Recent Adventures

Hummers at “The Pools”

Rancho Naturalista, in the foothills near the Turrialba Volcano, proves to be one of the highlights of our trip. We are a bit dismayed when we arrive to find out that part of the lodge has been booked by a high-powered hummingbird workshop from California; and they have all their multiple-flash setups on the main balcony, which is typically the best shooting location. We’re concerned this will limit our chance to get good photographs, but the owner, Cathy Erb, graciously invites us to photograph the hummers from the porch of her beautiful little cabin near the lodge.

Costa Rica Adventure Part II: Rancho Naturalista

What a lucky break that turns out to be. The hummers love the feeders on Cathy’s porch, and with trees close to the porch we can take feeder and perch shots to our hearts content. After we’ve all taken our “safety shots” we move on to the more challenging task of trying to photograph hummers in flight.

Cathy has a beautiful pot of Fuchsia on the porch and we all delight in catching the hummingbirds feeding off the flowers. Our extra bonus is the Collared Aracari pair that feed on berries in the trees in front of Cathy’s cabin.

The lodge itself is beautifully laid out and Cathy and the staff are extremely hospitable. We notice a laundry basket in the corner of our room and think it would be an appropriate place to store our several days of dirty laundry until we have a chance to wash it. To our surprise it is washed and folded for us when we return to the room after our shooting session that day. Even with three days at Rancho, it is tough to find time to fit it all in.

While Steve and I trek up to the woodland feeders to photograph the beautiful Snowcap hummingbird found only in this region, Rebecca photographs a nesting pair of Kisskadee feeding their young in a palm by the lodge. Cindy, Lee and Barbara are also out exploring. They come back with photographs of hummingbirds from their balcony as well as Blue-gray, Passerini’s and Palm Tanagers, Aracari, Montezuma Oropendola, Gray-headed Chachalaca, and even a Baltimore Oriole extending his vacation in the South.

My most memorable experience is photographing the hummers at “the pools.” Paulo tells us that late in the afternoon we might find hummers bathing in a series of small pools at the bottom of a steep ravine. He warns us that the hummers at the pools are not habituated to humans, and we will need to stay well back from the pools if we don’t want to spook them. We hike up the mountain trail and make our way down the treacherous slippery slope of the ravine to the stream, set up our cameras, and wait. Steve sets up on one of the upper pools, Rebecca and Cindy take the middle pools, and I take the lower pool. Because we are in a ravine under the forest canopy, light conditions are not ideal. As the clouds move in and the sun gets lower on the horizon, the light begins to dim even more. I am shooting with a 500mm f4 plus 1.4x teleconverter (with an effective focal length of 1050mm on my D100), and begin to doubt my ability to get decent shots of fast moving hummingbirds in such low light. I will definitely need fill flash, so I set up my flash on the 500mm using a Kirk telephoto flash bracket and Better Beamer flash extender, and check the flash exposure in the LCD of my D100.

We sit and wait for what seems like a long time, with the light continuing to get dimmer. Finally there is a flurry of flashes from the upper pool where Steve is set up. When the salvo ends, Steve and Cindy start trying to decide what species of hummingbird Steve was photographing. White breast and belly, green back, black mask, purple head . . . they can’t come up with a positive ID. This happens several more times while I patiently wait for one of the hummers to visit the lower pool. Finally, Steve graciously volunteers to switch pools with me. I decline at first, but after several more salvos of flashes from the upper pool, and still no visit to the lower, I accepted his offer. As luck would have it, immediately after I set up on the upper pool, there is a flurry of shooting from Steve’s direction down on the lower pool. I’m not getting lucky today.

Finally, I get my chance. A hummer zips down the ravine, dips into the pool for a split second and is gone. I didn’t even have a chance to get my eye to the viewfinder. A Woodnymph, I think. A few minutes later I spot our mysterious purple-crowned visitor zipping towards the upper pool. Dip, dip, dip, dip, dip . . . five dives from about three feet off the water in less than 5 seconds and he’s gone. Autofocus didn’t stand a chance. I pre-focus on the point were he’d gone in the water. A few minutes later, our “one dip” Woodnymph zips in and is gone. No shot again. Purple-crowned . . . dip, dip, flash, dip, flash, dip, gone. I review my shots on the LCD and have two empty frames. Light is getting really dim now. Woodnymph . . . dip, flash . . . I got him! Oh what a beautiful picture!

Purple-crowned mystery hummer . . . flash, flash, flash, flash, flash! First frame there’s a splash with water droplets still in the air but no bird in the frame! Second frame—missed, third frame—I got him DIVING head first inches from the water! Not quite tack sharp, but then again, I think he was moving at about mach one; and I was shooting at 1/60 of a second. Now that I’ve finally gotten the hang of it, it’s getting too dark to see. I want to come back tomorrow, but we’re leaving for Savegre in the morning.

Back at the lodge, we talk to the other group of photographers who were set up on the balcony. A few hummers came to the feeders, but action was slow. Our group meets for a delicious dinner served family-style, and Paulo identifies our mysterious visitor as a Purple-crowned Fairy, unique to this region of Costa Rica and only seen at “the pools.” We retire for the night, giddy from the afternoon adventure. The next morning, we leave Rancho feeling like we’ve made new friends of the owners and staff; and we’re already talking about returning next year.

White-necked Jacobin on Fuscia

Collared Aracari, Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica

Green Thorntail, Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica

Violet-crowned Woodnymph

At “The Pools,” Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica

Purple-Crowned Fairy

At “The Pools,” Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica