My target bird on an afternoon jaunt up Calle Vargas from Santa Cruz was the Silvery-fronted Tapaculo (Scytalopus argentifrons). No such luck. I know the exact spot from where the bird calls regularly but it’s a species I have never actually seen. Upon arrival I found a huge earth-removing vehicle filling and refilling two large trucks amid a huge noise that carried for miles around. The tapaculo must have been hiding its frightened ass (culo) elsewhere (forgive the tastelessness of my pun).

My first-of-the-season looked much like this immature Blackburnian Warbler photographed by John Beer on another occasion at CATIE

What did appear, however, was the first migrant warbler of the year, perhaps a juvenile or female Blackburnian Warbler (Setophaga fusga). The only other migrants I have seen in our area so far are swallow species, Cliff Swallow and Barn Swallow.

File photo of a Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush, courtesy of Richard Garrigues

Find of the day was a lone Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush (Catharus gracilirostris), at two hundred meters below its usual haunts, which hopped out onto the path right in front of me. The usual nightingale-thrush to be expected at this elevation is the Ruddy-capped.