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Home All Posts Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity – Part 3

Dennis July 21, 2011 1 Comment

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity – Part 3

Arenal Observatory Lodge 

Arenal is the country’s most active volcano, with continuous emissions of lava and incandescent pyroclastic flows since the beginning of the present active cycle in 1968.  In 2010 when I visited this location, the eruptions could be heard day and night roaring, coughing and spitting, but due to the low cloud cover, not seen. I did get a view of the pyroclastic flows through a break in the clouds for about 30 seconds one evening. The weather did cooperate this year with clear skies one evening and clear skies one morning during sunrise.  Unfortunately, the volcano stopped erupting to a great extent three months prior to our visit.  It was quiet. You could still see steam coming from several vents in two locations near the summit, but no fireworks.  The lodge grounds offer many gardens, and there was an extensive garden right outside our room where we could observe hummingbirds feeding at the flowers.

Arenal at Night
Arenal at Dawn
Arenal Sunrise

View from Lodge Restaurant
Steam Vent
Lodge Grounds

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Leaf Edge
Eucalyptus Bark

Hummingbird
7d-1173-edit
7d-1178-edit

We spent one day at a nearby facility that houses a wonderful collection of frogs, toads, snakes, and lizards. The staff set up several stages with natural vegetation, moss covered rocks and stumps; the vegetation on the nearby hills provided out of focus backgrounds, and we could photograph with natural light or with fill flash as we chose.  It was a great opportunity to photograph species which would be difficult, if not dangerous, to photograph in the wild.  The facility also had a butterfly enclosure which I visited while waiting for the set ups to be ready.  Once the stages were completed, several species were brought out and placed in the setup.  An experienced caretaker stayed with the animal at each set up, repositioning the subject when it moved into a position that was not photographic.  The caretaker would replace the animal when it appeared to be too active, or when photographic interest in that subject diminished.  At the end of the day, one caretaker asked my wife Chris if she wanted to hold the Rainbow Python, which she did.  She was surprised that it was very soft to the touch.

Butterflies
Butterfly
Red-eyed Tree Frog

Masked Tree Frog
Hourglass Frog
Lizard

Emerald Glass Frog
Helmeted Lizard
Green Tree Anole

Green Tree Anole changing color
Pug-nosed Anole
Gulf Coast Toad

Snake
Snake
Toad

Eyelash Viper
Snail Eating Snake
Eyelash Viper

Fer de Lance
Snake
My wife Chris with a Rainbow Python

We also spent a morning at the Danaus Ecocenter.  There was a limited number of birds in the area due to the time of year, but quality is often better than quantity.  We had quite a long time with several Collared Aracaris feeding on fruit very close to the path.  And one of the guides showed us the location of a baby three-toed sloth since it was not on one of the main paths, but on a service road.

Collared Aracari with Fruit
Boat-billed Heron
Collared Aracari with Fruit

Three-toed Sloth baby
Yellow-throated Euphonia

All in all, Arenal Observatory Lodge is one of those locations in Costa Rica which could easily support a week’s worth of photographic subjects, if you know where to look.  There are trails up through the forest to the lava fields and a large lake that we didn’t explore on this trip.  However, unless you were on a Foto Verde guided trip, you wouldn’t have the opportunity to photograph the variety of reptiles that I did on this trip.

 

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity – Part 4

 

Filed Under: All Posts, Amphibians, Birds, Costa Rica, Flowers, Hummingbirds, Landscape, Reptiles, Trip Reports Tagged With: Amphibian, Birds, Costa Rica, Flowers, Frog, Hummingbird, Macro, reptiles

Comments

  1. Cemal Ekin says

    July 21, 2011 at 9:20 am

    Nice experience you two had Dennis, but I would have passed on holding the snake (as I’m sure you have!) The Eucalyptus Bark is particularly nice, along with the three-toed sloth baby and the leaf edge.

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