Costa Rica 2012- Pre Trip

Chris and I are going to Costa Rica for 35 days. We don't have much planned concretely but have a general idea of places where we want to go.

We are flying in to San Jose on Nov 2nd. We planned our flight as early as possible since the public transit system ends at around 4:30. Since we arrive at 11am we have time to spend getting to the station and picking up some things we will need.

1) Our first stop is Quepos. Our first night we are staying in a hostel close to the bus station for convenience.  The hostel also has a shuttle to Manuel Antonio National Park where we will be spending at least a day.  Tickets for the park can be bought at COOPEALIANZA offices in Quepos and Manuel Antonio. 

2) Our second stop is further south along the pacific coast. We want to see the Osa  Peninsula and have a few places we could stay nearby.

3) Third Stop is Cahuita National Park. I've been here before and I hope to see eyelash vipers and swim the reefs again.

4) COTERC biological station- We will be volunteering at the COTERC field station for two weeks. They are doing research on comparing reptile and amphibian abundance in dry vs wet habitats that we will be assisting with as well as other projects.

5) Monte Verde is one of the most popular eco-tourism sites in Costa Rica. Here I hope to see the quetzales again. I have never had the pleasure of spending more than a few hours in this park and I feel like it is one that I could spend more than one day in so I am excited to visit it again.

I don't know how often I will be posting but I'll try to keep somewhat up to date while I'm down there.

Cheers!

Hamilton Orchid Show- Royal Botanical Gardens

 We arrived at the botanical gardens half an hour before the orchid show and took a short stroll around the Mediterranean garden. Some were new and interesting things from Eastern Australia.

Crimson Bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus)

 And others were familiar cultivars or american species.

Bird of Paradise

 This natal plum sp. is one I have commonly seen in Central American countries. It is a very fragrant shrub.

Natal Plum (Carissa macrocarpa)

 This is a unique miniature Agave which I quite admired in the less than healthy cactus gardens.

Miniature Agave

 Some of the cacti looked significantly more scarey than others to come in contact with. This one intrigued me a lot because its spines actually do look like fish hooks! You could grow this and use the spines for fishing. I wonder if anyone has ever tried it...

Fishhook Barrel Cactus

And then 11:30 came when we were allowed to go into the orchid show.Naturally we went into the sales area first. I highly recommend this at any orchid show you ever go to because good plants sell out fast!

Phalaenopsis  are one of the most common orchids and you can buy them in grocery stores and superstores like walmart on a regular basis. They come in a huge variety of colours but mostly commonly range from purple to white.

Phalaenopsis orchid

The one orchid I bought was a huge purple cattleya in great shape and just opening for the show. In my experience it is rare for the large cattleyas to be fragrant but this one was mildly so.

The best company I have found for cattleyas (my favorite flower) is Crystal Star Orchids near Toronto. Every orchid show I end up buying one of their plants.

Oncidium- Sharry Baby

After walking around the sales area multiple times and talking to sellers. It was time to check out the displays. These displays are put together by the sellers or by orchid societies to show off their plants and win ribbons or awards.

Paphiopedilum - Screaming Eagle (CCM/AOS)

Dendrobium

This unusual orchid (Habenaria) was one of my favorites at the show. Although not as large or showy as others this one was quite stunning and spectacular.

Habenaria myriotricha

There were a few sp. that I can't remember the names of but don't think should be left out.

And other species which I recognized from my travels in Central America. This Lady of the night although quite dull in colour smells quite nice to attract pollinators.

Lady of the night (B. nudosa)

Some orchids were quite tiny...

Orpha radican (CCM/AOS)

Wils Lisa Devoes

Orchids have a tremendous amount of variation in the flower morphology (basically what the flowers look like) and another one that amazed me was the catasetum orchids.

Catasetum -Alan's Wine (Marsh Hollow)

Catasetum

There were many bright coloured orchids that you could see from across the room even.Chief Orange was one of those for sure. This orchid was in Crystal Star Orchids' display and my mother bought it. Sellers can sell from their displays but you need to arrange to pick things up at the end of the show or after the show because the displays must remain there for the entire weekend.

Pot. Chief Orange

 This was the oddest mini Phalaenopsis I had ever seen....

Phalaenopsis Mini

Cattleya guttata

C. Fort Motte 'Leopard'

Phragmipediums- Sunset Glow

 Another plant m mother walked out with was a very fragrant orchid. This orchid you could smell across the room and it was wonderful. The flowers were fairly large and dark in colour but not too showy.

Cycnodes - Wine Delight (J.E.M. FCC/AOS)

Dendrobium bigibbum

 These Phalaenopsis just looked very photogenic with that lateral line right down the middle. I have seen a lot of odd colours in this type of orchid but this was a first. The plant was also very well trained. By this I mean you can make the plant grow a certain way so that it is more appealing.

Phalaenopsis

 My favorite miniature cattleya was unfortunately part of an orchid society display. In this case the display is put together by people from the society contributing their own plants. I have never encountered someone who wanted to sell any from these displays.

Cattleya- Otaara Caecean X Peggy Sam

Cattleya- Otaara Caecean X Peggy Sam

 The last orchid that I was fascinated with was Bulbophyllum rothschildianum 'Red Chimney'. It looked like very skinny fuzzy drooping hearts.

Bulbophyllum rothschildianum 'Red chimney' (FCC/AOS)

The Orchid Show in Ottawa is the beginning of may and it is quite a bit larger than the Hamilton one. I had never been to it in Hamilton which is held in the fall. It did allow me to see a few unique species which I have never seen at the spring show.

