Category: Trees

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Palm Sunday

Though I am surrounded by palms every day in Costa Rica, I smile as I think of my memories of children on Palm Sunday waving palm fronds during my years in The Gambia, as well as in the States and here in Costa Rica! And I rejoice with Christians everywhere on the remembrance of the triumphant entry of Jesus in Jerusalem before his crucifixion and long for His second coming as I believe his sadness for Jerusalem then would be many times more today.

They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! ~John 12:13 NIV

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Cinnamon-bellied Saltator

This Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Saltator grandis (eBird link) was for years called the “Grayish Saltator” but was one of many birds that have had their names changed during my ten years of birding here in Costa Rica, which is sometimes confusing, but it keeps you on your toes! 🙂 It is strictly a “Central American + Mexico bird” (Mexico is “officially” part of North America). According to eBird I have now observed 14 of this species in Costa Rica which you can see in my GALLERY: Cinnamon-bellied Saltator. I got this shot in the shadows (hindering photo quality) during my “sitting bird expedition” the other evening in my yard. He is semi-common here, plus I’ve observed him in four other locations around Costa Rica. The cinnamon belly is seldom seen (like in only one shot in my gallery). 🙂

Cinnamon-bellied Saltator, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Backyard Gray Hawk

On what I call the back side of my little house, I sat in a chair Wednesday evening for 20 or 30 minutes, scanning the hill behind my house and photographed several birds with this Gray Hawk, Buteo plagiatus (eBird link) being my prize of that birding sit! 🙂 And see the other Gray Hawks I’ve photographed here in my Gray Hawk Gallery. This hawk is found from Costa Rica north through Mexico to the Southwestern U.S. along the Mexican border, mostly a Central American bird.

Gray Hawk, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Yigüirro

is the Costa Rican Spanish name for the English-named Clay-colored Thrush. (my gallery link) This is the bird that gently wakes me up each morning singing, and, as tradition has it, he/she is singing in the rains for the beginning of our winter or rainy season in May.

Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Chachalacas!

A small group of young Gray-headed Chachalacas, Ortalis cinereiceps (linked to eBird) landed in my trees yesterday and did a lot of chattering before flying on elsewhere. The wind doesn’t seem to bother larger birds as much as the smaller ones. And this bird lives only between Guatemala and Columbia! Here’s 3 different views . . .

Gray-headed Chachalaca, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Corteza Amarilla

Corteza Amarilla, Yellow Cortez Tree, Tabebuia ochracea, (Wikipedia link) is visible almost everywhere in Costa Rica this time of year, but only for a very few days or weeks, then the bright yellow, flowers-only trees become another beautiful green tree, blending in with the landscape they now contrast with. This week I’ve snapped a few shots of some around Atenas and you can see more of my past photos of them in the gallery labeled simply Yellow Trees! (which also includes Yellow-Bell Trees) 🙂 Below this one photo for the email version of this post are two galleries, one for my neighborhood and one for the central church at Central Park Atenas.

Yellow Cortez Trees at the Central Church of Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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The Always Here Bird

The wind has been very heavy again for many days which discourages birds or butterflies on my hillside, but the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is always here! And they chase off any other species of hummingbirds, but don’t seem to be bothered by the few butterflies I’ve had (maybe thinking they don’t eat much?). 🙂 I had to photograph those two flying pix from a greater distance +the movement and thus not good images, but I still like the action shots as well as the “sitting portraits” like this one . . .

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Spiny-tailed Iguana

On another very windy day I was unable to photograph bird or butterfly, but did get this Spiny-tailed Iguana (my gallery link) sunning on a limb of my slowly dying Cecropia Tree which doesn’t get as many birds as it used to. But all wildlife are a joy for me and this one doesn’t seem to be bothered by the wind. 🙂

Black Spiny-tailed Iguana, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

This is the one bird that never was scared off by the winds (which are still blowing but decreasing). He kept feeding on the flowers and the feeders and allowed other Rufous-tailed to join him, but not other birds. “King of the Garden!” Here he is in one of the trees.

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See more in my gallery: Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Amazilia tzacatl.

¡Pura Vida!

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Chachalaca’s One of Many . . .

. . . as the birds seem to be making their return (though still windy some). And the National Bird, the Yigüirro, is singing his heart out as if it were April and the rains about to start. Some say that means the rainy season will begin earlier in April or maybe in March? Not normal, but then nothing about the weather has been normal this year. This shot was of a solo Gray-headed Chachalaca, Ortalis cinereiceps (my gallery link) in my Cecropia Tree. They are often in flocks, but none yet in my garden.

Gray-headed Chachalaca, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!