These berries on one of the very tall palms in my garden are shown here feeding a Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus (my gallery link) while other Kiskadees and Yigüirros wait their turn on a limb of my nearby Cecropia tree (though occasionally there were 2 or 3 birds on this cluster at the same time). 🙂 Those two species and a few flycatchers have now just about stripped all the berries off this tree. And though butterflies have caught my interest more lately, and there are more of them, I still watch and photograph the few birds that come to my garden, mostly Doves, Kiskadees and Yigüirros (Clay-colored Thrush). Here’s just the one photo of this species found in Central & South America . . .
Every year the entire country flies flags and marches in parades to celebrate their independence from Spain and I’ve missed only 3 of the parades here in Atenas because I was in the Caribbean during this week. And was about to miss another for the same reason, but once I changed my trip this year to October, I thought I would again photograph the parade, but with the main part of the parade being from 10 to 12 during some of the hottest sunshine of the day and my right knee hurting, I decided to miss the parade on purpose this year. But I’ve posted links at the bottom of this post to the 6 parades I did photograph, plus I wore my Costa Rica National Soccer Team shirt (red, white & blue) to my usual breakfast out at Restaurant El Fogon Campesino and not only was the staff dressed patriotically but they had a marimba band playing on the terrace near where I always eat. So that was my celebration today! 🙂
Marimba Band at Restaurant El Fogon, September 15, 2024, Atenas, Costa Rica
For those who don’t know Spanish, “el fogon” is the Spanish word for “the kitchen wood stove” and “campesino” is “peasant” or “poor farmer.” Everything in this place is cooked on an old fashion wood-burning stove just like one of my grandmothers. They are mainly a lunch & dinner place, but have breakfast on Saturday & Sunday mornings and are the only place here with “Avocado Toast” and other breakfast dishes with guacamole! Yummy! 🙂 They of course have the traditional Costa Rica breakfast of eggs with Pico de Gallo (beans & rice), the best pancakes in town, a great omelette, and even a Breakfast Nachos for the young at heart! 🙂 But I’ve narrowed down my favorite to the Quesadilla with guacamole & picadillo on top and a side of bacon! 🙂 The only time I eat breakfast out other than on trips and a weekly treat for me!
Update on My Health
The public health system here is simply great and they are monitoring me in more ways than I ever would have on my own with private doctors, providing a specialist for nearly everything. Most of the specialists are in either San Jose or Alajuela and my driver, Walter, goes in with me as translator when needed, especially with the fast talkers! 🙂 “Hablo despacio por favor.” 🙂 But many speak English and nearly all the younger ones do, so no problem! But thankful for Walter!
Last week my geriatric doctor found that I had a little high blood pressure. She immediately put me on a blood pressure medicine and sent me back to my local clinic here in Atenas for my local GP doc to monitor me. There they wanted me to come in regularly to check the blood pressure or get a machine and check my own every day at home (or at a local farmacia that will check it daily for free). I chose the convenience of my own machine and will report back to Dr. Zuniga (my GP) with a month’s worth of BP numbers and it will tell if the current med is working or if I need something else. And I expect he will discuss my diet and exercise with me also. 🙂
Nothing alarming and I feel fine and the BP has already been back in the normal range one day. I think it was some little temporary thing, but we will see. And my oncologist says there is no trace of any cancer anywhere now. Plus I’m sleeping great with the new CPAP Machine the Costa Rica Social Security bought me! Costa Rica spends its money on its people and not on an army and constant wars! 🙂
One of the more common butterflies all over Costa Rica is this Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link) and as these two recent photos in my garden show, the top of its wings are a very dark brown & red with a brilliant white while the bottom of the wings are paler or a light brown and red. Of course, as always in nature, there are a few exceptions or variations, but not many in this species. See my gallery linked above. It is another of the many species found only in Central America & Mexico.
