Oropendolas
As I have said before, Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Park is one of the best places for bird photography in the Sarapiqui region. Perched right on the edge of a high bluff above the river, at tree-top level for the trees growing below, they get a unique mix of canopy and understory feeding birds. Montezuma’s Oropendolas (on the right in the panel) are easy to see in the Caribbean lowland rainforests of Costa Rica. They come to the feeders at Selva Verda Lodge every day, but the Chestnut-headed Oropendola (on the left) is much more difficult. Here, at Dave and Dave’s we had them both at the same time, only a few feet apart. I could not quite fit them in the same frame, but it was close. The Oropendolas are giant orioles, and make giant oriole style nests that hang 2-3 feet below supporting branches. The Oro in their name comes from the yellow tail feathers (gold), and the pendola comes from the hanging nests. Both the Chestnut-headed and Montezuma’s are striking birds. Their burbling liquid calls are one of the most recognizable sounds of the rainforests. Sony RX10iv at 560mm equivalent. Anti-motion Blur Mode. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic.
Stripe-throated Hermit
The Stripe-throated Hermit, like most Hermit Hummingbirds, rarely perches where anyone can see it…or get a photo of it. Even field-guide photos are mostly flight shots. And, unlike the other Hermits, it is small…one of the smaller hummingbirds of Central America, so it is not easy to catch in flight. This is my best shot from 16 days in Costa Rica, taken at Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Pavilion in La Virgen. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. My custom flight mode modifications of Program. 1/1000th. Processed in Polarr.
Three-fingered Sloth
Every visit with Cope, a self-taught artist and naturalist in the small village of Flores near Gaupiles, in the Limon provence of Costa Rica is a rare treat. He knows where the owls and Potoos and bats of the area are roosting, and the little sanctuary he has created around his home is always teaming with an unbelievable number of interesting creatures, from Helmited Iguanas and Wood-rails to many varieties of hummingbirds. This December he had a family of Three-fingered Sloths living in his heavily vegetated yard…a male and a female with a young baby. On the first of my two visits we got to see the female and baby, close enough so we could have touched them, moving along a branch near Cope’s little stream. This sloth has been called “Three-toed” in most references and by most people for years, but there is a movement now to change the common name to “Three-fingered”. Both Central Amercain tree sloths (not, by the way, closely related at all) have three toes on each hind foot. The difference is in the hands and number of fingers. As you can see in the photos above, this sloth has three fingers on each forefoot. On the second visit we were just getting out of bus after a successful search for Specticaled and Crested Owls (and tent-making bats) when Cope called us urgently to come see. The male sloth was moving in the vegetation above a narrow trail, crossing from one side to the other. It is very dark under the low heavy canopy Cope as created. I had learned my lesson on my first visit and brought a flashlight this time, so I was able to illuminate and photograph the sloth without disturbing it. We watched it for 15 minutes or more, as it made its slow way across. Like an accrobat in slow motion on the rings and ropes, it used the vines and branches to preform a series of moves somewhere between yoga poses and styalized dance just a few feet above our heads. Totally fascinating. We could only stand and watch in wonder. Sony RX10iv at various focal lengths…the close up is at 400mm equivalent from about 6 feet. LED flashlight for illumination. Anti-motion Blur mode. Processed in Polarr.
Yellow-throated Toucan
If you sit on the dinning hall deck above the feeders at Selva Verde Lodge on the Sarapiqui River in Costa Rica long enough on any given day, the Toucans will come. Yellow-throated Toucans. They were, until recently the Chestnut-mandibled, or maybe Black-mandibled Toucans, but the bird name gods have been at work, and somehow decided that Yellow-throated was better…despite the fact that the other big toucan in Central America, the Keel-billed Toucan, also has a bright yellow throat…as do several other South American species. Yellow-throated actually lumps both Chestnut and Black-mandibled into a single species with two races, divided north and south. These big, bright birds are emblematic of the tropics. Seeing them in flight it is hard to imagine how they manage to carry that bill out in front…but I am told that it is very thin and light. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Anti-motion Blur mode (due the very dim light at the feeders). Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic.
Ice in the stream…
I went out on a cold January morning to see what I could see before the promised snow the following day. It was a perfect day for ice sculptures to form in the spray and splash of rapidly moving water. I found this in the outflow of one of the little ponds along Rt. 9. I am always amazed at the shapes water can get into. Sony RX10iv at 140mm equivalent. In-camera HDR. Processed in Polarr.
