The Tropical Checkered Skipper, Burnsius oileus, (my gallery link) is another fairly common butterfly in the past that has returned to my garden for this year. Here’s just one shot and you can see more in the above linked gallery. They are found along the U.S. Gulf Coast south to Argentina. See photos from other places on butterfliesandmoths.
Tropical Checkered Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
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Another one of those tiny little butterflies and the second time for me to see the Cassius Blue, Leptotes cassius (my gallery link), both times this year! I keep being surprised with new species and during a year with an extra hot and windy pre-rainy season! But fortunately, the rainy season has started and my garden is happy! Along with the birds and butterflies! 🙂 And here’s 3 shots of the Cassius Blue with different light, shading and details . . .
Well, sometimes I think they are all “juvenile” in their behavior, chirping at night sometimes and leaving their distinctive gecko poop around the house, but then, on the other hand, they are heroes! They are my best “pest control” and maybe why Costa Rica does not have a mosquito problem or mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever plaguing other parts of Central America right now. This is a younger one with full grown nearly twice this size, though I’ve seen much smaller or literally baby geckos less than half this size. 🙂
These 6 photos of 6 species were made on April 18 & 20, processed a week later and being ahead on my blog posts, they just now make it to you! 🙂 I was really photographing a lot during the weeks before my Arenal trip and now my photos and thus blog posts are sort of backed up. But I will catch up and maybe slow down a little or be more selective in which photos I share. Sorry, but I want to share all of them! 🙂 I will put these 6 butterflies in a little gallery below this one introductory shot.
One of my unidentified photos from Arenal just got identified by an authority with butterfliesandmoths.org and it is another one of those rare finds and mine is the first one ever submitted to butterfliesandmoths. 🙂 Wikipedia says “Athis inca is a moth of the Castniidae family. It is found from Mexico to Costa Rica.” You can see this photo of mine posted on butterfliesandmoths or in my gallery. And to learn more, the website that seemed to have the most information was GBIF (linked). And Project Noah (linked) has several nice photos, including different subspecies. I’m proud of my find and so glad that J. Wiley Rains of BAMONA identified it for me! Costa Rica is just full of “rare finds!” 🙂 And it is wonderful to be “Retired in Costa Rica,” the name of my blog! 🙂
Athis inca Moth, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Costa Rica
On this same trip I also found another semi-rare moth which you can see in my gallery, the Feigeria herilia, an equally interesting and different moth! 🙂
This is my second sighting of Matthew’s Groundstreak, Rubroseratta mathewi (linked to butterflies and moths where only one other person has confirmed a sighting). It is another one of those tiny, fingernail-sized butterflies here. I continue to be amazed by the variety of butterflies right here in my own garden that are expanded more when I travel! For the photos of my other sighting and one more from this, see MY GALLERY: Matthew’s Groundstreak. Here’s one shot from this April sighting . . .
Matthew’s Groundstreak, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince
This is my second time to see this rare butterfly, with the other time being in the south of the country near Golfito at Playa Cativo Lodge on Golfo Dulce at Piedras Blancas National Park AND I am the only person to have submitted any photos of it to butterfliesandmoths.org(Link to their page for this butterfly.) Or you can see the same photos in my gallery for the Megarus Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon megarus. 🙂 Here’s four shots from a recent sighting in my garden . . .
Finally, I have processed all the photos and organized them into another fun gallery representative of Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails inside the Arenal Volcano National Park of Costa Rica. And the blog will be back to my little creatures and fun nature from my little garden. You can click the first page of the gallery below or if preferred, this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2024-May-6-11-Arenal-Observatory-Lodge-Trails
CLICK this image of the first page of gallery to go there.
Okay, I thought I was nearly through with the birds gallery, but still needed to process these other wildlife and the trip gallery’s Other Wildlife Gallery (linked to it) or you can click the below image of the first page of that gallery to go there!
CLICK the first page image of the galley above to visit it.
The featured image at top of post is of a White-nosed Coati which is pretty common all over Costa Rica. The other 10 species are also fairly common and I really hate that I missed the three species of monkeys found at Arenal, but my favorite place to photograph them is from about halfway up “The Nest” bird-watching tower at about 4:30 to 5:00 each evening as they return through the trees from feeding to their bedding down location, and it was raining every afternoon I was there and I did not want to get out in the rain! Sorry!
In the past I’ve gotten some good photos of both Mantled Howler Monkeys and the Central American Spider Monkeys at Arenal. The two monkey names above are linked to my species galleries which include photos from Arenal. The third monkey in Arenal, the White-faced Capuchin, I have never seen there, but I’ve linked them to my species gallery also, which includes photos from other places in Costa Rica I’ve seen them. All three are fairly common all over Costa Rica and I’m sorry I did not make more of an effort to photograph this trip! 🙂
I will clean up a few more lodge photos and then announce this total trip gallery soon I hope! 🙂
The next big trip is for my July 4 birthday to Maquenque Eco Lodge which has been my favorite lodge in Costa Rica, even though I don’t stay in the tree houses any more, one of my reasons for loving it. Then another favorite lodge good for butterflies is Xandari near Alajuela and I’ve sneaked in a 2 nighter there the in the middle of June. 🙂 But I really am slowing down on the travel as I am physically tiring more now and after Maquenque, nada mas until my annual Caribe trip in September. And in the meantime, I’m actually starting a process to look at and compare senior adult living facilities nearby, which surprises even me! 🙂 I’ll keep you blog readers posted on that and of course any future travel along with photos from my garden!
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.
