These are images from the 3rd 4th and 5th day, in no particular order. If you've seen the other posts, you know about most of this stuff already, so I'll get right to the images. As always, EXIF data is intact. C&C encouraged.
6. Montezuma Oropendola. These guys have the weirdest song - sort of like a science fiction sound effect. We saw them all over the Arenal area, Sarapiqui, and Tortuguero. They weave huge hanging nests, which is indicated by the Oropendola name. http://www.edrotberg.org/images/Montezuma%20Oropendola.jpg
7. Crested Guan. These are huge birds in the turkey family, and I was too close for a full body shot with the 500+1.4x that I had on for the first Toucan shot above, so I took this portrait. http://www.edrotberg.org/images/Crested%20Guan%20portrait.jpg
10. Blue Jeans Frog or Strawberry Poison-dart Frog. This is one of the most poisonous frogs in the word. About the size of the last section of my thumb - maybe a bit smaller. I actually have a sequence of this image with the throat going in and out. Someday I'll make an animated gif file. http://www.edrotberg.org/images/Blue%20Jeans%20Frog%202.jpg
12. Eyelash Viper. This is a very young viper, and at this age they cannot control the amount of venom they inject, so they are especially deadly. It was just too dark, and I did not want to get too close, so I use the pop-up flash on my 40D. Oh well. http://www.edrotberg.org/images/Eyelash%20Viper.jpg
wonderful series. The dart frog (Oophaga pumilio) photo is exceptionally nice...they are very interesting due to the level of parental care the exhibit to their developing tadpoles.
Although eyelash vipers are venomous, they are not as potent as other species found within the area. Their potency has been compared to that of North America's copperhead, which tends to not be life threatening. However, they do command caution unless you have experience dealing with such creatures
I just spent a bit of time in Panama back in April...looks like I'll have to get a post together soon
Another great set Ed. Beautiful variety of colours. My picks are #6 (I just love watching these guys), #9 (great pose), and the double toucans. Terrific job with the light down there.
Great collection. I'm especially impressed by the Oropendola, since I could never line one up without major backlighting. Your shot would do well as one of those postcards you find all around the country, especially since the bird is so identifiable. The treefrog was a great find, too. I only found one asleep, and so without its colors. I'd be interested to know where you found this one.
Some advice on the viper: they tend to only move around at night but will usually stay in the same spot for days; once you find one you can probably revisit it several times. I found several in Tortuguero that I could get to within a foot of. The lighting is pretty bad in Tortuguero, but if you have a tripod, the snake will stay still enough that you can take some long exposures. Great perch on yours, by the way.
*As a footnote, aside from the fer-de-lance, the most dangerously toxic animals in Costa Rica seem to be those fat cane toads -- they kill quite a few animals that get too curious and cause major skin irritation and even temporary blindness. I didn't know this until after I'd chased some around, so I'm glad I didn't grab one.
Absolutely beautiful set....Quite a few here that i've never seen before..! The colors/details of the frogs are incredible..The toucans are just great as well as #6...
Peyton wrote:
wonderful series. The dart frog (Oophaga pumilio) photo is exceptionally nice...they are very interesting due to the level of parental care the exhibit to their developing tadpoles.
Although eyelash vipers are venomous, they are not as potent as other species found within the area. Their potency has been compared to that of North America's copperhead, which tends to not be life threatening. However, they do command caution unless you have experience dealing with such creatures
I just spent a bit of time in Panama back in April...looks like I'll have to get a post together soon
Wow Peyton. Thanks for the comments and the information. It's cool to learn this stuff. I look forward to your posts.
Imagemaster wrote:
6, 7, 9, & 14 for me, Ed. Sure pays off when you can get them at eye-level or above.
These must be fairly large files, since I am on high-speed connection and they are slow to load.
Tony
I appreciate the kind words Tony, and thanks fro the patience in waiting for the 14 images to load. As for the speed, it is due to my upload bandwidth as these are hosted at my home. We recently "upgraded" our DSL service and the download speed is increased, but there is some problem with the upload speed. We were supposed to get a 50% boost in upload speed, but so far, it is a bit worse than it used to be. Living in the boonies as I do, we have to wait until Wednesday until the AT&T tech can come out and mess up our connection even more
Rob Tillyer wrote:
Another great set Ed. Beautiful variety of colours. My picks are #6 (I just love watching these guys), #9 (great pose), and the double toucans. Terrific job with the light down there.
Rob
Thanks Rob. Yeah, the Oropendolas aver very interesting birds. The Montezumas were new for me, but I had seen Yellow-rumped Oropendolas in Guyana when I was there in 2004.
DiPace wrote:
Great collection. I'm especially impressed by the Oropendola, since I could never line one up without major backlighting. Your shot would do well as one of those postcards you find all around the country, especially since the bird is so identifiable. The treefrog was a great find, too. I only found one asleep, and so without its colors. I'd be interested to know where you found this one.
Some advice on the viper: they tend to only move around at night but will usually stay in the same spot for days; once you find one you can probably revisit it several times. I found several in Tortuguero that I could get to within a foot of. The lighting is pretty bad in Tortuguero, but if you have a tripod, the snake will stay still enough that you can take some long exposures. Great perch on yours, by the way.
*As a footnote, aside from the fer-de-lance, the most dangerously toxic animals in Costa Rica seem to be those fat cane toads -- they kill quite a few animals that get too curious and cause major skin irritation and even temporary blindness. I didn't know this until after I'd chased some around, so I'm glad I didn't grab one.
Thanks Don. Yeah, I'm pretty pleased with the Oropendola photo. As for the lighting in Tortuguero, I completely agree. I'll have some images from there later in this series, but most of them are with terrible light. We were told that normally the Eyelash Vipers are not a huge problem, but that the young ones can't control the amount of venom that they use, and will often use all their venom if they bite.
We found this particular treefrog near Arenal, but we found a slew of them at night near Torturguero.
We saw a number of those huge cane huge toads. I guess they kill a lot of dogs that don't know better in the country. Extremely poisonous, and did I mention LARGE?
Peter Kefali wrote:
Absolutely beautiful set....Quite a few here that i've never seen before..! The colors/details of the frogs are incredible..The toucans are just great as well as #6...