Red-eyed Leaf Frog
At Selva Verde Lodge on the Sarapiqui River in the Caribbean lowland rainforest of Costa Rica, we often met after dinner to go over the bird checklist for the day. The days were full, and photo processing time and sleep time were at a premium, but I was always tempted to do a little flashlight frogging on the way back to bunk. I bought a “daylight balanced” flashlight for this visit to Costa Rica, and it worked well both to spot and to photograph the frogs. I had to turn it down to low power for the photos…at frogging distance (4-5 feet with my 600mm reach on the Sony) it was too bright at high power. Anti-motion Blur mode on the Sony takes three images and combines them, while processing out some motion artifacts, so the results are pretty good. And, of course, photos of the Red-eyed Leaf Frog (sometimes called Red-eyed Tree Frog) are emblematic of Costa Rican wildlife. These were all taken within 50 feet of the dinning hall at Selva Verde, around the little ornamental pools they maintain. I will be returning to Costa Rica and Selva Verde next December with another group of Point and Shoot Nature Photographers. You should join me.
Green and Black Poison Dart Frog
We spent a few hours at Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Pavilion while in the Sarapiqui region of Costa Rica. As I have said before, Dave and Dave, father and son, have created a rich habitat for wildlife and birds and an exceptional space for photography on the banks of the Sarapiqui River. They have feeders on the high bluff, at canopy level, that attract a wide variety of local species: from Toucans, through Tanagers and Honeycreepers, to hummingbirds. They also have a trail down the steep bluff to the river. It involves a lot of stairs up and down, and then, depending on water levels, a hike along the dry river bed. Sometimes the river is right at the foot of the stair, but the day we visited it was several hundred yards across river gravel and what must be an island at high water. Among the highlights of the hike down to the river are the Green and Black Poison Dart Frogs. They also have the much more common Blue-jean’s or Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, but Dave and Dave’s is an excellent place to find the Green and Black in high numbers. We found these in a brush pile near the foot of the stairs. According to Young Dave, the patterns are like fingerprints or Zebra stripes…no two are exactly alike. You can see that I have 5 different individuals here in the panel. Sony RX10iv at 600mm. Anti-motion Blur mode to handle the low light and long zoom. Processed in Polarr and assembled in FrameMagic.
Olive-backed Euphonia and Clay-colored Thrush
As we cruised down the Sarapiqui River in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica, we found the national bird of Costa Rica, the Clay-colored Thursh, keeping company with a pair of Olive-backed Euphonias as they searched for seeds or bugs among the mosses growing on the otherwise exposed bank of the river. The Clay-colored Thrush earned its “national bird” distinction because of its pervasive and melodious song, not certainly because of its physical beauty…the clay of the river bank shows just how aptly the Thrush is named. The Euphopnias, on the other hand, are all named for their clear pleasing songs…though they do tend to be more colorful. “Olive-backed” does not really do justice to the beauty of this bird, especially in contrast to the Thrush. This is a long distance shot, taken at 600mm equivalent on the Sony RX10iv and cropped heavily as I processed it in Polarr. Program mode with my custom Birds and Wildlife modifications.
So Emerald!
It was nice of the Emerald Toucanet to pose so perfectly in front of the bright orange flowers after the afternoon rains, when the colors are deep and true. We were visiting Batsu Gardens on the mountain-side above Savegre Mountain Hotel in San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica…a must stop for anyone interested in photographing (or seeing) the birds of the Talamanca Mountains. The Emerald Toucanet is not the most sought after bird in this high valley…that honor goes to the Replendent Quetzal…but the fact that the Emerald Toucanet is an “also ran” here says something pretty special about the place. Sony RX10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr.
Honduran White Tent-making Bats
One of the reasons I like to visit Cope, the artist and naturalist in the tiny village of Flores, near Gaupiles, Costa Rica, is that he always knows where there are Honduran White Tent-making Bats roosting, and he can generally find them. Tent making bats make a tent to roost in by chewing along the spine of large leaf until it collapses over them. They leave just enough spine intact to create a safe space. The rainforest where they regularly roost is full of such tented leaves and it is only a matter of checking enough of them to find one with bats inside. These shots were taken in the light of Cope’s flashlight, using Anti-motion Blur mode on the Sony RX10iv at about 80mm equivalent. It is a slow painstaking process to get in the right position for photography without touching the leaf and sending the bats flying, but Cope always seems to guide the whole group through it without disturbing the bats over-much. I always ask Cope to find us bats, and he has not failed in three visits, but his real speciality is owls and we were in the forest in search of Crested Owl and Spectacled Owl, both of which he also found for us. Bats are just a personal bonus for me. 🙂