Category Archive

A cute White-faced Capuchin last month in Costa Rica.

One of four Harris’s hawks visiting us at the Desert Photo Retreat yesterday. It is fun watching these cooperative hunters!

What was really interesting, these hawks like to bath in my water hole. This is about 30 feet from one of my feeders, and the hawks presence has no effect on the bird activity at the feeders. In fact, there were some birds visiting the water hole within a few feet of the hawks. Now has these been a bird killing raptor such as a sharp-shinned or coopers, it would have been lights out as the birds all fled for their lives. It in interesting how they can tell the difference.

I still haven’t had a chance to share any photo from my second Costa Rica photo tour – a tour that was just as productive as my first. So hopefully you won’t mind more Costa Rica photos!

A howler monkey with a mouth full of a leaf.

White-faced Capuchin monkey. So cute! Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica.

Red-eyed tree frog, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica.

I had been keen to visit another lodge on the coast about an hour from where we are staying because they showed photos of the great curassow – a bird I thought was really striking! Fortunately, we found a couple of pairs last week here on the Osa Peninsula! The Merlin app considers this a rare bird. The male has the black head and yellow beak; the female is brown.

White-faced capuchin monkeys grooming each other. Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

On one of the first days of my last photo tour, we had stopped and were photographing a troop of howler monkeys, when one guest noticed a baby on the ground on the opposite side of the road.

The little guy kept trying to climb up to it’s mom, who was watching from high above, but the only tree on that side of the road had a large diameter which prevented it from being able to hold on. In one image, you can see the poor guy falling. There was a recent exception, but howler monkeys won’t risk going to the ground to rescue a baby. Sadly, they will abandon it.

So in stepped our amazing local guide, Eduardo, who found a suitable sized branch. The scared little guy seemed to realize this was his only hope, so he climbed on and Eduardo carried it across the road and placed it up into the tree where the little guy was able to reunite with it mother. We were all so glad this had a happy ending!

If these kinds of adventures interest you, we still have space on next year’s trip: Costa Rica Photo Tour.