In early February, we had a pair of bluebirds come to our feeders. Bluebirds generally eat insects and there are not many around this time of year. They watched the other birds eating and gave it a try. It was amusing to watch a bluebird pick up a piece of bread and try to get it past its beak. One beat it against a branch until it was long and round then ate it. Over the next several weeks the number of bluebirds grew to four pairs. They would only visit on days that were cold; up to five of them on the suet feeder at a time. In the past, such visits by bluebirds in the winter were brief, only a day or two. This year they visited for more than four weeks. All the images in this post were captured in February 2023, with the exception of the two images of Robins which were made in December 2022.

My initial photographs were through the kitchen and lavette windows with the target areas being the bird feeders and birdbath. Once it was clear that they would be staying a while, I set up two light stands with natural perches attached to them with plastic straps. To increase my chances of getting the birds to use the perches, I strategically placed them between one of their favorite spots and another. One perch is between the bird bath and the suet feeder, and the other is between the suet and the tray feeder.  At some times of the day there could be 20-30 birds visiting the feeders and the perches provide some convenient places to wait for a spot on a  feeder to open.

I choose the perches to have a vertical and horizontal branch to provide variety. If you intend to photograph  over many days, it makes sense to change the perches every so often and even change the position so that you have an assortment of images with a variety of branches and backgrounds.

The perches are about ten feet from the windows and placed to have a distant background. All the photographs in this post are captured with a handheld Olympus O-MD E-M1 Mark III camera body with the Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm f/4 PRO lens, mostly at f/4 and shutter speeds as slow as 1/15 sec. Because of the small sensor size of the Olympus camera, the 300mm lens has a field of view equivalent to a 600mm lens on a camera with a full size sensor. I photographed through the double pane window glass; although it did take some experimentation to discover which window sections offered good results. When the weather is warmer, I will also shoot with the lavette window open, ensuring that the door is closed should a bird investigate the open cavity.

When photographing through a window it is important to be aware of two optical effects: distortion through the glass and reflections on the glass. Check for distortion by shooting through various parts of the window at a bird feeder or the perch and review the images with magnification to ensure detail is preserved. Reflections will most likely be caused by brightly lit objects in the room or from the windows across the room. By positioning the camera lens perpendicular to the glass you may solve both problems as I have found less distortion when shooting straight through the glass. Getting close to the glass also blocks reflections. If you have storm windows, you may want to open the lower section to reduce the amount of glass between your camera and the subject.

Photographing birds from a window in your house can very productive, and especially so in winter when the birds’ need to eat is necessary for their survival. They are acclimated to people being the window watching as they visit the feeders and ignore anyone standing there for the most part.

Make your plans now to take advantage of the springtime migration bringing new birds to backyard feeders, all hungry as they need the energy to build new feathers and to fly on to their summer areas.

This small lodge, located in a valley between the Poas Volcano and Juan Castro Blanco National Parks offers a diversity of subjects to photograph. The owners, Federico and Vanessa González-Pinto are working hard, and succeeding in, developing an ecological corridor linking the two nationally protected areas.  They are amiable hosts and are truly concerned for the nature of Costa Rica.  In addition to the variety of landscape opportunities of the cloud forest moss-covered trees and rushing streams, the place is teeming with hummingbirds.  There is also an extensive collection of orchids located near the main building that hosts hundreds of orchids, and the owners sponsor orchid research supporting preservation efforts.  On the afternoon of our arrival, I spent some time photographing in the forest, and captured a few images of hummingbirds hovering near the feeders.  The first orchid in the series is a stacked focus images, made from six images that have different zones in focus.  I’ll be writing a blog post on the technique soon.

In addition to the local photographic opportunities, two setups for high speed flash photography were made available on the second day of our stay here and a schedule for use by the participants was established.  Initially we set up hummingbird feeders to attract the hummers to the sets, but switched to flowers after the first round.  While high speed flash set ups make photographing crisp images of hummingbirds possible, it’s difficult to predict exactly what the image will look like until you view the image.  It’s a simple matter to take a photo of the hummingbird with its beak in the flower since it stays there for a few seconds, although you never know what the position of the wings will be.  It’s much more challenging to catch the hummingbird approaching or departing from the flower, or if there is an altercation with another hummingbird. On several occassions the birds were landing on flower pants and breaking them off, making for a not-so-attractive flower.  I walked over to coax a Green-crowned Brilliant off a flower and it stepped onto my finger where it stayed for a full minute.  Luckily, I still held on to the wireless remote control and was able to capture some images.

On the third day of our stay at Bosque de Paz, we made a day trip to a nearby restaurant that has access to the 110 meter Bajos de Toros waterfall.  There are trails through the forest and a set of stairs that descend to the base of the falls.  Two hummingbird high speed flash setups were placed in the open air restaurant to take advantage of some species which were not found at Bosque to Paz.  This was the first time I had seen a black-bellied hummingbird, a very small bird that fluffs the feathers on its head in a curious way when it is perched.  When it is flying, the feathers are flattened aerodynamically.

After dinner at Bosque de Paz, a few of us ventured out around the lodge and down a path to find insects and frogs for some nighttime macro photography.  We did find a small tree frog which was about ¾ of an inch in length, and we had great opportunities with a cicada which had just climbed out of its shell and was still damp and unable to fly.  We all had our turn photographing this amazing insect by flashlight.

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.

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.

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.

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

We spent three days at this tropical rainforest lodge located on the banks of the Sarapiqui River.  The attraction here is the abundance of green and black poison dart frogs and red poison dart frogs as well as masked and red-eyed tree frogs.  One back lit basilisk lizard was a challenge to photograph as we tried to move through the undergrowth off the path and not chase the lizard off.  There were also lizards climbing a tree next to the dining room, and we even saw a baby fer-de-lance on the side of the path.  It couldn’t have been more than three inches in diameter coiled less than a foot from the path. The lodge naturalist moved the snake into the forest for everyone’s (and the snake’s) safety.  When Greg was selecting some vegetation for nighttime photography of a red-eyed tree frog, he explained that we had to carefully look under the low vegetation to make certain no fer-de-lance were there.  We could hear numerous birds throughout the forest, but they were elusive with the exception of a mot-mot, a chestnut billed toucan, and an ochre bellied flycatcher on the nest. We also had some time with howler monkeys which were very close and almost eye-level from the balcony of the lodge’s classroom.  The naturalist believes they come to see their reflection in the floor to ceiling windows.

One morning we traveled to a nearby farm owned by a local family that has preserved some of its property as forest.  Great Green Macaws and Scarlet Macaws live in the forest and stay close to the farm to roost and feed.  He also had a large enclosure that injured birds, which locals had found were rehabilitated and allowed to go free.  There is an opening in the cage where birds can come and go as they please.  The owner also rescued two jaguars from being hunted and killed by local villagers for killing cattle.  The farmer got the villagers to agree to let him capture the animals rather than just kill them.   He built an enclosure to house the jaguars and takes good care of them; they look healthier than some zoo animals I’ve seen.

Costa Rica 2011 The Art of Biodiversity -Part 3

A local water taxi operator brought us, and a couple of cases of frozen fish, to a quiet bay across from Homer.  Since the ordinance on feeding eagles only applies to the city limits of Homer, the captain is able to toss fish into the water.  While there were only three or four eagles in the tree tops when we arrived, there were more than 20 eventually.