A Day at the Beach

On day two of our Costa Rican getaway the morning weather was very nice with blue skies with wispy white clouds. Wanting to take advantage of the rain forest without the rain, we headed to the semi-private hotel beach.  Unfortunately, the route to the beach was down many hundreds of feet, slick with moisture and moss, and tight under the jungle overgrowth. And, of course, it was humid. Very humid. Uncomfortably humid.

Our goal was a bit of relaxation and to shoot monkeys. We heard they like to hang out at the beach – go figure. Our hopes were high.  As you would guess, there wasn’t a monkey to be found.  But, there were many other delights.  We shot pelicans, lizards, small red crabs, and a beautiful butterfly. Not a bad haul for a couple of hours at the beach. Oh, and by the way, the scenery at the beach was quite nice.

Here are a couple of the smaller critters we came across. On the left is a “Many-banded Daggerwing.” And, on the right is “Ghost Crab.” The crab was particularly difficult to shoot as he (or she) dove into it’s hole as soon as we got near.

 

 

 

 

The biggest surprise at the beach was the number of pelicans floating, flying, dive bombing for food. We practiced our technique for shooting birds which can be quite unpredictable.  After 100’s of shots between us, we finally got the knack.  Here is one:

After shooting the pelicans, we turned our focus toward lizards.  We came across quite a few, one just on the beach on others just off the beach.  Here is a cute one living just off the beach. Check out the horn off the back of his head.

Finally, here is a shot of the beach. Very nice.

Thanks for checking us out.

Up next, monkeys!