Wait, there are Night Walks?

Glass Frog illuminated from below

If you have a frog pond you have the start of a Night Walk. We begin every Night Walk at the frog pond where we typically find Red Eyed Tree Frogs (Agalychinis callidryas), Smoky Jungle Frogs (Leptodactylus pentadactylus), Masked Tree Frogs (Smilisca phaeota), and a variety of anole lizards. After exploring the frog pond, we follow a small stream to our lower garden trail where we find several trails of busy leafcutter ants (Atta and Acromyrmex spp.).

Smoky Jungle Frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus) the largest frog in Costa Rica

Then we turn down our jungle trail that leads to a small waterfall and river. Here we watch for spiders, insects, and my personal favorite, Glass Frogs (family Centrolenidae). I think my current personal favorite frog is the Ghost Glass Frog (Sachatamia ilex).

Ghost Glasss Frog (Sachatamia ilex)

We see some beautiful spiders along our walk, and the amount of work some of the Orb Weaver spiders put into a web is amazing. And they rebuild them every night. But I think my favorite spider might be the Ogre Faced Spider (Deinopis sp.). Their web is a beautiful blue color they hold between two of their front legs to use as a “lasso”. Pretty amazing and a treat every time we see one!

Ogre-faced Spider (Deinopis sp.)