WALKING PATHS in My Life Today

Next to maybe “Nature” in general or “Birds” specifically, nothing describes my life of being “Retired in Costa Rica” better than “WALKING!” For seven years now without a car I have learned to get to most needed places on foot; walking to town, to the supermercado or farmacia, to a restaurante; and even better, walking for fun or the discoveries of nature on city sidewalks, my “Country Lane” or “Country Road” walks for photos of birds or other nature and best of all the many wonderful wilderness trails I’ve discovered in national parks and reserves across this beautiful, natural country of Costa Rica. My life here has made experiencing nature and walking (hiking) almost synonymous! The feature photo at top is one of the horizons I experience on “Country Lane” and other paths in Atenas with one of my trip trails below . . .

Titi Trail, Bosque del Cabo Rainforest Lodge, Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica
Continue reading “WALKING PATHS in My Life Today”

WALKING PATHS of My Adult Life

Had I not married, hiking would have been my avocation or how I spent all my time when not working to pay the bills. 🙂 But that’s not the way my life worked out. So I squeezed in as much as I could, though mostly before marriage and after the divorce with some during marriage, and the memories of all those times among nature are some of the greatest treasures I have. Most of my photography on backpacking trips and day hikes were of the scenery and nature, but I have a few of me on the hiking trails I will show below on the post-email section of the blog, plus even more of hiking groups I either led (most of them) or participated in group hikes. These will be galleries and you can click an image to see its larger full-frame pix and/or a manual slideshow if you wish.

For the 10 years I lived in downtown Nashville I walked nearly every day in Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.

The feature photo at top is of my Vasque Hiking Shoes, the best hiking shoes I ever had!

Continue reading “WALKING PATHS of My Adult Life”

FAVE BIRDS – Spot-crowned Euphonia

The Spot-crowned Euphonia (eBird description) is a favorite for many reasons, including that this photo is so detailed of the female eating a little berry that even her tongue is showing. 🙂 Plus this bird is endemic to Costa Rica, meaning it is found only here and a few spots over the border in Panama. In my Spot-crowned Euphonia Gallery I have shots from only two places and will link to those places and TRIP GALLERIES in The Backstory below, plus I’m adding a photo of the male so you can see the difference. It was photographed at the same time and place as the female and thus they could be mates.

Spot-crowned Euphonia Female, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas NP.
Continue reading “FAVE BIRDS – Spot-crowned Euphonia”

FAVE BIRDS – Red-legged Honeycreeper

The Red-legged Honeycreeper (eBird description) is a favorite bird and this photo a favorite shot, shown by the fact that I used in on my “Big Bird Book” cover seen below. You can see a sampling of my photos of this bird in My Red-legged Honeycreeper Gallery with shots from 5 different locations in Costa Rica which are noted in The Backstory below with links to all of the TRIP GALLERIES of where the shots were made.

Red-legged Honeycreeper, Maquenque Lodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
Continue reading “FAVE BIRDS – Red-legged Honeycreeper”

FAVE BIRDS – Pale-billed Woodpecker

I have lots of woodpecker photos of 9 different species, but this one seems the most unique to me and one that is not seen as often and can easily be confused with the common Pileated Woodpecker. And because it is also similar to the now-extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the states, I will call it the CR substitute! 🙂 I first saw one of these on the Bribri Yorkin Indigenous Reserve, but not as good a photo as this one at Arenal. Read about the Pale-billed Woodpecker (Link to eBird description) or see my Pale-billed Woodpecker Gallery for my shots from 5 different locations in Costa Rica with links below to the trip galleries where I made the photos. As with so many birds I have found this one easier to find and photograph at Maquenque Eco-Lodge and the Arenal Observatory Lodge that I highly recommend for birding and bird photography. 🙂

Pale-billed Woodpecker, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica
Continue reading “FAVE BIRDS – Pale-billed Woodpecker”

FAVE BIRDS – Montezuma Oropendola

This bird has always intrigued me with its bright colors and unique nests and because I have seen him all over the country from coast to coast, mountains, valleys and lowlands! Read about the Montezuma Oropendola on eBirds site or see my collection of photos in my Montezuma Oropendola Gallery. I tell more about this photo and the unique nests they make in my Backstory below plus links to the places I made my photos as trip galleries.

Montezuma Oropendola, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano NP.
Continue reading “FAVE BIRDS – Montezuma Oropendola”

FAVE BIRDS – King Vulture

Vultures are not all ugly as this magnificent creature attests. The King Vulture (eBird description) is hard to find and even harder to photograph without help, but possible as seen in my King Vulture Gallery from 3 locations in Costa Rica. Read the Backstory for how I got the closeups and follow the links to the three trip galleries where I found this big bird!

King Vulture, Maquenque Lodge, Boca Tapada
Continue reading “FAVE BIRDS – King Vulture”

FAVE BIRDS – Crimson-collared Tanager

Beginning with this post the birds are being presented alphabetically by name and I never intended for them to be in order of my favorites, though the first two, Quetzal and Sunbittern, were chosen specifically to begin the series as maybe the two most dramatic of my bird photos! 🙂

This Crimson-collared Tanager (eBird description) was actually photographed in Nicaragua on one of my two birding trips to this next door neighbor of Costa Rica, though I do have photos of this bird made in Costa Rica with one included below, just not as strong an image as this featured photo. Read The Backstory below for where and how I photographed this seldom-seen bird in three different locations.

Crimson-collared Tanager on Coffee Plant
Continue reading “FAVE BIRDS – Crimson-collared Tanager”

Green

The response to yesterday’s blog post “Verdure” has been good and of course that older English word refers to the “green” in nature. One response caused me to look up quotes about “green in nature” and there were so many good ones! I limited myself to sharing just three:

“For still there are so many things that I have never seen: in every wood in every spring there is a different green.”

– J. R. R. Tolkien

“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.”

– Pedro Calderon de la Barca

 “Nature in her green, tranquil woods heals and soothes all afflictions.”

– John Muir
Fern

¡Pura Vida!

🙂

Adventures in the Wilds & No Camera!

Those who know me well may not believe that title – and, well – what is happening in this period of few blog posts is that I am totally absorbed in the re-reading the Lord of the Rings books, all in one volume for me on my Kindle, a much longer read than The Hobbit I just completed! Plus I am still mostly tired from the radiation treatments and just not doing much else or getting out much.

The Kindle Edition Cover


Frodo and his buddies are just beginning as they got out of “The Old Forest” terrors and the magical “House of Tom Bombadil” and head for “The Prancing Pony Inn” and more “Dark Rider” or “Strider” encounters (who has been following them).

Eventually I may report on the story with some of my nature photos or I just may give you a break! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!