Birdwatching, natural history, photography and diving expedition to Cocos Island. Cocos Island For All.
The remote Cocos Island, a dream for naturalists, birders and divers, now accesible with us. We have already run 6 successful birding and wildlife expeditions to the remote Island, so we are ready to give you the best experience.
THE TRIP: The next trip starts March 19, 2024 in the afternoon and ends March 29, 2023 in the morning when we dock back in Puntarenas. The trip will involve 36 hours to arrive at the Island and anchor in Chatham Bay, We will spend 7 days in the island (March 21-27) and head back to mainland on day 9 of the trip (March 27 in the afternoon) from Cocos.
LOGISTICS:
– Departing spot is a private dock in Puntarenas. We will provide a free shuttle from San José downtown and back.
– We will have 7 days at the island (March 21-27) for birding along the Shores and Mirador Aguacate in Chatham Bay, also the Wafer Bay and the Yglesias hill (summit of the extinct volcano) we will take short walks and spend a lot of time looking out and views to the birds and landscape. We will be able to get natural showers in small fresh water ponds at the end of some of the walks by the shore.
– Our birding-nature activities will be concentrated in Chatham Bay and Wafer Bay at the shore and trails, also from our boat and some evenings we will take visits to the cliffs and rocky islands for boobies and noddies on a dinghy. All the endemics are abundant in the trail in Chatham, in our latest trip we saw most of them on a daily basis.
– Landing from the dinghy in the Chatham and Wafer Bays is wet, we might get water to the level of your knees or chest depending on tide (some landings can be dry but be prepared for wet landings), bring plenty of extra clothing and dry bags for your gear.
ITINERARY
Day 1: March 19 – BOARDING AND DEPARTURE TO COCOS: When all passengers have arrived on board (we will provide a free shuttle from San Jose if required), the vessel will take a 32-36 hour cruise out to Cocos Island. We will have an early dinner and familiarize ourselves with the rocking of the boat. Check list and recommendations, printed materials, all boat instructions and rules will be provided by your guide and crew.
Day 2: March 20 – A whole day of cruise in the vast Pacific: A travel day on the ship. Enjoy the Pacific and the sunshine at your leisure, great pelagic birding opportunities with your guide, take notes and read the program, check list and materials we will provide, we will be giving identification tips and we will have talks with our tour leader about the birds and other wildlife to expect. During the travel time if you have a diving license you might want to take one of the lessons and join the divers in activities (this will represent additional costs and we must pre arrange that day’s prior departure). Morning will be calm but your guide will be at the sun deck birding, after lunch after lunch we will spend time at the bow of the ship for more pelagic opportunities, Red-footed boobies and Brown Noddies will escort our vessel, also we will check for storm Petrels including Wedge-rumped, Markham’s, Leach’s and Black, also Galapagos, Punk-footed and Wedge-tailed shearwaters. We will probably also spot turtles and dolphins. We will take dinner and rest.
Day 3: March 21 – ARRIVAL TO COCOS: We will wake up at 1.30 to 2 am to check for potential sightings of the very special Swallow-tailed Gull fishing and chasing our boat lights (Seen in in every past expedition). We will rest and wake up by 6 am for breakfast and we will have our first view of Jurassic looking Island, probably with some rain, clouds and rainbows around. Brown, Masked and Red Footed Boobies, plus noddies and other sea birds will welcome our pumping hearts while we approach Chatham bay for breakfast and our first walk on the island. Our first official day on the island. We will be taken to the shore and take a morning of walking up to the Mirador Aguacate and Radar in search for our first endemic and warm welcoming Cocos Finches, the only Darwin Finch out of the Galapagos and one of our main targets, we will look for White Terns, Magnificent and Great Frigate Birds, also the endemic Cocos Cuckoo and Cocos Tyrannulet. We will go back on the vessel for lunch, in the afternoon we can walk the same trail again or spend the afternoon birding from our boat.
Day 4-9: March 22-27, BIRDING COCOS ISLAND LOCATIONS:
We will have a skiff for taking us to and from the ship, we will go birding the perimeter of Cocos Island for marine birds in the rocks. Our birding will be concentrated on many visits at the Chatham Bay and Wafer Bay shore and trails. Our main target is to register and photograph the 3 endemics to the island Cocos Cuckoo (Coccyzus ferrugineus), Cocos Flycatcher (Nesotriccus ridgwayi) and Cocos Finch (Pinaroloxias inornata), plus the other resident birds and endemic fauna.
Cocos Island receives an average of 25 feet of rainfall per year, resulting in a covering of lush green foliage. Waterfalls abound, of which there are up to 70 falls of varying sizes during the peak of the rainy season. The island also supports a verdant, high-altitude cloud forest. Rare for a small island, this is made possible by dramatic topography, abundant rainfall and surplus water stored in the porous reservoirs of the island itself. This extraordinary island ecosystem is unique to Cocos alone, of all the islands of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (Clipperton, the Revillagigedos, the Galapagos Islands, and Malpelo). We will have different visits to the island according to the weather conditions for getting as many of the birds as possible. This is a target species tour, mainly for the birds but also for the other endemic wildlife including lizards, trees and more. Some days we will take visits on the dinghy to the rocky small islands of Dos Amigos, the only place where the Masked and Nazca Boobies are found in the entire island. We will also visit a waterfall and many of the cliffs from the boat for birding. Some early mornings we will circle the island visiting cliffs and offshore rocks for sunrise and sunset birding.
At Chatham Bay there is the famous pirates stones beach where we will find the chiseled signs on the rocks of famous pirates and explorers of the past including Coustea.
On day 6 we will visit Yglesias hill, the summit of the island. The vessel will move to be anchored in Chatham or Wafer Bay during the trip, and based on the bay where we will arrange with the captain the locations to be visited (Shores, rocky islands, cliffs and the Chatham Bay and trail). On day 9 (March 27) in the evening we will depart back to Puntarenas. That night we will try again for the Swallow-tailed Gull.
Day 10 March 28, PELAGIC CRUISING BACK TO MAINLAND: A whole day cruising back, we will spend some time birding for pelagic opportunities from the vessel including more Petrels and Shearwaters. We will have a meeting with the crew and the gift shop will open to buy shirts and memories of the island.
Day 11, March 29: We will arrive by 6 am to Puntarenas, and after breakfast you will be allowed to leave the boat. You can continue to your extension trips and adventures. We will provide a free shuttle back to San Jose.
PRICING: For pricing and more details drop us an email to info@birdwatchingcentralamerica.com or a WhatsApp message to +506 83589938.
More details and information contact us by email info@birdwatchingcentralamerica.com:
This is a one of its kind trip that must be booked at least 4-6 months prior departure due to vessel logistics, approaching the departure dates won’t be possible to sign.
eBird Trip reports of the past 6 expeditions:
VI Expedition Island section (March 26-April 3) https://ebird.org/tripreport/50840
VI Expedition Pelagic (March 26 – April 4 2022) https://ebird.org/tripreport/59912
V Expedition (Nov 9-19 2021) https://ebird.org/tripreport/9034
IV Expedition (May 13-23 2021) https://ebird.org/tripreport/9387
III Expedition (Jan 5-15 2021) https://ebird.org/tripreport/9423
II Expedition (Aug 30 _ Sept 9 2020) https://ebird.org/tripreport/9450
I Expedition (July 11-21 2020) https://ebird.org/tripreport/9452
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