Nesting & Eating in Rain

These Pale-vented Pigeons did not let the rain stop them from feeding and nesting in the daily rains at Tortuguero. The mother is on her nest under the eve of the outdoor restaurant at Tortuga Lodge and the others in the trees looking for food!

Pale Vented Pigeon, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica

And 2 more photos, including the nest . . .

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Capuchin & Spider Monkeys

Yesterday was the Howler Monkey with the other two types in the Caribbean lowlands today, the White-faced Capuchin Monkey and the Central American Spider Monkey.

White-faced Capuchin Monkey in the Rain, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica

Below is a two-photo gallery on each species plus a link to the trip gallery for each where I have several more photos, plus links to my Costa Rica galleries of each where I have even more photos from my 8 years of living in Costa Rica. Enjoy!  🙂

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Margaret’s & Pat’s Costa Rica Adventure

Some of the new friends that have come into my life in Costa Rica are “seasonal” or some say “Snow Birds” who come to our tropical climate as an escape from the snow & ice up north during the coldest months. One, who has in the past stayed in Roca Verde just up the street from me, is Margaret from British Columbia, Canada and like me, a birder in her 80’s.

This year she decided to go beyond Atenas and see the birds and other sights of many areas of Costa Rica and brought her friend Pat with her. Here’s the diary or journal of their very economical adventure by public bus and staying in local B&Bs, like I did in my early years here . She included 45 photos that I could not copy with the story and adding all individually to this blog post would greatly slow it down, so I chose 4 to scatter throughout the story. And her good “storyteller” way of reporting their adventures makes her words the “illustrations.” Her third person references (you and yours) are to Jill, one of their first hostesses she was writing much of this to. The sub-headings are my addition to indicate the general area of Costa Rica they were in at that time of their trip.  Enjoy!  And plan your own adventure!  🙂  ¡Pura vida!

Margaret & Pat with one of their many guides.

Margaret & Pat’s Costa Rica Adventure

By Margaret

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Mantled Howler Monkeys

While at Tortuguero I saw all three of the monkeys that live in that rainforest, but, as usual, the Mantled Howler Monkeys were the most photogenic with White-faced Capuchin next, often showing off, and the Spider Monkeys the most difficult to photograph as they frantically run through the tree tops like out of control hyper children. I’ll show these other two in tomorrow’s post as I continue a break from the many birds.

Mantled Howler Monkey, Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica – Fruit for lunch!

Two more photos below or you can see even more photos from this trip in my Howler Monkeys 2023 Tortuguero GALLERY or  see all my Mantled Howler Monkeys GALLERY from my 8 years in Costa Rica, including a nursing mother and other juveniles.

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Bare-throated Tiger-Heron

“Weird Bird” some might say, especially with some of his unusual postures when drying feathers or otherwise standing around!  🙂 But always one I enjoy trying to photograph! For more photos beyond these 4, see my Bare-throated Tiger-Heron GALLERY. All were photographed from a moving boat at Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.

Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica

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3 Toucan Species

There are 3 species of toucans on each side of Costa Rica with the Keel-billed and Yellow-throated on both sides and a different Aracari (smaller toucan) on each side, Collared Aracari on the Caribbean (Atlantic) side and Fiery-billed Aracari on the Pacific slopes. And of course this past week I was in the Caribbean. Here’s two shots of each species with a link to my gallery for that species if you want to see more and different photos. One photo for the email notice and then the three galleries online . . .

Keel-billed Toucan, Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica

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Tortuguero Dragonflies

I managed to get usable photos of 5 dragonflies while in the Tortuguero wetlands but cannot guarantee the identification of the four I’ve labeled. The fifth one never landed and thus my photos of him flying are next to impossible to identify, so I just labeled him “unidentified,”  and one or more of the others could be also.  🙂

Red-mantled Dragonlet, Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica

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Rainforest Floating Reflexions

I’m up to photos of about 40 bird species plus at least 20 other animals and I don’t leave until noon tomorrow, so it will be a while before I report on all of those, thus here’s a few representative shots from the different boats I floated on through the Tortuguero rivers and canals . . .

The 6 am trip was rainy more than half the two hours but we still saw a lot of wildlife!

Here’s 10 more shots, some of which could be considered art (I think) . . .

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Sungrebe – The Rarest Bird seen yesterday

This was only my third time to see a Sungrebe. The first time was here at Tortuguero in 2016 when Reagan came and we traveled to Tortuguero Laguna Lodge. My second sighting was in 2017 at Caño Negro and now again at Tortuguero but in the dark shadows of plants along the water’s edge and very difficult to photograph. See my shots from earlier years (which are better) in my Sungrebe Gallery and here’s the most representative shot from yesterday, a female behind brush along the canal where they usually stay, out of the sun and away from people. The female has an orange cheek and the male a plain white cheek of which I have one photo below this one of a female for a total of 4 photos, not of high quality, but representative of this bird . . .

Sungrebe female, Tortuguero National Park, Costa Rica.

3 more photos below . . .

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