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| Spined Glass Frog, Teratohyla spinosa Central America's smallest species of glass frog |
Friday morning at 7:30am Rachel and I board a bus that is bound for Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. Our stop is the little rural town of Las Horquetas de Sarapiqui which lies about twenty kilometers to the south. The bus breaks down less than five minutes after we leave the station. Fortunately, still being so close, we are shuffled onto a new bus within ten minutes, and we continue on our way. One of my favorite drives through the country is the portion of this route that takes us through Braulio Carrillo National Park. The road cuts through the rainforest covered mountains, with one side usually a steep drop off, and the view out of the other side a sheer wall of rainforest that quite often has waterfalls appearing out of nowhere, and then disappearing down under the highway. It really is a beautiful (if not sometimes unnerving) drive. We made our normal stop at the junction of highway 4 and highway 32, at the rest stop across from Rancho Robertos, at which point we grabbed a breakfast of gallo pinto, plantains, and maybe the best chicken empenada that I've ever had. Within 30 minutes after our breakfast we pulled the cord and got off the bus one stop too far, which only meant that we had to walk down the highway for about five minutes to reach the street that the Rara Avis "office" is located on. Agro Sarapiqui (hardware store), Aguila Oro (liquor store), Tica Linda (favorite restaurant owned by my "Tico family"). Already the emotions are welling up. Not in a bad way, or even a sad way, but something extra is there.
Rach and I reached the office and it was just like old times. Berny is there, Danilo arrives shortly afterwards, and Diego is waiting for us with the horses... We have our greetings and brief small talk with the guys, change into our boots (Oh how I missed wearing my boots!) and without wasting another minute of our Rara Avis weekend, we mount up on the horses and start our 15km (10 miles) trek through pastures, secondary forest, and eventually, rainforest. In all of my time spent up there I have never taken a horse. I always see people when they arrive at El Plastico by horse, and do they ever look worn. But in reality it was actually pretty fun! We had to wear helmets, which was nice for me, as my bald head did not get sunburned, but Rachel however, complained that the helmet was too small or her head and hair was too big..something like that :-) Honestly though, she looked pretty cute!
We made it to El Plastico in pretty good time, a little faster than the tractor would of done it, and we manged to stay dry. Ya, like there was any chance of that lasting. Both Juan and Miriam were down the mountain, so it was just us, the dogs, and Ghandi "my" cat up there. After a short rest, we started our hike, all prepared for the inevitable rain, which could later be described as spiteful and unforgiving...or just as a normal afternoon up at Rara Avis :-) We arrived late for lunch, my M.O., and soaked through and through. But we there- back at Rara Avis.
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| Brilliant Forest Frog, Lithobates warszewitschii. This common frog of the forest floor has red thighs with bright yellow spots. |
*On the way up from Plastico I got to play my favorite rainforest game with Rachel, many of you have played it with me before- Spot the venomous snake you just walked right passed. We found an eyelash viper (Bothriechis schlegelii) on the side of the Atajo Trail. It was one of four for the weekend.
We had some lunch, drank some amazing and well deserved coffee, and studied Adilio's toothy grin. Aside from a few physical changes- new signs, the removal of the hummingbird feeders to up the lodge's CST rating (ok, that will be the only political reference for the rest of the blog), Rara Avis was still Rara Avis. We passed the rest of the rainy afternoon in the hotel and around the clearing. There was a gap group up there and an older Italian couple staying as well. The Italians were very interested in frogs. Nelson introduced us, and from then on we spent meal times and photo times with them. After dinner we geared up and went out on a night hike. I had considered taking the group out with us, but in the end I decided to enjoy some personal time with the forest. We were targeting glass frogs and rufous-eyed stream frogs (Duellmanohyla rufioculis) that night. We were successful, only failing to find one of the glass frog species. This was also the first time I got to use my new headlamp- Fenix HP-11. After the caminata noctura, we returned to the dining room for a few minutes before heading to bed.
