Category: Forest

Posted on

An Elusive Toucan!

Though some flew over and I heard a lot of toucans calling out in the forest, I only got photos of this one, a Yellow-throated Toucan, Ramphastos ambiguus, about 30 feet up in the trees of the forest between my cabin and the dining room. Definitely not my best toucan photos, but glad to at least get one while at Macaw Lodge! 🙂

And though again I heard the squawking of many Scarlet Macaws, the namesake of the lodge, I got no photos. They told me that a flock came to the trees by the dining room in the middle of one afternoon, but of course none of us guests were there at that time! 🙂

Here’s four shots that are okay, though I have some better photos in my Yellow-throated Toucan Gallery. 🙂

Yellow-throated Toucan, Macaw Lodge, Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Continue reading “An Elusive Toucan!”
Posted on

Second Edition of Pura Vida Butterflies

And today just before publishing it, I added another new butterfly! 🙂 I’ll share that butterfly tomorrow, but here is the link to my new Costa Rica Butterflies book:

348 photos of more than 240 species of butterflies in Costa Rica makes this the largest current photo book of just Costa Rica Butterflies. Use as a coffee table book or for identification and research with a complete index of both common English names and the Latin scientific names. And this is right on the heels of the release of my second edition of the smaller Hotel Banana Azul Butterfly book! 🙂

Follow this link or click the image of the book’s front cover below for a free electronic preview of every page! https://www.blurb.com/b/11802842-pura-vida-butterflies

CLICK this cover image for a FREE PREVIEW!

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

10 Different Dragonflies

Macaw Lodge is, like the nearby national park, a “Transitional Forest” near the coast and lowland rainforests, yet at a higher elevation but not quite high enough for a cloud forest, and though sometimes drier than a rainforest, definitely not a tropical dry forest like those in nearby Guanacaste, thus the indication of “Transitional Forest.” Yet they have a lot of water (mountain streams they route portions through lily ponds) which helps attract frogs and dragonflies. Here’s 10 dragonflies I photographed and though I’ve identified a few, not most, I will not identify any of the photos here until I’m sure of the identity, which continues to be difficult with over 300 species and a great similarity of many of the species! 🙂 One photo for the email version and then a gallery with all 10.

Dragonfly, Macaw Lodge, Carara National Park, Costa Rica
Continue reading “10 Different Dragonflies”
Posted on

Emerald Glass Frog

Macaw Lodge has many lily ponds which attract all kinds of frogs and dragonflies, but this particular glass frog is arboreal and was see on a vine growing over a little arbor over a bridge over a stream. They are called “glass” frogs because with some you can see inside their bodies and some of their organs. This one was tiny (as most glass frogs), maybe 1.5 inches at most. There are 154 identified glass frogs in Central and South America with 14 known species in Costa Rica. See my Amphibians Costa Rica GALLERY where I have 4 species of glass frogs among about 50 frogs! 🙂 And I am not certain with this particular identification of “Emerald,” but was the best match in my amphibians book! 🙂

Glass Frog, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Orchard Oriole

Less common here than the Baltimore Oriole, this male is different from the Baltimore with his richer “chestnut” or dark orange (rust) color and a tiny curvature on his bill plus being a little smaller than the Baltimore Oriole. This was a difficult call for me because it is rarer here, though Merlin backs me up on calling it an Orchard, having run both of these photos through that A-I bird identification program on my cell phone. It is a lifer for me, Orchard Oriole, Icterus spurius, linked to the eBird description. And if you would like to compare with the Baltimore Oriole, see that link to my gallery on them where you will see that the male is a brighter yellow-orange and even part yellow. Both species summer in North America and winter in Central and northern South America starting in October. As you can see in the above gallery link, I’ve seen a lot more of the Baltimore here than the Orchard! My first today! Just these two shots from my Cecropia Tree this morning:

Orchard Oriole, Atenas, Costa Rica
Orchard Oriole, Atenas, Costa Rica

For more photos of this bird this morning, see my Orchard Oriole GALLERY, though my two favorite shots are here! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

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!

Posted on

Los Colinas del Sol Wildlife

On September 30 after my house was fumigated for ants, I spent the night at our little neighborhood Hotel Colinas del Sol and though cloudy and getting dark, I got some shadowy shots of 3 birds and two butterflies seen below. Nothing spectacular, but nature is almost everywhere waiting to be seen and photographed! And I love it, even in bad light! 🙂

Simple Big-eyed Satyr
Juvenile Baltimore Oriole
Great Kiskadee
Hoffmann’s Woodpecker

¡Pura Vida!

And this Banded Peacock Butterfly I posted on that night. 🙂
Posted on

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!

🙂

Posted on

Cloudy Morning Hills & Gallery Opening

The Hills of Atenas the other day (October 2). I tried to do a panorama that didn’t “catch” or all match, so this is just one section that depicts the clouds or fog in the hills surrounding Atenas many early mornings, as seen from my terrace. There seems to be something “magical” or “mysterious” happening when the morning air is like this. 🙂

Cloudy Morning in the Hills of Atenas, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

Report on Galería ARTenas Opening

Gallería ARTenas Opening

We had a great opening to our little art gallery yesterday with hundreds of people coming to see (and some buy) hundreds of pieces of art. I think it was a big success and that many people in Atenas will become regular visitors and customers. We have a VIP Opening November 5 (government officials, etc.) and the JIT or “Just in Time for Christmas” arts and crafts fair the second week of December, so lots of things planned to motivate return visits. I plan to work with the gallery until sometime in January and then I am going to phase out this old man who is finding it a little too much now at age 83, but after that I may have an item or two in the gallery on consignment but will go back to photography just for fun and sharing it on the blog. So keep reading this blog for my usual flow of nature photography. 🙂 ~Charlie

And a few shots from the Gallery Opening . . .

  • My 6 Wall Art Photos
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Gallería ARTenas Opening
  • Young Tico Singer

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Nite in Colinas del Sol

Yesterday I had my house fumigated for insects, mainly for an invasion of two different kinds of ants and believed the treatment would be more effective if I left my house closed up with the fogging and spray overnight and thus not healthy for me to sleep there. So I spent last night at our little neighborhood hotel, Colinas del Sol, which is a group of cabins along with a few larger, long-term rental houses. I was put in Villa 3 and snapped a few shots before the afternoon rain started. I can’t go anywhere without capturing photos of the nature there!

I’m writing this last night and my plans are to enjoy their breakfast included with the room this morning and mid-morning return home to open up and air out the house, with all the ceiling fans on for awhile! 🙂 Then enjoy my ant-free house! And tomorrow’s blog post will return to the continuing reports on Hotel Banana Azul in Caribe Sur! I’m still processing photos with a lot more to share! 🙂

View from my Cabin surrounded by forest-like gardens.
Continue reading “Nite in Colinas del Sol”