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COSTA RICA TOUR 4-1-16 TO 4-14-16
photos coming soon
Day 1:
All but one tour participant made it to our San Jose hotel in time for
our first group meeting and dinner where I laid out some of the details
of the trip to come. Our final tour participant arrived later that
night. So everyone was now ready for the trip to begin.
Day 2:
A local rooster was crowing from about 3:30 AM. We all met for breakfast
at 7:00 AM. Wilson, our driver for the trip, showed up with the Toyota
Coaster at around 8:00 AM. We loaded up the gear through the back window
and were on the road by about 8:20 AM. Traffic was light so we made
really good time. We stopped at a supermarket about 5 km away from our
first lodge where we could get some snacks. Having been to this
Caribbean Lodge before, I recommended that folks grab a Gatorade or two.
This would be the hottest and most humid part of the trip. We arrived at
our lodge before our rooms were ready, at about 10:30 AM. We unloaded
the luggage and stored it in their meeting room. I started taking
everyone on an orientation walk of the property. Our great luck started
right away. We had barely made it out of the lobby of the lodge when we
came across a very nice female emerald basilisk lizard. A few folks had
their cameras and began shooting. Others went back for their cameras,
including me. We eventually made it to the bottom of the walkway and
found a much smaller juvenile emerald basilisk. A few steps later, at
the tree stump at the beginning of the trail, was a very, very nice
adult male emerald basilisk. He was in great shape and even had some
light blue on his face. He posed for hours on this tree stump. After
everyone had a bunch of shots of him, we went on to the dining area so I
could show them where it was and where we would be shooting red-eyed
tree frogs later that night.
After the dining area, we made our way back to where we left the male
emerald basilisk when one of the staff came and found us saying they
found a snake by the dining room. Our luck was continuing. We raced
back. The snake turned out to be a beautiful, 5 foot long, green parrot
snake. It is an arboreal snake and is brilliant green above and
yellowish green below. It is non-venomous. The staff member was able to
move the snake a bit with a stick, and eventually we were able to get
some really nice shots of it. We were then told that our rooms were
ready. But since it was now lunchtime and we were right next to the
restaurant, we decided to have lunch before gathering our luggage and
heading to our rooms. After everyone got into their rooms, we met
casually to go over our plans for this lodge. It was probably about 1
PM. A bunch of us were standing outside the rooms talking and planning
and a beautiful keel-billed toucan landed right at eye level in a tree
totally in the open maybe 10 yards away. None of had a camera in hand.
He stayed for about 15 to 30 seconds then flew off with a second one.
Nobody got shots.
This was our Caribbean Lowlands lodge. Here we could expect to find and
photograph two varieties of poison dart frog, the diminutive strawberry
and the larger green and black dart frogs, red-eyed tree frogs,
leafcutter ants, giant green iguanas, emerald basilisk lizards and a
variety of birds. One thing that I noticed upon entering the grounds was
that the normal buzz of strawberry poison dart frogs was barely
noticeable. But cicadas were buzzing loudly. The poison dart frogs are
active during the daytime and you normally could hear the strawberry
poison dart frogs vocalizing all day from dawn until dusk. But by about
noon, we didn’t hear them anymore. It had been and continued to be very
dry in Costa Rica. That along with the hot sunshine must have sent the
frogs into the leaf litter to keep cool. What we needed was some rain.
We spent the afternoon photographing the lizards and the small handful
of birds that came to the lodge feeder. Some of our group was very lucky
and got really nice shots of the chestnut-mandibled toucan on a
beautiful branch near the feeder. A male and female red-legged
honeycreeper made an appearance, as did a Montezuma oropendula.
While wandering the property in search of subjects for our cameras, one
of the staff told us he knew where there were several poison dart frogs.
He had just watered his garden and several frogs became active. We
followed him and were rewarded with well over a dozen green and black
poison dart frogs of all sizes from pinkie fingernail size to nearly
2-inch long adults. We also had good photo opportunities with 4 collared
araçaris. As would be the recurring theme on this trip, we just kept
having great luck!
