Talari Mountain Lodge

From Paraiso we headed South and down, roughly 2km down, along twisting, winding, Ruta Dos, arriving at a sun-drenched and very warm Talari Mountain Lodge, which was deserted on arrival.   It turns out that we arrived during a lull in an otherwise hectic season and had the place virtually to ourselves :)

The lodge is managed by a family, it has a very fine main building, the cooking is to an excellent standard and the birding is superb too.  They have a whole new building too but that hadn't been finished when we booked.

There are feeders visible from the restaurant, and we stayed there during the hottest part of the day before checking into our room.

On or about the feeders we saw Bay-headed Tanager:

Buff-throated Saltator:

Green Honeycreeper:

here's a female:

Palm Tanager:

The stunning Red-legged Honeycreeper:

again a female for contrast:

They truly are amazing birds, and when you first see them, surprisingly small.  

A favourite species of mine from Costa Rica is the Speckled Tanager:

They are surprisingly tricky to photograph for some reason, I suspect their plumage acts as a diffuser of some sort.

Another lovely bird, this one ubiquitous throughout Costa Rica, the Blue-Gray Tanager:

In the grounds they have what I call a Flame Tree.  No idea of the correct name but you can see here, what I mean.  They are very popular with the birds too, so doubly worthwhile.  In this case it is hosting a Brown Jay:

The restaurant is covered in this climbing passion flower plant with very attractive flowers:

Having settled in our room we went out for a walk in the wooded grounds, seeing a Common Tody-Flycatcher nest building:

A very vocal Orange-chinned Parakeet eating from fruit in a tree high above:

We followed the river trail down to a very pretty river:

We watched birds bathing on the opposite shore and had a close encounter with a Black Phoebe, the bill looks a bit mis-shapen, but it was going to-and-fro to a nest with food:

We very much enjoyed our dinner and the excellent wine selection ensuring a good nights sleep!