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First — awakening to the singing birds and howler monkeys as I looked up at my cabin’s vaulted wood ceiling . . .
. . . then a final beachside walk before a hearty breakfast and . . .
Continue reading “Departing the Rainforest”
There are a lot of both land and water birds at this rainforest beach lodge, and even though it didn’t give my highest count of birds, it is good! My favorite was the Red-capped Manakin which has been very difficult to photograph in other places and was easy here! 🙂
Though no “lifers” (first-time seen birds), it should no longer be expected for someone who has already photographed over 358 species of birds in Costa Rica. 🙂 Below are photos of 25 different birds of 23 species. Two of these species have male and female so different they look like different birds, thus a photo of each! 🙂 I saw more birds than this but have no useable photos of the others.
After my previous trip (Chachagua Rainforest Hotel) I did a separate post on each bird and decided not to do that this time. Enjoy the one photo of each species now and later I will have multiple shots of each in my trip gallery.
Continue reading “BIRDS of Playa Cativo”
Yes – My first name was misspelled, but when done meticulously with flower petals, you won’t hear me complain! 🙂
And . . .
Continue reading “Happy Birthday Mr. Charleie”
My birthday morning was sunny with lots of birds singing and the Howler Monkeys closer than they were the previous morning! 🙂 The monkeys serve as the roosters to wake you at 5 am when you’re in the rainforest. After a great breakfast I walked the half-kilometer all uphill to the waterfall closest to the lodge. It is left natural as it would be if no humans were around, thus vegetation hides part of the upper falls and a tree fell in the lower falls and they will let nature take its course, as the tree will eventually rot and be washed away, but now the only human “improvements” are the trail to get there and that could use some more improvement! 🙂 (I will include photos of the trail in my trip gallery later.)
Note that in the above photo you can partly see the upper falls while in the next two from the bottom, it is mostly hidden by vegetation.
Continue reading “Jungle waterfall”
Every morning has been free of rain in the rainforest so far with the usual afternoon and evening rainy season rains that are great for sleeping at night! 🙂
This morning I had switched my planned morning hike in the mountains after learning how steep the trail is to a boat trip up Esquinas River and the Mangrove Forest for birds and maybe other wildlife. The highlight ended up being a group of about 5 Bottlenose Dolphins which are a little different from the Spotted Dolphins I’ve seen at Drake Bay and Uvita. They are “friendly” and followed our boat part of the way back to the lodge. 🙂
And five more shots . . .
Continue reading “Bottle-nosed Dolphin”
I’ve seen this bird in only 2 other places (Maquenque Ecolodge & Corcovado National Park) and they were skittish and difficult to photograph, while here they were all around my cabin and in just 2 days I’ve had many opportunities to photograph several of them, like a big Manakin family or village! 🙂 I did not see any of them do their courtship dance, this time, the Michael Jackson moon walk shuffle across a limb, like I saw in Corcovado NP, but there were plenty in the trees to photograph.
Read about the Red-capped Manakin at that eBird link or see more of my photos of them in my Red-capped Manakin Gallery. It’s another cool bird found only in Central America! 🙂 Here’s a slide show of 6 of my shots . . .
Continue reading “Red-capped Manakins”
Dark, damp, misting rain with no sunset as such but a trace of color as I eat my dinner at Playa Cativo overlooking the Gulf of Dulce on the Pacific coast of southern Costa Rica, while north of us Hurricane Bonnie is rushing across northern Costa Rica and Nicaragua and the handful of us here are thankful it didn’t veer south! 🙂
I saw and did a lot the first afternoon, but too tired to curate more photos now, so this rainforest report begins with a dark sky that will surely brighten as the week goes by. If not raining, I go on my birding hike at 5:30 in the morning and I got a head start with two pretty good photos today in the low light of a Great Curassow and a Scarlet-rumped Tanager.
And Of course I already like this place! 🙂 Later I’ll tell you about my beachside cabin and share photos from this nature-rich forest.
¡Pura Vida!
This Fine-spotted Roadside Skipper or Amblyscirtes folia is one of hundreds of “Skipper” butterflies. This one was photographed in my garden on June 20, 2022. I’ve been getting so many new butterflies this year that I’m having trouble keeping up with them all. There is very little about this species online in English with only a little in Spanish on Mexico and Ecuador sites that I won’t link here. I’m a new volunteer “coordinator” for Costa Rica on butterfliesandmoths.org and will soon get this fellow listed there, though I inherited a backlog of 450 submissions to go through and verify, so it may take a while! 🙂
See all my Costa Rica Butterflies Galleries for the amazing insect diversity here! At around 150 species, mine is the largest collection of just Costa Rica Butterflies & Moths I’ve found anywhere online. 🙂
And oh yes, this is the day I plan to be at Playa Cativo Lodge on the South Pacific coast of Costa Rica, so hopefully I make it and submit my first post from there tonight! 🙂 I just didn’t want to let this new butterfly discovery to wait around much longer! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Another “First Time Seen” butterfly for me, so I’m doing a second post today! 🙂 One of the “Hairstreak” butterflies, the Dusky-blue Groundstreak, Calycopis isobeon (link to butterflies & moths.org), is all over Costa Rica and another fingernail-sized butterfly! 🙂
I’m posting more butterflies than birds now partly because I haven’t had many birds in my garden and this is the time of year for more butterflies in Atenas is one reason. Another is that my interest in butterflies is going up and I have just become the “Costa Rica Coordinator” for the website butterfliesandmoths.org and since they haven’t had a CR Coordinator for 7 or more years here, I inherited a backlog of 450 submissions which will take months to go through, identify and approve while I’m anxious to submit my own 150 species photographed here. 🙂 I seem to always have plenty to keep me busy! 🙂 Enjoy this cool and different tiny butterfly and go outside and look for some where you live!
Whirlabout, Polites vibex (link to butterfliesandmoths.org) is one of the many Skippers that is found from the SE United States south to Argentina including Mexico and all of Central America. But it is the first time I have photographed it. Here’s 4 shots and then you can see more in my new Whirlabout Gallery! 🙂