Costa Rica, December 2006

I'm happy to report that we completed another successful Photo Safari to the wonderful country of Costa Rica. Along with my wife and 10 other participants, we explored a number of ecosystems, and encountered a wide variety of flora and fauna. I was able to see and photograph a number of species not seen in any of my prior 3 trips. The Workshop sessions were productive, and we were able to cover a broad range of photography topics. Our guide, Marco Fallas, was incredible in terms of his extensive knowledge, ability to hear, see and find wildlife, his willingness to meet all of our requests and desires, and his simply limitless enthusiasm and energy! He also enabled us to experience the local people and culture in a very personal manner. For example, he was able to arrange to have us eat lunch one day at the home of one of the families living in an area where we had been shooting the Scarlet Macaws!

In the first part of our trip we visited Poas Volcano and the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, en route to a 2-night stay at the Arenal Observatory Lodge. As on previous trips the grounds at the lodge were very productive, and we had a good visit to the Arenal Hanging Gardens. We then traveled to Monteverde, stopping to photograph a troop of Howler Monkeys en route. The hummingbirds were plentiful at the Fogden's Gallery in Monteverde. We also had an adventure and intimate experience of life in a rain forest, when we hiked the 'El Silencio' trail through some fairly heavy rain! We hiked in Monteverde, looking for the elusive Quetzal, but didn't spot any this trip. After 2 nights in Monteverde, we headed to the Pacific coast, seeing more howlers, iguanas, a cuckoo, and other species along the way. We spent 3 nights in this area, having some great experiences at Carara National Park, the Jaco beach area, Manuel Antonio Park, and the Tarcoles River. We saw squirrel monkeys, sloths, poison dart frogs, macaws, kiskadees, caracaras, falcons, kingfishers, crocodiles, and various other bird species too numerous to mention.

I have divided the images from this trip into three parts. Part 1 contains birds seen from various "land-based" locations throughout the trip. Part 2 includes bird photos taken during our boat trip on the Tarcoles River (except for the last image in this collection). In past visits to Costa Rica, we had found the boat rides on the river and canals in the Tortuguero area (Caribbean coast) to be extremely productive photographically, and we scheduled a similar ride on the Tarcoles River for this trip, hoping to have the same experience. We were not disappointed, and I probably shot more frames during the 3 hours that we spent there than during any similar time period during the entire trip. Part 3 includes monkeys, butterflies, lizards, frogs, etc. Each of these can be accessed via the menu bar below.

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These images, along with all the others present in the various galleries, are available for purchase as prints up to 13"x19". For more details on buying prints, please click here.

Costa Rica, December 2006 - Part 2

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Boat-billed Heron

Black-necked Stilt

Double-striped Thick-knee

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Southern Lapwing 1

Southern Lapwing 2

Mangrove Swallow

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Yellow-headed Caracara 1

Yellow-headed Caracara 2

Laughing Falcon

 

Great Blue Heron
(Drying its Wings?)

Black-and-White Owl