Krausman's 25th Anniversary Woodcarving Seminar, Costa Rica!!!!!!!!!
Continues!! Day 7, Wednesday, Oct 05, 2016- Today will be another busy day with so much happening! Class will be back in session. We will be painting new plumage areas on the Trogons with new and different techniques. For the others that went on the tours yesterday I will privately instruct them to make sure they get caught up with everyone else. The third day tour will leave early this morning and travel to Cartago and Turrialba to explore the dormant Irazu Volcano National Park, then a stop at the Basilica of our Lady of the Angels, Cartago. After lunch, a tour of Lancaster Orchid Gardens. And of course, Marino will be busy with short birding excursions around the Hotel.
At 6:00 am again, everyone gathered outside near the lobby. Some would be having an early breakfast and then board the buses for a 7:00 am departure to Cartago and Turrialba. Others will be leaving in a few minutes with Marino to head up to Felo's mirador platform to watch the spectacular Quetzal show at the aguacatillo tree. Others will be hiking the trails in the area, and I am sure a few others will be sleeping in! :^)
A few of us while waiting for Marino, did a little birding near the lobby, and warming up a bit in the chilly morning air. A few birds had awakened and started feeding early this morning. Among the handful of species were:
Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher
Jim Krausman taking pictures of the same Long-tailed Silky-Flycatcher flock near the lobby.
Pair of Flame-colored Tanagers (male above with Katydid, female below)-
Yellow-thighed Finch
Sooty-capped Bush-Tanager
Clay-colored Robin and Acorn Woodpecker
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow-winged Vireo
We left the hotel in the two 4WD utility vehicles and arrived at Felo's mirador in about ten minutes. A natural stairway made up of roots and dug steps with a wooden handrail leads up the side of the hill through the woods. When you reach the top of this stairway, there is a path that angles across the edge of the steep hill clearing and orchard. At the top of this three hundred foot path is a hand-dug three-tiered platform. This is Felo's mirador! The aguacatillo tree is in front of the platform. (The image below shows Felo's mirador. Felo is on the left with the orange shirt, Marino is on the right with the hat)-
Marino assists Bob Harris with his camera.-
Marino, Bob and Deb Harris-
Courtney and Carolyn Mason-
Again this morning, the Quetzal show was amazing!!-
A female Quetzal lands with two males-
Interesting territorial interaction between two adult and dominant males. One chases the other from the right side of the aguacatillo tree-
A lovely female lands on her favorite branch-
Beautiful male!-
Quetzals are my absolute favorite bird, but my heart belongs to the female!-
Quetzals "sally" in flight just like Woodpeckers, Goldfinches and other birds. I caught this male in flight just as he tucked his wings in.-
Then he opens his wings again and starts his next "flap and glide" sequence.-
Than he lands on a branch-
A little shimmer to his plumage when the sun finally comes out!-
A female launches herself into flight from her perch-
Lovely female Quetzal-
This is this years fledgling, you can still see the beige markings in her tertials and secondaries-
The time was almost up for this morning so I decided to walk down from the mirador to the Savegre road below. I wanted to get a good look of the mirador from below on the road-
While I was walking down the path, I spotted a few more birds like this female Golden-browed Chlorophonia-
Large-footed Finch-
And another Townsend's Warbler-
The mirador is about two hundred feet higher than the road-
In the large trees to the left of the aguacatillo tree , there were other Quetzals-
The utility vehicles are loaded and we are all heading back to Savegre. Along the way we spotted many birds. Marino stopped and pointed into the small cow pasture, he spotted a Coati, it was foraging for worms and grubs.-
Back in time for breakfast, we spotted a few new interesting creatures:
Brown Spiny Lizard (above) and a Green Spiny Lizard (below)
And this spectacular unidentified Moth-
The bus left over an hour ago for their trip to Cartago and Turrialba, so all of us that remained went in for breakfast. Class would begin in one hour!