Banded Peacock, Atenas Alajuela, Costa RicaBanded Peacock, Atenas Alajuela, Costa Rica
All of the Whites, Yellows & Sulphur butterflies are in the Pieridae Family (linked to my gallery) where I’ve collected 32 species and one of the most understated of them all is this Statira Sulphur, Aphrissa statira (gallery linked) with a non-descript off-white color, but bright yellow shoulders and the scattered brown spots and upper brown border showing through on the folded wings. And I like his simplicity. Here’s one shot from my garden the other day and there are a lot more in the gallery including some from the Caribe that are a stronger yellow.
Statira Sulphur, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
About My Usual September Caribe Trip
It was first scheduled for earlier in September and a doctor’s appointment moved it to this week which had to be changed again because the government is remodeling the Limón Airport (I prefer to fly there now.) with a longer runway for bigger planes and international flights plus a remodeled terminal building, meaning the airport is closed through the 20th of September for construction work. 🙁
So I rescheduled my Hotel Banana Azul visit again, this time to October 1-6. Hopefully the airport will be ready! 🙂 And hopefully there will still be butterflies on the beach road in October like there has always been in September. I’ll be reporting from there the first week of October to let you know. Now I continue to report the larger number than usual in my garden in Atenas this year! 🙂
Another favorite White butterflies is the Central American only Godart’s White, Ganyra Phaloe (linked to my gallery). And for you butterfly enthusiasts, it is almost the same as the Great Southern White except for the black dot on each forward wing. Here’s just one of many photos recently . . .
Great Southern White, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
One of my favorite of the many orange butterflies is this Julia Heliconian, Dryas julia (linked to my gallery with much better photos) and not just because my special needs daughter was named Julianne! 🙂 Though probably related! 🙂
Depending on the light and the individual insect, the bottom of the wings or side views like below can be a beige, light tan or pale orange color rather than the bright orange always on the tops of the wings. See 2 or 3 like that in the gallery. Plus it is easy to confuse the top of the wings with the Juno Longwing I shared the other day, with only a slight design difference, though the bottom of wings are totally different between those two.
One of several Skippers with bright blue or turquoise on top is this Two-barred Flasher, Astraptes fulgerator (linked to my gallery with more photos). Here’s one shot from my garden in August with more in the gallery.
One of the unusual Skippers in both looks and name is this Broken Silverdrop, Epargyreus exadeus (linked to my gallery with a lot of other photos). Here’s just one shot from my garden recently . . .
The colorful Juno Longwing, Dione juno has also been called “Juno Heliconian.” Name linked to my gallery where I have a lot of photos of this beautiful butterfly. Here’s just one shot from many in August . . .
Juno Longwing, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Correction in Yesterday’s Post
The largest of the two Spreadwing Skippers in yesterday’s post I called a Bentwing and it is actually a Giant Sicklewing. I have corrected the post if you want to go back to it at: 2 of the Many Spreadwing Skippers. Sorry, but with so many butterflies so much alike I will continue to make mistakes from time to time. And no one wrote me about this mistake, but while researching another butterfly I decided to use Google Lens on this one too and through that determined the real identification. And at least it was before I had posted the photo on butterfliesandmoths.org! 🙂
During the last few weeks I’ve been seeing more Skippers than any other family of butterflies and one of those “sub-families” or categories is generally called “Spreadwing Skippers” with several pages in my best butterfly book to go through for identification. They are all brown in various shades and with differing patterns, spots and/or wing shapes. Here’s two I’ve seen recently, The Giant Sicklewing (Achlyodes busirus heros) and the Panna Skipper (Ouleus panna) linked to my galleries on them with more photos there of the Panna. And just yesterday I photographed another tiny Spreadwing that I haven’t identified yet, but think is still another species. Plus you can find other Spreadwings in my Skippers Galleries, photographed in earlier years here. My collection just keeps growing and I’m now up to more than 300 species of butterflies in my Costa Rica Butterflies Galleries.
Giant Sicklewing, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaPanna Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
