Tag Archives: crocodiles

Brightly Colored Crab

Today I’m going to post a slide show of some images from our Tárcoles River expedition.  On this week’s Fun Photo Friday you’ll see some of my favorite shots as well as a nice little video, which includes a rather hair-raising clip of hand-feeding a very large American crocodile, and kissing it right on its very prominent, teeth-laden snout.  Until then, click on any image below to enlarge the image and bring up today’s slide show:

Tárcoles River

Lone Bird on Shore

Tárcoles River

Frigatebirds

American Crocodile

Treed

Tárcoles River

Frigatebirds

Tárcoles River

Finger Eatin’ Good!

The above picture should give a at least an indication of just how big these American crocodiles get along the Tárcoles River!  This fellow was huge!  But he was also very old and pretty slow, thank goodness.  On Friday you’ll see a video of him being hand-fed, and even kissed on the snout.

Here, even the termite nests are incredible:

Termite Nest

You’ve already had a sampling of the great birding available to visitors of the Tárcoles River jungle, and here’s a shot of some pterodactyl-looking frigatebirds in flight:

Frigatebirds

The vegetation along the Tárcoles River is yet another photographic draw.  There are mangroves:

Mangrove

And there are enormous and very regal looking lone trees shading the shoreline:

Tárcoles River

Tárcoles River

Of course the river itself holds a lot of interest for the lens, as well:

Tárcoles River

Tárcoles River

Great Egret

The Tárcoles River must be a birder’s paradise, from what we saw.  There were many species of falcon, some of which I’ve been unable to identify, other birds of prey, and many types of waterfowl.

Falcon

But, as I’ve noted before, birds are not the sole inhabitants here.  Animal life ranges from reptilian predators to farm animals grazing along the banks of the Tárcoles River.

American Crocodile

Brahman

However it’s the abundant and diverse bird life that really gets your attention here.  This is a northern crested caracara, a member of the falcon family:

Northern Crested Caracara

Here are a few more bird shots from that day:

Great Egret

Great Egrets

Unknown Species

Great Egret