Category: Forest

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Birds on Calle Nueva

7 days ago, Friday, March 10, I left my house at 5:40 am and took the city streets for the 20 minute walk to Calle Nueva alongside Roca Verde but with no entrance from our development. I saw a few birds on the city streets enroute and then a little past Colegio Técnico (our technical high school on 10th Ave.) I always start seeing birds and continue to as I cross the stream and go up the hill alongside Roca Verde. I’ll do a post about the road tomorrow and explain why I think birds have decreased there and will more in the future, but for today here’s the 11 birds I got useable photos of for the blog and darn it! I missed snapping the 2 Motmots I saw!  🙂

First a photo I consider kind of “artsy” – a black bird on black & silver power lines with the morning sunrise turning the clouds in front of him black & orange as he seems to stare at them in unbelief!  🙂  Sort of dramatic, don’t you think?  🙂

Great-tailed Grackle watching the sunrise on Calle Nueva in Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

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The Other 2 White Birds

Three days ago, March 2,  I published a blog post on the Snowy Egret, an all-white bird, and here are the other 2 all-white birds at Tortuguero: the Great Egret and the Cattle Egret.

You can tell the Snowy Egret and Great Egret apart by the opposite colors of their beaks and feet: Snowy has black beak and yellow feet, while Great has yellow beak and black feet.  🙂 The Cattle Egret is much smaller with shorter neck and beak and often with pale salmon coloring on head and chest. After this introductory photo, there is a 3-pix gallery for each of these two new all-white birds . . .

Great Egret, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica

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One Last Post on the Xandari Visit

Because the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all this year’s photos from this colorful nature resort, I will just summarize what was to be the last 4 posts on that trip and you can see the photos in the gallery which is more and better than a few here!  🙂  The last 4 categories each have a gallery that I’m linking to with the 4 pix below:

I photographed only 4 birds mainly because of the high winds we were having there that week. Here’s just 1 of those 4 and to see the others, click the above link or this image:

Clay-colored Thrush or Yigüirro, the National Bird

Though there did not seem to be as many Flowers on this trip as in earlier ones (different time of year), there were still a lot and you can see the ones I photographed by clicking the above link or this one image.

Bird of Paradise Flower, Xandari Costa Rica

Thirdly are some of the Leaves & Nature Things that I love to photograph out in nature anywhere I go! And I think I got a few interesting ones this trip including the feature photo at top of the post. Check them all out at the above link or click this one photo:

Nature as Art, Xandari Costa Rica

And last but not least are a few photos I made of only a sampling of the Trees & Trails at Xandari. Click that link or this one image to see more:

Trees & Trails at Xandari Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Or see all the 2023 Xandari Trip Galleries!

🙂

 

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Two Damselflies at Xandari

I was not aware of any Dragonflies but saw many Damselflies including these two with fairly certain identifications 🙂  . . . 

Female Azure Dancer

Female Azure Dancer at Xandari Costa Rica

Forest Rubyspot

Forest Rubyspot at Xandari Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

See my gallery of many of the Dragon & Damselflies in Costa Rica.

And the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all this year’s photos from this colorful nature resort. 

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Last Butterfly – A Clouded Sulphur

This is a very common butterfly here and one of many in the family Pieridae – WHITES, YELLOWS & SULPHURS, though this was the only one from this visit to Xandari. In that linked gallery there are photos of 23 species and many came from Xandari on earlier visits.

Cloudless Sulphur – Phoebis sennae

Cloudless Sulphur – Phoebis sennae at Xandari Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all my photos from this colorful nature resort.

Yesterday’s Freshness . . .

. . . was felt when I went to and from Central Atenas on the first day of school. Everywhere were happy, smiling, chatting school kids of all ages, kindergarten to 12th grade wearing brand new uniforms and marking the real beginning of 2023 for them! School year here is February to December. It made me feel good about living en el pueblo de Atenas!

¡Pura Vida!

 

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3 Brushfoots from Xandari

The largest family of butterflies is Nymphalidae – BRUSHFOOTS and you can click that link for my galleries in that family where I now have photos of 93 species. I did get one more photo from this family that I cannot yet identify, so not included here.

Banded Peacock – Anartia fatima

Erato Heliconian – Heliconius erato

Erato Heliconian – Heliconius erato at Xandari Costa Rica (also called “Postman”)

Carolina Satyr – Hermeuptychia sosybius

Carolina Satyr – Hermeuptychia sosybius at Xandari Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all my photos from this colorful nature resort.

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2 Skippers from Xandari

Continuing to blog my butterfly sightings in families, here are the 2 Skippers or Hesperiidae butterflies from this past week’s visit to Xandari. You can see more of this type of butterfly in my Hesperiidae-SKIPPERS Galleries.

Frosted Flasher – Astraptus alardus

Frosted Flasher – Astraptus alardus at Xandari Costa Rica

Yellow-tipped Skipper – Astraptes anaphus

Yellow-tipped Skipper – Astraptes anaphus at Xandari Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Found Another”Lifer” Butterfly!

I’m still working on my photos and identifying species and just discovered another new species for me, the Wedge-spotted Cattleheart, a butterfly in the family with Swallowtails. Here’s three shots of this one, all with folded wings (he refused to open them). And for the students of butterflies, note that it is similar to or could be confused with the Iphidamas or Transandean Cattleheart, but there are small differences!  🙂

¡Pura Vida!

For more photos of this family of butterflies go to my galleries in the family folder: Papilionidae – PARNASSIANS & SWALLOWTAILS

 

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Two New Crescents for Me . . .

In my short two-night stay at Xandari Costa Rica I photographed 13+ species of butterflies with a few more still unidentified, so maybe more.  🙂  It is my #1 best location for wild butterflies so far! In this post I present the the only two “lifers” or first-time seen butterflies on this trip.

Chestnut Crescent – Anthanassa argentea

This one is easily confused with the Tulcis or Pale-banded Crescent and the Ardent Crescent (both in my gallery).

Gray-based Crescent – Castilia griseobasalis

And this one is easily confused with both the Mayan and Cryptic Crescents with only the Mayan in my gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

You can find more of the “Crescents” Butterflies in my BRUSHFOOTS FAMILY of galleries.

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Xandari Landscapes

I got 8 more butterflies today and at least one a “lifer” or new one for me, but identifying and processing hundreds of photos is just too much to share those today and the birds were just a very few! It is quite windy here this time of year.

So for today’s post, the easy way out, a handful of vistas from the hotel, many from my room and most of these are untouched straight out of the camera to facilitate my limited time for this post today!  🙂 One shot of last night’s sunset from my room just for the email announcement, and then all in a slide show that follows . . .

Sunset from Villa 19, Xandari Costa Rica, Alajuela, 31 January 2023

 

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