Friendly orb spider and other species outside the front door
Posted July 10, 2017
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Since we prohibit the use of pesticides outside and inside (except for mosquito spray for your feet, inside), we have lots of helpful spiders both inside the outside the office. I prefer to have spiders capture the mosquitos rather than to use room-spray. There are probably 80 or more spiders happily residing inside the office. And this week we found four outside with their webs within a few inches of each other.
With the wind the spiders were moving, so no way to do stacked focus (in depth focus) and since the webs were high it was tough to get the camera parallel to the spiders. But at least we got good snapshots. We will have our team identify the genus and species but wanted to post at least one view now.
What was interesting is that the spiders were completely different species (yet very close together).
Giant moth at 8:30 pm, Guatemala City
Posted July 5, 2017
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Went outside to see if the pregnant opossum was still wandering around (it was gone). But much to my surprise saw a giant moth “the size of a small hummingbird.”
If flew so fast there was no way the camera could focus on it (or even keep the month in the viewfinder). The photos are blurry but eventually we would be able to identify it.
I estimate it is a pollinator? Time will tell. It had more color and beautiful design than I expect for a moth.
Bees pollinate at least this species of Heliconia
Posted July 4, 2017
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Over and over again biologists emphasize that some species of heliconia are pollinated “only” by hummingbirds. So much to my pleasant surprise we found dozens of stingless native local bees buzzing around several of the Heliconia collinsiana in our Mayan ethnobotanical garden overlooking Guatemala City. There are plenty of hummingbirds elsewhere in the garden, but I must admit I have not yet noticed them running after any of our four species of local native Heliconia flowers.
I estimate we have minimum of three species of stingless bees happily flying around our garden, plus some much larger bees (with stingers) which are attracted to the Brugmansia flowers (very common garden flower, but not documented to be native specifically to Guatemala).
I would not rule out hummingbirds pollinating heliconia out in the wild, but we have all kinds of pollinators happily flying around our garden, and so far have seen only bees working away at the Heliconia flowers.
Pregnant opossum wandering around our yard (Guatemala City)
Posted July 03, 2017
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Found what appeared to be a very pregnant opossum in our Mayan ethnobotanical garden (in the hills overlooking Guatemala City). It did not hiss, nor run away fast. It simply climbed up the vines on the wall (surrounding the property).
Quetzal birdwatching and bird photography, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala
Posted June 20, 2017
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Quetzal came to the Cecropia (Guarumo) tree for food, 5:10 pm, Ranchitos del Quetzal, June 15, 2017.
Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, Nikon D5, AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR lens on Gitzo tripod with Wimberley WH-200 gimbal tripod head II), overcast sky. Pure sunlight (almost no flash would reach as far away as this bird was).
This is cropped down since a 400mm lens will simply not capture a view of any bird at this distance. We hope to have a 600mm lens by July, but frankly I estimate that the only way to photograph a bird this far away would be to use a Swarovski digiscoping system.
The quetzals come to feed on the guarumo treetops about 5 to 6 am and 5 to 6 pm (the worst possible times of day for “sunlight” photography in a rainy cloud forest).
Photography tips for birdwatchers, water birds, Guatemala
Posted Jun 22, 2017
Photo of Egretta tricolor, Garza tricolor, en el Canal de Chiquimulilla. |
 English Version  |
 Versión en Español |
We are working on preparing tips and suggestions How-to do bird photography, or better titles, how to improve your bird photography. We will be working on this the entire year.
Today we offer a set of fine art giclee quality images of the tricolored heron, Egretta tricolor, photographed along the Canal de Chiquimulilla, near Monterrico, Guatemala, Central America. We list the camera, lens, ISO, speed, and f.stop used for freezing the bird in flight.
For many years we have cooperated with the pleasant and knowledgeable team at CECON in Monterrico. Alex Cuellar and other capable guides from Monterrico have taken us in boats so we can photograph Neotropical flowers, crabs, birds, tule swamps, and mangrove swamps.
CECON is a university institute dedicated to protecting the fragile eco-systems of several different parts of Guatemala.
Finding Yellow-winged Cacique birds of Guatemala (especially their impressive hanging nests)
Posted June 20, 2017
Photo of Yellow-winged Cacique, in Monterrico, Guatemala. |
During the last 8 months we have focused our field trips on finding and photographing all birds of Guatemala which construct long hanging woven nests.
Montezuma oropendola nests are the most impressive, but we want to find every other genus and species with similar pendant woven nests. After finding many Chestnut-headed oropendola nest colonies, we then found many Altimira oriole nests.
Then two weeks ago we found lots and lots of hanging nests of cacique birds, thanks to the local knowledge of Axel Cuellar, CECON guide, Monterrico, Guatemala (on the Pacific Ocean coast of Guatemala).
Now we will be looking for hanging nests of all other oriole species (since we already have found Altimira oriole in many different locations). Of course some orioles have basket-shaped nests: these we are not looking for.
We hope that a zoology (or industrial design) student can be inspired to do a MS thesis or PhD dissertation to create a 3D video of how these birds weave such impressive nests. We will give such a student all our information on where to find each tree in Guatemala that has this kind of tall hanging woven nest.
Birdwatching is popular worldwide, and we recommend you come to Guatemala and visit Monterrico for more than the beaches. Enjoy the amazing birds and then explore the nearby Canal de Chiquimulilla.
