Hello Tweets. It was my privilege to be another of the lucky dozen who enjoyed being on Toby Ross' sensational birding tour to Costa Rica (if interested in trip details, see Resources below). First, to the wonderful Scott Ramos: thanks a gazillion for an absolutely fabulous collection of your images (skillfully acquired, with the many spectacular birds identified and labelled - what a gift to us, the lesser contingency).
When Seattle Audubon's former Science Manager, Toby Ross, started this new tour company, Alight Tours (
https://www.alighttours.com <
https://www.alighttours.com/>), he envisioned the theme, "sustainable birding adventures" … giving back to the local community with conservation at its core. In fact, Alight Tours' maiden voyage was our Costa Rica 2022 birding trip, and it faithfully embodied those words: carefully assembled (we did finally proceed despite postponements x several, thanks to COVID-19: Toby attended to health affairs as top priority) and every bit, truly enjoyed!
Toby sincerely, relentlessly strives towards a standard festooned with conservation themes, and uniformly engages local guides and establishments in a very deliberate, wonderfully-inclusive way. We his first "clutch" highly recommend Alight Tours, each of his partnered local bird guides and so many local allies! Bravo, and encore, as I for one am looking forward to the next opportunity.
Resources: Alight Tours
https://www.alighttours.com <
https://www.alighttours.com/> ... where there's a Blog containing Toby's trip report on our sensational Spring 2022 visit to Costa Rica.
Note: this older dog doesn't frequent social media but in prep for Costa Rica, I did explore the website: know that Alight Tours is represented on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (all of which you can poke on-to from the website, and follow) with news and updates, and many beautiful images. Upcoming trips have their own tab.
Elaine ... elc at uw dot edu
Seattle
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2022 09:38:34 -0700
From: Scott Ramos <
lsr at ramoslink.info <mailto:
lsr at ramoslink.info>>
To: Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu <mailto:
tweeters at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: [Tweeters] Birding in Costa Rica, 2022
In late April-early May this year, I joined a birding trip to Costa Rica with folks from Seattle and nearby, organized by Toby Ross on the fledgling outing of his new company, Alight Tours. We covered much of the country, visiting various habitats, and ended up seeing half of Costa Rica's birds. Travel included north and south Pacific coastlines, the Caribbean flatlands, and mountainous areas in the north and central ranges. With about 450 species observed, I added 200 lifers on the journey.
Many of the birds seen are included in this Flickr album:
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzQVA7 <
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzQVA7>. Perhaps you can get a vicarious feeling of the richness of the Costa Rica fauna. Definitely a worthwhile place to visit should you get the opportunity.
Scott Ramos
Seattle