# Trip to Costa Rica, August 2012



## moloch05 (Sep 8, 2012)

In August, I spent 12 days in Costa Rica with a couple of friends. It was fantastic to see this lovely country again and see the changes that have occurred since my student days in 1980. Eco-tourism has been highly successful and there were lodges and infrastructure all over the areas that we visited. We did not have much time so decided to visit areas that were not far apart to reduce the time lost to transfers. August is one of the wet months but the rain was never excessive and we always had a few hours of sun each day.

Our itinerary included the following stops:
1) Suena Azul, a lodge in Horquetas. We spent a single night while awaiting the tractor ride to Rara Avis the following morning.
2) Rara Avis, a remote lodge on the southern boundary of Braulio Carillo NP. This was a beautiful place located at about 700m elevation on the Caribbean flank of Volcan Barva. It was an extremely wet place. Branches and trunks of trees were totally covered with epiphytes.
3) La Selva Biological Station. We spent three nights at this lowland sites.
4) Observatory Lodge, Volcan Arenal. We spent three nights at this mid-level site.

I will begin this post with the photos from La Selva. In 1980, I spent a number of weeks here while studying birds from a canopy tower. Now, I could hardly recognize the reseach station. La Selva has a huge amount of new accommodation, labs, libraries and the like for the biologists who are studying various aspects of tropical ecology. In 1980, access to the reserve was via a boat trip up the Sarapiqui River from Puerto Viejo. Now, there is a road and bridge access. The old muddy trails are mostly paved within 2kms of the headquarters. Once I walked far back into the reserve, I reached the muddy trails that were more familiar to me. La Selva is really a top place to visit with so much to see.

The following shot illustrates the location of La Selva. The watershed above it is protected all the way to the top of Volcan Barva.






La Selva is mostly covered with lowland rainforest. 














Ted and Cindy found this stunning yellow colour phase of the Eye-lash Viper (_Bothriechis schlegelii_). This species was at the top of my snake "wish-list" so I was very happy to see it. It certainly was not cryptic on the buttressed root but would have been harder to see on a Heliconia. 






















_Norops_ were common lizards. Several species were possible.






I saw a numbert of frogs while on night walks.

Frog1





Frog2






These small toads (_Bufo haematiticus_) were seen a few times along the trails after night rains.














I saw Banded Owl Butterflies (_Caligo atreus_) once or twice each day in the forest interior.






Nymphalids in the subfamily Satyrinae were numerous in the forest. Some of these were nicely marked.
1. Jesia Satyr (_Euptychia jesia_) 
2. Blue-smudged Satyr (_Chloreuptychia arnaca_): the lower, inner wings were blue.
3. not certain of the species
4. not certain of the species 






This fulgorid was incredible. I believe that it was _Phrictus quinquepartitus_, one of Lanternflies.






Whip Scorpion or Amblypygi.






I liked these nicely coloured fungi.






More rainforest plants:















Monkey pot seed pod (_Lecythis ampla_) are relatives of Brazil Nuts. These were huge seed pods ... definitely would not want one of these to land on one's head! 





Monkey Comb (Apeiba membranacea). These seed pods always make me think of sea urchins.





others ...






A pair of Rufous Motmots were digging a burrow for a nest right next to the trail. The size of the hole was huge which seemed quite odd. They must be vulnerable to predaceous mammals and large snakes.






Keel-billed Toucan: Always nice to see and hear the toucans. Chestnut-mandible and Collared Aracari were also frequent in the forest.






Great Tinamou. These birds are normally very shy but some near the headquarters must be use to seeing people. Their songs are a gorgeous, rich flute-like whistle. The calls at night are one of my favourite sounds in the forest.







Some parts of the reserve support swamp forest. Years ago, I spent many nights along trails here looking for reptiles and amphibians.










Fer-de-Lance (_Bothrops asper_) were said to be the most commonly encountered snake at La Selva. We found this single individual while we were on a night walk in the swamp forest.






This _Hyla rufitela_ was discovered by day on a small plant in the swamp forest.






Strawberry Dart Frog (_Oophaga pumilio_ or _Dendrobates pumilio_). These frogs were common in wet areas. Their body size was smaller than those at Rara Avis. I will include the latter in a subsequent addition to the post. These little guys are quite shy and are hard to photograph.






One of the highlights to me in the swamp forest was seeing these clear wing Satyrinae. They are almost invisible when in flight in the dark understorey of the forest. This was particularly true of the first species below. The second species was slightly more obvious in flight but I usually could only see the red patches and nothing else.
1, 2: _Dulcedo polita_. The butterly jumped with the preflash in photo 2 but this illustrates how clear the wings appear.
3. Rusted Clearwing Satyr (_Cithaerias pireta_)










Stream Anoles (_Norops oxylophus_) were common in the swamp forest. They readily swam and would dive beneath the surface when disturbed.






I liked this trail marker, "trail without a name", in the swamp forest.







We visited "Sendero Cantarana", the trail of the frog songs, on two nights. The trail passed through an open flooded area and was alive with frogs and songs at night.










Red-Eyed Tree-Frog (_Agalychnis callidryas_). These are one of the most attractive species of frogs in Costa Rica.










Yellow Blunt-headed Vine Snake (_Imantodes inornatus_) were frog eaters and they were numerous around the swamp of Sendero Cantarana.










Brown Forest Turtle (_Rhinoclemmys annulata_) were observed along Sendero Cantarana as well as along another trail in the reserve.






