Posts in Category: San Gerardo de Dota
Costa Rica! Back for more Quetzal
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — Though I am back from India now and have a lot of photos from India to share, I never finished working through my Costa Rica photos, so I will be posting random second helpings of the Pic for today to finish up that adventure. And what better bird to return to than the Resplendent Quetzal? These again from our second early morning session with the Quetzals. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 and 2000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Resplendent!
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — As I mentioned, you arrive just at first light to wherever you hope to see the Quetzals in the valley around San Geraldo de Dota, and the first birds come when it is still very dark for photos. The longer you wait, the brighter it gets, but the sun never seldom reaches the shelves where the Quetzals are before they finish feeding for the morning. These are two “early” shots, when I was still shooting using multi-frame noise reduction to get any kind of shot at all. Still the colors of the Quetzal can no be surprised! (or surpassed). Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/400th.
Female Resplendent Quetzal
Female Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota: Costa Rica, December 2022 — In any other company, the female Resplendent Quetzal would be a brilliant bird…as it is, the male is over-the-top brilliant and puts her a bit in the shade. These shots are from the “more secret” of the Quetzal locations in the valley in December…a bit harder to get to, and a bit more exclusive (and you have to pay)…but generally an excellent Quetzal show. When we visited both the male and female were showing well. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. You have to get to the spot at first light, so it is never bright enough. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/200th and 1/400th.
Return to the Emerald Toucanet
Emerald Toucanet: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — We return to images from my trip to Costa Rica last December and to the Emerald Toucanet…one of the highlights of our lunch stop at Miriam’s Quetzals up the mountain from our lodge. With birds like this off the back deck…who needs food! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 320 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Emerald Toucanet
Emerald Toucanet: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — We all jumped up from our delicious lunches at Miriams when this Emerald Toucanet visited the feeders out back. The feeder pole is about 12 feet from the deck rail, so this was a real treat. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Acorn Woodpecker
Acorn Woodpecker: Miriam’s Quetzals, San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica — The Acorn Woodpecker is a common woodpecker of the western regions of North America, all through Central America, and down into the north west corner of South America. It is found a higher and higher elevations the further south you go. As you might guess from the name it is closely associated with mixed oak forest and is famous for two things…stashing acorns in telephone poles and tree trunks, and drilling holes in house siding and shingles. They are always active around Miriam’s feeders. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/1000th.
A different angle on a Quetzal
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — It is remotely possible that you could get tired of seeing photos of the Resplendent Quetzal before I am finished posting them. 🙂 We were about to get back on the bus when this gentleman flew into a tree right over our heads. There were very few windows with a line of sight and no obscuring foliage, but I managed this shot and I pretty happy with it. This is certainly as close as I have been to the Resplendent Quetzal! Sony Rx10iv at 567mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Quetzal in the sun!
Resplendent Quetzal: San Geraldo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — In at least 8 trips to San Geraldo de Dota in search of Quetzals, I have only see one in the sun twice…and neither time was an ideal shot. The first time the bird was partially obscured by foliage, and this time he simply would not look down at me. So it goes. It just gives me a reason to return. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 561mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixomator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Resplendent Quetzal
Resplendent Quetzal: San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — To see the Resplendent Quetzal you get up well before dawn and drive to whatever wild avocado tree is in fruit at the moment. Everyone in the valley knows which trees are in fruit today, and where the Quetzals are, since, in large part, it is these birds that bring the tourists who keep the valley prosperous. I should say that there are wild avocado trees all up and down the valley. Most are deep in the forest, but a few are accessible from the road for with a short, manageable, climb up or down from the road. And each tree has its own unique fruiting season…they do not fruit all at once…generally just one or two trees at a time. December is good month to find and photograph Quetzals in San Gerardo de Dota because a few of the fruiting trees are close to the road. Once you reach the tree, you climb out of the bus, do your little climb as needed, and stand with 30 to 50 others who have braved the dawn for the Quetzal, and wait. Among the group are several guides who live in the valley and are there, wherever the Quetzals are, every dawn. These folks are the most likely to see the birds first as they know the habits and behaviors of the moment. When the first Quetzal comes in, often before full light…often well before there is really enough light for photography…the whole group shifts like a folk of starlings in flight to reform where there is a view. With patience, as the sun rises higher and crests the high ridges to the east of the valley, and the light improves, the Quetzals will come to a tree out in the open for fruit, generally taking one in flight. They then perch, hopefully on a branch where they can be seen, and sit a while before swallowing the fruit whole, and then while they begin digestion. They will sit there for anything from a few moments to a quarter of an hour, before returning to the tree to feed. And all the time the light is improving and the crowd of tourists is thinning, as the non-photographers have seen their Quetzal and breakfast and coffee is waiting at the lodge. Only a few hardy souls wait for the sun to get above the tall mountains and light to flood the valley. Occasionally the Quetzals will still there there, and that is when the good photos happen. 🙂 Eventually the Quetzals have their fill and fly off deeper into the forest to find another tree, but generally even the most dedicated photographers are back at the lodge for breakfast by then. Sony Rx10iv at 543mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro and Apple Photos. ISO 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus .7EV.
Large-footed Finch
Large-footed Finch: Miriam’s Quetzels Restaurant, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, December 2022 — Not the most exciting bird in the world, but another mountain speciality…hugging the area from cloud forest up to tree-line. It’s behavior is very like our North American Robin…scratching for invertebrates in the grass and leaf litter. And, yes, it does have large feet! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 4000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.