Boca Tapada is a small settlement beside the San Carlos River in the northern lowlands of Costa Rica. This is a landscape of farms, river channels and rainforest near the Maquenque Wildlife Refuge, much quieter and less developed than the Sarapiquí corridor. Laguna del Lagarto Lodge, my base for two nights, is about 7 km north of the village and roughly 15 km south of the San Juan River, which forms the Nicaraguan border. It is around 70 km by road from Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, or about three and a half hours' drive from San José airport.

The lodge has a lagoon, a substantial private rainforest reserve and trails, and strong links to specialist photography sites on nearby properties. This combination makes Boca Tapada really worth the journey for bird photographers.

My first session was at the lodge's vulture hide, which featured an impressive array of rare King Vultures. The hide gave me close views and some impressive wing positions, but the daily feeding arrangement felt more managed than the mountain hide at Pierella.
Andrew's Garden was different again: a simple private garden with flowering shrubs, stools to sit on, and little else. The hummingbirds came to feed among the plants in natural light. When I visited, it was fiercely hot and bright, and following small birds through the tangle of stems was not easy, but the garden produced a gratifying range of flight positions and flowers in a completely natural environment.

The album starts with four King Vulture photographs, then moves to twelve from Andrew's Garden. It closes with two photographs made in natural light at Adolfo's nearby garden: a Clay-colored Thrush, Costa Rica's national bird, and an encounter between a Blue-gray Tanager and a Palm Tanager.

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