Freedom

The skies over Costa Rica are full of raptors these days. In addition to the many locals, there are thousands of migrants headed north. The other day near La Selva, we hit the motherlode as the sun sank lower and the shadows lengthened over the marsh we were visiting. From horizon to horizon, hundreds and hundreds of Turkey Vultures and Swainson's Hawks circled in towering thermals, like bubbles in boiling pots. There were places in the sky where there were quite literally rivers of birds streaming over, so high they were just scraps of darkness against the high cirrus clouds. The sheer number of birds was goose bump inducing.

A hunting Swallow-tailed Kite, newly arrived from South America, surfs the airwaves.