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One of those many colorful and beautiful butterflies in Costa Rica is the Crimson Patch, Chlosyne janais (linked to my gallery). It is found from Colombia north through Central America and Mexico to South Texas. Here’s two views of one on the beach road near Hotel Banana Azul last week . . .
¡Pura Vida!
I still haven’t processed all my photos from today and will get a few more in the morning before I leave, but I’m pleased to get a different bird and butterfly from all the other days here . . .
And one of many shots of sunrise this morning that I haven’t all processed, but will eventually share more, including the throng of local people out at sunrise on Saturday morning! 🙂
Continue reading “New Bird & Butterfly on Final Day”
Because of some pains that make walking difficult, I’m limiting myself to short walks down the beach road (one lane, dirt) and of course the hotel gardens instead of longer hikes in the nearby national park and separate wildlife refuge. I’m up to 15 species of birds now, just right here! And I don’t know how many butterflies because I haven’t processed those photos from today, but know that I got some new ones again! One of the beach road joys is watching wild hummingbirds – they are all wild, including those in my garden at home! 🙂 And like at home, the Rufous-tailed seems to be the dominant hummingbird here too! 🙂 Here’s just two shots for now and more will be in the trip gallery later.
¡Pura Vida!
And another lovely sunrise! The two new birds are called “lifers” by birders, while the one new butterfly species is just generally called a new species! 🙂 And it is my favorite! The two new birds were identified by Merlin for the sake of any birders reading. 🙂 After I submit them to eBird, they will be reviewed and someone will notify me if they think misidentified. 🙂 The markings on both of these two birds are similar though their body builds are different and a tan color with white wing stripes is common to many species as is the white eye ring, but I’m trusting Merlin on these. 🙂 I’m now up to 10 bird species on this trip and 6 butterfly species, with there simply not being as many butterflies here this year or in October compared to my usual September trip. But I’m happy with what I’m getting and the sunrises alone are worth the trip, though I do miss hiking in Gandoca-Manzanillo & Cahuita! “Being old is not for sissies!” 🙂
This handsome Tropical Kingbird – Tyrannus melancholicus (linked to my gallery for them) is another special bird seen all over South and Central America. I photographed this one while he waited in line for some of those palm berries shown yesterday in my garden. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
These berries on one of the very tall palms in my garden are shown here feeding a Great Kiskadee, Pitangus sulphuratus (my gallery link) while other Kiskadees and Yigüirros wait their turn on a limb of my nearby Cecropia tree (though occasionally there were 2 or 3 birds on this cluster at the same time). 🙂 Those two species and a few flycatchers have now just about stripped all the berries off this tree. And though butterflies have caught my interest more lately, and there are more of them, I still watch and photograph the few birds that come to my garden, mostly Doves, Kiskadees and Yigüirros (Clay-colored Thrush). Here’s just the one photo of this species found in Central & South America . . .
¡Pura Vida!
One of the unusual Skippers in both looks and name is this Broken Silverdrop, Epargyreus exadeus (linked to my gallery with a lot of other photos). Here’s just one shot from my garden recently . . .
¡Pura Vida!
This is my third sighting of a Little Banner, Nica flavilla (my gallery link), all in my garden and another tiny fingernail-sized butterfly with intricate details and bright colors. Here’s two shots from August and click the above linked gallery to see more.
¡Pura Vida!
This has always been one of my favorite butterflies since I photographed my first back in 2005 in the Everglades National Park, Florida USA. And we even had a slightly different species in Tennessee called the Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia). I like the exoctic look! 🙂 Here’s just one shot from my garden earlier this month and see other photos in my Costa Rica Tropical Buckeye GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
This Many-banded Daggerwing, Marpesia chiron (linked to my gallery) is one of only 4 daggerwing butterflies I’ve seen in Costa Rica and three were here in Atenas, though this is the first one seen in my garden. 🙂 I saw another Many-banded species at Chachagua Rainforest Lodge. I’ll link to the other daggerwing galleries at the bottom of this post. Here’s one of the four photos I got of this species in my garden.
¡Pura Vida!