It’s s little embarrassing to title the blog “Beautiful Hummingbirds”, then show some terrible blurry photos of them, but hopefully you can imagine how they colorful they looked. Among all our memories of Costa Rica, the many exotically colored hummingbirds we saw certainly hold a prominent spot. Now back to our hike through the Monteverde Cloud Forest:
We could hear a myriad of birds, but couldn’t actually see many of them. We did spot some teal-green hummingbirds, and some big black guinea-hen-looking fowls with a red spot near the eyes. Three “amigos” who we had met on our bus trip to Monteverde, pointed out an Ornate Hawk Eagle sitting on a tree. They told us the bird was quite rare in the Preserve. Their guide had pointed it out to them.
One of the jungle critters I was hoping to see in Costa Rica was a “Poison Dart Frog”. This is a group of very tiny (half an inch) brightly colored and patterned frogs that can be highly toxic. Their colorfully designed exterior advertise unpalatability to predators. Some species were crushed by natives onto the tips of darts and arrows to make them more effective in hunting. This explanation is leading up to the fact that I did finally see my first poison dart frog along a trail at Monteverde, however the one I spotted was not very spectacularly colored, it was a boring hue of beige.
A less spectacular sight, although totally unexpected was a mouse running under some plants. I had never associated mice with jungles. While I was looking to see more of the mouse, I came upon a powder blue mushroom. Although I didn’t know anything about this mushroom, its coloration led me think it must be pretty toxic.
I had an interesting experience on the path overlooking a waterfall. We found ourselves on a jungle trail that snaked its way beside a river valley. I stopped to take a photo of a waterfall. At the time I used a 35mm camera and had several lens for it. As I stood beside the barrier that was erected to prevent people from falling down the slope, I fumbled around trying to put the telephoto lens on my camera. I got the lens on, but when I removed the lens cap, it slipped from my hand, and bounced over the edge of the slope.
I could see where the lens had landed; it was only about 10 foot (3 m) below me, on a ledge. It didn’t seem like it would be too dangerous to retrieve it, so I climbed over the barrier, and carefully made my way down the steep slope to get it.
When I got down to the spot where the lens ways lying, I reached for the lens cap, and got a surprise. Just a couple of feet (60cm) away from it, sat another camera lens cap that someone else had evidently dropped from exactly the same outlook spot.
Once we got off of the trail we went to the Information Center where we were mesmerized by the huge variety of colorful hummingbirds that were busy at the feeders that were hung there. They were larger than what we get at the Robson Valley, and unusually colored. There were teal-green ones with a white stripe at the eye, showing off their iridescent violet throats, and another one with a long, slightly curved beak. My favorite was a very large iridescent violet one—beautiful!
Take a look at my paintings: davidmarchant2.ca
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