Last of the Pamama/Costa Rica Photos

The tale of this trip wouldn't be complete without this neat ending.  We were ferried to a beach at Punta Caletas on the Osa Peninsula in zodiaks and Don, a photographer and fellow traveler and I decided that we wanted to explore something away from the crowd.  So we walked several hundred yards down the beach until we encountered a small stream flowing out of the jungle.  There were already birds around but I realized that this was habitat par excellence.  We had just set up for photography when it began to rain.  Don and I took shelter under the eave of a school house that wasn't occupied due to the holiday season. 

After 10-15 minutes the rain stopped and we headed back down to the creek.  As we did so I saw two large birds fly onto the beach just below a drop-off.  We sneaked up to the edge and encountered two Yellow-headed Cara Caras.  After obtaining many photos of them we sat an waited at the mouth of the little stream.

It wasn't long before we encountered this male Green kingfisher, but it landed in the shadows and never emerged so I couldn't get the photo I would have liked.  

 
As we sat quietly watching this Bare-throated Tiger heron crept over a log and out into our view.  We were able to watch it for perhaps fifteen minutes as it carefully worked its way down the stream toward us, finally disappearing behind an embankment where we sat.  As you can see, this was an absolutely wonderful bird with perfect markings.