My first sure Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis) sighting here close to home came this week above La Muralla waterfall. Quite coincidentally, it was also present at the Lake Cachí overlook at Ujarrás when Ernesto Carman and Paz Irola took Steven Aguilar and me two days ago to see the shorebirds gathering on the mud flats. Those same mudflats have probably now disappeared after yesterday’s torrential rains.

Bat Falcon , courtesy of Erick Rojas Pelon at Piedades Sur de San Ramón in the north of the country

The falcon sat atop the very tallest cedro, an immense tree that rises from the Rio Guayabo valley to give an eye-level view of its topmost branches before the descent to the waterfall. On a similar stump sat an Olive-sided Flycatcher (Contopus cooperi), a northern migrant that is usually uncommon in our area but seems particularly abundant this year. Here’s a photo of an individual at the Río Reventazón that John Beer took during spring migration of this year.

Olive-sided Flycatcher in its usual location at the tip of a high bare branch