The Trogons are advancing perfectly with the painting schedule right on track! So far we painted the head, mantle, scapulars, interscapular feathers, and the chest incorporating the realistic light and shadow interplay in the Trogons green plumage. This was also accomplished on the blood-red plumage of the chest, abdomen and lower tail coverts again reproducing the natural light and shadow interaction giving everyone's bird a realistic and natural look. Today we will start painting the ventral side of the tail with the same light and shadow replication that we did on the body of the Trogon. Again opening up the color palette, we will highlight the use of my favorite colors: Yellow, Violet and Magenta. This will be an exciting day of painting!-
Just about the time we started class, the people on the tour would have already arrived at the Irazu Volcano-
San Jose airport (red arrow) Savegre Hotel (blue arrow), Cartago/Turrialba (orange arrow)-
The day started out cloudy and threatened rain. (Note- a few of these images with the sunny sky were taken a few months ago). I used them here to showcase the Volcano because of the poor light conditions on this trip-
Walking up to the observation platform at the edge of the crater-
Tito explains the natural history of the volcano-
Jim and Pam Krausman (behind) Donna Suhs and Tito (in front)-
Jan Parekh -
(From left to right front row): Karen Mehall, Jacquie Donahoe, Elaine Stamm, Pam Krausman, Jim Krausman, Jan Parekh, (Back row from left to right)-Dave Mehall, Jen Mueller, Norm Suhs, Donna Suhs, Jim Koschman and Judy Hudson.-
Jim Krausman and Jim Koschman-
Off to the Basilica of our Lady of the Angels, Cartago-
Breathtaking architecture-
From the Basilica, it was time for lunch-
Lancaster Gardens-
I knew that Pam loves Orchids.....she is definitely at the right place!-
Norman Suhs-
Dave Mehall-
Karen Mehall-
Jim Krausman,
Tito having a great time!-
Donna and Norman Suhs-
Elaine Stamm-
Pam Krausman-
Judy Hudson-
Tito and Judy Hudson-
(Back at Savegre)- After lunch Marino and Rolando came over to me in the classroom. Rolando had something in is hands and handed it to me. It was another Newspaper. He opened the paper to the second page, and there was the article that was written yesterday.....it was now out in print! I passed it around to the class, I was proud of all of them!
English translation- (from La nacion)-
Costa Rican Birds inspire U. S. carvers
In the trees of San Gerado de Dota, many multicolor birds can be seen. However, believe it or not, they are not real. We are talking about carvings made by 24 artists that came from Connecticut, United States, they are in Costa Rica to pay tribute to the birds of our country. The woodworks were carved in the state, but the artists wanted to paint them with the same colors as the real birds.
"Costa Rica gives many inspiration resources. The species found in San Gerado are the best models that a carver could wish", said Keith Mueller artists director, who has visited this country many times to admire our biodiversity, and this time he will stay working until Monday in the hotel Savegre.
The Trogon, bird with live colors, lives in the mountains of Dota and Monteverde. it's one of the birds that has given them more inspiration.
"Coming to Costa Rica to finish our works and watch many bird species that for a long time we saw only in pictures or videos is a dream come true for us. Our works try to represent not only the physical aspect of the bird but their spirit, the freedom sensation,commented Laurie Snelling one of the artist students.
The group of carvers has the help of Marino Chacon who accompanies them in the birding.
La nacion
It is another great honor for our class to be so appreciated, admired and honored in Costa Rica!
Thank You Laurie for being our representative yesterday!! We all appreciate that!
Class ended at dinner time with full day of painting accomplishments. Just about the time class ended, the bus arrived from the day tours to Cartago and Turrialba. The newspaper article was passed around to those who hadn't seen it yet, and everyone smiled when they saw it!
There was a little bit of a melancholy feeling in the dining room tonight. Since this was the last day of the day tours, Beny, Vanessa, Ricardo and Tito would be leaving tonight after dinner to drive back to San Jose. Although we would see Beny and Ricardo again on Saturday, we already started to miss them!
I think everyone that went on the trips got very close to Tito; good friendships were developed! Tito was very personable just as all Costa Rican are, he was the real deal! Robert Rankins and Tito really hit it off, so Robert bought a hand carved sculpture from Maravillas yesterday while we were in Jaco. At the end of the dinner, Robert said a few words about Tito and then presented him with the surprise gift........
.............Tito must have admired this woodcarving n the store, because he was so genuinely happy to see it when he opened the package..........
.............what a great moment, really moving!
One last photo before they leave........ Beny and his staff , Vanessa, Beny, Tito and Ricardo.
Day 8, Thursday, Oct 06, 2016, Continues.............
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