Bulbophyllum rothschildianum 'Red chimney' (FCC/AOS)

The road home from S. Illinois

We took the scenic route home and tried to check out a place a local herper told us would be good for red milksnakes. The day was sunny and the road must have been a great basking site because we saw more dead on the road snakes than anything else. This included cottonmouth, watersnakes and a gorgeous red milk snake right where the local told us they'd be.

The first live snake we saw was a black rat snake in between juvenile and adult colouration. It  was right on the side of the road so we had a nice chance to get some pictures with this very docile snake.

Photos of the Black Rat Snake

Black Rat Snake (Pantherophis obsoletus) and I

A quick pull off to an abandoned road led out to a nice small lake where we saw our last herps of the weekend. Turtles were basking in the sunlight on the large logs that were near the shoreline.

Butterflies were out enjoying the fall wildflowers as we packed back into the car and headed home. This question mark caught my eye.  They are quite spectacular and fairly common in North America.

Question Mark Butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis)

Heron pond and the tracks

Our second day there was equally as cold but at least sunny.  Heading over to heron pond  we  had more of a turtle day than anything else. Flipping logs in the forest just produced some interesting invertebrates but no amphibians or reptiles.

Male Bess Beetle

Male and female bess beetles

River cooters and red-earned sliders were plentiful along the large slow moving rivers in the area.  They all seamed to be enjoying the sunshine just like we were. 

Red-eared sliders and River Cooters

 Eastern box turtles are well designed for life on land and under water.  Hinged plastrons allow them to hide fully into their shell. Unfortunately this is exactly what they do when they get picked up. Waiting half an hour didn't get this adult turtle out of it's shell more than this much.

Easterern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)

 This is a great defense mechanism against their natural predators but won't do them much good against cars on the road.

Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)

Search for the elusive mud snake continued for hours. Other groups reported marbled and mole salamanders but flipping logs only found us more Bess beetles.

Heading to the railroad tracks in hopes of better luck with amphibians we struck out. Our only savior was a fence lizard and a few ground skinks. 

Fence Lizard Underside (Sceloporus undulatus)

Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)

Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)

 ... and the day ended as the trip began with an adorable northern cricket frog- this one in a green phase.

Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)

Sometimes the nicests destinations are quite a journey

This weekend involved one of the longest drives I have ever trekked to go camping. I was either on the road driving or trying to sleep while other drove the 20 or so hours from Ottawa to Southern Illinois. We arrived at Pine Hills Campground very early in the morning.

Car issues caused us to miss half of our first day of herping,  however determined as we always are we searched nearby our campsite while we waited. Two amphibian species were discovered within 5 minutes of our campsite.

Walking in a small runoff ditch just bordering our campsite we found a Northern Cricket Frog. This was hopeful and after a few (maybe a bit of an underestimation) pictures we moved down to lower on this runoff ditch to where it meets up with a small creek. 

Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)

 The small creek was very low in terms of water level but had a lot of large flat stones and some smaller gravel. Flipping the two largest flat rocks we could find led to the discovery of two adult long tailed salamanders.

Long Tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda)

Long Tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda)

Long Tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda)

Long Tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda)

 Car issues fixed we headed to Snake Road with new enthusiasm. Reports from fellow herpetologists on the road didn't sound to great since very little had been seen due to cold weather.  Our determination and the fact we had traveled so far meant that we looked anyways.

Along the cliff face we searched every small crack we could find for small bright salamanders that would be crawling over the moss if it was a night of warm rain. After a decent search we finally found one hiding in a very small crack.

Members of our group who had been to the road for many years before me showed us the famous cottonmouth dens where they had reported snakes in the 400's before. Today we saw very few and they were further back in the den.

Searching more on the ridge I hiking on and on loosing the rest of my group. I found another cottonmouth in a flat rock out-cropping. Deeper into the den was a lighter snake with dark bands. Yes my first Timber Rattlesnake. I couldn't contain myself and within seconds I was radioing my fellow herpers to report the sighting and blowing a whistle so they could find me on the hill.  They complained about the long uphill trek but were silenced by the discovery of three timbers and three cottonmouths sharing a den.

Radio communication did come in handy multiple times over the weekend and a large group of 22 of us were bound to find many things while off on our own. A groups report of a copperhead sent us running and we caught up to a juvenile surrounded by at least 20 people taking pictures of it.

Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)

Juvenile copperhead showing green tail

Escaping from the crowds we headed further down the road and found a central newt and a zigzag salamander under logs. Central newts are a sub-species (if you believe in those things) of the Eastern newt that I have seen many times in Ontario.

Central Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens louisianensis)

The idea of sub species was hotly debated over the weekend and brought up multiple times within the crowd.  In order to count a new sighting... I'm gonna say this ones valid.

We overhear a radio call "Red milksnake further down the road" and well to put it mildly booked it following this guy we didn't know to a large bluff where the juvenile milksnake had been climbing the cliff face.

Red Milksnake (Lampropeltis triangulum)

Red Milksnake (Lampropeltis triangulum)

 Our friend Steve Pike whose car unfortunately broke down was out picking it up and nearly missed his target snake for the weekend. Luckily he got back in time and the snake was still around.

Luckily we all got nice pictures of this little one

Zigzag salamanders look very similar to a common Ontario species so finding one was a bit confusing at first but range maps came in handy showing that red-backed salamanders don't actually make it into southern Illinois.

Zigzag salamander (Plethodon ventralis)

How can you look into those eyes and not say "awwwe"

 Our last herp for the day was another lifer for me since I restarted my life list two years ago. Two ground skinks were seen in the leaf litter around the bottom of the large bluff. One was missing it's tail showing that it had a close escape from a predator this year.

Ground Skink (Scincella lateralis)

Growing back the tail lost to a predator