Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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Four-spotted Sailor

A new species for me! Or my first time to see and photograph, thus these 2 photos are the only ones today in my Gallery Four-spotted Sailor, but who knows, I might see another one tomorrow! 🙂 And a fun fact about this one is that I photographed him through my kitchen sink window, where I spotted him while washing dishes! 🙂 There are several kinds of “Sailor” butterflies and I’ve seen only one other, the Pale Sailor, which I’ve seen 2 different years in my garden plus nearby on 8th Avenue near Hotel Colinas del Sol, so a lot more photos!

Four-spotted Sailor, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Four-spotted Sailor, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Yellow-crowned Euphonia

This is the first time I’ve seen any Euphonia in quite a while, maybe more than a year and usually somewhere else other than my garden. And I got both the male and the female, though the male was in the shadows and thus not as good a photo.

Male Yellow-crowned Euphonia
Female Yellow-crowned Euphonia

¡Pura Vida!

See more in my Yellow-crowned Euphonia Gallery where I have photos from 3 other locations, with this being the first of this species in my garden.

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December Flower Shots

Almost every day of every month (when at home) I walk through my garden with camera in hand looking for birds, butterflies or other wildlife. When none are seen, I usually snap a photo of a flower or an interesting leaf. And recently I have been presenting some of those photos at the end of the month or in the next month. So here are last month’s flower shots not already shown. I do occasionally have a post on one of my flowers, like the Desert Rose for my Christmas Card in December! And I won’t repeat those images. 🙂 Below this introductory photo is a gallery of 7 flower shots from December.

Potted Petunias
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Idiarthron Genus

I know, it looks like a grasshopper and it may be, but the AI on iNaturalist would only go so for as the genus in identification, so I will wait for a bug expert to identify which grasshopper this is! 🙂 Here’s two shots, the top view with my cell phone and the side view with my telephoto lens on a Canon camera. And I do expect it to be identified eventually.

Idiarthron Genus Insect, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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African Trees?

I like looking up the big hills on two sides of my little house on the side of a small hill. The other day I snapped photos through my zoom lens of two trees that I liked the looks of: First is an African Tulip Tree which I know the identity of, but the second one and my feature photo is labeled by Google LENS as a Ficus Thonningii Tree which is native to Africa, though the iNaturalist AI would not specify a species, it just said that is is probably one of the Ficus Trees or one of the Squirrel Trees. (First I’ve heard of squirrel trees!). 🙂 But anyway, I like both trees and I’m sharing these two by photos. And if both are from Africa, it is not that unusual here for people to plant trees and shrubs/flowers from other tropical continents.

African Tulip Tree, Residential Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Punta Leona Trip Gallery . . .

. . . is finished and ready for visits! Just click the gallery image or go to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-12-23-27-Punta-Leona

CLICK IMAGE to go to the gallery.
Continue reading “Punta Leona Trip Gallery . . .”
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Pompeius Skipper

This little brown skipper with a historic-sounding name was at Punta Leona Nature Resort as he sometimes is in my garden. See my gallery Pompeius Skipper – Pompeius pompeius for more photos of this “brown is beautiful” little butterfly. 🙂

Pompeius Skipper, Punta Leona Nature Resort, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

My 2025 Punta Leona GALLERY is now finished!

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Dirce Beauty

A butterfly that I don’t see very often, though in 5 locations now, is the Dirce Beauty, Colobura dirce (my gallery link) was one of the 11 species that I photographed at Punta Leona. B&W butterflies don’t have a lot of fans, but it is one more of the many species found here!

Dirce Beauty, Hotel Punta Leona, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Pale Owl-Butterfly

This Pale Owl-Butterfly – Caligo telamonius (my gallery link) is one of several species in the Caligo Genus with the large eye spot on each wing so that when they spread their wings they may appear to a predator as a much larger animal (like an owl) and thus a defensive mechanism. Owl-butterflies are also one of the largest butterflies in Costa Rica. This one was spotted at Hotel Punta Leona Christmas Week. Some earlier sources called it the “Yellow-fronted Owl-Butterfly.”

Pale Owl-Butterfly, Hotel Punta Leona, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!