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Butterflies photographed in Costa Rica and nearby
. . . is what fills this latest of my photo books and maybe my last, at least for a time. Blurb killed their old design software and I don’t like their new one, so definitely fewer and maybe no more books. Too much work and frustration with a poorly designed software!
You can preview every page of this newest book for free by clicking the book cover photo below or going to: https://www.blurb.com/b/12835485-roca-verde-butterflies
¡Pura Vida!
This is one of those butterfly species, that for some reason, likes to come inside the house to die. And with the heavier than usual winds this year, inside seems to be the only place I can photograph butterflies. So here are 3 postmortem photos of a Dirce Beauty, Colobura dirce (my gallery link) on my living room floor. 🙂 And notice the big difference of the top and bottom of the wings.
It was still windy when I captured this very determined butterfly feeding on the flowers. Maybe the worse part of the January to March constant winds blowing here is no butterflies! And somewhat also my allergies to the constant dust blowing in! 🙂 But the Polydamas Swallowtail (my gallery link) seems to be one of those few tough (or strong) butterflies who can fly in the winds and is maybe the most seen butterfly during this time period. I do also see some Banded Peacocks and tiny brown Skippers in my garden, but only occasionally, plus way up in the trees are some Yellows that seem to stay high, with almost no other butterflies. But that will start changing in April & May as the winds stop and my peak of butterflies in my garden is May to September! And yes, that is the rainy season. Just one shot of this Polydamas.
¡Pura Vida!
Because we went after the Rio Tarcoles trip, it was too late in day for many birds, I got only 2 species, but I did get 10 species of other wildlife including some interesting species like the Helmeted Iguana, stick moth caterpillar, etc. and one of my dark monkey shots is visible. Click the first page of gallery below to enter or if you prefer an address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/Hiking-Carara-NP
I earlier did a post on the Helmeted Iguana and one on the Stink Bug, two of the 10 “Other Wildlife” seen at Carara this time. See gallery.
And tomorrow I will hopefully have completed the gallery for our morning visit to Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve and Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel.
¡Pura Vida!
This was in my garden and not the cow pasture, but with the strong winds this time of year I’m seeing a lot fewer of any species in the garden, though this one has been pretty common in the past as you can see in my Gallery: Giant White, Ganyra josephina. Note that all of them have been seen in Atenas! 🙂 Two shots from the other day . . .
This tribe level identification means it will be difficult even for the experts to identify, as that is as far down the ID latter the iNaturalist AI would go and I’m certainly unqualified to go farther. It may end up being a common species with two anomalies, that dark “plate” or whatever on his back or shoulders and the whitish tip of his tail. Neither characteristic matches any of the similar species photos I could find, so I’m leaving it at the tribe level. 🙂 Found in the cow pasture and it is the last one from that visual adventure. 🙂 This tribe is also called “branded grass skippers” which is appropriate for one found in the grasses of a cow pasture! 🙂
An added side-note on that walk along the cow pasture in my shorts is that, when I got back to the house, both legs were itching all over, possibly from some insect in the grasses or allergic reaction to some plant. A generous lathering of Allergel took care of that itching pretty quickly! 🙂 This is all from the cow pasture for now. Back to my garden! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Technology drives me crazy sometimes and it seems that the email subscription box in the right column wasn’t working for maybe a year or more, but when I realized it, I found someone who could fix it and it is working fine as of the other day. If you don’t have an email subscription, you are missing the easiest way to receive my blog posts with guaranteed security and no spam! So subscribe today! 🙂
It is not all little dull brown butterflies in the cow pasture, but some colorful ones too! 🙂 It was also interesting to note that most of them stayed close to the ground or down low in the tall grasses, only occasionally flying or landing up higher to, I guess, absorb the sun or eat from a flower. This one may be my most seen butterfly all over Costa Rica, as you can see in my gallery: Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima.
¡Pura Vida!
This interesting species was very common in my garden in past years, but not this year. Now I know where they are! In the cow pasture across the street! 🙂 Note that this is almost identical to the Carolina Satyr found only in the U.S. See my other photos in the gallery: Hermes Satyr – Hermeuptychia hermes.
Of the many Metalmark Butterflies (Riodinidae) in Costa Rica, this is the species that I personally see the most of with more photos in the gallery: Laverna Metalmark, Calephelis laverna. And here he is in a cow pasture! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Seems like an appropriate name for this plain brown Skipper photographed in a cow pasture! 🙂 The only other one I’ve given this identification is much lighter in color. See my gallery: Pasture Skipper, Vehilius stictomenes. And I’m still waiting for a confirmation by an expert on iNaturalist. Either one could have their ID changed! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!