Saturday 17 March 2018

Costa Rica - Another taster

Sorry, too many photos to get through means no time to write anything. In addition to probably still being over-awed... Another reason it is taking ages is that it was all very easy when I was there as I had the amazing Leonardo telling me what everything was. It is less easy having to do it for myself at a desk using the field guide. Weak I know, but you simply do not have time to identify every bird in the field as you go along - you would see only a fraction of what was there, and Leonardo had one aim which was to ensure that Bob and I saw as many of the endemic and near endemic birds as possible. They came thick and fast, barely time to get any images of any of them else I would have fallen behind and might have missed something. And worse, Bob might have seen it! Anyone who has been birding in a tropical rainforest will know what I am talking about. 

Anyway, I am condfident that this is a Broad-billed Motmot, and it was at La Selva OTS Biological Station, a simply amazing place stuffed full of birds which we barely dipped into. Scratched the surface, no more than that. Sadly it only has one dangly bit at the end of its tail, whereas it should have two, but I am not that picky. I would also like to point out that these were at ISO 4000 - it is dark in rainforests, very dark, and I worked with settings  that I have never before attempted. I can see more "noise" than I would like, but at the same time the fact I have a usable image almost beggars belief. And I didn't stop at 4000 either but more on that another time.



2 comments:

  1. My first bird-waves in Malaysia had me panicking and hyperventilating, but then I learnt to relax, which paid dividends!

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    1. If you concentrate on movement you get views of most things eventually, but concentrate on just one bird with the camera and you'll miss 90%.

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