Special to The Lake Report
I retired to Niagara in the spring of 2019 and, while I have been doing photography for a while, my interests turned to bird and wildlife photography thanks to the outstanding nature in our region.
In the spring we have an abundance of migratory birds passing, showing off their beautiful breeding plumage. During COVID I spent many hours finding birds and wildlife to photograph.
One day on Facebook I saw a person offering bird photography trips to Costa Rica, so I started to follow him. His photographs were amazing.
Last fall I contacted some friends from Texas and together we planned a February birding trip to Costa Rica.
We were a small group – seven in total – along with our guide and our driver. Each day of the trip was quite physically demanding.
On day one, we piled into a van and headed north from San Jose.
Our first destination was the Boca Tapada area, which is very close to the Nicaraguan border. To get there we drove through miles and miles of coffee and pineapple plantations. The scenery was outstanding but we were clearly off the usual tourist areas.
We spent two nights in rustic log cabins and got our first tropical bird sightings – the hummingbirds, toucans, parrots, great green macaws, warblers and other resident species had us snapping like crazy.
We didn’t have to worry about sleeping in as the howler monkeys were living up to their names by 5 a.m. The second day we were taken to a farmer’s field where a photography hide had been built up.
Food was put out for vultures including the beautiful king vulture, a large black and white bird. Two adults and two juveniles came to feed.
Freddy Madigral, our guide, is a native Costa Rican who has led bird photography trips for more than 30 years. He is knowledgeable not only about the various birds but the country’s natural habitats and history.
His company is Costa Rica Tropical Expeditions. He can be contacted through Facebook or his website, freddymadigral.com.
Madrigal was welcomed wherever we went and was able to get us entry onto private property to locate birds, which was amazing. We also got the opportunity to see how the average person lived in Costa Rica and how welcoming they were to a group of strangers.
Our next destination was the Sarapiqui region, which is part of the rainforest. Our days started early – we were normally off by 6 a.m. (and a few mornings by 5 a.m.) in order to find the birds.
In Sarapiqui, we not only saw more beautiful birds, but were also taken to a spot to photograph some poisonous frogs and snakes. We spotted the green and black poison dart frog, the red-eyed tree frog, and the strawberry poison dart frog (whose nickname is blue jeans).
Most surprising to me was how tiny the frogs were – smaller than a marshmallow. It was a little unnerving to find out that these frogs live in the clearing where we took the photographs. The handler rummaged around the leaves until he found the one he wanted to bring out.
Next up were two poisonous snakes: the eyelash viper and the green vine snake. Here, we also briefly saw a golden collared manakin.This small bird clears a fairly large space on the forest floor of all debris and then dances to attract a mate.
Although we saw the clearing he made we weren’t fortunate enough to see his mating dance.
It was in this region that we also hiked across a river and through the rainforest to see a spectacle owl. White markings around its face make it look like it’s wearing spectacles.
As we hit the road again to travel high up in the mountains to the Savagre region, we found a family of howler monkeys who were fun to photograph. Unfortunately we never saw a sloth, though not for lack of trying.
In Savagre, we stayed at small cabins at an altitude of 8,000 feet. Our quest during our stay in the highlands was to find and photograph the resplendent quetzal, one of the world’s most beautiful birds.
We had to leave at 5 a.m. to get to a spot the bird frequents in order to secure a prime location. It was quite a popular viewing spot with around 25 to 30 people there.
We went two mornings and the quetzal normally started flying through the forest around 6 a.m. The first morning it stayed in the forest and we didn’t get great shots so we went back late in the afternoon but it didn’t show at all.
To get to the spot we had to climb (at 8,000 feet) the equivalent of 10 flights of stairs lugging all our camera equipment. It was chilly, around 0 Celsius with a wind chill, and I was glad I brought my down jacket to the tropics.
The second morning we were lucky as both a female and male quetzal came to perches that were close to our photography spot.
Our guide has purchased property in this area and is developing it to be a “glamping” spot for birders. It’s a little higher, at 10,000 feet, but will be a beautiful spot when it’s completed.
Our final destination was a beach resort on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. We travelled many miles during our trip and saw a great deal of the country. Besides coffee and pineapple plantations, we drove through the cloud forest, the continental divide, the rainforest and the Pacific region.
Our final destination was the land of scarlet macaws and besides them we saw other amazing birds like the motmot, the fiery-throated hummingbird and the amazing gartered trogan. We also saw a white-face capuchin monkey.
With a pile of full memory cards and thousands of photos, it was time to pack up and head home. We enjoyed an amazing adventure even if it was physically exhausting. All told, we saw about 200 different species of birds.
If you love birds and want to see more photos, contact me by email at oldmillphoto@gmail.com.
