Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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28 Bird Species at Arenal

Both birds and butterflies are the two groups of photos from a forest trip that take me a long time to process the literal thousands of photos and this time I did the butterflies earlier and finally I have finished the birds with 28 species photographed and only 1 is unidentified. Click the first page of the bird gallery below to see it or you can go to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2024-May-6-11-Arenal-Observatory-Lodge-Trails/BIRDS

CLICK this image of the first page of the gallery to go there.

Plus I have added the better photos from this trip gallery to my Costa Rica Birds by Species galleries, so they are found in both places. 🙂 And now I will more quickly finish the entire “Trip Gallery!” 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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The “Other” Hummingbird at Arenal

Like in my garden and some other places visited in Costa Rica, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails seemed dominated by the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird and when I finally get my Arenal ’24 Birds Gallery finished, you will see a lot of Rufous-tailed Hummingbird photos as without-a-doubt my most seen hummingbird, though I place this Violet-headed Hummingbird (eBird link) as number 2 seen by me while at Arenal and as the only other hummingbird I got useable photos of on this trip, though I’m pretty sure I saw a Cinnamon Hummingbird but without a useable photo of him/her. So here’s one shot of the Violet-headed Hummingbird plus the featured photo at top and in my Big Costa Rica Birds Gallery, my Violet-headed Hummingbird Gallery has more photos from this trip plus shots from 3 other locations earlier in Costa Rica! So check it out for another beautiful Hummingbird here! The Violet-headed Hummingbird is found only in Central America and the northern fringes of South America, exactly like the seemingly more dominant Rufous-tailed Hummingbird.

Violet-headed Hummingbird, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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Arenal Butterfly Gallery Complete

and with 3 new moth species for me and at least one new butterfly species. First, to see them all in the sub-gallery of my developing trip gallery, go to Arenal ’24 Butterflies & Moths Gallery with 15 species . . .

Click Image of 1st page of Gallery to see gallery.

Since I did a post on most of these from Arenal, I will let you look for the last minute photos in the gallery! 🙂 Though one is the featured image at top of post of a Hecale Longwing shot on my last morning there. And the birds gallery may take much longer with a lot more photos to sort through! And I think that I’m just getting slower at everything I do now. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Flowers at Arenal

Since I chose 30 different species of flowers to present, I decided not to put them all in this blog post, but start my 2024 Arenal Observatory Trip Gallery with the Flowers sub-gallery. Thus showing only two flowers in this blog post. The Featured Photo at the top is my favorite, an unidentified little wildflower that looks to me like a cute little purple-eyed forest creature! 🙂 And the shot below is not a first time flower for me, but finally I have a name for it, the Blue Ginger (with a Green Orchid Bee approaching it!) . . .

Blue Ginger, Zingiberaceae, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Costa Rica (+ Green Orchid Bee)

Now see all 30 cool rainforest flowers in this trip’s Flowers Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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More Butterflies, Last Morning

Saturday morning, both before and after breakfast, before leaving around noon, I got shots of the beautiful Hecale Longwing (Heliconius hecale) and a couple of moths with one quickly identified, using my Costa Rica Rainforest Moths book! 🙂 The other moth is unidentified, though I think he is in the Tiger Moth family. Here’s 2 shots of the Hecale and one of each moth . . .

Hecale Longwing, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Costa Rica
Continue reading “More Butterflies, Last Morning”
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Rainforest Butterflies

I only photographed 12 butterflies here this year and the photos of 3 are too bad a quality to share, but I will share the other 9 which are all but one repeats of species I’ve seen before, unless that unidentified one becomes a new species. 🙂 I did not go to the Butterfly Conservatory this year in nearby El Castillo-Arenal, or I would have more species photographed. And by the way, I consider it the best butterfly garden of the many all over Costa Rica, in case you are ever nearby. Here’s one shot for the email announcement, followed by a gallery of the 9 species . . .

Ghost Yellow, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Rainforest Butterflies”
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Bird Eating from a Bird of Paradise

It is probably not unusual, but it was my first time to see a bird eating from a Bird of Paradise Flower, in this case a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (linked to my Rufous-tailed Gallery). It was before breakfast this morning near the end of our birding hike as we walked through some of the lodge gardens on our way to the restaurant.

Hummingbird Eating from a Bird of Paradise Flower, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica.
Hummingbird about to eat from a Bird of Paradise Flower, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica.

Arenal Observatory Lodge (their website)

¡Pura Vida!

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From Mini-Jungle to Rainforest!

This morning my usual transportation of Walter Ramirez Tours and Taxis is taking me away from my home “garden” or “mini-jungle,” featured above, to one of my favorite forest getaways for 5 nights . . .

Arenal Observatory Lodge, the only hotel inside the Arenal Volcano National Park, where I will spend 5 days hiking the trails of a forest with a great variety of plants and animals! Tree Ferns to Toucans and more!

Below are four shots of my little mini-rainforest garden in Atenas that I am proud of and in which I photograph much for this blog! Then following that, another 4-shot gallery from my last trip to the Observatory in 2022. I chose to go in May this year because that is the month I got good sunset photos over Lake Arenal in 2018 and my most monkey shots that year, though anytime is a good time to visit Arenal Observatory Lodge! (lodge website link) 🙂 Looking forward to just being there!

Continue reading “From Mini-Jungle to Rainforest!”
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Barred Yellow

This is just my third time to see this unusual Yellow (among the many Yellows!). The Barred Yellow, Eurema daira (linked to my gallery) is found from Argentina north to the deep south of the U.S. It’s uniqueness is the brown, orange & yellow bars on the top of wings. The side view is similar to many Whites & Yellows. I’ve seen it twice here in Atenas and once at Arenal Observatory (where I’m headed tomorrow). See photos from other countries including the U.S. at butterfliesandmoths.

Barred Yellow, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Barred Yellow”