Twitching in Monteverde with the Quakers

In 1949 four Quakers were jailed in Alabama for their refusal to be drafted into the Korean War. They were eventually released, but in response to their incarceration, 44 Quakers from 11 Alabama families left the US and literally headed for green pastures. They chose Monteverde or green mountain as their new home, partly because Costa Rica had abolished their army and Quakers are pacifists and partly because it was a suitable cool mountain climate to graze cattle. Today they are still very active in the area although some of the land they used to farm has been allowed to return to nature and is a primary or virgin forest. 

This morning we walked along a trail in the Monteverde cloud mountain reserve with secondary forest on one side and primary on the other. The cloud forest is at the pinnacle of Costa Rica's continental divide. 

Our guide, Roy was particularly interested in birds and we got to see the normally elusive quetzal which was very exciting. It was a juvenile and had yet to develop its beautiful tail, but still was a wonderfully exotic sight. 

Roy told us that most of the Central American countries have exotic birds as their national birds, but Costa Rica has the clay coloured robin! The reason this honour was bestowed on this rather humble looking bird was because the Ticos themselves are humble people (his words) and also, the robin tells the farmers by his song and actions when the best time is to plant seeds! Nice story. 

The trails we followed were incredibly busy with lots of people and it's amazing we saw anything, but we did get up really close to a couple of coatis and masses of humming birds that were so tame they landed on anything or anyone that was wearing pink.....pink glasses and pink hair were particularly attractive! There were feeders by the gift shop that are filled daily with a suger solution of 1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of water! 

Roy was an entertaining guide who pointed out lots of tiny creatures including the slingshot spider. There was a perfectly ordinary web and after warning us not to try this ourselves, he poked at the web with a small twig and the web reacted just like a sling - amazing sight. Tucked behind a tree Roy brought out a vine that he proceeded to swing on in a Tarzan like way...another thing not to try! We saw a frog, caterpillars, beetles, butterflies and lots of delicate orchids as well as fat turkey pigeons and several other birds. 

Best of all he carried a powerful scope on a tripod and when we saw something that obligingly stayed still, we were all able to see it in great detail through his scope and in some cases photograph it using it's magnification. Hurrah for technology! This afternoon we are going to walk through the cloud forest on our own....we may see nothing without the experienced eyes of a guide but it will be fun dawdling along in the sunshine! Yep today is warm and sunny and completely cloudless!