Ecology Archives - Page 14 of 17 - Retired in Costa Rica

November 20, 2020November 18, 2020

2021 Calendar with a Purpose

I’ve always had a wall calendar by my desk to see the current month at a glance even though appointments, etc. are on my electronic calendar. I mark only my trips on the wall calendar. And for the last few years I’ve zeroed in on calendars by the Costa Rica Nature Photographer PUCCI. The one I just bought for 2021 (feature photo) has a greater purpose than just nature, part of the price I paid goes toward planting trees in Cost Rica! It is called Árboles Mágicos and supports one of the best ways to fight Global Warming! Our trees absorb some of that carbon dioxide the fossil fuel cars are emitting and Costa Rica is already working on that, planning a future of only electric cars. And if you don’t already know, Costa Rica already has 100% clean electricity now! 🙂 The United States should be embarrassed that this little developing country is so far ahead of them! The Árboles Mágicos proposition in a one minute video en español:

Árboles Mágicos Propósito

“Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that? Let us love trees with every breath we take until we perish.”

― Munia Khan

¡Pura Vida!

And for those interested in more details, this year (2020) I had Pucci’s “Backroads & Trails” Calender with photos of twelve trails/roads, eight of which I’ve been on! 🙂 I love this place!

Now here is just one month from the new 2021 calendar to show how it looks:

And here’s the back with all 12 month’s photos shown if you can see the small image. The majority are flowering trees.

My 12 months of tree photos on the Pucci “Arboles Mágicos” calendar.

And of course I have a Trees Gallery as a new sub-gallery of my Flora & Forest Gallery. 🙂 All photos made in Costa Rica, the most bio-diverse country in the world!

¡Pura Vida!

October 17, 2020October 16, 2020

Bird Count Today!

Support nature which helps save the earth from the destruction of global warming — COUNT BIRDS TODAY and report them to eBird! An account is free and you can also get a free app for your phone for easier reporting. Even if you see only one bird and report it – it counts and is important!

I will try to report later today which birds I see and report to eBird.

¡Pura Vida!

October 5, 2020October 4, 2020

David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet

Everyone in the world needs to see this movie! David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet.

Its just a little more than one hour long and at age 93 is probably his last film, which he calls his “Witness” of the planet that we humans are rapidly destroying. As every other ecology group has said, we CAN do something about it and David presents it simply by returning to nature and near the end gives Costa Rica as an example of what all countries could do if we really cared about the future.

The movie is available now on Netflix and is also being shown in many theaters around the world. I urge you to see this short film and then do your part in returning to nature!

And see the TRAILER now:

And though he completely avoided politics, I think that was a mistake because it is American and other country politicians like the majority of Republicans who are owned by the oil and gas industry who deny global warming and thus continue to contribute to the destruction of the earth, now on its countdown to death if we don’t do something fast.

¡Pura Vida!

September 24, 2020September 24, 2020

Lichens, Leaves & Nature Things!

Some wonder what I do with a whole week at one of these very remote nature lodges I visit all over Costa Rica – well, a week is almost never enough time for me to see, experience and photograph all there is in these natural wonders! First priority at El Silencio Lodge & Reserve was waterfalls, then birds, butterflies, and on it goes through nature! Today’s collection is some of those little things like an ear-shaped lichen or a fiddlehead – the furled fronds of a young fern that were the inspiration of some of the colorful Oxcart designs used in this lodge and on the famous Oxcarts of Costa Rica. Enjoy a slide show of those and 23 other designs from nature . . .

Lichen
Lichen
Plant
Leaves
Spear plant?
Airplant
Moss
Ferns
Berries
Airplant
Leaves
Leaves
Bud
Seeds or Berries?
Moss
Plant
Plant
Leaf
Leaf
Ear Lichen
Lichen
Lichen
?
Fiddlehead of a fern
?

Lichens, Leaves & Nature Things!

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. —John Lubbock

¡Pura Vida!

All of my Photo Galleries are Nature-related in Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA.

and I’m finished with the new Trip Gallery: El Silencio Lodge & Reserve or perhaps you would prefer to zero in on my Costa Rica FLORA & FOREST Gallery. ¡Buenas Dias!

¡Pura Vida!

July 14, 2020July 13, 2020

Maquenque Wetland Birds

Or you could call them “water birds” since they eat fish and other water creatures requiring water. 🙂 Because there are so many rainforests and bodies of water all over Costa Rica, most of these birds are fairly common here with the featured image being an exception: The Green Ibis is seen only in a few place, more rare than the White Ibis which was not seen here this year.

I’m still working on my bird photos of 60+ species and will continue to present them here in manageable groupings and then I will introduce a Maquenque 2020 Gallery where you can see all my photos from last week’s visit to my best birding lodge in Costa Rica! While still at Maquenque, I presented these 3 groups of birds on the blog (click titile to see):

Parrots and Toucans (My “Rainforest Fireworks” for 4th of July)
Honeycreepers (a favorite small bird category)
Kingfishers (expert fishers who could be included here)

And today’s I call Wetland Birds: CLICK image to enlarge.

Tomorrow will be 6 Hummingbirds at Maquenque which were hard to photograph in the dark shade of the forest, but always interesting! 🙂

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

¡Pura Vida!

