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    • Pangolin
      Awesome looking place and great photos.
    • offshorebirder
      Great photos Dave - I love Coatis and their arboreal skills.   The 'Tennessee Warbler' is actually a Chestnut-sided Warbler - the latter is a green above, gray-white below like Tennessee but has bold wingbars and white eye rings.  And the green is more of an electric lime green, not a forest green.
    • Galana
      @SoukousThen don't use it. I don't. Kelner or Kelnerin should do.
    • Atravelynn
    • Atravelynn
      Yellow-footed Green Pigeon enjoying fruit was a delightful view and shot.  Nice job on the Gharial teeth, a distinctive feature of that creature.  It might be common but the Bronze-winged Jacana is an impressive bird.  What a timeless, primordial feeling to the courting Sarus Cranes shot, which I hope symbolizes their future and that of their offspring.  Better birders might have seen more, as you state, but probably not much more.
    • Atravelynn
      You have the same shirt!!!??? Wow, @Atdahl.   I love little coincidences like that.  Thanks for letting me know.  How fun.   I do think Narcisse, Manitoba around Mother's Day and Snake Road in the Shawnee Forest in early Oct are the best places in the world to see snakes.   I've had other, perhaps more spectacular, snake sightings that have occurred unexpectedly and randomly in other parts of the world, but the volume and reliability cannot compare to Narcisse (especially) and Snake Road. I am so lucky to have visited both.  And I'm not even enamored with snakes in particular and I never touch or hold them.  They are just another cool (ha ha, cold-blooded) species on the planet.
    • TonyQ
      Some beautiful birds and photos there @Dave Williams
    • Atdahl
      I agree, it was a great report @Atravelynn.  I have long had snake road on my list so having your trip details is really helpful.  You were kind of at the mercy of the weather a bit but you still had some really good herp sightings.  Other than the mass garter snake area in Canada I can't think of a place with a greater mass of snakes.  It truly is a herper paradise especially with all the amphibians as well.   As a side note, I have that snake T-shirt.  We got it at the Chiricahua Desert Museum in Portal Az (Near Cave Creek Canyon).  It's one of my favs    Alan
    • michael-ibk
      So many lovely photos. Looks like you really had good light. That kingfisher sighting with the snake is very interesting!
    • Dave Williams
      Our morning session had brought some decent species which were a first for the trip views, some lifers for me too, so all in all I was happy but in 2008 I remember photographing Hummingbirds for the first time and it has always remained at the top of my wish list to see and photograph as many as possible. There were some flying about on the flowers below the viewing platform where the feeders are but they were some distance away too as were some other smaller birds like the Red-legged Honeycreeper. Red-legged Honeycreeper by Dave Williams, on Flickr There were some closer opportunities in the nearest trees like this Tawny-capped Euphonia, we were still adding new birds everyday which was good. Tawny-capped Euphonia by Dave Williams, on Flickr I was starting to get tired of looking at birds on the ugly feeders though Palm Tanager by Dave Williams, on Flickr Certainly not where you want to photograph them that's for sure although the R7 having a 1.6 crop sensor body did help to get me closer to the Hummingbirds using the 500mmf4 lens in some instances.By the time these two female Black-crested Coquettes had flown up to eye level  whilst having a mid air argument, the sun had come out which improved matters greatly for Hummingbird photography. Time to head back to the garden then! Duelling Hummingbirds by Dave Williams, on Flickr The duelling Hummingbirds came as a bit of a surprise when I saw I had managed to capture a half decent image especially as I was hand holding my Canon 500f4 lens and the new R7 which had been proving difficult for me trying for flight shots. My aperture for that shot was f4.5 and consequently the second bird is out of focus because of the lack of depth of field in the shot, the higher bird was chosen by the camera as the target. Because they were some distance away finding the birds and keeping them in the viewfinder had proven easier than had they been closer. That's were a zoom lens comes in to it's own, find the bird in the bigger picture then zoom in to take the shot. I headed off to the garden taking tripod, two cameras and