Two-barred Flasher Butterfly

This is my second sighting of this bright turquoise fellow, this time INSIDE my house! There are better photos made in the garden this same time of year, two years ago in my Two-barred Flasher Gallery. Here’s two cellphone shots of one on my kitchen counter.

Two-barred Flasher
Two-barred Flasher

¡Pura Vida!

See all my Costa Rica Butterflies Galleries, 130+ species.

The Hobbit Re-read

“I’m going on an adventure!”  said Bilbo Baggins

~JRR Tolkien in The Hobbit

Only great books deserve “re-reading” and The Hobbit (Wikipedia link), the 1937 published book by JRR Tolkien, is certainly one of those! I just finished reading it again on my Kindle and of course discovered “new stuff” not in my memory! He pretty much introduces a new character or creature in every chapter and then brings them all back together for the epic “Battle of Five Armies” at the end of the story.

Cover of The Hobbit on Kindle.

I will not write a full or formal review but just share some first impressions and personal feelings on the re-read of a favorite book, which I followed by a re-watch of the 3-movies version of the book . . .

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Variable Cracker Butterfly

A first for my garden, seen on the trunk of a small palm tree. This “strange” butterfly is very much like the Guatemalan Cracker, with the latter having 2 blue rings instead of one. I have photographed 3 species of the Crackers, seen in my CR Butterflies Galleries: The Gray Cracker in Nicaragua, the Guatemalan Cracker at Corcovado NP Costa Rica, and now my third, the Variable Cracker in my Garden, Atenas, Alajuela Province yesterday. 🙂 More photos are in the gallery linked above.

Variable Cracker, Hamadryas feronia

“If you haven’t found something strange during the day, it hasn’t been much of a day.”

~John Archibald Wheeler

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

TRIP GALLERY is Ready

Because I wasn’t running around on my usual side-trips this past week (in my over-80 slow mode now) 🙂 I got started on and have now finished the “CR TRIP GALLERY” for this 2021 Banana Azul Caribe South week (link is to the gallery).

There’s a lot more to photograph when not leaving a hotel than I thought. Now granted, there are fewer photos of birds and other wildlife and none from national parks, wildlife refuges, waterfalls, indigenous reserves, or wildlife rescue centers (all of which I’ve “toured” from this very hotel in the past). This week became my “quiet mode” focus. I just stayed put and photographed the little things in nature all around me on the hotel grounds, plus some fun shots from the small plane flight there! There are 9 sub-galleries! 🙂 Just click the first page of the gallery below and ENJOY! 🙂

CLICK above image to go to the gallery.

“Photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real.”

– Ansel Adams

¡Pura Vida!

And if you are interested in some of those great “side-trips” I’ve made from this same hotel, check out the galleries from other trips to South Caribe:

Continue reading “TRIP GALLERY is Ready”

Weird Butterfly

This is one of those tiny ones, the size of my thumbnail or smaller! I don’t have my butterfly book with me and could not find this one online. With the strange tail that looks like another head he is similar to the Silverline Butterflies found in Asia, but patterns are different. Maybe I will find him in the book when I get home.

Unidentified Tiny Butterfly

¡Pura Vida!

My Costa Rica Butterflies GALLERY.

Poan Skipper

Yes, I had a photo of this butterfly not too long ago, but this one looks a little different and it is my last garden share before the Caribe trip. Just two shots and my first of one flying.

Poan Skipper Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
Poan Skipper Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

“Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine.”

-Jeffrey Glassberg

¡Pura Vida!

My Poan Skipper Gallery.

ID is from book: A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America by Jeffrey Glassberg.

Nothing is Really Small

Almost alone in the garden yesterday morning were 2 or 3 of these tiny butterflies, the size of my thumbnail, flitting from flower to flower. Nature never ceases to amaze! 🙂 The English name of this one is the Double-White Satyr. (Link to my gallery of more photos.)

Nothing is really small; whoever is open to the deep penetration of nature knows this.

~Victor Hugo

¡Pura Vida!

My Costa Rica Butterflies Galleries.

Mid-Morning Flutters

After breakfast, Spanish Class, and some reading I decided to walk through my garden with the camera at a little after 9 AM. For a long time the birds have been scarce and the butterflies up and down, but in about 20 minutes this morning I photographed 2 birds and 7 different butterflies all fluttering through my gardens and trying to avoid me and my camera. All nine photos are in a slide show at the bottom of the post with the featured photo at top being a Southern Broken-Dash Skipper and the photo below a Yellow-rimmed Skipper. The garden was alive this morning! 🙂

Yellow-rimmed Skipper
Continue reading “Mid-Morning Flutters”