El Remanso's staff, together with their families participated in the annual Earth Day celebration yesterday, April 22nd, in the local community town of Puerto Jiménez. The events started at 9 o'clock with a "Earth Day parade" of local conservation organizations and students from the local schools.
Our guest Beth Glasmann could not imagine she would be spotting a female puma on her first day at El Remanso, walking to the Pacific Beach on the Beach Trail. It was about half past six when she spotted the female puma next to the path. The wildcat was rather calm and did not run away as they would usually do. This was the perfect occassion to take some excellent pictures of the cat! Pumas (puma concolor) are one of 5 different wildcats found on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica.
Bats usually use existing cavities such as caves or tree-holes as roosting sites. On very rare cases the do their own homes, and this is one of those peculiar cases where bats built a shelter for the group, that includes adult males, moms and babies. Bats chew the center vain of a palm-leaf hence the leaf drops forming a tent. In the forest reserve at El Remanso on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica you can see over 50 species of bats, among them several that use leafs as shelter. Have you ever seen them in nature? Tell us and share your pics!
It happens that cicadas (from Latin cicada means “tree cricket”) can’t wait until February 14th to celebrate love, but started one month before and they keep going. For a couple of months starting with the dry season here at El Remanso and everywhere on the Osa Peninsula the sounds of the forest are dominated by the love song of these insects. Same as cicadas in temperate forest, the tropical fellows as nymphs (young insects) live in the ground, they come out of the ground to molt and become the adults we see (and hear!).
Chestnut-mandibled toucans (Ramphastos ambiguus swainsonii)) are one of the 2 members of the Toucan family (Ramphastidae) that you can find in the Osa Peninsula. It is frequent to spot toucans at El Remanso, specially from the restaurant deck in the early mornings as well as anywhere in the tropical garden of the lodge. Since yesterday we have our "yearly visitors" back and nesting in a tree cavity next to the main driveway of the lodge. This is the third year in a row where we have been able to observe a couple of toucans using the exact same hole to create their nest.
Common Pauraque - «cuyeo» - Nyctidromus albicollis The Pauraque is a nocturnal bird that lives in open areas such as secondary forest or forest edges; hence it is highly probable that they would live in the gardens around the lodge. But this bird rests and nests in the ground blended with the leaf litter, which makes it difficult to spot. Although this species is fairly common and widely distributed, is not common to find a nest.
Night tours at El Remanso are lead by naturalist guide Rinaldo. The tour starts usually at 5.30, once the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean down here in the Osa Peninsula. Commonly seen wildlife during this tour includes spiders, frogs, toats, snakes, opposums and sometimes even sleeping mammals. The tour usually starts with some time next to the El Remanso pool or our new "frog pond" where different types of frogs and toats can be found. The most looked for is certainly the red-eye tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas), the most "photogenic of the frogs in the pond"!
Patrick Schmidt and his family returned this afternoon from our river walk and brought the exciting news! They encountered a puma next to the creek and got a good look at it. It was resting on the river bank and did not run away for a good while! How fortunate!! This happens just 6 days after Adriana saw a female puma chasing a small animal in front...
Yesterday, El Remanso participated in the annual Osa Peninsula Audubon Christmas bird count! Again this year, local organizations, eco-lodges and the community joined for this century-long Audubon Society tradition. 
During all tours, from dawn to dusk, guides and guests were invited to keep track of the birds they had seen.
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