The next morning we got a little more acquainted with Ranch Naturalista. It is a small family-run lodge with a main lodge and several other guest buildings. A gorgeous view can be seen out of the second floor balcony of the main lodge. It looks out over the country side and fruit feeding stations. On the ceiling perimeter are hummingbird feeders which attract a large variety of hummingbirds although several species seem to avoid them and prefer the natural flowers around the lodge.
 |
The lodge raises as much of its own food as possible and also has a daily recycling service.
|
 |
| The rainforest night life is awesome. A sheet with a light attracts many insects which in turn attracts birds in the morning. |
Hummingbirds start working the feeders before 6 AM followed soon by the fruit feeders.
 |
| A banana stealing squirrel |
 |
| Grey-headed Chachalaca |
 |
| Brown Jay |
An English photography group of a dozen members arrived in the afternoon and immediately set up two multi-flash units in the coveted balcony area where the hummingbird traffic was heavy. After an hour the leader came down and said they could not get rid of "ghosting". This causes images to have several ghost like images along with the main image and is usually caused by not setting all your flashes at the same power. I gave him my settings and he later came down and said the problem was fixed. He said they hadn't practiced any multi-flash techniques before they left England because there were no hummingbirds to practice on.
After lunch I lost my assistant who wanted to take a cooking class. Edie learned how to make "gallo pinto" and fried plaintains. Both are Costa Rican staples. I am sure the Sunday dinner crew will benefit this summer at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment