Another purely Central American bird is the Lesson’s Motmot, Momotus lessonii(my gallery link) is found from Southern Mexico down through Panama. There are different species of Motmots in South America and we also have another one called the Turquoise-browed Motmot (my gallery link to it). They are mostly seen in the shadows of a tree and thus difficult for good photos. Here’s a shot of the one in my next-door neighbor’s Cecropia Tree last Wednesday morning and there are many more in the above-linked gallery. Read more about them on eBird.
Hecale Longwing, Heliconius Hecale (my gallery link) is found from Mexico south to the Peruvian Amazon, including my garden in Costa Rica! 🙂 My gallery includes sightings in 8 different Costa Rica locations on both slopes. Here’s a side view and a top view recently in my garden:
Hecale Longwing, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaHecale Longwing, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Toucan Sighting with No Photo!
Have I told you yet that a Keel-billed Toucan landed in my Cecropia Tree the other morning after breakfast? He was smaller than some, so probably immature or not quite an adult. And it was one of the few mornings that I did not take my camera with me to breakfast on the terrace! I slowly pulled the cell phone out of my pocket and turned it on just as he flew away! Oh well, that’s life! ¡Así es la vida! 🙂 And my camera has been with me for breakfast every day since! 🙂
I always like this one better than the more common here Hoffman’s or Black-cheeked Woodpeckers. And maybe that is because this one reminds me more of Woody Woodpecker. 🙂 And Woody is special in many ways, one being that he was born the same year as me, 1940. 🙂 But enough of that! The Lineated Woodpecker, Dryocopus lineatus (linked to my gallery), is a tropical forest bird found in both the lowlands and foothills (where I live) of Central & South America. In my gallery you can see that I’ve photographed him on both slopes of Costa Rica in many locations. Read about him on eBird.
I’m still planning on some more posts from this first week of October trip, but you can see all of my acceptable photos in the trip gallery by clicking this linked title or the image of first page below. 2024 October 1-6, Hotel Banana Azul, Caribe Sur
First page of my 2024 Caribe Sur Photo Gallery, CLICK image to go to the gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
And to learn more about Hotel Banana Azul, click that name link! Note that the header photo on their web page was made from “my room,” the one I get on each visit, called “The Howler Suite.” 🙂
There are no big chain hotels or resorts on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica (like the Pacific side). All are small, locally-owned, very friendly and helpful people (muy amable), with simplicity and tranquility. The Caribbean side is not for everyone, but I like it; both the laid back Jamaican atmosphere of the south or the Amazon Jungle atmosphere of the north Caribbean at Tortuguero National Park. The south has Cahuita National Park and Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, making the south also a great place for nature photographers in a different way than Tortuguero where you are mostly on the water. I encourage my fellow expats living in Costa Rica to give this side a try as something different from the Pacific Coast or the mountains. I love every area of Costa Rica because each is different! That is just the way I am! 🙂
Yesterday morning, just before leaving the Caribe, I was excited to have photographed two different hawks, one, I knew for sure, was a Common Black Hawk, Buteogallus anthracinus (my gallery link), but I had to wait until later to identify the brown one. Well, I should have known! But just haven’t been photographing many birds for a long time and didn’t remember that the juvenile Black Hawk is brown & speckled like this.
They were about 50+ meters apart, but both along the beach road, and I’m guessing that the adult was his Mom or Dad (probably Mom) and she seems to be holding something in her claw, like some food in case Junior doesn’t catch his breakfast in the marshy woods. 🙂 That is just like some of these Costa Rican moms who spoil their sons! 🙂 Here’s pix of Mom (or Dad) first and then the son (or daughter) . . .
Common Black Hawk Adult, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa RicaCommon Black Hawk Juvenile, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Breakfast with a TN Friend Today
Back in 2014 when I took the “Live in costa Rica Tour,” one of the other participants, John, was the only other one of us from Tennessee and on top of that, from Williamson County, a suburb of Nashville where I had lived more than 30 years, but we never knew each other back then (different circles of friends). He earns his income from rental property in Tennessee and the Dominican Republic and wanted some here too, before retiring and moving here. The time has come!
He later came here and stayed at my house while looking at income-producing rental properties to buy and I even went to one beach area with him to check out getting one there too, but he decided no (too expensive!), though he did buy a condo here in Atenas very near Roca Verde where I live. It stayed rented until he recently sold it and bought a house up the hill from me here in Roca Verde that he is going to “fix up” and move here with his wife and two kids. Soon, he hopes!
They all arrived yesterday from Nashville and are staying in Hotel Colinas del Sol, just 3 blocks from me! So I’m going down there to have breakfast with them this morning, answering a lot of questions, talking to their kids about nature spots here, etc. 🙂
They will of course visit their future home, but also must meet with a lawyer in San Jose on their residency paperwork and work with someone on the remodeling of the house, plus many other nitty-gritty things for such a life change! 🙂
A busy week for them and it happens to be a busy day today for me with breakfast at 7, my spanish class at 9, grocery shopping, then work on tomorrow’s blog post! Plus continue to process hundreds of photos from the Caribe Sur trip! So I can share with you! 🙂
I still haven’t processed all my photos from today and will get a few more in the morning before I leave, but I’m pleased to get a different bird and butterfly from all the other days here . . .
Cocoa Woodcreeper, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa RicaZebra-striped Hairstreak, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica
And one of many shots of sunrise this morning that I haven’t all processed, but will eventually share more, including the throng of local people out at sunrise on Saturday morning! 🙂
I have recently been scanning the trunk and larger limbs of my Cecropia Tree and the big palm, looking for one of the several species of Crackers which almost always land on trees where they are well-disguised. And sure enough, yesterday morning one came to my Cecropia Tree – This one a Gray Cracker – Hamadryas februa (linked to my gallery). This is my second Gray Cracker with the other one seen at Hacienda Guachipelin, Rincón de la Vieja NP.
In my Brushfoots Galleries you will find that I have photographed 6 different species of Crackers, most at Xandari Resort in Alajuela, but two in my garden, one at Danta Corcovado Lodge and one in a reserve in Nicaragua.
Gray Cracker, My Garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
And yeah, I know, it is more brown than gray, but that is the way it is with several of these “official” names! 🙂 Though on butterfliesandmoths you can see that some or more gray. My six different species of CRACKERS in the above linked Brushfoots Galleries are . . .
Red Cracker
Gray Cracker
Variable Cracker
Orange Cracker
Glaucous Cracker
Guatemalan Cracker
¡Pura Vida!
About this Week’s Blog Posts
In the morning I’m flying to Limón Province for five nights at my best butterfly hotel, Hotel Banana Azul in Puerto Viejo de Talamanca where I walk the sandy beach road for a large variety of butterflies. I usually go in early or mid-September, so I’m hoping there are still a lot of butterflies there the first week of October! 🙂 STARTING TOMORROW, BLOG POSTS WILL BE DONE AT NIGHT for the next 6 days. All from Limón Province, Caribe Sur. I always include a visit to Gandoca Manzanillo Refugio and one to Cahuita NP, both of which are very good for both birds and butterflies! And sometimes other nature spots, but at 84 I’m slowing down and walking with a cane, so maybe not as much this time! 🙂
Two days ago Walter took me and another customer/friend to see the “Real” Costa Rica near the highest point in Atenas Canton where a high percentage of the people are his coffee-farming relatives, showing us his mountain-top lot with the view seen in the feature photo, along with meeting some of his relatives and going to the Atenas Highest Point Mirador, called “Piedra La Zopilota,” because the rocky outcropping of the mountain top is where vultures hang out and raise their children. 🙂 It is a steep mountain gravel road that required his 4-wheel drive vehicle to get there. I made a lot of neat photos of the gorgeous scenery, wildlife, lunch at a relative’s restaurant, and the three of us adventurers which you can see in the Trip Gallery: 2024 September 26 – Highest Point in Atenas. Check out these “real” Costa Rica coffee farming hills! It might even make you want to visit or move here yourself! 🙂
Note: Walter is my best friend in Costa Rica, also my driver, translator, healthcare assistant at most doctor appointments, and thus sometimes substitute son! There are multiple pix of him in the above linked Gallery and a few of me and Julia, his other friend on this day trip. 🙂
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more, From these our interviews, in which I steal From all I may be, or have been before, To mingle with the Universe, and feel What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.
There were oh so many more hummingbirds at Maquenque, but I’m getting too “slow on the draw” to capture these fast and constantly moving birds. And these four shots aren’t real good, but at least I got some that aren’t Rufous-tailed H, which is all I get at home now. 🙂 Here’s a shot of each of four different species of hummingbirds and only a tiny sample of what’s at Maquenque throughout the forests and gardens.
Stripe-throated Hermit Hummingbird, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
