Costa Rica 2014: Part 4 Finca Kubicki and the CRARC

You can see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 here.


Our last night was spent at the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center, owned and operated by Brian Kubicki and his family. Finca Kubicki has a very large number of frogs documented, and some of them are quite rare. You can stay there in a cozy casita for a very reasonable rate, and get guided hikes of the property. He has quite the eye and ear for amphibians, and knows his property very well. It would have been great to explore this two nights and not try to cram so much into one night. A huge thanks to Brian for going on a marathon slog with us!

Shortly into our hike, we started finding the herps.

Smilisca phaeota

We were a bit higher in elevation than La Selva, and there was a new Craugastor in town.

Isla Bonita Robber Frog Craugastor crassidigitus

The Tink Frogs were calling, Diasporus diastema

Some of the streams through the property contained a new species for us - Rainforest Rocket Frog Silverstoneia flotator tadpoles. I would have really enjoyed seeing an adult of this species, as they are quite striking.

We started to explore some streams and seepages along the Siquirres River, and more new frogs started to show up. Let there be glass frogs!

White-spotted Cochran Frog Sachatamia albomaculata. I wish I had photographed this frog better.

I cut my photosession short because I got distracted looking into these ghostly eyes.

Limon Giant Glass Frog, otherwise known as Ghost Glass Frog Sachatamia ilex

Palmer's Treefrog Hyloscirtus palmeri was next. This was a very uniquely shaped frog in my opinion, it's smile is endearing.

Amplectic Pristimantis cruentas

More Pristimantis cruentas

Pristimantis ridens

We were following the trail and I happened to glance to my right, noticing a head perched on top of a leaf, facing away from me.  It was about 10-15 yards off try. Pays to get lucky sometimes.

Eyelash Viper Bothriechis schlegelii

I mentioned some camera issues I had earlier. These had persisted, and I managed to just work around them. Often I was shooting without the use of my LCD to review shots, not a huge deal. Photographing this eyelash, one of Carl's Canon flashes seemed to be having major fits. The humidity really rips through camera gear. Having spent much of the week fighting through issues, I felt bad Carl had to go through a similar experience.

We turned up a couple of these awesome frogs throughout the night. This became another one of my favorites of the trip.

Rufous-eyed Brook Frog Duellmanohyla rufioculis

Another palmers.

And another.

Most of the hike we were finding frogs left and right. There were some slower times as we moved to different areas though, and we all enjoyed picking Kubicki's brain on his knowledge of his land the the herps on it. My brother was still dreaming about ugly water snakes, and Kubicki had mentioned he saw them fairly frequently in the smaller streams. Not too long after...

Costa Rica Water Snake Hydromorphus concolor. Brian was ecstatic.

Another Nothopsis rugosus was spotted crossing the trail. A week ago, we didn't even know the snake existed, and now we had seen two.

I believe this is a good looking Craugastor crassidigitus

We saw a few of yet another glassfrog species - The La Palma Glass Frog Hyalinobactrachium valerioi. They liked to call from the underside of leaves.

The frog bonanza continued. Lancaster's Treefrog Isthmohyla lancasteri was really stinking cool. Metallic looking.

We heard another species of glassfrog - Grainy Cochran Frog Cochranella granulosa, and saw an eggmass, but never saw an adult.

A Blunthead Tree Snake Imantodes cenchoa turned up along the trail.

We reached a section of the preserve where the Lemur Leaf Frog, Agalychnis lemur, was more common. A number of them turned up fairly quickly.

Our first Splendid Leaf Frog Cruziohyla calcarifer at CRARC also turned up in this area.

More lemur. Where do they get the name?

Brian Kubicki continued his quest of finding us new frogs and spotted this Gliding Tree Frog Agalychnis spurrelli from very far away. It was a huge frog with giant webbed hands and feet.

The strawberry poison dart frogs looked a little different here compared to La Selva.

By this time we had been at it for many hours. It was very late, and we were all starting to drag a bit. Every turn in the trail held something new though, and more opportunities for pictures. Some small ponds held a few more species we did not see along the streams and seepages.

