Today dawned sunny and brisk, but warmed nicely as we shed layers throughout the morning. Jeffrey, the owner of Mount Totumas Lodge, suggested our scratchy visitor last night might have been a type of weasel or rat, running between the tin roof and our ceiling.

The owners have hummingbird feeders ringing the main buildings as well as a blind next to a stream-fed pool. We had an excellent morning seeing 11 species of hummingbirds, beautiful Spotted Wood-Quails, bright tanagers, and far-off Three-wattled Bellbirds (hope for a closer look at that one). A walk downslope into forest yielded more smaller species. There are a few other visitors at the lodge, (from France, UAE, Canada), but we walk alone save for an occasional truck carrying supplies. Ben, a book editor from NY, and Jesse are good at spotting and identifying songs which is yields us spotting lots of different species. Today we had 18 new birds.

This afternoon we hiked through the forest up Mount Totumas. Jeffrey led us to a spot where we saw not one, but two Bellbirds. They are crazy looking with a chestnut body, clean white neck and face with long, stringy wattles flapping around their bill that make them look like they are frowning. Their loud clong resonates through the forest.

Next treat were the much-sought after Resplendent Quetzals!! Not one, but eventually six flying together, displaying and making a racket as they showed off for each other. Hard to get close and in full view, they have a bright red chest, white undertail, but the rest of their body is an unnatural shade of bluish-green in harsh contrast to the vegetation. The males are indeed resplendent with trailing tail plumes up to 30 inches long (twice as long as their body). The bird book claims "one of the most beautiful birds in the world."

Lastly, before dinner, Jeffrey showed videos from the many camera traps on trails around the property. Plenty of mountain lions, five different jaguars, ocelots, tapirs, peccaries, often captured on camera during the day some within an hour of people. This property borders a million acres in La Amistad National Park, providing habitat suitable for large cats.

This was a great day, only day two of our trip!