing only one bird call (the tough Rufous-breasted Wren), he had a total on both games of 21 points.
Rodney Briggs, photo by Alison Olivieri
Congratulations to all the members who gave it a try — and especially to Anna and Rodney!
San Vito Bird Club 
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