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…..):
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/
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.
Please join us this weekend for a Bird and Nature Walk at the Wilson Botanical Garden, Sunday, May 21.
The Wilson Botanical Garden
We will meet at the Reception Building at 7:30 am with binoculars to share. The walks are free and open to the public; we look forward to seeing you there.
Common Tody-Flycatcher, expert hanging nest-builder
We are enjoying an extended dry season down here, after an uncharacteristically rainy March.
So it is exactly the right time to avail yourself of this learning experience: a new offering from the Finca Cantaros Environmental Association.
Velvety Manakin
One of our most productive and interesting birding sites, the team at Finca Cantaros is growing trees, managing a sizeable reforestation plot on site, running an environmental art project, installing a blind specifically for photography, and continuing its Women Caring for the Earth Project. Please offer your support to their ongoing work.
Erratum: alert reader and contributing photographer Jo Davidson noticed a slip-upin our last post. The flycatcher with the retort nest is a Yellow-oliveFlycatcher, not a Golden-olive Flycatcher.(In a Google search, it also comes up as a Yellow-oliveFlatbill.)
Please go find a 2022 calendar and mark February 27 as the date for the SVBC Annual Meeting.
You’ll not want to miss this one as we plan to have the famous Tico Breakfast at Las Cruces/Wilson Botanical Garden PLUS speakers, birdy games and prizes.
This event is for members only so please remember to pay your dues! Any executive committee member will be happy to accept them. The dues will entitle you to a Membership Card that you can use to receive entrance to Las Cruces at the lower price for nationals and residents, $3 or 1,800 colones per person.
Membership Dues are as follows:
Local individual = $25 or 18,000 colones
Local family, defined as two adults and two children = $50 or 35,000 colones
Congratulations to our San Vito Bird Club contest winners for 2021. As you may recall, this year we changed the contest from a Bird Feeder Contest (since Costa Rica frowns on feeding wildlife) to a three-pronged contest:
Bird Feeder Contest for members who DO NOT live in Costa Rica during the month of February.
Photos taken in February, in three categories; a. Birds having a meal b. Birds in action c. Still life
Original Bird Act created during the month of February.
Here we go! First, second and third place in the Not-in-Costa Rica Bird Feeder Contest
First place with 17 species: Charles and Sara Beeson-Jones from Fen Ditton, United Kingdom.
Blackbird (male and female) – Turdus merula
Greenfinch – Carduelis chloris
Goldfinch – Carduelis carduelis
Long Tailed Tit – Aegithalos caudatus
Blue Tit – Parus caeruleus
Great Tit – Parus major
Woodpigeon – Columba palumbus
Collared Dove – Streptopelia decaocto
Robin – Erithacus rubecula
Pheasant (male and female) – Phasianus colchicus
Hedge Accentor (also called Dunnock) – Prunella modularis
Carrion Crow – Corvus corone
Blackcap – Sylvia atricapilla
Magpie – Pica pica
Great Spotted Woodpecker – Dendrocopos major
Chaffinch (male) – Fringilla coelebs
Jay – Garrulus glandarius
Second place with 16 species, Judy Richardson from Connecticut, U.S.A.
1. Northern Cardinal 2. American Goldfinch 3. White throated Sparrow 4. Dark eyed Junco 5. Song Sparrow 6. Mourning Dove 7. Black capped Chickadee 8. Carolina wren 9. House Finch 10. Eastern Tufted Titmouse 11. Blue Jay 12. Red bellied Woodpecker 13. White roasted Nuthatch 14. House Sparrow 15. Chipping Sparrow 16. European Starling
Third place with 11 species, Peter and Petra Heck from the Netherlands,.
House Sparrow
Hedge Sparrow / Dunnock
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Robin
Jackdaw
Blackbird
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Turkish turtle dove
Wood Pigeon
Next, our Photo Contest Winners.
Winner of the Birds Having a Meal photo Jo Davidson.
(Swallow-tailed Kite dining)
Winner of the Birds in Action photo; Peter/Petra Heck.
(Little Red Robin in snow)
Winner of Still Life photo; Jo Davidson.
(Yard plants resembling a Post-Impressionist painting)
Lastly, our Bird Art Winners.
Four bird paintings created during the month of February were entered. All four are equally deserving of First Place! Here they are, in no particular order.
Lydia Vogt’s Three Wood Storks
Helen LeVasseur’s Gray-cowled Wood-rail.
Julie Gerard’s Fiery-billed Aracari.
Lydia Vogt’s Golden-browed Chlorophonia.
We hope you enjoyed this posting. And thank you for your continued support of the San Vito Bird Club.
San Vito Bird Club 
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