The 8-Minute Wildlife Morning

If I was ever in any doubt about why I was in Costa Rica, 8 minutes one morning confirmed it for me.

Following a two-hour, bruising surf session the night before, waking up for dawn patrol, I didn’t feel particularly refreshed. My partner in crime messaged me to say he wouldn’t make it; he needed to rest. I didn’t blame him. But I was up, I’d devoured six cups of tea, and I’d prepared to go. So off I went. It was 5:23 am.

I was prepared for another bruising experience, with the forecast showing bigger waves and more energy than even the day before. My shoulders and back were still aching from the night before. I was questioning whether it was even safe for me to venture out in these conditions. But hey, I moved to this place for a reason, and I don’t need to stay out long. At worst, it becomes my morning workout.

It’s an 8-minute drive to the beach, and as I got closer, the wildlife encounters started.

First, I saw a dog crossing the road. This is no strange thing in Costa Rica. The dogs live outside. They roam freely.

Except this was no dog. It was a coyote.

My first ever sighting of one, and it just nonchalantly crossed from one side of the road to the other. In no particular hurry. My only previous experience with them is hearing them howling in the early hours of the evening whilst out looking for Tapir in a much wilder and more remote environment.

I continued my drive and could see ahead of me an animal standing in the middle of the road. With a long tail erect straight up in the air, it was the unmistakable sight of a coati. It stayed there until I approached and had to stop the car. Whilst I was at a standstill, I saw a head appear out of the brush on my right-hand side.

And then another.

Then another.

Then another.

And it continued.

And just as I thought they were done, another 4 appeared, and then some more. All of different ages and sizes. 

In total, there must have been 25-30 of them. 

This was another first for me. My prior experiences with coatis have been with single lone males. To make this believable, I wanted to reach for my phone and take a video, but as the battery is broken and it’s not possible to get a new one where I am, that record can’t exist.

So I’ve had to record it in this newsletter.

But there’s more. I turned the corner after leaving the coati clan, neared the parking area, and on the side of the road were two caracaras. Now I’ve seen these before. Not usually as a pair, usually alone, so this one wasn’t a new experience; it just added to it.

And shortly after, I reached the beach. I got out of the car, observed the waves, and it was a mess. A powerful mess of large, fragmented, dumpy waves that had no potential to surf, except to crush someone’s hopes of an enjoyable morning.

Punishing them for having the audacity to try and surf them.

So the decision was made…let’s move 5 minutes down the beach and see if it’s any better.

Off I went again…and then…another wildlife encounter.

A tamandua crossing the road.

(Otherwise known as a silky or lesser anteater). Another first encounter for me. I couldn’t believe my luck.

Quite a morning, all in the space of 8 minutes, when all I intended to do was ride some waves. They say you make your own luck, though you’ve got to put yourself in the position to experience it.

And I think that's partly what I love about being out here. You can set off looking for one thing and have no idea what you're going to encounter along the way.

It's also a big part of what I'm trying to build with my Costa Rica photography experiences. Yes, we're going out to photograph wildlife. But we're also putting ourselves in the right places, at the right times, and seeing what happens.

And there’s plenty more to come. I’m actually out looking for tapirs again at the moment, so there may be a few stories from that adventure making their way into a future Field Note… assuming I actually find one.

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If you'd like to experience Costa Rica for yourself, you can find out more about my ​photography experiences here​.