moloch05
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2006
- Messages
- 772
- Reaction score
- 8
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 Heliconia 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
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 Heliconia 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
Last edited:
awesome!!