We went to dinner at 6 PM. At about 7PM we went and looked for red-eyed
tree frogs. There were a couple, but none were in good locations to
shoot. And basically, they seemed extremely lethargic, in fact going
back to sleep by 8PM. We blamed it on the dry conditions and headed back
to our rooms. What we needed was some rain. At about 9 PM, I started
hearing the sounds of large raindrops hitting the metal roof of my room.
It got louder and louder and luckily, it lasted all night.
Day 3:
Got up around 5:00 AM. While getting ready for the day I could hear a
light rain falling. That was perfect. It was exactly what I was hoping
for to help make the frogs more active. And it worked. You could hear
many strawberry poison frogs calling to each other. And that lasted the
entire day. Started out the day with excellent photography of our adult,
male emerald basilisk lizard again. We divided our time between the
bird feeding stations and looking for poison dart frogs to photograph.
We had glimpses of the pale-billed woodpecker. But he was not in a good
place for photography this time. Everyone was shooting on their own
during the day today in order to concentrate on the subjects each wanted
the most. Some wanted the frogs, while others waited for birds.
We were to all meet for dinner at 6:00 PM so we could shoot red-eyed
tree frogs immediately afterwards. I quickly scoped the pond on the way
to dinner and saw several active tree frogs. Our hunch about the earlier
rain was right. The tree frogs were definitely out and about, looking
for mates and protecting their turf, or branch, from other frogs looking
for a mate. We ate dinner and everyone went and got their camera gear.
We were able to capture many nice red-eyed tree frog photos tonight,
including a pair of mating frogs.
There is another species of green tree frog that we see by the pool each
night. They are about the size of the red-eyed tree frogs, but no red
eyes. We also photographed a giant frog known locally as a
“chicken-eating” frog due to its size. It was similar to our bullfrog.
Wrapped it up for the night at 9:00 PM. Everyone was pretty wiped out.
But everyone was thrilled with the pictures we were getting.
Day 4:
Went to breakfast at 7:00 AM. We headed to a nearby property that was
set up with several fruit feeding stations to attract birds. We arrived
to see great green macaws in the trees, but they weren’t within camera
range. Throughout the morning, the feeders were visited by many
different species including the golden-hooded tanager, Baltimore oriole,
blue-gray tanager, green honeycreepers and red-legged honeycreepers,
crimson-collared tanager, Passerini’s tanager and many others. We were
also treated to a variety of hummingbirds at the hummingbird feeders.
Wilson, our driver, found a large rhinoceros beetle. We fed it bananas
and papayas while we set up to photograph it. He was released unharmed
and well-nourished when we were finished.
The afternoon was spent back at the lodge property for a last chance at
photographing the poison dart frogs. Once we left the lowlands, we would
not see them again. One of our group spent time by the river where she
saw and photographed the striated tiger heron.
Everyone brought their camera gear to dinner so they could immediately
begin shooting the red-eyed tree frogs after eating. The frogs were very
animated again tonight as expected due to the light rain during the day.
Day 5:
After breakfast at 7:00 AM, we loaded all of our luggage into the bus,
but kept our camera gear handy. We headed away from our lowland lodge to
a research station run by the Organization for Tropical Studies. Here,
students from around the world come to study the rainforest and its
inhabitants. True to form, our good luck continued. On the roadway
leading to the OTS station, we came across a troop of howler monkeys up
in the trees. The group included at least on large male and one mother
with a youngster clinging to her back. The shooting was challenging, but
by spending time with the troop as it moved through the trees, we were
rewarded with a few very nice shots. Continuing on to the OTS, we met
with our guide. We started down one particular pathway. Our guide
pointed out a two-toed sloth sleeping high in a tree. It was interesting
to see, but not a great photo opportunity where this guy was. Further
down the trail we noticed some small lizards darting around in the leaf
litter. They were juvenile Central American ameivas. They nice thing
about them is that they have brilliant blue tails when they are young.
