This Norops kind of reminds me of that raptor on Jurassic Park that hid in the bushes while the other raptor attacked the guy with the gun. It’s hiding on Mimosa, which is a very spinny sensitive plant that tends to grow around the fringes of the wetlands.  This particular individual of Mimosa is currently decomposing while my hand heals.

I caught this turtle eating.

This is one of the crocodiles in the wetland at the Catalina Sector of the park.  It swam within 10 m of me to investigate the spashing noises I was making while pulling water hyacinth from the water, and it was kind of terrifying.  It was the first time I saw this crocodile, I was alone, it approach me and it’s big.  I haven’t seen it out of the water yet, but I’d conservatively estimate its length around 3 m, if not 13 m.

If getting into birding weren’t hard enough with the diversity in Costa Rica, in just about every species, the juvenile (and usually female) is very different and potentially not differentiatable from other species.  For example, these are pictures of a juvenile White Ibis.  It’s hardly even white!  Luckily, this is a relatively easy ID, given that there are only a couple of ibis in Costa Rica.