These mountains or a wider vista of them is one of the things I look at during breakfast every morning that I’m at home, though I have never been able to fully capture exactly what I see. Here is another effort with a 5-shot panorama. You can see many of the other efforts in my GALLERY: From My Roca Verde Terrace – and just like sunrises and sunsets, no two are alike! 🙂 ¡Pura vida!
I earlier promised a blog post on this unique place adjacent to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and then I will lay off posts from that area for awhile. 🙂 And begin again tomorrow doing blog posts from my garden and the community of Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica! 🙂
Normally the station is full of students and other researchers as in this photo from their website, but the week I was there, they were in between research projects and I talked with only two students.
The University of Vienna in Austria does an exceptional amount of tropical and rainforest research with not only their professors and students, but with many guest researchers from other parts of Europe and from the USA and Latin America. Read more about this important research station on their English-language website: https://www.lagamba.at/en/ while being aware that the primary language there is German. 🙂 Austrians speak an Austrian dialect of German.
. . . in my garden, the Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush (eBird link) who is no longer singing his longing melody that tradition says is him calling in the rain for rainy season to begin. It began with June and we’ve had rain every afternoon since! So I think he is a happy bird! 🙂 But overall, this june I’m seeing fewer varieties of both birds and butterflies than usual. I’m hoping that won’t be true of the rainforest I visit next week! 🙂
Yigüirro or Clay-colored Thrush, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Or was the other one an “early bloomer?” 🙂 Both the Nance Tree and the Maraca Flowers on the front slope of my house have finished blooming while the ones back of my house (up hill) are just now blooming. Maybe the difference is morning sun (back) and afternoon sun (front) or I’m just fortunate to have them blooming at different times of the year! 🙂
A Guatemala website tells Mayan stories of this tree that they question, while a produce website tells about the uses of the berries and the Wikipedia site has a great general summary about the tree and its fruits and uses. I tried to eat a raw berry once and did not care for it. All 3 of my trees are harvested by birds only and at two different times of the year!
Nance Tree Flower, Atenas, Costa Rica
You can see a few green berries in the upper right corner of the next photo which will turn yellow when ripe . . .
With rain finally coming every afternoon, I’m also seeing a few more birds other than the Yigüirro (Clay-colored Thrush) singing his heart out to beg for rain says the tradition. Well, he finally succeeded, and though 5 species in one morning walk is an improvement, it is still not a lot of different birds compared to my past experience here. All were in the shadows of the canopy leaves of different trees with only this Yigüirro having direct light, but here’s the five birds I saw the other morning even if not good photos . . .
There seems to be more than one juvenile iguana, at different stages of development, living in or near my garden. I think that the main reason they climb my Cecropia/Guarumo Tree is to soak up the sunshine, which all reptiles need as cold-blooded creatures, but as a herbivore, he may also be eating from the leaves and flowers of this tree. The flowers of this tree are also popular with toucans which I’ve photographed in this same tree. Plus the toucans also eat young iguanas! 🙂
Juvenile Iguana in a Cecropia Tree, Atenas, Costa RicaJuvenile Iguana in a Cecropia Tree, Atenas, Costa RicaJuvenile Iguana in a Cecropia Tree, Atenas, Costa Rica