July 13, 2020July 11, 2020

Maquenque Rainforest Flowers Part 2

Flowers in the wild here are for me kind of like birds and butterflies, I find new ones almost every time I go into the forest! Here’s 14 more added to yesterday’s photo. CLICK an image to enlarge and enjoy! I’m still working on the bird photos which may take a few more days or I may present them in little groups also. Keep reading!

See also my Flora & Forest Gallery for more flowers!

¡Pura Vida!

July 12, 2020July 11, 2020

Maquenque Rainforest Flowers Part 1

Yes – these all grow wild in the rainforest even if they have moved some up near the lodge. And I really tried to get a name for each flower which I did for the 13 today and for all but 3 of the 14 for tomorrow. I make a big deal out of all the birds here and could just as easily for all the unique flowers. Enjoy and remember to CLICK an image to enlarge.

14 more rainforest flowers tomorrow in Part 2!

Maquenque Butterflies

As common after trips, I’ve been overwhelmed with things to do since I returned from Maquenque Eco-Lodge and with so many bird photos to process (60+ species) it may be awhile before I share those, so here is a small collection of 7 species of butterflies. Every living thing loves Maquenque! 🙂 CLICK an image to enlarge.

It’s very tough for me to focus. I’m like: ‘Look, something shiny! No, focus. Oh, there goes a butterfly!’ ~Gabby Douglas

🙂

My Costa Rica Butterfly Gallery has more than 106 species now!

¡Pura Vida!

June 30, 2020June 30, 2020

Virgen Rainforest Paradise

This morning I leave at 8 AM with Walter, my local transportation for out-of-Atenas trips, on a 3 hour drive north of here but still in our Alajuela Province. It’s on the San Carlos River near the Nicaragua border as a private nature reserve and eco-lodge that is one of my favorites in Costa Rica, where I’ve photographed more species of birds than any other one place and where I can sleep in a tree house room, watching howler monkeys and spider monkeys from my room. See my 2019 experience there and this short video of the virgen rainforest reserve says it all:

My Paradise Rainforest this week!

I will be here through next Monday – 6 nights in the tree house to celebrate my 80th birthday on Saturday the 4th of July! And, as long as the WiFi in their main building works, I will be posting blog reports every day! Maybe one tonight.

Because of world-wide increasing Coronavirus, the borders of Costa Rica remain closed to non-residents where we have the lowest infection rate in Latin America! But hotels, lodges like this one, and restaurants can open at 50% capacity to local residents only with required social distancing and masks, making places like this more pleasant (no “Ugly Americans” or “aggressive Japanese”) and less crowded. Two weeks ago they told me that in addition to me they had two couples coming for part of the week with me alone the other days, though that could change with late registrations! 🙂 Many Ticos are just now discovering the great tourism in their own country.

I will wear a mask when not eating and around other people, including my birding guide just to be extra cautious. I will not take their delightful boat trip to a little jungle village with great people that I enjoyed but will avoid this time due to COVID19 possibilities. I will mostly traipse through the jungle solo and stay safe from the virus. There have been NO CASES among the lodge employees (mainly one family) nor in the nearby town of Boca Tapada. But I will still be cautious because it is close to Nicaragua where the virus is more rampant and we are still getting new cases in Costa Rica.

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.” – A.A. Milne

My BIG BOOTS Adventure . . .

Yep! I’m taking my big boots this trip because I’m going in a car and can! 🙂 Plus they fit me and the lodge loaners don’t always fit . . . and I’ll be in a rainforest during the rainy season so they are needed! And my poncho!

I know . . . the boots are dusty, but why clean when they will get muddy this week! Plus I had to empty out the spiders and spray with that bug spray before I consider putting my hand or foot inside! 🙂

“Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aesop

¡Pura Vida!

June 25, 2020June 25, 2020

My Nashville Zoo Photos Posted

As noted earlier, one of the things I’m doing more of during the “lock-down” time is trying get all of my old photos culled through and posted in one place.

One of the biggest collections is from my 10 years of volunteer work at Nashville Zoo and my Nashville Zoo Gallery is now completed. It includes one of my biggest collections of bird photos along with so many other animals and a really large number of people photos which was what the Zoo PR Dept. wanted a lot of. It was a nice re-living of many great memories at Nashville Zoo. And as I go through other photo files I expect to find more of Nashville Zoo, like when friends and family visited, I often took them to the zoo but haven’t gotten to those photos yet! 🙂

screenshot-charliedoggett-smugmug-com-Pre-Costa-Rica-Nashville-Photos-Nashville-Zoo-Volunteer-Docent-1593136960804-WEB — Organized in 6 super-galleries with many sub-galleries under each.

And check out the current Nashville Zoo Website – A wonderful zoo!

¡Pura Vida!

Category: Ecology

2021 Calendar with a Purpose

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Bird Count Today!

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David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet

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Lichens, Leaves & Nature Things!

Lichens, Leaves & Nature Things!

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Maquenque Wetland Birds

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Maquenque Rainforest Flowers Part 2

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Maquenque Rainforest Flowers Part 1

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Maquenque Butterflies

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Virgen Rainforest Paradise

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My Nashville Zoo Photos Posted

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Lichens, Leaves & Nature Things!

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