What a day we had yesterday! My husband Brian and I woke early to go on a bird walk with our guide, Jimmy, and Michael and Janka Hobbs. Michael is quite an expert on birds and Janka is pretty good too. We did not see much in the way of birds, but there were two classical fountains out in the middle of a pasture that made no sense at all. I presume that someone got a good deal on them and put them out to water livestock, but why put out the entire thing and not just the base?

Anyway, after breakfast we headed out to the Arenal Hanging Bridges. They are about 5 miles of a loop trail that takes one across several high hanging bridges at the level of the canopy. The bridges would be pretty scary, except that we have been over a number already at other sites and are something of pros at scampering across. Still, 9-10 stories high on a flimsy swinging bridge is pretty sobering.

This started out as a nice hike. We spotted a male Great Curassow  who played hide and seek with us in the underbrush. We hiked along for a while and then Jimmy spotted a few birds downhill that got his interest. We stopped and as we looked we realized there was a huge mixed flock of birds a ways downhill from us. As he and Michael called them out and pointed with a green laser where we should look, Jimmy realized that they were all ant eating birds. He theorized they were following swarming army ants. Then the birds got progressively closer to us, which made them much easier to see, but it also meant the army was heading right for us. We were seeing both broad-billed and rufous motmots, several tanagers, ant-eaters, etc. etc. We all got very excited and were calling out names and yelling “where? where?” as each new species was called out. It was very intense. I meant to step back and take a photo of us being intense, but it was so intense that I forgot to take a photo of us being intense. Let’s just say, when other people came down the trail, we tried to explain and they just gave us a look that said “ooooookaaaaaayyyy” as they quickly slipped by.  This went on for at least an hour. It got to the point where we could see the swarm of ants (though they were very small, so no good photos) and other insects scurried to get out of their way. Pity the poor pillbug like bugs. As they got close, the birds were so close we could nearly touch them. Finally, the ants got to where we had been standing and we had to move or be bitten ourselves. It was amazing. Michael Hobbs, our bird expert, said he added about 15 new life species to his list in that hour. There were at least 20 species following those army ants.

But the surprises where not over. We went back to the hotel for lunch and a look around the area, then headed out to one of the hot springs around Volcan Arenal. As we headed down the long road to the main road, our driver, Enrique, suddenly stopped. We all looked to see why and next to us, sitting in the grass, was a crested owl. There was a moment when we all sat stunned, looking at it and going “WHOA! What the heck!” and then we all dove for our cameras. Unfortunately, before we could get them ready, he flew off into some adjoining trees.