Category: Tropical Dry Forest

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Iguanas in the Heat

I captured these two different Black Spiny-tailed Iguanas (my gallery link) dealing with the higher heat than normal this year. They seemed to almost be panting like a dog does in the heat. As with the rest of the world, Costa Rica has broken temperature records this year and all of us from the birds and iguanas to the people are looking forward to the start of the rainy season, which is normally in May! Our Dry Season (December-April) is considered Summer here and we are concluding our hottest summer yet! Global Warming is very real!

Black Spiny-tailed Iguana, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Blue-gray Tanager

The Blue-gray Tanager (eBird link) is a common bird here that is found only in Central and South America. I love it when one comes to my garden as he did here back in May here in one of my Nance Trees. See some of the many photos I’ve made of this bird all over Costa Rica in my Blue-gray Tanager Gallery.

Blue-gray Tanager. My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Rancho Humo: The Book

Check out the free electronic preview of all pages of my latest Costa Rica photo book at: http://www.blurb.com/b/9079446-rancho-humo  or click the book cover image below. Use “full screen mode” to best see these photo pages. I think my books & photos are getting a little better.  🙂

Front Cover of Book  –  click for preview

Back Cover of Book  –  click to see larger

 

Charlie Doggett – Retired in Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Last Morning Walk at Rancho

Thursday the 15th my driver drove back from Atenas to Rancho Humo and joined me for lunch before we drove back to Atenas. Before breakfast I caught the sunrise, el amanecer, then walked around the ranch one more time. Here are some of the photos I made on my last morning walk there as a slideshow.

Morning Walk 15 November 2018, Rancho Humo, Costa Rica

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Sunrise from my room, 15 November 2018

 

Hotel’s 2 Minute Video Says it All!

¡Pura Vida!

Another day of “Retired in Costa Rica” with Charlie Doggett!

Why would anyone retire anywhere else?   🙂

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Palo Verde National Park Visit

There is plenty to see and photograph on the 5,000+ acres of Rancho Humo, birds, other wildlife, and scenery! But across the river from the ranch is another wonderful and large Costa Rica park: Palo Verde National Park.

Costa Rica is blessed with many national parks and wildlife reserves, more than 25% of country’s total land!  This park is a combination of Tropical Dry Forest, the Tempisque River and its surrounding wetlands which bloom with wildlife.

 

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I float down the river for a different experience in the park. But here are 3 slideshows for what was seen on Tuesday on a 6 km hike and posting here on Wednesday. Will post boat trip later today or tomorrow.

Birds in Palo Verde National Park

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Other Wildlife in Palo Verde National Park

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Views Surrounding Us in Palo Verde National Park

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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!