Spotting wildlife is tricky business… for me

Despite my best, most concentrated and earnest efforts, I am terrible at spotting wildlife. There, I’ve said it. Admitted one of my major failings. And if you can’t spot wildlife in Costa Rica, where monkeys and morphos are everywhere, you’re very, very bad at it.

“Look! Cocodrilo!” said José, our guide on a snorkeling trip with La Perla del Sur out to Isla del Caño in southern Costa Rica. He pointed at the muddy bank along the Sierpe River, which we followed to the coast and then out to the island.

As everyone else on the boat oohed and aahed, my eyes still feverishly scanned the shoreline for the crocodile. Nope, that’s a log. A tree stump. Another log. Oh! There it is! Right in plain sight.

The same happened when we snorkeled along the rocky shore off Isla del Caño, in the Pacific Ocean. José spotted a sea turtle and called everyone over to see it. He pointed three times to it while I scanned the rocky reef, searching for my favourite reptile. I lifted my head from the water to clear some fog off my mask, then looked again. Finally, José dove down and pointed more closely. Then I saw it! In my defence, it was a small one, its shell only about one foot long and it blended in well with the rocks.

Later, Bill beckoned to me and gestured downwards. I couldn’t see anything that warranted special attention. I lifted my head and spluttered, “What is it?”

“An octopus,” he said. “In a little cave in that rock.”

We put our faces back in the water and he pointed at a small rock. Finally, I saw it! A shy octopus with a body the size of my fist. It scuttled from one rocky cave to another and disappeared.

Fortunately, the thousands of brightly coloured fish were hard to miss. Striped, bright yellow, bright blue, red, shiny – I’m generally successful at spotting wildlife like that. Bill, who kept saltwater aquariums for many years, identified them for me: Moorish idols, wrasses, parrot fish, angelfish, tangs, yellow puffers and purple spotted puffers.

Spotting wildlife is one of the primary reasons people visit Costa Rica and it’s certainly among my chief fascinations with travelling – at home or abroad. I don’t understand why I’m so bad at it. I stare diligently, scanning from side to side, looking for movement that might betray an animal’s presence. Sometimes I never see it, but when I do, I’m generally slower than everyone else, even in zoos, unless it’s right against the fence staring back at me. I visited my son once in Banff for three days and failed to see even one elk the entire time. Those of you who know Banff will know that that’s an astounding feat, since the Alberta town is rife with the antlered beasts.

I’m slightly better with large birds. I spotted the scarlet macaws right away because they stand out brilliantly against the green leaves, like Christmas colours. Grey and turkey vultures – likely the same ones that spend their summers in Ontario – circled overhead everywhere we went. Bright white cattle egrets also drew my eye, especially when they shared a field with cows. After Bill pointed them out, I also saw green herons fishing along the riverbank and toucans sporting their Froot Loops bills.

However, when José challenged us to find the well-camouflaged grey stickbird hiding in plain sight on bamboo, even other people on the boat had to help me out. Fabio and Laura (pronounced Lah-oo-rah) from Italy pointed and described (“See the three dead grey branches? No, over there. At the top of the middle branch.”) until my “Aha” moment arrived.

The next day, we went to the beach in the Marino Ballena National Park, which features a sand bar the shape of a whale’s tail when seen from above. There, I saw pelicans flying overhead in loose V-formations, similar to Canada geese. They nosedive into the water to find fish, then bob to the surface to eat.

The marine park was established to protect the humpback whales that spend time there during their migration. It was low season for spotting whales and of course I didn’t see any. But even if it had been high season – July to September – I could have missed seeing them too.

Of course, once I spot some wildlife, the next challenge is taking a decent (and by ‘decent’ I mean ‘in focus’) photo. Here’s the usual sequence: Bill spots animal, Bill points it out to me, I search and finally spot it, I try to take a photo, animal disappears for good, I’m left with blurry reminder.

Not to brag, but I was the first to spot a five-inch-long grasshopper clinging to our hotel’s Reception sign. (It didn’t move for 30 minutes.) Perhaps insects are more my speed. We took a walk in the forest behind our hotel, Cabinas Los Laureles. I saw the two columns of fascinating leaf-cutter ants right away as they scurried across the road and off into the forest. I bent over to watch their never-ending line for a few minutes, then carefully stepped over them. However, Bill saw about a dozen blue Morpho butterflies – as big as a man’s hand – before I finally spied one. I didn’t get even a blurry photo.

I also successfully spotted a few howler monkeys on our forest walk. But honestly, that’s not hard when they blunder through the treetops like bulls in china shops as they grunt, snort and howl like demented pigs at top volume.

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I held out hope for successfully spotting sloths, since they move just a bit faster than plants, when Bill dashed my dream.

“Maybe you should focus on food instead of wildlife.”

Places we recommend:

La Perla del Sur. Offers many tours and day trips, including our snorkeling trip to Isla del Caño. Based in Sierpe, south of the town of Uvita, but does hotel pick-ups. If you’ve never snorkeled before, it’s a great introduction, but we’ve snorkeled on more abundant reefs. Staff, equipment and tour were excellent.

Marino Ballena National Park. The Uvita entrance is closest to the whale’s-tail sand bar but there are other entrances further down the coast.

Cabinas Los Laureles. Hotel in Uvita. Host Victor Perez is kind and helpful, speaking Spanish slowly so we could understand and practise. Rooms are comfortable and economical.

Los Laureles Bar y Restaurant. Part of Cabinas Los Laureles. Run by Victor’s daughter, Cindy. Excellent food, great coffee and stupendous margaritas. Try the pulled-pork nachos.