I spent a fair amount of time chasing butterflies. One of the best areas for butterfly photography was in the secondary plots in the southern portion of the reserve.










Skippers were abundant here.
1. unknown
2. Emerald Aguna (_Aguna claxon_) 
3. Spotted Flat (_Celaenorrhinus monartus_)
4. Bifurcated Flat (_Celaenorrhinus bifurcus_) 






Nymphalidae
1) Malachite (_Siproeta stelenes_)
2) Little Banner (_Nica flavilla_)






Heliconiinae were a beautiful subfamily of the Nymphalids. One of the prettiest was the Crimson-patched Longwing (_Heliconius erato_) that was feeding from a H_eliconia_ flower.










Sara Longwing (_Heliconius sara_)






1. Tiger Longwing (_Heliconius hecale_)
2. Tiger Longwing (_Heliconius hecale_)
3. Not certain, but I think this to be an Ithomiinae, Polymnia Tigerwing (_Mechanitis polymnia_). Ithomiinae and Heliconiinae are both distasteful butterflies to predators. Many of these illustrate Muellerian mimicry where the distasteful species converge to the same pattern. It is interesting to see but makes the species and even sub-families hard to recognize. 










Cydno Longwing (Heliconius cydno) 







Metalmarks (Rhiodininae) were abundant in Costa Rica. I saw many species but was only able to photograph a few.


Possibly _Emesis lucinda_. The outer wings were orange and the butterfly looked quite different in flight.









_Calephelis sp_.






I saw these gorgeous day-flying moths of family Uraniidae a few times.






This moth of family Castniidae was really odd with the clubbed antannae.






Big spider at night.






Crested Guans were frequent this year. Their numbers have certainly built up with protection since 1980. Great Currasows were also seen a few times.






Restaurant. This was an excellent place for birding with many nearby fruiting trees. Flocks of tanagers, thrushes and flycatchers often moved through the area. One morning, army ants raided this area. The ground was covered with ants that investigated all the nooks and crannies beneath the chairs and tables. We watched small insects running for their lives. Scarlet-rumped Tanagers and others came into the area to catch the arthropods distrubed by the ants.





Violaceous Trogons were common by call and occasionally seen.






White-collared Manakin: We watched this adult male and a juvenile male doing the manakin wing-snap and rapid flight between saplings on a number of occasions. They often displayed right next to the restaurant.










Tanagers: We saw many of these lovely birds.
1. Golden-hooded Tanager (top)
2. Palm Tanager (left)
3. Social Flycatcher (right)
4. Blue-grey Tanager (left)
5. Black-faced Grosbeak (right)










We stayed in this house just across the river from the reserve.






_Leptodactylus pentadactylus_ were frequent on the lawns at night.






In the old days, access to La Selva was by boat from Puerto Viejo. Now, it is just a matter of walking across the bridge.






The big Green Iguanas (_Iguana iguana_) were a frequent site in trees near the bridge.














Ted took this photo of a Prehensile-tailed Porcupine that was crossing the bridge one morning.






Ted's photo of a Ringed Kingfisher






... Rara Avis will be next


----------



## Ezmay (Sep 8, 2012)

looks like it was a fun trip  awesome!!


----------



## Chris (Sep 8, 2012)

Nice photography, especially some of the landscape shots.


----------



## eddie123 (Sep 8, 2012)

love the red eye. Good shots!


----------



## Stevo2 (Sep 8, 2012)

Great photos and just a taste of the experience you had!! 

How's the diversity of parrot species in that area?


----------



## SteveNT (Sep 8, 2012)

Need anyone to carry your bags next trip?


----------



## jordanmulder (Sep 8, 2012)

Some amazing finds mate!


----------



## Darlyn (Sep 8, 2012)

Great pics and subjects, well done.


----------



## GreenLuke (Sep 9, 2012)

Great photos and trip. Especially photos of snakes and butterflies. Nice!


----------



## Jeannine (Sep 9, 2012)

totally stunning photos 

thank you for sharing


----------



## thals (Sep 9, 2012)

Such a gorgeous magical place, I hope one day to get to explore it for myself as it has been a long time wish of mine. Amazing photos and post, always a pleasure reading through your adventures mate


----------



## AUSGECKO (Sep 9, 2012)

As always, great photos and descriptions. I always enjoy reading and looking at pictures of your adventures.
Thanks for sharing.


----------



## dayfnq (Sep 9, 2012)

Fantastic post, Moloch. I love reading about your adventures and looking at your amazing photos.


----------



## moloch05 (Sep 10, 2012)

Thanks very much, everyone. Costa Rica is a beautiful place to visit and now is a good time to go while our dollar is strong. Costs in CR are tied to the USD so are not bad at the moment. It is by far the best to go in a small group to distribute costs such as the transfers from one site to another.

Stevo,
I saw many parrots. Mealy Parrots were the common Amazon at La Selva. Pairs of these fly overhead every morning and late afternoon. The smaller White-crowned Parrots and Brown-headed Parrots were also numerous. Sometimes I heard screeching and then saw fast-flying flocks of Crimson-fronted Parakeets. Best of all were 3 Great Green Macaws that were feeding noisily along the Sarapiqui River one morning. I heard occasional macaw squawks and a steady succession of falling seed pods. A bit of searching finally resulting in sightings of these mostly green parrots.

I hope to start Rara Avis photos tonight depending upon work.

Regards,
David


----------

