Category: Forest

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Madre Verde Butterflies!

Yesterday was the last morning birding hike with my friend from British Columbia and Walter took us to a new nature reserve for me, Reserva Madre Verde near Palmares which is north of Atenas, a 30 minute drive through beautiful mountains (or maybe hills). :-)

Our two hour hike up & down a hill had a 300 meter rise in altitude was good for us 80-somethings! We heard lots of birds but in a fairly thick forest we did not see as many as the other two birding hikes. I got photos of only 3 birds – BUT – I’m still happy because I got photos of 9 different species of butterflies, which took me all afternoon to identify and process the photos AND I got 3 new species for me! :-) So a very good 2-hour hike! Below is a gallery with one shot of each of the 9 butterflies after this one shot for the email version of post . . .

Tiger Mimic-White, Reserva Madre Verde, Palmares, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Madre Verde Butterflies!”
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Tuesday’s Birds

Well – the 6 that I didn’t erase from the camera disk! :-) I’m guessing that when I tried to erase one bad one from the disk, I hit something that selected all the remaining photos and erased them all. None of these are particularly good photos, but the 6 I managed to save, with the Inca Dove maybe my favorite photo after yesterday’s landscapes.

Tuesday’s hike was on Highway 707, southwest of Central Atenas. though not many here use highway numbers. 🙂 They say “the road going west of Cruz Roja to Pica Flora and Hacienda Atenas!” 🙂 Today we are going on Calle Balsilla, south of Atenas, or “a farming road near the Chucas Hydroelectric Dam and lake south of Ruta 27 on Rio Tarcoles.” And maybe I will get some more photos that I don’t erase! :-) Then tomorrow we go to a nature reserve north of here near Palmares. I’m staying behind on photos while still processing those from Hotel Savegre! But it is fun! :-)

Keel-billed Toucan, Atenas, Costa Rica. Many flew over and landed in distant trees. 🙂

Read on for the gallery of all 6 birds . . .

Continue reading “Tuesday’s Birds”
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The Other Side of Atenas Yesterday

My birding friend from British Columbia, Canada, is here this week and we went birding on a former rural road on the west side of Atenas with lots of houses going up of course! Here’s 3 shots of the area and most of my bird shots were not real good because of light and distance plus I lost about 1/3 of them when somehow my computer deleted a bunch from the camera disk. Aghhhh! (I know! It was me hitting a wrong key or something! Grrrr!) Technology will be the death of me yet! :-) But the cows are cute! And that bright yellow tree is a Cortez Amarillo (Tabebuia Ochracea) tree that is blooming all over Costa Rica this time of year and in the landscape shot you can see yellow spots of them blooming. Thursday morning we will try a real country road south of Atenas and then Friday morning we are visiting a nearby nature reserve that I hope will be birdful! 🙂

Vista from a road on the west side of Atenas with my house on the side of that mountain across the valley.

And read on for a photo of a cow & calf nursing and a close up of the Cortez Tree! :-)

Continue reading “The Other Side of Atenas Yesterday”
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Going Out of Business Sale!

This is my last week (8-13 January) in the Galería Artenas in the Calle 2 Plaza next to Linea Vital Medical Plaza. Everything there is available below my cost and I will no longer be selling my photo art directly in Atenas or anywhere else except for awhile the photo greeting cards will be available at Hotel Colinas del Sol (after 13 January).

Everything else I have been selling will continue to be available online through links above on this website, charliedoggett.net, in my Gallery, Bookstore, and CafePress “Costa Rica Photo Art!” Happy shopping! :-)

And for the last time this week you can see and touch before you buy as you help me clear out my inventory at Galería Artenas! :-)

Floral Accent Pillows available now at Galería Artenas!
Wall Art Available Now at Galería Artenas!

Nature as Art

¡Pura Vida!

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The Acorn Woodpecker

This distinctive little woodpecker is one I have seen only one other time, in 2015, and it too was in San Gerardo de Dota, that time at Mariam’s Cabinas, now called Quetzals Cabinas. You can see that shot and all my decent ones this year from Savegre in my Acorn Woodpecker GALLERY. It is found only in the mountains above 1500m, from California south through Central America to Columbia.

Acorn Woodpecker, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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“Hug a Tree!”

After the jeep ride up the mountain (yesterday’s post) going past the mirador (Spanish for a vista overlook platform), we stopped at the trailhead for multiple trails. Me and the 3-generation Tico family chose the shorter trail through the forest down to the Savegre Mirador. Just one experience here, so be sure to see the others in the Hiking the Pioneers Trail Photo GALLERY.

An 800 Year Old Tree says “Hug Me!”
A Mother & Child Hug the 800 year old Tree.

And for more pix on the trails at Savegre, click the linked blog post below titled “Trails and Trees” where Marino Chacón (a different son of the founder than this year) took me on a longer trails hike for the early morning bird hike back in January 2021, just the 2 of us.

¡Pura Vida!

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“Nature Things”

Often when photographing in the forests of Costa Rica I’m compelled to photograph an interesting leaf or something that I don’t know what it is, thus I usually have a folder for photos of “Leaves & Nature Things!” And today’s photo is one of those! :-) They might be seeds or flower buds or nuts or who knows what? But I find this “whatever “Nature Thing” seen at Macaw Lodge to be worth sharing in my nature blog. And if you know what it is, leave a comment below.  🙂

One of my “Nature Things” photos.

¡Pura Vida!

And the GALLERY: Leaves & Nature Things.

🙂

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Gray Wasp with Blue Wings

I continue to find insects in Costa Rica to be so interesting and sometimes weird! And I quickly gave up on using a close up lens for insects because to get as close as is needed you scare off the bug! :-) Thus I use the same lens that I use for birds high in a tree, my 150-600 mm zoom lens and can get images sometimes nearly as good as a close up without scaring of the insect off.

One of those, besides the many butterflies that I prefer, was this blue and gray wasp with an fun face! enjoy these two shots and I have no good way to identify for sure, but think “Blue & Gray Wasp” is a pretty good temporary name for this one! And I searched several websites without finding this one out of hundreds of species here! :-) 

Blue & Gray Wasp, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa Rica
Blue & Gray Wasp, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa Rica

Check out my non-butterfly insects in the MORE INSECTS GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

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November Macaw Lodge GALLERY!

Finally, I have the photo gallery for my November trip to Macaw Lodge completed, just 6 days before I begin my Christmas Trip to San Gerardo de Dota! I have been very busy since that last trip! 🙂 I will now blog those 6 days before Christmas trip on my garden and some more from Macaw Lodge. :-)

This was just my second time to go to Macaw Lodge which is at the closest national park to where I live. And though I’ve visited 4 other lodges/hotels near that park, Macaw is my favorite and I’m likely to be returning! :-) You can read about the lodge on their website linked here: Macaw Lodge, and it is a lot more than a yoga retreat which the site seems to emphasize! :-) And now for my unique (and I think good) collection of photos from just 3 nights at Macaw Lodge last month, click the gallery image below or go to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-November-21-24-Macaw-Lodge-Carara-NP

CLICK image to visit this gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

AND ABOUT MY OTHER BLOG POST TODAY: Back in January I read an article about fun or funny “Annual National Days” in the U.S. and quickly did a blog post on what I thought was the most interesting one for each of the 12 months and today is the last one on “Underdog Day!” I promise not to do anything like that again, though it was kind of fun when I put together all 12 posts! :-) Tomorrow I’m back to only one nature blog post each day! My real passion! :-) 

¡Hasta luego!