both the 500f4 and 100-500mm f4.5-7.1 lenses but I soon took the R7 off the 500mm lens when I realised you could get much closer to your subject in the garden. It did capture some decent images first though depending on your thoughts on blurred wings. Rufus-tailed Hummingbird by Dave Williams, on Flickr The smaller the Hummer, like this female Black-crested Coquette, the faster it appears to beat it's wings too so that's another consideration about what to prioritise between shutter speed and ISO. Black-crested Coquette by Dave Williams, on Flickr I decided to swop to the R5 which I was more confident of using., especially tracking the birds in thick vegetation. Problem was the sun kept on going behind the clouds and the light dropped. Black-crested Coquette by Dave Williams, on Flickr This photography lark isn't all plain sailing by any means but that's what makes it more interesting. The good thing is that modern technology helps a lot , both the latest cameras and post processing make a big difference. Underexposed shot Black-crested Coquette by Dave Williams, on Flickr rescued to a certain extent with Photoshop and Topaz noise reduction. Black-crested Coquette by Dave Williams, on Flickr Be careful not to allow auto settings to over do it though, I prefer a little less sharpening to the image that Topaz produced  so took it off for the final finish.   Earlier in the trip report  I posted some shots of a Hummingbird feeding from a placed flower in a clamp which had been sprayed with a sugar solution. Fiery-throated Hummingbird.  Costa Rica 2024 by Dave Williams, on Flickr Not everyone approve saying it's cheating, I call it engineering a shot which can be very satisfying. Photographing in totally natural conditions can be very frustrating with other stems getting in the way of a clear shot to say nothing of fooling the AF system of your camera. Scaly-breasted Hummingbird by Dave Williams, on Flickr The alternative is many shots being binned  Black-crested Coquette by Dave Williams, on Flickr I could of course do some "gardening" and reduce unnecessary foliage and if it was my garden I would probably do a bit of that but in a hotel garden that should certainly not be considered! If you have the time and the patience though there's a good chance you'll get the shot you are after and that's very satisfying. Just enough wing blur to show movement where as then eye would just see a total blur Black-crested Coquette by Dave Williams, on Flickr and in good light even better! Black-crested Coquette by Dave Williams, on Flickr It was a great afternoon session, a great way of spending the last day photographing the same subjects as the first one, my favourite species, Hummingbirds. I just wish I could see them closer to home. 
    • AndrewB
      Spent some lovely time with Craig in 2018 over three days. Such a gentleman and very calm. I was surprised that he is quite small (relatively speaking). This was noticeable during one sighting with another bull and some cows. The other bull had tusks of about/perhaps three feet long but was much, much larger in body than Craig.
    • Whyone?
      As well as the frogs, we saw some other nice creatures whilst exploring the forests on the slopes adjacent to the Sierpe estuary at night...   Giant Owl Butterfy (Caligo illioneus) resting:   Bromeliad 'wandering' Spider  (Cupiennius salei ).  This chap was about 6" across.   I was keen to photograph tarantulas and whilst they were easy to find, they really weren't keen on hanging about to have their picture taken.   This female quickly scuttled back to her hole...     You don't want to upset them to the point that they start shedding the urticating hairs on their abdomen!   Young Fer-de-lance (Bothrops Asper)...very beautiful but clearly not a snake to get bitten by!     Tailless Whip Scorpion - they look a little scary, but completely harmless to humans     A very large (~7") fishing spider...front legs resting on the water surface waiting patiently for unsuspecting prey to pass...
    • AKR1
      Here’s a nice video of Craig on Instagram today.  https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5tvPH9rjAv/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
    • wilddog
      It was bit manic. There were loads of safari vehicles and we had all been waiting for the second cub to finally emerge ....and then everyone was shooting simultaneously. It was rather loud but the tigers did not seem concerned. Thank goodness.
    • Soukous
      "The Golden-hooded Tanager is a real stunner."   yes it is indeed.
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