They were in constant motion looking for insects. Having grown up in
South Florida, I have a particular fondness for lizards, snakes, frogs
and other herps. So I hung back while the rest of the group moved on
with the guide. Eventually, one of the lizards took up a good position
for a photograph. I caught up with the group just in time to see what
they were looking at. Our guide had found a small colony of white tent
bats. Tent bats roost during the day beneath the large, broad leaves of
heliconia or banana plants. They actually bite the leaves along the stem
so that they droop down forming a tent. They then cling to the stem
protected by their leafy tent. I had not seen these on my past trip to
Costa Rica, so it was another bonanza species. I took extra time with
them as to not disturb their slumber.
We then made our way back up the trail we had just come down in order to
cross the river and start on another trail. At the far end of the
swinging bridge, there was a tamandua sleeping in the crook of a large
tree. Unfortunately, his face was hidden from view. But in another tree
a bit closer to the bridge we found a rufous motmot, a beautiful bird
with a long colorful tail. I snapped a couple of quick shots. A few from
our group stayed there longer and the motmot actually came out to a
better perch. They got excellent shots.
Another rainforest creature that had escaped my camera in the past was
the three-toed sloth. That was about to change. As we got to the other
side of the river and started on the trail, we came to a tree where a
three-toed sloth was sleeping. He was in a great spot and there was
nothing in front of him. We all set up our cameras on him and waited for
him to look our way. After a few minutes, he obliged us. There was also
a chestnut-mandibled toucan in another tree that was photographed by
some of our group. And others followed a collared peccary with her baby.
The morning went by quickly and we headed to the dining room for lunch
before heading to our next lodge in the foothills. The change in
elevation would cause a change in the wildlife we would see. No more
poison dart frogs. But other interesting subjects awaited us.
We arrived at our foothills lodge at about 4:00 PM. We got everyone into
their rooms. I scrambled to unpack all the gear we would need to
photograph bats in the forest. I hauled all of the gear up the forest
trail. I got everything set up just in time to race down the trail for
dinner at 6:00PM. Immediately after dinner, everyone got the recommended
gear and followed me back up the trail to where our setup was waiting.
Everyone got positioned. We fired a few test shots. And then we waited.
Our flashes fired only a handful of times that first night. The bat
activity was slow. Possibly due to the dry conditions. But Wilson came
through again when he found a red-legged tarantula in front of its
burrow. Those with macro gear had a field day. Besides the tarantulas,
there were many other spiders and whip scorpions to photograph. Giant
click beetles with two glowing “headlights” and a bright glowing abdomen
were attracted to the flashing green lights on the backs of our strobes.
I think he believed they were females or rival males. We wrapped up
around 9 PM. We actually got one or two decent bat images. We would try
again tomorrow night.
Day 6:
Woke up to the sound of a keel-billed toucan somewhere in the trees. Was
not able to spot him. The feeders around the lodge were only being
visited occasionally by local birds. We were given permission to go onto
the neighboring property where the Montezuma oropendulas were nesting in
a cecropia tree. They nest in colonies, each pair building a hanging
basket nest. I needed to go into town to pick up some supplies or the
bat shoot, so everyone had the morning to shoot around the lodge. I got
back in time for lunch. After lunch, I set up the hummingbird
multi-flash setup to capture hummingbirds in flight. The group rotated
through, 2 at a time, so everyone got several opportunities to shoot.
Over the course of the afternoon, several different hummingbirds visited
our feeder and flower including, white-necked Jacobin, green hermit
(male and female), violet sabre-wing, rufous-tailed hummingbird, and
green-breasted mango hummingbird. Another hummingbird that we saw here
but did not visit our particular flower was the tiny snow cap
hummingbird. The green thorntail was also a visitor to the flowers
around the lodge. We shot the hummingbirds until about 5PM, when I
needed to take all of the gear back up the mountain to prepare for our
bat shoot again. While it didn’t really rain, there was a lot more
moisture in the air today. There were big clouds rolling in over the
neighboring mountains. I got all the bat gear set up just in time for
dinner.
