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My Hillside Birding Vistas

When K had his gardener plant a Zinnia bed on the hillside just above my roof, I got my gardener to add a bench for viewing the many butterflies there. Now with the high winds continuing and me seeing very view birds from house-level, I have been trying the hillside bench and that is where I got the Gray Hawk and all of the last few days’ birds. I even got a Red-lored Parrot one day! But because he was near the top of the far hill, not a very good photo. I may or may not share it later. 🙂

Here is a gallery with three views from the bench that you email receivers may need to go online to properly see the left-to-right sequence (click post title above to go online). The email version does funny things with the photos sometimes. 🙂

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE and then click through a manual slideshow . . .

Front-Left to trees around my house.
Straight ahead above George’s roof to one hill + his trees.
Front-Right to far hill and my landlord’s close slope & fence.

More bird photos coming from this new birding spot! 🙂 So far I’ve shared these: a Gray Hawk, a Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, a Stripe-headed Sparrow, a Great Kiskadee and tomorrow a Streaked Flycatcher and maybe later the Red-lored Parrot (grainy photo). A lot more variety than what I was seeing from my terrace rocking chair! 🙂 And though a little earlier, this was the spot from where I got that cool photo of two Keel-billed Toucans perched with a Chachalaca on the hill behind George’s house! 🙂 Right now I’m not scheduled to travel until the first week of July, so this is my nature photography mirador! And who knows, before long, eBird just might list it as one of the “Birding Hot Spots” in Costa Rica! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

My “roof-top” Garden Bench.

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Stripe-headed Sparrow

Though it is still too windy for many birds, they have to eat and late afternoon is their last chance of the day. Two of these Stripe-headed Sparrows – Peucaea ruficauda (eBird link) were moving from a tree to the fence and to the ground, looking for possibly seeds or insects or worms. It is another purely Central American bird found from Costa Rica to Mexico. See more of my photos of this bird in my Stripe-headed Sparrow GALLERY. You will note there that I’ve seen this sparrow only one other time here in Atenas (2020) and once in Guanacaste at Rincon de la Vieja (2019). Thus not one of my regulars! 🙂 And for you birders here in Costa Rica, yes, he is very similar to the Black-striped Sparrow seen on both slopes of Costa Rica (while this one is only on the Pacific Slope), BUT with multiple obvious physical & color differences, making both easy to ID. 🙂

Stripe-headed Sparrow, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Stripe-headed Sparrow, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Small Town Modern! A Bike Rack!

In this small, Latin American farming town (and somewhat Expat Retirement town), the young Ticos are having an impact on the future “look” of things which I think is symbolized in this modern bicycle rack at the new Banco Popular building here in Atenas, as it was earlier shown by the contemporary architecture of the remodeled Central Park and the contemporary new small houses being built here now with lots of glass. But I see the bike rack as the “symbol” and I was reminded of similar bike racks installed in Nashville in 2010 when I lived downtown there. (& that’s my bike in some of those photos!) 🙂 I don’t ride a bike here because the streets are so narrow that it would be too dangerous for this clumsy old man! Plus lots of steep hills! 🙂 But here, walking is just as good and healthy! 🙂

Bike Rack at the new Banco Popular building in Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

The two main banks in Costa Rica are Banco Nacional (my bank) and Banco de Costa Rica with the third, smaller national bank being Banco Popular that tries to compete by offering lower fees/rates for their services, making it “popular” with the young Ticos who, as the young everywhere, are challenged with the high cost of everything on their younger, lower incomes. And though it is two blocks further from the Central Park than their old location, it is their own building now and they built it next door to two popular young adult hangouts, a big gymnasium and a Foodmart, plus close to the Atenas public health clinic. Are we looking at the future?

Banco Popular, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Great Kiskadee

His size, that yellow patch on the top of his head and the rust-colored wings are three things to assure you that he is a Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus and not a Social Flycatcher, Boat-billed or one of the other similar flycatchers. He is one of the more common birds all over Costa Rica, almost as much as the Clay-colored Thrush and known for singing his name: “kis-ka-dee.” You can read about him on eBird or see some of my many photos in my Great Kiskadee Gallery. Here’s two shots from my garden the other day . . .

Great Kiskadee, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Palm Sunday

Though I am surrounded by palms every day in Costa Rica, I smile as I think of my memories of children on Palm Sunday waving palm fronds during my years in The Gambia, as well as in the States and here in Costa Rica! And I rejoice with Christians everywhere on the remembrance of the triumphant entry of Jesus in Jerusalem before his crucifixion and long for His second coming as I believe his sadness for Jerusalem then would be many times more today.

They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! ~John 12:13 NIV

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Cinnamon-bellied Saltator

This Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Saltator grandis (eBird link) was for years called the “Grayish Saltator” but was one of many birds that have had their names changed during my ten years of birding here in Costa Rica, which is sometimes confusing, but it keeps you on your toes! 🙂 It is strictly a “Central American + Mexico bird” (Mexico is “officially” part of North America). According to eBird I have now observed 14 of this species in Costa Rica which you can see in my GALLERY: Cinnamon-bellied Saltator. I got this shot in the shadows (hindering photo quality) during my “sitting bird expedition” the other evening in my yard. He is semi-common here, plus I’ve observed him in four other locations around Costa Rica. The cinnamon belly is seldom seen (like in only one shot in my gallery). 🙂

Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Backyard Gray Hawk

On what I call the back side of my little house, I sat in a chair Wednesday evening for 20 or 30 minutes, scanning the hill behind my house and photographed several birds with this Gray Hawk, Buteo plagiatus (eBird link) being my prize of that birding sit! 🙂 And see the other Gray Hawks I’ve photographed here in my Gray Hawk Gallery. This hawk is found from Costa Rica north through Mexico to the Southwestern U.S. along the Mexican border, mostly a Central American bird.

Gray Hawk, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Flame Vine

My Flame Vine is finally blooming, at least in spots. In the past it covered my back wall and bloomed in January, like everything is different this year! But even with fewer flowers and later, it is still one of my favorites! 🙂 “Flame Vine” is the most common English name, while in Costa Rica Spanish, it is called “Triquitraque” and the scientific name is “Pyrostegia venusta.” 🙂

Flame Vine or Triquitraque, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Yigüirro

is the Costa Rican Spanish name for the English-named Clay-colored Thrush. (my gallery link) This is the bird that gently wakes me up each morning singing, and, as tradition has it, he/she is singing in the rains for the beginning of our winter or rainy season in May.

Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!