Category: Flowers

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Air Plant just appeared . . .

. . . in one of my Nance trees and of all things, on a dead limb! The wind probably blew the baby plant there when it broke off its mother plant in maybe another tree or higher up in this same tree. And the dead limb is no problem because it does not get its nourishment from the tree but from the air! Here’s a good short definition from the Family Handyman site with more info at that link . . .

“Air plants, or Tillandsia, grow floating in the air, where they live and thrive without soil.
Part of the Bromeliad family, air plants are epiphytes — plants that attach themselves to other plants for support, without relying on the host to thrive.”

familyhandyman.com
Air Plant in a Nance Tree in my garden.

It feeds from the air with its arms while the roots are only used to hold on to it base, a tree limb in this case. This one is a recent or young plant only the size of a human hand, but will likely grow larger.

There are more wild air plant photos scattered throughout my Flora & Forest GALLERY. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Walk to Clinic Flowers

The other day I needed to walk to our Atenas public Clinic to pick up a “cita” or appointment to see an audiometrics doctor in the Alajuela Hospital for what will probably end up being a government-provided hearing aid for my left ear that I can hardly hear with since the big cancer surgery. They require that piece of paper for the visit but send it to our local clinic to pick up so I can avoid another trip to Alajuela. 🙂

I make that 12 block walk frequently for multiple reasons (my GP doctor, pharmacy, lab, etc.), but on this particular trip I decided to see if I could photograph some contrasting or different flowers with my cellphone and that was after I had already passed the Zinnas. 🙂 Here’s four totally different flowers in various yards over that 12 block walk:

Continue reading “Walk to Clinic Flowers”
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Tanna Longtail

The five spots in that upper short white line on the wing is what makes this a Tanna instead of a Teleus, Brown or Plain Longtail. Otherwise, those four are very similar and often confused. These two were in my garden and are fairly common Skippers here.

Tanna Longtail, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Tanna Longtail, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See my Tanna Longtail Skipper GALLERY.

And for comparisons with Teleus, Plain & Brown Longtails, browse through all my SKIPPER GALLERIES to see those and many others! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Hammock Skipper

This is another new species for me, assuming I have identified correctly. Mine has more tail than those photos in the books and online, but the folded wing pattern is identical and my basis for this identification. Hammock Skipper, Polygonus leo. In my garden in Atenas.

Hammock Skipper, Atenas, Costa Rica

See all my Skippers’ GALLERIES!

Or more of this species on Butterflies & Moths.org.

¡Pura Vida!

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2 Views – 2 Smiles

Here’s what I see when I walk out my gate walking to town in the first shot, looking NNW, and the second shot is looking NNE from the driveway behind my house just before the rain started. 🙂

View from my driveway exit as I was walking to town.
Looking up one hill behind my house over George’s roof.

¡Pura Vida!

🙂

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Black-cowled Oriole Eating . . .

I haven’t seen this bird in quite a while, but he was one of about 4 species in my Cecropia Tree the other morning, feeding on the flowers like the toucans sometimes do. And as usual, he was partially hidden by leaves the entire time here! You can see other shots in my Black-cowled Oriole GALLERY showing the same hiding problem always! Except my very first shot here in Costa Rica of one on my window screen inside my house! 🙂 Here’s just two shots . . .

Black-cowled Oriole eating a Cecropia Flower, Atenas, Costa Rica
Black-cowled Oriole eating a Cecropia Flower, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Brown Longtail

All the Longtail Skippers are brown, but this one has slightly different markings to give him the color name. 🙂 And you may have noticed that I’m much heavier on Skippers in general this year which may mean that they can handle the different weather better or some other reason I don’t know. And I continue to have fewer birds and fewer of the brighter colored butterflies, whatever the reason may be.

Brown Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica

These range from a lighter brown than this to a dark brown as seen in my Brown Longtail GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

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First Report of this Species in CR

The Butterflies and Moths dot com doesn’t even have this species included on their website yet (I’ve requested it!) and otherwise online I find it reported from Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, so my photo may be the first reported of this species from Costa Rica (IF my identity is correct) 🙂 and this is not the first time for me to add a new species on that website! 🙂 I’ve found online two common names and two scientific names for what seems to be the same species of butterfly . . .

COMMON NAMES: Yellow-haired Skipper and Yellow-haired Pyramid-Skipper

SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Typhedanus cajeta cajeta and Cogia cajeta cajeta

This is not terribly unusual with so many species of butterflies and new ones being discovered or named every year. And I just wait to see what my supervisor at Butterflies and Moths dot com decides to do with it. 🙂

Yellow-haired Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!