On the 3rd of Feb. Carlos, Jeimy, Rosy and I visited Carara national park, which is arguably the most productive single destination for birds in Costa Rica. Because of the ferry schedule we could not get to the park until around 9am…far past the optimum time for birding. Even still, I managed to get 16 life birds (for those of you who don’t know, a “lifebird” is a species that you have never seen before) We even found a non-bird species, a life-mammal if you will! I guess since it flies it can be on the blog. I used my iphone to take this video by holding it up to my spotting scope, which to a birder is like the light-saber to the Jedi.
Birding in such a lush rainforest was incredible, the giant trees and massive canopy meant that little light hit the forest floor, making the understory vegetation less thick then some areas and easier to spot birds. I did not bring my camera for I find it a burden to bring on trips where life birds are to be seen in abundance. I want to savor these moments of discovery as for a birder they come only once. To explain it a bit better i’d like to share a section of a book that I am reading called “The Feather Quest”…
“Every identification made is quietly woven into the net of your birding skills - the net that birders use to seine the world around them. At first your net is small and the mesh wide. It catches only the large and obvious birds. Experience increases the dimensions and tightens the mesh, catching birds that inexperienced birders miss. These nets knit of skill make it unnecessary to puzzle over common, everyday birds that fall into the net, and these may be jettisoned out of hand, leaving the net free to catch “better” birds.
This is the break point, the point where bird-watching ends and birding begins. From this junction on, the focus on birds becomes more of a test of skills and less an esthetic pursuit. Each warbled taunt from the foliage, each wheeling silhouette against a cloud, is a challenge, a glove thrown, a target for a birder’s net. Each bird correctly identified by sight or sound becomes a token of a birders growing skill (and another strand in the net).
There is a price, of course. As skills grow, the sense of wonder that supports beginning birders diminishes. What replaces it is discovery. Wonder is something a child can hold in it’s hand, a feather or a bird fallen from the nest. Discovery is a prize garnered by ambition and skill. It is not as great as wonder. But it is very close, and it is also very addictive. Once a birder has a taste for it, there is only one thing that can satisfy the craving. And that is more.
More birds. More challenges to test growing skills. More discoveries to satisfy a growing need. The drive for more means that every cast of a birders net must always be thrown with greater skill (or it gathers no new discoveries). When all the birds of a backyard or a country or a state have been gathered, it means that the net must be thrown into new seas (or the birds it gathers are always the same). For some birders, whose skills are very great and whose net has been cast in every imaginable sea, every throw becomes a cast for birds that lie at the limit of possibility, becomes a throw for the horizon”
The above passage describes with perfect eloquence what it is to be a birder and how the pursuit changes with experience. The first throw of one’s net into the wilds of Carara national park is an experience that will happen only once, for it cannot be repeated. The new birds it retrieves are to be experienced in a way that is not tarnished by an eagerness to capture the moment. Birding is not only about “finding birds” it is about discovery. The birds are only the gatekeepers.
Even still, I couldn’t help but take a quick video of these Rufous tailed jacamars! They may look like hummingbirds to you but they are actually the size of a robin. They scan around the forest for insects and small lizards to eat, too cool!
As far as bird photography goes, I had a challenging encounter with a turquoise browed motmot. The bird chose an exposed perch in the shade of a palm tree. To make matters even worse the sun was almost set and the sky was cloudy. All this meant little light available for the fast shutter speeds needed to make sharp bird photographs. The first thing I did was make a silhouette shot, this was easier because I could underexpose the image to create the silhouette, therefore getting a faster shutter speed.
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| Turquoise-browed motmot silhouette |
I really liked the composition of the scene and I wanted an image where the bird and background were properly exposed, more of a “typical” bird photo. This meant that I would have to allow much more light into the camera. The amount of light that enters the camera is a matter of how long your shutter is open for. In order to make a proper exposure in these conditions my shutter speed needed to be 1/50th of a second. That may sound fast, but keep in mind the most of my images are created at 1/500th or faster and those in-flight images of seabirds were around 1/1600th. Birds are fast and even a bird perched on a branch is constantly moving it’s head or changing the set of it’s feathers. Camera shake affects most images at anything lower then around 1/500th and can be caused my many different things. I had a tripod, which I used, but at 1/50th of a second even the force of my finger squeezing the shutter release will blur the photo. So I did something I have ever done before, I used a timer. Just like you use for that family vacation photo. I composed the shot, hit the shutter and waited 10 painful seconds, all while hoping the bird would stay still enough to make a sharp exposure…this lovely bird allowed me to do this three times and only one frame was sharp enough to my tastes.
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| Pushing the limits with a co-operative motmot |
On the bird-feeding front, we have set-up the platforms at Tambor tropical. The carpenters made five of these and did some really great work. I am hoping that they are as effective as they are aesthetically pleasing. So far I have seen Tennessee warbler, yellow warbler and Hoffman’s woodpecker visit the oranges.
The birdbath has been set-up for almost a week now and holding to the theme of this blog post it was visited by a turquoise browed motmot this morning! There was also a tropical kingbird perched at the same time. I did some research and got some great advice via e-mail from Alan Murphy, arguable the greatest bird photographer in the world. He suggested planting a “corridor” of vegetation from the woods out to the bath, and planting some shrubs around it. This will give the birds some cover to hide in, as they will not bath in the open without having something close by to dive into at the first sign of danger. My hummingbird feeders have been vacant despite the constant humming overhead. Right now there is a lot of flowering trees and I hope that once the flowers are gone they will be more apt to pull up for a drink.
Things have been slow to transpire but I am confident that these techniques will lead to some great opportunities down the road. I big hello to everyone back home, thanks for the kind e-mails and enthusiastic comments. I love to hear your feedback as quite often my own judgement of an image is made biased by my experience taking it. If a particular image stands out to you i'd like to hear about it and the reasons why. You can send me an email (nickjameshawkins@gmail.com) or even comment on facebook, your input is greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
-Nick
Carara Lifebirds – February 3rd, 2012
Cocoa woodcreeper
Long-billed gnatwren
Dotted-winged antwren
Royal flycatcher
Black-hooded antshrike
Chestnut-backed antbird
Wedge-billed woodcreeper
Orange collared manakin
Whiskered puffbird
Blue crowned motmot
Blue-throated goldentail
Black necked stilt
Sulphur rumped atilla
Amazon kingfisher
Rufous tailed jacamar
Three wattled bellbird (heard but not seen)
Counting the 4 additional species I found this morning; banded wren, northern scrub flycatcher, Cavinet’s emerald and steely vented hummingbird, this brings my Costa Rican bird list to a total of 172 species. But who’s counting?