After dinner, we all eagerly headed up to our bat location. Everyone got
set up quickly as now they all knew the drill. It was definitely damper
tonight, and the bats seemed to really come to life. It wasn’t long
before the bats began tripping the strobes. Of course not all flashes
are great shots. But every once in a while, BINGO! The bats would fly
very close to us. You could easily here their fluttering wings and
sometimes feel the breeze as they flew by. The bats had definitely come
to life tonight and we got many exposed frames. In the meantime, the
other creatures of the night were out and about. We now had become adept
at locating tarantulas and had about half a dozen burrows located. So
our macro shooters had a great time while waiting for the bats. We
called it quits about 10 PM. That made for a long day. But everyone was
a good kind of tired.
Day 7:
This morning, I had something else planned for the group. Since the bird
activity at the lodge itself was a bit slow, I decided to take the group
to a river where I had been successful with sunbitterns in the past. So
after breakfast, we gathered into the bus and drove for about 30 minutes
to a place Wilson and I knew about along a nearby river. We had both
seen sunbitterns here in the past. The sunbittern is a medium-sized bird
that spends its day walking on the rocks at the edge of the river
catching insects, fish and tadpoles to eat. They aren’t all that
impressive at first sight…until you see them fly. When they fly, their
unimpressive plumage ignites into two giant eye spots on top of their
wings. The shot that you want of a sunbittern is either when he is
flying or when he is displaying to ward off a predator.
We walked the dirt road that paralleled the river looking for
sunbitterns. There are only a couple of really good locations to
photograph them in flight. You need an area where the rocks are far
apart so they are forced to fly between them. You also need to be above
the birds shooting down on them because most of their flight is actually
soaring with their wings outstretched. If you are at eye level to them,
the beautiful patterns on their wings aren’t visible. And you also want
there to be sun hitting them. We walked down the road for about 20
minutes. Neither Wilson or I had ever seen the birds past this spot. So
we worked our way back upstream to where we had parked. Then we walked
downstream again. When we got about halfway down, Wilson came and got
us. He spotted a pair of sunbitterns that were walking down river. We
all scrambled upriver to see them. They were doing exactly what we
wanted them to do. It was a pair that were slowly working their way down
river about 20 yards apart from each other. They constantly called out
to each other. When I saw where they were headed, I gathered everyone
and said “we need to get ahead of them.” We all rushed down to the prime
shooting spot. It was an unobstructed view of the river, in the sun,
with no rocks for the birds to hop on. They would fly when they got here
for sure. We could hear the birds calling to each other and it was
obvious that they were still headed our way. Then the first sunbittern
came into view when it hopped up on a rock on the other side of the
river. To get to the next rock, he’d have to fly. So everyone focused on
him and waited. Then he flew right through the sunny spot and everyone
got shots of him in flight. His mate was not far behind him, so I told
everyone to be ready for her. A few minutes later, she showed up and did
the exact same thing. Everyone got not just one chance at a sunbittern
in flight, but two perfect opportunities. And the entire group got the
shot. Once again, luck was following us around.
We got back to the lodge a bit before lunch. I got the multi-flash gear
set up before lunch so that everyone could shoot immediately afterwards.
We spent the afternoon shooting the hummingbirds up until about 5PM so I
could bring all of the flash equipment up into the forest for our bat
shoot. After dinner, everyone hustled up the hill and got set up. It was
another very damp evening. As it got darker, the bats came out in good
numbers. We had many flashes fire throughout the evening. In the
meantime, several of us went looking for other creatures of the night,
such as tarantulas, whip scorpions, long-legged crickets and anything
else that we could use our macro gear with. There was no shortage of
subjects. A couple of us stayed until 11 PM. After breaking down all of
the flash gear and bringing it down to the cabin, I went back up and
just sat in the forest for a while listening to the bats. An armadillo
and a mouse passed by.
In looking at the bat image so far we are definitely capturing at least
two distinct species of bat. The orange nectar bat is usually the more
common of the two. But we are also getting about an equal number of
long-tongued bats.
Day 8:
This is our last day at our foothills lodge. And everyone wanted to go
back to the sunbitterns again. Today was going to be a repeat itinerary
as yesterday. After breakfast, we loaded into the bus to head for our
sunbittern spot. But today, we weren’t as fortunate. When we finally
found sunbitterns, they remained aloof and mostly hanging out in the
shade while hunting for food. That made everyone realize just how
fortunate they had been the day before. We returned before lunch and I
got the hummingbird gear set up. After lunch, we had longer rotations at
the hummingbird set ups hoping to capture confrontations as several
hummingbirds tried to feed simultaneously. Most everybody got some
really nice interaction shots. We stopped shooting at about 5PM so I
could get all the gear back up the hill for the bats. I brought an extra
strobe for tonight to try some different lighting. We also now had a
pretty good idea of where the bats where coming from and where they were
headed so I adjusted things to try to get more somewhat head on angles.
I told everyone during dinner that we would only be shooting bats until
about 9PM because I needed time to break down all the gear and pack it
away since we were leaving the lodge in the morning. At 9 PM, most of
the group called it a night. We had been getting a lot of bat action. So
I told the remaining two people that we would shoot for another 15
minutes or so. Three hours later, at midnight, we finally wrapped up
shooting. The activity was just too good to leave. I think the best bat
shots of the trip came from tonight.
Day 9:
Today we are leaving the foothills to head to the highlands on the final
leg of our Costa Rica adventure. We ate breakfast and had the van loaded
up by 8 AM. We headed off. We made a stop along the way for some folks
to purchase more batteries for their strobes and maybe to pick up some
more snacks. We spent several hours climbing upward on the winding
mountain road to nearly 10,000 feet before heading down into the valley
where our lodge was located. We ended up at around 7,500 feet. We got
there at lunchtime and decided to eat lunch before checking in since our
rooms were not ready yet. (We got there early). After lunch, we were
able to unload the bus and get all of our luggage into our rooms even
though they were not entirely made up yet. After that, we met and I took
everyone on the short trail through the woods to where a very active
quetzal nest has been for the past 12 years, only to find it unoccupied
this year. For whatever reason, the quetzals had not chosen this spot
this year. But there were other birds to photograph here including a
variety of hummingbirds, acorn woodpeckers, flame-colored tanagers,
black-cowled orioles and others. But our real goal was resplendent
quetzals. There is another area about 45 minutes away where the quetzals
are also nesting. We already had arrangements to visit there on our
third day in the valley. But as soon as we realized there were no
quetzals nesting near our lodge, Wilson, our driver, once again jumped
into action and began calling our alternate location and trying to get
us in earlier. This alternate spot has several active nests located on
various tracts of private property where the landowners work with the
local guides to keep them abreast of quetzal activity. But in order to
not overstress the nesting birds, they limit the number of people that
they take to the nests each day. And they were booked pretty solid until
our scheduled visit two days later. But with persistence, Wilson came
through and managed to get us another full day of shooting at our
alternate site. In the meantime, we would all shoot the other birds on
the property and wait the day and a half until we could visit the active
quetzal nests.
Day 10:
After breakfast, I walked with one of the guests through the woods again
to the nest that was active last year. We were soon joined by another
from our group. As we stood there talking, a redstart appeared and we
all got pictures of it. Then I heard the call of the male quetzal. At
first I thought that it might be someone using a bird call from their
phone. But there was no one else around except us. We pinpointed where
the call was coming from, but could not see the bird. As beautifully
colored as they are, they are often nearly invisible when they are in
the forest. All of a sudden, it flew from one tree to another. We
couldn’t see exactly where it landed. A few minutes later, it flew
again. It flew out of site. But it called one more time. We tried to
follow the call up the hill. But that was the last time we saw him. At
least they hadn’t given up totally on that area. Maybe they would still
nest there later in the season.
I took a walk about 1/3rd of a mile up the road to a spot
where quetzals were excavating a nest in an old dead tree last year. I
found the tree and it looked like they completed their excavations and
possibly used the nest last season. But there was no activity in it this
year. I was later told by one of the owners of the lodge that they
started nesting there this year but had abandoned it for some reason.