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| Photo by: Rachel Clarkin-Breslin |
After breakfast we lazily got back into our field clothes and started on a short, but extremely slow-paced hike. We made our way to the mirador, where there was another eyelash viper; a brown one that I've known for more than a year. I always make references to animals being old friends, this one surely was. We sat there for a while talking about the forest, mainly me rambling on with stories from my time spent up there. We decided to continue down the Catarata Trail (Waterfall Trail) for a little longer. We stopped by the Vantanea and the old tree house. If there was a place where I was going to get emotional, this was it. The rest of the hike was nice, slowly making our way down to the first drainage basin of the trail and then back again. Lunch was typical- good food and the onset of the day's rain. After lunch we invited the Italians up to shoot the catches from last night. A lot of photographing and a little more hiking around the clearing pretty much sums up the rest of the afternoon. After dinner we decided on another night hike, but unfortunately things were just against us for that night. I changed the batteries on my brand new headlamp, and it stopped working. Just like that. I got to use it for only one night. At the same time, Rachel started not feeling too well, so we decided to spend that night inside.  |
| Eggs of the Spined Glass Frog, Teratohyla spinosa, are laid on the undersides of leaves, overhanging small fast-flowing streams. Upon hatching, the minute tadpoles slide off the leaf and into the stream below! |
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| Spined Glass Frog, Teratohyla spinosa |
*In this blog I though it would be nice, or maybe interesting, to post some behind-the-scenes shots of the photography. Many of you reading this have spent time with me in the forest, and have already seen the process, but a few of you, who always say such nice things about my photos- Tony, Reebes- might like to see how it's done. I'll load up the end of the post with all the pictures.We were scheduled to leave after breakfast the next morning, but Rachel had gotten sick during the night, so we decided that a horse ride down the mountain might not be the best thing for today. We ended up staying another night, and spent the rest of that day just hanging out on the balcony of the hotel, and taking short walks around the clearing. While on a short hike back down the Catarata trail ( I lost something on the trail earlier) I did manage to find an oddly colored specimen of Drymobius melanotropis. It was grayish-blue on the back, and bright orange/red on it's venter. Normally these snakes are a beautiful green color. Twan has also found a specimen of this snake up at Rara Avis that was not green, but a darker, red/brown color.
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| Lighting issues ruined what could have been a great shot. |
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| Yellow-spotted Tropical Night Lizard Lepidophyma flavimaculatum |
PURA VIDA!
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| Golden-groined Rain Frog, Pristimantis cruentus, Take a close look at those eyes! |
Rufous-eyed Stream frog
Duellmanohyla rufioculis
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| This species is restricted to small rocky streams in mid-elevation premontane rainforests. While their numbers at Rara Avis appear to be stable, suitable habitat in the rest of the country is becoming harder and harder to find. |
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| This frog was placed in a clean drinking glass in order to show the eggs inside. |
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| This shot required using an off-camera flash that was held by Rachel. From behind the leaf, she pointed the flash at the frog and camera. The result was this silhouetted image. |
Behind the Scenes:
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| Here you can see our temporary studio. I often use empty beer bottles to hold branches and leaves in place. This leads to one of the MANY weird looks I receive when I first come to a new station. Tables covered with plastic bags full of snakes and frogs, alongside multiple beer bottles and coffee glasses all with flower stalks and leaves sticking out of them! "Us weirdos gotta stick together"- Rachel Clarkin-Breslin |
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| Rachel holding the Drymobius "still". What you can't hear is my steady stream of profanity directed towards the camera and the snake. |
The setup for the shot
The glass frog, Teratohyla spinosa, was placed on a thin branch supported horizontally by two water filled drinking glasses. The glasses eliminated any shake that would of been present by hand-holding the branch. The idea was to shoot the frog up close with flash and no immediate background, effectively isolating the subject and causing the the background to appear black. The effect of the black background is called flash falloff, it's a neat trick when you want to isolate your subject, or give the illusion of a photo taken at night- which in this case would be natural, as glass frogs are nocturnal.
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| Glass frog natural habitat? |
The shot
This little guy stayed still on the branch just long enough to snap off a couple of shots with different settings. Notice the difference between the first two photos in regards to how much of the frog is in focus. The second picture shows the subject's legs a little more clearly than the first. This was accomplished by using a higher F-stop than the first photo. As to which is better, it is completely a matter of opinion. I personally like the first shot more, as having the legs out of focus helps to draw attention to the frog's head and eyes.
1st photo- f/16, 1/250
2nd photo- f/32, 1/125
The third photo, of just the frog's eyes, is the result of some major cropping of the original file. Cropping to this extent severely reduces the image's quality, making it unsuitable to print (in my opinion), however for the purpose of blowing up the frog's eyes to take a closer look, it's kinda fun :-)
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| The frog's cooperation and patience only lasts for so long. After a few poses for the camera, he made a break for it. |
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