In August 2014 I spent a
fortnight in Costa Rica with my partner Helen, as part of a group on an
organised “Exodus” trip. Costa Rica is very much a place to visit for tourists
interested in its incredibly rich and diverse wildlife and environment,
although it also offers excellent surfing and sun-soaked Pacific beaches. However,
as befits a country with tropical rainforests the weather can be extremely wet!
Whilst I was strictly on holiday I did, of course, record (where possible) the
wildlife that we saw and, in the light of the “why feed the birds” subject of
my major project, I was particularly interested in recording the Costa Ricans’
use of bird feeders to attract (mainly, but not exclusively) hummingbirds.
During our fortnight I took 3300 photographs, ultimately keeping around 1000 as
a photographic record of our visit. The following is a very brief commentary on
our adventures.
Red-eyed Tree Frog, Manuel Antonio NP
The People
I’ve never been to an “exotic”
country before where the people treated me as “part of the scenery”. They are
not rude (quite the opposite), but they are presumably so used to seeing tourists
that we don’t register as being unusual in any way. This was quite a revelation
on the holiday. I also felt completely safe everywhere I went, although there
is a small amount of petty crime at some of the major destinations. The Costa
Ricans are clearly peace-loving people (they don’t have an army and have
largely escaped the [civil] wars, which have recently affected some of their
neighbours, unscathed).
The Landscape
Costa Rica has volcanoes and
mountains reaching almost 4000 metres. But it also borders both the Caribbean
and the Pacific oceans. The high rainfall (particularly in the east and in the
mountain regions) produces lush vegetation (no deserts here!), which carpets
large tracts of land and virtually all the mountain regions. As a consequence
the landscape can start to look rather “samey” after a while: there are few
exposed rocks or lone trees. This is not ideal habitat for landscape
photographers! Upland areas are often hidden in a layer of cloud or mist, which
can produce some atmospheric effects if you are happy to put up with a
visibility of 10 – 50 metres. The limited numbers of landscape scenes that I
photographed whilst in Costa Rica were mainly produced as representative images
of what it was like to be there, rather than for their artistic or aesthetic
qualities.
The Wildlife
Now you’re talking! Costa Rica
has an incredibly rich, diverse and (importantly) colourful wildlife. It is
possible to get close to monkeys, sloths, birds, snakes, frogs, spiders, crabs,
butterflies and dragonflies. Not to mention all the orchids and other plant
life. You name it, Costa Rica has it! With the exception of its secretive “big
cats” (Puma, Ocelot and Jaguar), it is possible to find and take decent
photographs of pretty much anything. The diversity of species reflects the
diversity of habitats, so animals that are common at sea level may not occur up
in the mountains and vice-versa.
Male Resplendent Quetzel
So is Costa Rica the wildlife
photographer’s dream? Well, not completely. For a start it rains heavily
throughout the year and particularly in the summer and early autumn months
(i.e. when we visited!). This causes problems with water getting into the camera
lens (as happened to me on more than one occasion) and steaming up: good
waterproofing of your equipment is strongly recommended! Also, much of the
wildlife is found in and around forested areas, which are shady at the best of
times and particularly when the weather is overcast and/or wet. Consequently
you have to rely on the subject being static or, if it is moving, using a high
to very high ISO setting (say 1000+) to capture the action without blurring. I
mainly used my Nikon D7000 camera in these conditions. The camera has many
qualities, but does exhibit some graininess at higher ISO settings. My images
would not print up well if taken under these circumstances.
A second problem was evident when
we made a nocturnal visit to watch green turtles laying eggs on a Caribbean
beach at Tortuguero. Strictly no photography! This rule is essential, because
taking photographs may disturb the endangered turtles and cause them to abort laying, but
watching the huge female turtles emerging from the sea, digging holes, laying
eggs and then covering them with sand was an amazing “once in a lifetime”
experience, which would have produced a dream photographic sequence….
The Hummingbirds
During the first part of the
holiday hummingbirds were in short supply. However, we had the opportunity in Monteverde
National Park to visit a “hummingbird garden”, equipped with sugar feeders,
where several species of hummingbird were zooming around, sometimes within a
few inches of our faces. What an amazing experience, and definitely one of the
highlights of the trip! However, we only had limited time and the light was
very poor (overcast with light rain in a forest clearing), so I had to settle
for some static images of various species, taken at high ISO values. Fortunately
the final lodge we visited, in Savegre National Park, had several (mainly
hummingbird) feeders and attracted good numbers of three main montane species
(we were situated at 2200 metres altitude). The staff had gone to some lengths
to provide natural perches for them and I was finally able, on the
penultimate day of the holiday, to get some decent photographs of the
hummingbirds at rest. The commonest (and most photogenic) species was the Green
Violet-ear: I took over 100 photographs of this bird, one of which is shown
below.
Green Violet-ear, Savegre NP
Photographing the hummingbirds hovering
and feeding on nectar proved challenging, even though they kept their bodies
still during the process. My favourite portraits were all of static birds.
Do the hummingbird feeding
stations in Costa Rica provide any insights for my project work? The feeders
are easy to set up and common throughout the Americas, obviously benefit the
birds and provide pleasure for tourists and locals alike. Monitoring birds
coming to feeders provides useful information for conservationists and there is
commercial gain for the manufacturers and lodge/hotel owners (the latter would
attract fewer visitors if they did not provide feeders in areas where
hummingbirds can be attracted). The provision of “natural” perching posts close to
the feeders encourages wildlife photographers. Unfortunately we don’t have
hummingbirds in the UK, but many of the reasons for feeding the birds in Costa
Rica are equivalent to our own. Perhaps the biggest gain of all would
be the personal pleasure gained by the private home owner or tenant, in the UK
or overseas, who can get close to the birds and enjoy watching their activity by
providing them with the food that they need.
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