So much to see and paint

The abundant flora and fauna in Costa Rica provided me with numerous subjects to paint.  I carried my watercolor kit with me just about everywhere so that I could capture a sketch and a few notes about color, light and shadow.  During afternoon siestas and in the evenings I would work on inking and painting.  We saw many more interesting birds then I expected, and I often ended up capturing several birds on a page, like these birds we saw at the UGA EcoLodge at San Luis.

With so many beautiful birds it is hard to pick a favorite, but I think it would have to be the Blue-crowned Motmot, Momotus momota.  Their crown is black and surrounded by a blue band.  They have a black eyemask and red-orange eyes.  Their nape is chestnut, and their backs are green shading to blue on the lower tail.  The tail is very long with a bare-shafted racket tip in adults.  I love their turquoise color and iridescent's of their feathers.  They sit very still on a branch for a quite a long time, surveying the dense forest around them for small prey such as insects and lizards.   The pair that hunted around our cabina at the UGA Eco Lodge would call back and forth to each other; moot .. moot-moot.

I ended up with several Mot-mot paintings in my journal, this one was done while sitting on the deck of our cabina the day we arrived.  There are several trails that run through different habitats at UGA Costa Rica, so you don't have to go far to see a lot of different birds.  But it does help to go with someone who knows the bird calls.

Once a month UGA Costa Rica does a bird count and we just happened to be there for the April 2011 one.  Something I hadn't really though about was how many of the birds we see around our yards at home also vacation in Costa Rica.  Birding with people who know birds well is really a great experience.  And we didn't just see birds, there were trees, flowers, insects, frogs and mammals too.