White-Face Capuchin

It is now 19 November and this morning, we spent that at the lodge photographing the birds, plus some White-face Capuchin that stop by to pick up some bananas. In a distant tree plain Chachalaca's gave a environmental picture. A Baltimore oriole decided the perch around orange flowers, which gave contrast to the background. On the path that led up to the large deck, I found a slaty-tail Trogon, which is one of the target birds.

Slaty-tailed Trogan

Baltimore Oriole

Hoffman' s Woodpecker

Golden Orb Weaver with Prey. The tiny spider near the back of the large spider is a male Golden orb Weaver

Because the sky was bright and sunny, instead of going to photograph a waterfall because of the harsh shadows, we visited a reptile area in order to do close-ups. We had chances to photograph eyelash Vipers, poison dart frogs lizard and a tree boa.

Eyelash Viper

Green and Black Poison Dart Frog

Red and Blue Poison Dart Frog

Tree Boa

The afternoon plans was to travel down to the Ballena National Park for photographs of the shore and sunset. However, again, the rain gods intervened even before we could set up to take pictures. We however did see a mangrove hawk. Back to the Lodge to relax and eat supper as a thunderstorm rumbled offshore.

Sunset Peering through the Clouds

Because the deck is set high were able to look straight into the trees and prior to going to sleep, we were treated by a woolly opossum right at eye level.

Woolly Opossum

The next morning, prior to breakfast, we were able to photograph a fiery-billed aracari. Plus in the trees, we had a chestnut-billed toucan and a yellow-headed caracara, plus a solitary flycatcher came in to give us great views.

Fiery-billed Aracari

Social Flycatcher

Chestnut-billed Toucan

Yellow-headed Caracara

We packed up and traveled to a final Lodge location in the Pacific cloud forest. We traveled over the Talamanca mountain range at about 10,000 feet and then were at about 7500 feet at our lodge. After settling in and having lunch, we photographed the hummingbirds around the feeders that were outside the dining room. It was a good thing that there were tables with umbrellas on the patio, since it started to rain again. But, the umbrellas helped keep the camera equipment dry. So finished this day.

Volcano Hummingbird and Green Violetear

Green Violetear

Volcano Hummingbird

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My group and I spent an entire afternoon at the Arenal Ecozoo, where the owner Victor Quesarda set up natural panoramas so we could photograph various amphibians and reptiles of Costa Rica. We photographed everything from the non--venomous to the venomous variety. It was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Victor and his assistants handled all the animals with care and also make sure we were not in any danger from the highly venomous reptiles that we photographed.

The Red-eye Tree Frog provided most of the entertainment for the afternoon as we photographed it on various perches and walking along a branch.

Surprisingly the most aggressive creature was the Green Parrot Snake, which hissed and tried to strike at people. It is venomous but has rear facing fangs and must chew on its victim to inject the venom.

The Bushmaster is the largest pit viper in the world. Bushmaster's live in remote , heavily forested tropical jungle terrain and has earned a fierce reputation, it is been known to aggressively attack man. However, very few attacks are known to occur due to its habitat and nocturnal habits.

And another pit viper, the Fer de Lance, is another relative of the Bushmaster, is Costa Rica's most feared snake because it occurs around human habitat. It causes more human deaths than any other American reptiles.