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?”

Four-lined Ameiva

This particular lizard, Four-lined Ameiva, seems to be fairly common in Costa Rica as I have seen him in other places. But not to be confused with the Central American Ameiva whose stripes are different and may be even more common. 🙂 The two name links above are to my galleries for each.

Four-lined Ameiva
Four-lined Ameiva

¡Pura Vida!

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

Wood-Rail Bath Time!

Yesterday afternoon three of the juvenile Gray-cowled Wood-Rails lined up at the pond to splash in the water for their bath. Note the sister waiting for her two brothers to finish first in the series of 4 photos below.

A Quick Dip, Splash & Out!
Continue reading “Wood-Rail Bath Time!”

Red-eared Slider

In the little man-made stream that runs by two sides of the Banana Azul Restaurant there are several of these common water turtles in Costa Rica. Their name always frustrates me because their “ears” are not noticeably red! Oh well, naming animals was not assigned to me! 🙂

Red-eared Slider
Red-eared Slider

¡Pura Vida!

My Red-eared Slider GALLERY.

Poan Skipper

Yes, I had a photo of this butterfly not too long ago, but this one looks a little different and it is my last garden share before the Caribe trip. Just two shots and my first of one flying.

Poan Skipper Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
Poan Skipper Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

“Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine.”

-Jeffrey Glassberg

¡Pura Vida!

My Poan Skipper Gallery.

ID is from book: A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America by Jeffrey Glassberg.

Great-tailed Grackle

Yesterday morning I heard some bird making a racket or singing a not-too-melodious song. I walked out on the terrace and found this young Grackle male moving from limb to limb in my Guarumo (Cecropia) tree chattering away. These two shots show that he is probably a younger male since he is not as large as most male Great-tailed Grackles nor was his tail that “great” like the bigger males. His tail will grow! 🙂

With his smaller size I almost thought he was a Melodious Blackbird, but his song was not “melodious” (which theirs really is) and the yellow eye (instead of black) cinched him as a Great-tailed Grackle, teen or young adult male (perhaps looking for a female which is brown in color). 🙂

Great-tailed Grackle Young Male, Atenas
Great-tailed Grackle Young Male, Atenas

 “Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.”

—George Santanaya

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

See my Great-tailed Grackle Gallery.

And the eBird description of him.

Orange-chinned Parakeets

I hear these guys flying over my house most afternoons when it’s not raining hard but they seldom stop on their way up the hill to their roosting tree at my friend Dan’s house. Yesterday afternoon, before the rain started, they flew over and stopped for a little rest and grooming in a neighbor’s tree. I got a few shots, though not good with the overcast sky. But as bad as the photos are, they’re my nature shots for today! 🙂

This first shot is of the tree showing several scattered throughout and then I follow with a gallery of 6 individual birds or couples, with one couple cutely snuggling! 🙂

Orange-chinned Parakeets stop over on their way to their roosting tree up the hill.
Continue reading “Orange-chinned Parakeets”

Costa Rica: “Champions of the Earth”

There are many reasons that the United Nations gave Costa Rica the “Champions of the Earth” Award.

Costa Rica was the first tropical country to stop and reverse deforestation. It has managed to produce about 99 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, a rare accomplishment even among the wealthiest nations. And in 2019, it became one of the first countries to craft a national decarbonization plan . . .

~The Washington Post

Read more in this Washington Post article: Costa Rica’s environmental minister wants to build a green economy. She just needs time.

Above in old growth forest, Savegre Lodge, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.
Feature photo at top is view from my room at Villa Caletas, Jaco, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

New “Business” Card

NOT business for me! So maybe “Calling” Card is a better name? 🙂 It’s my easy way of sharing my contact information.

The one I’ve used for years had one of my Keel-billed Toucan photos on it and I have been in the “Red-eyed Tree Frog Mood” for awhile now, so decided to change to this shot from Danta Corcovado Lodge 2018 that I used on my Christmas Card last year. I order these cards fairly cheap online from VistaPrints. None of my contact info has changed, just the look:

Well – not very large! VistaPrint Proof 🙁

Calling card image – part of the tropical magic of Costa Rica! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

My Red-eyed Tree Frog Gallery.