Costa Rica's posterchild amphibian. These guys breed in the small ponds right outside the guest house and its cool going to sleep listening to them


Hourglass Treefrogs were pretty common at some of the small ponds throughout the preserve yet I found it damn near impossible to get shots of them. This is the only shot I managed

Got to see 5 different glass frog species. I missed my main glass frog goal but I can hardly complain

Reticulated Glass Frog. These thumbnail sized frogs are incredibly beautiful and delicate


Bolitoglossa colonnea. It was pretty trippy shining my light at a leaf at eye level one night and having a salamander staring back at me

Bolitoglossa striatula. Then it was even trippier seeing a 7 inch salamander at eye level...

Fer de Lance. Supposedly really common, we only saw two. this little 12 inch juvie and then a 5'+ beast crossing the trail

Found this same tree snake 3 nights in a row hunting the same little section of pond. I was hoping to witness a feeding but no luck

Gliding Leaf Frog. Enormous treefrogs

Red Eyed Stream Frog. Felt extremely privileged to see this critically endangered frog as they are rapidly disappearing throughout their range

Ghost Glass Frog. Absolutely amazing eyes

My #2 target for the trip was a golden eyelash viper
First individual...Nope...not gold

Second individual...Nope...not gold

3rd individual...There it is



Then a snake I never thought I'd see. I was chasing a skink and it ran over the top of a big leaf. Sticking out from underneath that leaf a small bit of coil was visible. I took a step back and used my hook to remove the leaf, revealing this gorgeous Jumping Pit Viper. This was my one find of the trip that Brian seemed genuinely impressed with haha guess he doesn't see too many

Here, enjoy a close up of Hell's latest escapee

Lemur Leaf Frog. Another top target and a frog I feel I'm very lucky to have seen several of since they are basically nonexistent from much of their range now and the CRARC is one of the last strongholds for them thanks to Brian's in situ breeding projects

My number 1 target for the trip was a frog that has been special to me ever since i got interested in frogs when i was just a few years old, and the whole point of this trip and the reason I picked the CRARC was because it gave me the best chance to see one in the wild. We actually managed to find one the second night, but a violent downpour was drenching us and trees and huge branches were falling all around us and common sense won out and we left the frog and sought shelter back at the guest house. Id gotten to see my favorite frog on earth and I didn't have a single photo. So the last night Brian took us to a spot on the reserve he says he sees them 90% of the time. 3 hours...no luck. Lots of other cool things but not what we were looking for. We had to head back so i basically begged Brian to take us to where we'd found the individual the first night just in case he was still hanging around (and the weather was cooperating). Brian said sure despite the fact we could all barely keep our eyes open. So add another hour onto the hike. We got to the spot and there, in the same exact spot he was the other night is a stunning Splendid Leaf Frog. It was a surreal moment for me to be staring at a creature that for me had only existed in OTHER people's pictures. Now i had the opportunity to shoot one myself and it's an experience i'll remember forever

And my favorite shot of the trip, and nobody will change my mind on it


Thanks for looking