Hourglass Tree Frog Dendropsophus ebraccatus

This Leptodeira septentrionalis was hunting in the vegetation the hourglass tree frogs were hanging out in.

We had been looking for salamanders all over La Selva, and we were pretty excited to have a decent shot at them here. It took almost all night, but we finally saw a few.

Cukra Climbing Salamander Bolitoglossa striatula

Another pond had yet more amphibian and reptile life.

A wary Kinosternum leucostomum

Mahogany Tree Frog Tlacohyla loquax

And the other salamander species. We found two of these salamanders getting very close to our lodging for the night.

La Loma Salamander Bolitoglossa colonnea

We made a last ditch, half asleep effort for Anotheca spinosa without success. Check it out if you have never heard of it before. A super cool frog. I guess you can't see everything in one night. We thanked Brian Kubicki for his wonderful hospitality and for sharing his knowledge. Although exhausted, we made time to enjoy a last cerveza or two. The alarms were set for early that morning, with the plan of dropping Brian at a bus stop halfway back to La Selva, and then Carl and I continuing on through the mountains and to the rental car return. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I have our final species count for the 6 days at 72. We had some overlap in species between La Selva and CRARC, but in our one marathon night at Finca Kubicki we saw 43 species! It was a great end to the trip.

Brian made it back to La Selva safely the next day after we said our goodbyes. He would still have 5 more months in Costa Rica. Carl and I navigated the mountain passes without any delays from mudslides and got our car turned back in easily. I always try and choose to not lose a night by staying in San Jose the night prior to flights out, but it invites a certain amount of risk going through the mountains the morning of your departure. Luckily, this has not been an issue on my trips so far.

The trip was a huge success. We got to visit Brian, get a feel for some of his research, and saw many of our targets. It was great to "get the gang back together". I hope we can continue to schedule trips every year or two as we have been doing. I am sure Costa Rica will be in our future again.

BH

You can see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 here.

Costa Rica 2014: Part 2 More La Selva and Plenty of Glass Frogs

You can see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 here.

Carl and I set out on a short hike to look for lizards while Brian worked on his project. Carl managed to flip this racer checking under a piece of a fallen log.

Another Dendrophidian sp (likely percarinatus?). This one was much larger than the snake last night.

We saw many Central American Whiptails Ameiva festiva active around us. I even photographed a little one.

We got decent looks at a Slaty-tailed Trogon? Trogon massena

In a small clearing in the forest created by a tree fall, we spotted a Norops limifrons. It took some balance to photograph it.

We turned up a Tularan Robber Frog Craugastor mimus.

We joined Brian for a nice lunch and headed out to one of his study plots after. Unfortunately, it poured on us shortly after arriving. Nice reminder we are in a rain forest.

Pug-nosed Anole Norops capito

Limon Robber Frog Pristimantis cerasinus

Litter Toad Rhaebo haematicus

Brian finished up his plots and we headed back to dry out for the afternoon, recharge some batteries and get a nice hot meal. From here on Carl and I opted to drive to dinner. We were hiking significant distances from the lab clearing out into the forest, and managing our time for that. We also were enjoying a brew or three after returning back from our night hikes with other researchers. By the time we would set out on the long hike to our cabin from the lab clearing it would often be extremely late and night and our energy levels were on empty. We figured we could spend more time in the main forest and then get back to our cabin faster by car to turn in for the night.

On the way to a froggy spot after the fall of night, we noticed one of the La Selva guards hanging out in the lab clearing. Brian jokingly asked him there was snake. He moved his flashlight and we saw this curled right by the path.

Fer-de-lance Bothrops asper

We had a hiked a way back, and turned off the main trail to head to our spot to search for the night. Right after turning, one of us noticed a small snake crawling between the feet of the first person. We had no idea what it was at first, which is usually a very exciting thing!

Rugose Litter Snake Nothopsis rugosus

The snake was really interesting to look at. Upon close examination, you could see tons of small scales along its head. It was a very different appearing snake.

