Posts in Category: wildlife
Red-eyed Leaf Frog
Red-eyed Leaf Frog: Frog Heaven, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, March 2025 — The Red-eyed Leaf Frog is probably the poster child for Costa Rican conservation…and maybe for Central American Conservation, or even Rainforest Conservation. It is just such a stunning subject for photography, with its unlikely combination of bright colors and quirky looks, and is the one non-bird species that almost every photographer who visits Costa Rica wants to photograph. Now I am going to tell you that almost every photo you have ever seen of a Red-eyed Leaf frog was posed. It is possible to find them, around the decorative pool at Selva Verde Lodge, or just out in the Rainforest, where they can be photographed “in situ” so to speak, but those are not the photographs you have likely seen. The folks at Frog Heaven brought this frog in to their little photo shelter in the rainforest and placed it on the woody vine for us to photograph. No flash was used, nor is flash allowed. These were taken by the gentle light of my made-for-purpose hand-held led. The folks at Frog Heaven are very careful in handling the wild fogs…it is their business…and they truly care about the wellbeing of the frogs on their property. No harm was done, but the frog’s night was disrupted. I do have mixed feelings about that…but these are without doubt my best photos to date of Red-eyed Leaf Frogs. I offer them as an incentive to protect the rainforest, as the people at Frog Heaven do every day…without photographers eager to photograph frogs and the skill of the Frog Heaven workers, and the vision of the owners, this property would be what it was a generation ago…just another banana plantation on the river. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. My macro modifications to Aperture Preferred Program. f14 and f20 for increased depth of field. -1 to -2 EV to balance highlights and shadow under the artificial light. Processed (including noise reduction) in Photomator.
Pine Warbler
Pine Warbler: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, April 2025 — We have at least one bright male Pine Warbler and several duller female or young male Pines hanging around the yard the past week or so. We saw some, surprisingly, in February, briefly, but these are becoming regular. This one was out under the pine where I have a feeding station. They really like suet and mealworms. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Northern Ghost Bat
Northern Ghost Bat: Frog Heaven, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, March 2025 — When we visited in March the folks at Frog Heaven were hosting a Northern Ghost Bat. Ghost Bats are solitary, rare, and seldom seen, but this one had found a roost right next to Frog Heaven’s little photo pavilion in the rainforest. They are rare enough so that our guide, born in Costa Rica, a life-long resident, and a birding and photography guide for going on 40 years, in the rainforest or cloud forest almost every day of his adult life, had never seen one before. Such a treat! Such a gift. Notice how the bat is hanging. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent (cropped and upscaled for something like 2000mm equivalent…the bat was at least 30 feet above us and only about 3 inches long). Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Carolina in the brush
Carolina Wren: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, April 2025 — I spent another hour in my blind by the feeding station under the pine, and this time got to see our Carolina Wren pair in their natural environment. I see them on our deck at least once a day, or sitting on the clothes line, but is somehow better to see them in the leaf litter doing what they do most of the time, even if the brush gets in the way. 🙂 Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Purple Finch
Purple Finch: Kennebunk, Maine, USA, April 2025 — The Purple Finches are back. We must have a dozen of them, both male and female, visiting the feeders several times a day. I am going through twice as much sunflower seed as normal. And there is nothing quite like an adult male Purple Finch in the spring. So bright. So rich. Even, or maybe, especially in the rain. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator and PhotoQuality.
White Honduran Tent-making Bats
White Honduran Tent-making Bats: Frog Heaven, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, March 2025 — There are two species of Tent-making Bats in Costa Rica. White and Brown. The Whites are called “Honduran” from where they were first studied, but they are common throughout Central America. Tent-making bats, as the name might suggest, eat away at the spines of broad leaved plants so that the leaves collapse into a tent, where the bats roost while not hunting. It was just beginning to get dark when our guide at Frog Heaven took us to see them, so they would have been out and away any time. Generally you have to get way down low to see up under the leaf, but these had found a leaf well above our heads…the easiest Tent-making Bats I have ever photographed. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 127mm equivalent. Aperture Preferred at f5.6. By the light of the guide’s flashlight. Processed in Photomator and PictureQuality.
Little boy (?)
Young Green Iguana: Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, March 2025 — I mentioned in yesterday’s a post that Green Iguanas are only really green when young, and that, after seeing the huge old orange male at the dinning hall at Selva Verde, I found a young one on the way back to our cabin. I am thinking that this is a male, due to the dewlap, but it is notoriously difficult to sex a young iguana without a really close examination (and even then). The green, however, is unmistakable. 🙂 The close up shows a bit of the real beauty of the animal. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm (as I moved closer). Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Big boy
Green Iguana: Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, March 2025 — Coming back from a excellent morning of photography at Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Park, we got to the dinning hall at the Selva Verde just in time for a visit from this huge Iguana. It had to be 7 feet long from snout to tail tip, and the body itself was at a least 3 feet long, and the size of a small bull dog. (It had that look too.) They are called Green Iguanas because the young are bright green. (I encountered one on the way back from lunch. Photos tomorrow maybe.) This big adult is more grayish orange and was after the remnants of the fruit put out that morning for the birds. I have seen iguanas like this high in the trees, but never this close. Impressive! Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 226 and 585mm equivalents. (It is times like this when I really appreciate having a zoom.) Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.
Toucan antics
Yellow-throated Toucan: Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Park, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, March 2025 — Another visit from the Yellow-throated Toucan at Dave and Dave’s. They certainly put on a show! Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600 and 489mm equivalents. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator. Assembled in FrameMagic.
Male and female White-necked Jacobin Hummingbird
Male and female White-necked Jacobin Hummingbird: Dave and Dave’s Costa Rican Nature Park, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, March 2025 — On the day we visited, the White-necked Jacobins were dominating the hummingbird vista at Dave and Dave’s. They are the most aggressive of the local hummers, and some days, they are all you see. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds-in-flight and action modifications. (1/2000th). Processed in Photomator. Assembled in FrameMagic.