Category: Rainforest

Posted on

FAVE BIRDS – Sunbittern

One of those thrilling moments of discovery was the first time I finally saw a Sunbittern, even though planned and expected but not guaranteed, there it was! And after a few shots of a plain walking bird along the stream, he finally opened his wings for this shot of spectacular color and design! Read the Backstory for more on the experience.

The Sunbittern (eBird description) is found along water in Central America and the northern half of South America. See my Sunbittern Gallery for my images made at La Mina near Rancho Naturalista, Turrialba; Macaw Lodge near Carara NP; and at Tapirus Lodge, Braulio Carillo NP. See links at bottom of post for all three of these trip galleries and links to these 3 lodges in The Backstory.

Sunbittern at La Mina, Costa Rica
Continue reading “FAVE BIRDS – Sunbittern”
Posted on

Living with Lizards

Anyone who has lived in a tropical climate has experienced Geckos if not other lizards living in your house. They are the best mosquito repellant and eat many other insects also, thus I’m glad I have Geckos! And I don’t object to other types of small lizards as they all eat insects! 🙂 This one in my kitchen yesterday was not like the other Geckos I have seen but when I looked him up in the book he seems to be just a different species of Gecko called a “Common House Gecko” (Wikipedia link) and it is a non-native “introduced” species, one of 9 species in Costa Rica now. That ID and number of species is from Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica, a Pocket Guide by Chacón and Johnson.

Common House Gecko, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

And here’s three more cellphone photos of the one yesterday . . .

Continue reading “Living with Lizards”
Posted on

TRIP GALLERY is Ready

Because I wasn’t running around on my usual side-trips this past week (in my over-80 slow mode now) 🙂 I got started on and have now finished the “CR TRIP GALLERY” for this 2021 Banana Azul Caribe South week (link is to the gallery).

There’s a lot more to photograph when not leaving a hotel than I thought. Now granted, there are fewer photos of birds and other wildlife and none from national parks, wildlife refuges, waterfalls, indigenous reserves, or wildlife rescue centers (all of which I’ve “toured” from this very hotel in the past). This week became my “quiet mode” focus. I just stayed put and photographed the little things in nature all around me on the hotel grounds, plus some fun shots from the small plane flight there! There are 9 sub-galleries! 🙂 Just click the first page of the gallery below and ENJOY! 🙂

CLICK above image to go to the gallery.

“Photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real.”

– Ansel Adams

¡Pura Vida!

And if you are interested in some of those great “side-trips” I’ve made from this same hotel, check out the galleries from other trips to South Caribe:

Continue reading “TRIP GALLERY is Ready”
Posted on

Beachside Rainforest?

Well – It has been and I hope that at least part of it will last! I’ve been coming here for 5 years and it is definitely deteriorating with development and now evidently a landfill somewhere on the peninsula north of the hotel due to truck loads of dirt and rocks and trash headed that way.

The main (only) highway runs parallel to the coast and thus most beaches but Banana Azul is on a peninsula of sorts with a narrow dirt road leading to it and a few other smaller hotels or B&Bs. Then alongside the beach are “tracks” in the dirt that I hike down into the forest with some old growth trees, marshes, and some small animals and birds. Locals come down these tracks to find a private spot on the beach and like all good things in nature it may be getting “loved to death” with too much use. My Gallery below includes a few of my shots from this trip along this beachside rainforest trail. Though the Caribbean is slower developing than other parts of Costa Rica, I’m afraid it too will go for “the progress of the area.”

Here’s a shot from the beach with forest on left going all the way to the end of that “point” or peninsula.

Looking North from Hotel Beach, Forest on the Left.
Continue reading “Beachside Rainforest?”
Posted on

Seen on The Beach

This trip was much more of a “Beach Holiday” for me than most of my trips to or near the beaches of Costa Rica. I’m usually on side trips to national parks or wildlife refuges to photograph nature almost every day. But needing to rest this time, I haven’t left the hotel and thus I spent a lot of time on the beach or overlooking it from my balcony. And of course photographing much! 🙂

With a telephoto lens I did photograph a few interesting people from a distance but decided to give them their privacy and not include in this collection of just nature things I saw on the beach near Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Costa Rica. Below is my straight-ahead view from the hotel chase-lounge chair on the beach and below that a slide show of 16 other interesting things I saw on the beach including “A Dragon’s Head” (if you have an imagination!) 🙂 And this doesn’t include the sunrises from the beach every morning which are in separate daily posts.

My view from under the beach umbrella!
Continue reading “Seen on The Beach”
Posted on

Lucky Lizard + Tanager

The lizard is lucky because Scarlet-rumped Tanagers don’t eat lizards! 🙂 When I photographed the Tanager I did not notice the lizard below him until the image was enlarged on my laptop screen. Bigger birds eat lizards this size! 🙂

Scarlet-rumpedd Tanager and an Unidentified Lizard.

¡Pura Vida!

I’ve galleries on two varieties of Scarlet-rumped Tanagers:

Passerini’s or Caribbean Slope

Cherrie’s or Pacific Slope