This night was starting off pretty darn good! I was very excited to be able to see and photograph more Corytophanes. Brian and I had only seen one in my first trip in 2010 and it was after my camera had died from the moisture. Carl also tends to be a big lizard fan, and it was a species we really wanted him to be able to see.

Helmeted Iguana Corytophanes cristatus

The frogs were out en masse.

Fitzinger's Robber Frog Craugastor fitzingeri

After descending down, we had started working the start of the glassfrog stream. I was photographing a pretty neat frog when Brian called out that he had something we probably wanted to see. If we could find it. It took us a while to spot it.

Eyelash Viper Bothriechis schlegelii

It was a first for Carl and I, and we took many pictures.

I went back to photographing my frog. It wasn't nearly as cool anymore. It was a little Pristmantis cruentas.

But these guys are always cool. Warszewitsch's Frog Lithobates warszewitschii

And then the glass frogging began. We saw over 10 of these.

Spiny Cochran Frog Teratohyla spinosa

And even a pair in amplexus

The Emerald Glass Frogs Espadarana prosoblepon were also out and calling. We saw four of these tonight, as well as 1 amplectic pair.

Hiking back to the start of the streams, Brian usually discussed other species he hoped would show up during his surveys. He mentioned he really wanted to see one of the water loving niche snakes, such as the Costa Rican Water Snake Hydromorphus concolor or the Orange-bellied Swamp Snake Tretanorhinus nigroluteus. I guess the crayfish biologist sometimes find them in similar streams during their surveys.  Anyway, Brian was dreaming of future catches when Carl saw a flash of color and yelled "CORAL!!!" We all converged quickly and were elated to see a nice sized Allen's Coral Snake Micrurus alleni. It was very difficult to photograph.

The hike out we saw a Fer-de-lance Bothrops asper. I was unable to get pics, read on find out why.

At this point, the humidity again got to my camera. Pardon my rant.

When my Nikon D200 died in 2012 I had been awaiting a never announced Nikon D400 for years. It has still yet to arrive. Not fully committed to full frame, (I refuse to play your full frame upgrade game Nikon) I downgraded in some features to the Nikon D7000. It had much newer tech, a nice new sensor and fit my hand surprisingly better. It is a better camera just because of sensor technology in the many years that had passed. BUT, it does not have Nikon's pro weather sealing. Is it too much to ask for a pro-level crop DSLR with weather sealing Nikon? Clearly wildlife photography needs this. Canon has answered with the 7D and now 7D2 but Nikon continues to keep it's head in the sand. All along, knowing the type of use I would subject my camera to, this has been a concern. Well two years after purchasing, it crapped out. My concerns were realized. The camera became stuck in Liveview mode, and would also not take any pictures. I stuck it in a dry bag with silicon packets. Later that night after much troubleshooting, I figured out that if I popped the battery out while the camera was on, and then place the battery back in, the camera would be on but in an error mode. I could then press the shutter release, and the camera would function in normal mode, but now my LCD review would not work. I could shoot blind, similar to the dark ages of film, but without the instant review or histogram access. I was elated I could still shoot though! After a few hours of keeping the camera on in this mode, the LCD would start to work again, and I could review the pictures from hours earlier. If I turned the camera off at all, this whole process would start again. The trip was not ruined, but how long would it last like this?

The rest of the hike out was fairly uneventful. We may have just been too exhausted to notice anything though. Our nightly ritual became convening in the lab clearing near Brian's office and shariing a brew (usually Pilsen) with other researchers on some hammocks and rocking chairs.  We were doing this tonight when one of the girls started to walk back to her room. She yelled snake a few yards away and crossing the path we saw this.

False Coral Snake Oxyrhopus petolarius 

We eventually called it a night and wearily stumbled to our car. On the short drive back to our cabin, Carl and I did roadcruise a new species for the trip though.

Canal Zone Treefrog Hypsiboas rufitelus

What a couple days in the field... More to follow!

BH

You can see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 here.