Category: Nature

My profession is to always find God in nature.

– Henry David Thoreau

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A Hat Full of Sky

“There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.” 
― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

And today’s story begins as I wake up with that big sky sunrise at the foot of my bed in beautiful Rancho Humo, eat a Tico breakfast of scrambled eggs with beans and rice (Gallo Pinto) and begin a 6 km hike in Palo Verde Park after a 30 minute boat ride to the park entrance.  Tired, invigorated, hot and smiling. Today’s story will continue once I’ve sorted the photos   🙂    –another episode of “Retired in Costa Rica.”  ¡Pura Vida!

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New Friends on My Afternoon Walk

My 4 pm afternoon walk ended up being partly with a young couple from Germany who checked in the hotel today along with a separate American couple, so I no longer get all the attention of the staff!   🙂    This German couple are going with me on the hike into the national park tomorrow morning.

My other new friends were a group of Yellow-naped Parrots that live only in the Northwest of Costa Rica and thus my first time to see. They are also popular for pets and thus now endangered, so a really good photo find and a “Lifer” for me. Click the name link above for Cornell University’s Neotropical Birds article with map of the few places they still live in the wild and a recording of their sounds which I heard live today. This kind of wildness is going to disappear one of these days if humans don’t change their ways.

Yellow-naped Parrot, Rancho Humo Estancia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Yellow-naped Parrot, Rancho Humo Estancia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

 

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Rancho Humo Birds

All of these birds were photographed on the Rancho Humo hotel property (100’s of acres of farmland) with some fields flooded by a tidal irrigation system from the Tempisque River. Many of the fields are shared with some of the 800 cows they have here along with wild deer, howler monkeys, and all the smaller wildlife like coatis and iguanas, etc. Tomorrow I go into the Palo Verde National Park which will probably give me some new birds along with some of these.       CLICK AN IMAGE TO SEE LARGER or to begin a slideshow with larger images than the automated slideshow.

 

Rancho Humo Estancia on Rio Tempisque

See how I “rough it” in luxury in Costa Rica:

¡Pura Vida!

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A Beautiful Day!

And So Many Birds the Photos Aren’t Ready!

I photographed so many birds today that I can’t get them all processed to show tonight, so they’ll come tomorrow.

Above was sunrise from my room and below where I road in a safari jeep on the hotel property photographing birds and at bottom the sunset today.  Lots of bird photos coming tomorrow!

The Wetlands around Rancho Humo Estancia, Costa Rica
Another fabulous end to another fabulous day – Rancho Humo!

 

 

¡Pura Vida!

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“Home on the Range”

Northwest Costa Rica, the Guanacaste Province, is mostly flat, dry and generally with more sun than rain with lots of cattle ranching. Today Walter drove me to and through this area of Costa Rica for my 5-night stay at Rancho Humo where it is near the end of Rainy Season, so nice and green now! Above photo is from my room deck when I arrived. Here’s a few shots enroute and on the first of 6 days at “Home on the Range.”

BIRDS First Afternoon, 30 minutes in Wetlands

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On the Road to Rancho Humo

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My “Jr. Suite” at Rancho Humo

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Rancho Humo Outside Views

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And their 2 Minute Video on Rancho Humo:

 

¡Pura Vida!

 

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Morning Birds

First a Turkey Vulture soared overhead like a messenger from God, then 3 simple birds landed in 3 different trees and I felt close to God during breakfast today – even without colorful, rare or gorgeous birds – just plain birds smiling at me as I smiled back!

Birds in My Garden at Breakfast Today

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My heart is like a singing bird.

~Christina Rossetti

And tomorrow morning, Saturday, I leave for Palo Verde National Park. See yesterday’s post for more information.

¡Pura Vida!

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Tres Amigos

I took my camera out for a later breakfast today and though earlier is better, I did get shots of these three familiar friends. I include two of the dove because front view and back view is always different! Click image to see larger.

Tres amigos

 

Hope is the thing with feathers

‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.

~Emily Dickinson

¡Pura Vida!

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State of the World’s Birds (& My Bird Galleries)

See this fascinating report from BirdLife.org titled State of the World’s Birds.

 

If you love birds, I hope you will also visit my BIRDS Photo Gallery     🙂

And as I very slowly move smaller and older photos from my old PBase galleries I am currently working on all of my Africa travel photos in a different location  (Pre-Costa Rica TRAVELS) within my big SmugMug Gallery and today  I’m working on my Gambia Birds  Sub Gallery, which is interesting for the large variety of birds found there, though most of the photos are of poor quality. I Photographed then on a cheap old film camera without a long lense and later scanned 4×6 prints at too low a resolution affecting the quality more. Though I got half a dozen good bird shots on the 2009 revisit of The Gambia with my better digital camera.  Just another part of my Birds Collection from the past. Later I will try to add what few birds I photographed in the states.

Also with the Africa Travel galleries are these with East African birds:

Eventually I will put copies of all of these birds in my BIRDS Gallery, but everything is done manually and slowly.