We continued shooting around the lodge property the rest of the day. We
had been hearing the story of one quetzal nest at our alternate site
that had two nearly grown chicks in it. Both parents were regularly
flying in with the mini avocados that they feed on along with the
occasional insect for the chicks. We knew that if the chicks fledged,
the parents would not be coming back to the nest. We got word at dinner
time that one of the chicks fledged but that the other one was still in
the nest. We just needed it to stay in the nest one more day …
Day 11:
After a quick breakfast, everyone was eager to load up and head for our
alternate quetzal site. When we got there, we found out that the one
chick was still in the nest. However, it appeared that only the female
was coming back to feed it while the male followed the other chick after
it fledged to take care of it. We photographed at this nest throughout
the morning. Only the female returned to feed the remaining chick. We
ordered box lunches from the nearby lodge so we could maximize our time
with the quetzals. Our local guide told me about another nest where the
female had disappeared and only the male quetzal was coming in to feed
the chicks. The only issue with this nest is that the male had lost its
two long tail coverts during a fight earlier in the season and they
hadn’t fully grown back yet. He showed me a picture that was shot the
day before. It was a beautiful bird and the nest was wide open. Even
though his tail wasn’t at its maximum length, it was still long and
beautiful and I decided that we needed to go to that nest. We all made
our way back to the 4WD vehicles that brought us to this nest and were
taken back up the road to where our bus was parked. We climbed in,
stopped briefly up the road to pick up our box lunches, and then headed
immediately to the second nest.
This shooting situation was great. The nest was in a dead tree that was
wide open. Nothing was near it on any side. We would easily be able to
see the quetzal as it made its way in as they typically will perch a bit
away from the nest to assess for danger before bringing food to the
nest. We didn’t have to wait long before we saw the male in a tree
nearby with a mini avocado in its mouth. It sat there long enough to get
some nice perching shots before flying to the nest, where it clung to
the outside for a handful of seconds before finally going inside. After
feeding the chicks, it would pop its head out for a few seconds and then
fly out of the nest. Now that we knew its pattern, we could all attempt
to get that very desirable quetzal flight shot. He came back a couple of
more times while we were there bringing back avocados each time. Nearly
everyone got nice flight shots either as he flew toward or away from the
nest. Thanks to Wilson, we had a very good day photographing both the
female and the male quetzals coming to their nests to feed young.
Day 12:
This morning we had a major decision to make. It would be our last
chance with quetzals and from there we would be heading back to San
Jose. There was a third nest that the locals knew about where the chicks
had hatched out only about 3 days earlier. Both the male and female
parents were reportedly bringing food back to the chicks. And this male
had both of his long tail coverts intact. But this nest was not in the
open and there were only a few places where they could perch that would
work for pictures. So the decision to be made was to either return to
the male we had yesterday at the open nest site, or try the new nest in
hopes of photographing the male with the long feathers. We also had the
option to shoot at the new nest until about 8:30 and then moving to the
nest from yesterday. But after 8:30, it would be too late to move.
We decided to shoot at the new nest and hope for the male to show and
then reassess at 8:30. In the time that we were at the new nest, the
female came in once or twice, but not the male. At 8:30, the majority of
the group decided they would like to risk it and stay there for a shot
at the new male quetzal. We stayed until lunchtime. The female came in a
couple of more times. Once she had an avocado and once she came in with
a large green katydid. But the male never came near the nest. He was
seen in the trees nearby, but simply did not come within camera range.
At noon, we had to call it a day and head to the lodge for lunch. They
have a few hummingbird feeders set up near the dining room. They were
very busy with fiery-throated hummingbirds and one or two other
varieties.
After lunch, we hit the road on our way back to San Jose. Wilson told us
a bit of the history of Costa Rica along the way. We arrived back at our
hotel by mid-afternoon. Everyone got checked into their rooms. Our
farewell dinner was at 7:00 PM. After that, everyone retired to their
rooms and prepared for their departures to the airport the next morning.
It was a wonderful trip and everyone came away with some really nice
images. I’m already looking forward to next year’s trip!
Day 13:
Everyone transferred to the airport to board their flights home.
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