Category: Wildlife

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Virtual Rainforest Hike with Iván Castillo

Earlier I shared two videos of virtual night & day rainforest hikes with one of the young female guides at Selva Verde Lodge, Melany Ocón. The kind I experience on my trips, though we see more on our live hikes than these short videos . . .

Today is a hike with one of the young male guides whom I have been hiking with before when there (an expert on frogs). We saw a lot more than they see on this video, but it gives you an idea of what it is like to hike at Selva Verde Lodge & Reserve, one of my many favorite places in Costa Rica. You will see a couple of frogs, a helmeted lizard, a pit viper and an anteater, so worth your effort to watch for 20 minutes and see just a little of why I love to explore the forests of Costa Rica with guides like Iván and Melany. June 30 I head north of Sarapiqui (location of these videos) for a week at Maquenque Lodge with other guides but similar experiences. And remember that English is not their first language! They do much better with English than I do with Spanish!   🙂

 

“If man doesn’t learn to treat the oceans and the rainforest with respect, man will become extinct.” 
~Peter Benchley

And for my photos of two visits to Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui:

2019-May 9-15 — Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiqui

2016 December 23-27 – Selva Verde Lodge, Sarapiqui

¡Pura Vida!

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Unidentified BEETLE

I spent nearly an hour searching my books and all over the internet for an ID on this interesting fellow I saw while walking to town the other day. He is possibly in the large Scarab Beetle family or Stag Beetle family or seems related to our Rhinoceros Beetle and Hercules Beetle, but even with those I can’t find photos of one with these large, wide “horns” or divided head. New surprises every day!   🙂

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Unidentified Beetle, 2 to 3 inches long

“Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

See my “Other Insects of Costa Rica” photo gallery for more insect oddities.

¡Pura Vida!

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Giant Swallowtail

A different butterfly in my garden today along with repeats of most seen yesterday.  🙂

The “Giant” Swallowtail is not really bigger than most other Swallowtails but identified by his patterns. See more in my Giant Swallowtail Gallery or go for all in the big Butterfly Gallery.

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Giant Swallowtail
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Giant Swallowtail

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Flowers = Butterflies

And 4 species today!   🙂   I went out and photographed the above flowers for a one-shot post when I realized there was a dozen or so butterflies beyond them on my Porterweed flowers of these 4 species (one I incorrectly named the other day}:

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Cloudless Sulphur
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Statira Sulphur
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Polydamas Swallowtail, I mistakenly called a Red-sided Swallowtail recently. Sorry!

 

Cloudywing Butterfly (not sure which one of several Cloudywings)

 

See more of these 4 and 100 others in my Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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The BIG BOOK!

Finally –  “the big book” – what I’ve been planning for nearly 6 years!  Almost all the birds I’ve photographed since moving to Costa Rica in 2014. I haven’t finished photographing birds here, and next month at Maquenque Lodge I could easily get a photo I will regret is not in this book! But why not do it now, with the Coronavirus Down Time providing time to create and the year of my 80th birthday as a celebration excuse!   🙂  If I keep putting it off, there won’t be a book! And this one is so much bigger and better than my recent Roca Verde Birds book which was just birds in my yard!

Here’s the bookstore official description:

Click cover for preview. Best at full screen!

About the Book
Eighty-year-old retiree from Tennessee, Charlie Doggett, has lived in and explored the rainforests and cloud forests of Costa Rica for 6 years, sharing photos and experiences in his “Retired in Costa Rica” BLOG. This book has 420 bird photos from his blog – more than 300 species of birds, named in both English and Spanish with a complete English-names INDEX. At 230 photo pages, 10 X 8 inches, it’s a great gift or coffee table book about Costa Rica, printed on 100# Premium Lustre Gloss Photo Paper.

Available in a hardcover edition or a PDF electronic version. You can PREVIEW the book electronically for free at: https://www.blurb.com/b/10150063-pura-vida-birds

Check out what I’ve been doing for the last 5+ years!   🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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World Turtle Day

Whether you are thinking of one of the ocean giants or a common river turtle, today is the day to remember the fragility of our decreasing turtle population and to do your part in the conservation of turtles!  Read more about WORLD TURTLE DAY and consider getting involved.    Https://www.worldturtleday.org/

The feature photo is a baby Olive Ridley Turtle I released Christmas 2017 in Tambor Bay. Read more about their program at Tambor Turtle Rescue. Costa Rica has the protected birthing beaches of thousands of ocean turtles every year. Did you know that . . .

Five species of sea turtles and eight species of freshwater turtles have been recorded in Costa Rica. All sea turtles are endangered and two of the freshwater species populations have been reduced, mainly due to poaching, being caught as pets, illegal trade, and the destruction and pollution of their habitats.   ~Freshwater Turtles of Costa Rica & Sea Turtles of Costa Rica, an NHBS Field Guide available online. 

See also my Costa Rica Turtles Gallery for more photos of turtles here.

Today, May 23, 2020

WORLD TURTLE DAY

¡Pura Vida!

And 2 days later I find and add the short video Nashville Zoo Celebrates Turtle Day  which is cute and mostly for children.

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Green Orchid Bee

He’s revisiting my garden and thus I’m posting some new photos of a favorite bee here. See my Bees Gallery for some better photos made earlier or posted on earlier blog posts linked below. And if interested in reading about this Central American bee, there’s a good history on Wikipedia.  (People in Florida are trying to introduce them there.)

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Unidentified Flying Bug

He was showing an interest in one of my dried up flowers in the garden the other day and I have not found a name for him yet – just another interesting creation of God!

“Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of that unit — the cosmos?”
― John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

¡Pura Vida!

See my “Other Insects” Gallery for more fun bugs.

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Yellow-Green Vireo

This is one of several birds I saw at breakfast this morning including a Lineated Woodpecker, Blue-gray Tanager, Clay-colored Thrush, White-winged Dove and some unidentified flyers. But this is the only one I got a photo of and my second time to see this species here. One of my guide books says they come as breeding visitors Feb to Oct. It is a sparrow-sized bird very much like the Red-eyed Vireo which is less common here.

I saw the other one March 28 on Calle Nueva with not as good a photo, but you can see it in my Yellow-Green Vireo gallery. Or read about them on eBird with a map showing where they are found. Happy birding!

 

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Yellow-green Vireo, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

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Yellow-green Vireo, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

“Not humans, but birds often witness the most beautiful mornings in this world!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

¡Pura Vida!

P.S.

And oh yes, if I haven’t said yet, “Rainy Season” or “winter” (my favorite time of year) is well under way here with rain or showers every afternoon. I love it! Cooler, fresher air and so much greener! My garden loves it too!    🙂

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Virtual Night Hike at Selva Verde

Come join one of the guides at Selva Verde Lodge on a typical night hike in their Sarapiqui Private Reserve. Since people have not been able to visit them live, they put this”virtual night hike” on their YouTube Channel. One of the guides shows you the kinds of things I get to see live when I go on such night hikes at this and other lodges in Costa Rica. It is real and typical except for the short time of only 3 minutes! In real life there is more walking between the animals seen!   🙂

Featured image is from my Red-eyed Tree Frog Gallery and another night hike somewhere else (Danta Corcovado).  

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And here’s the same guide on a DAYTIME TOUR of Selva Verde, Just be aware that in an hour or more tour you see a lot more wildlife than in these little 3 minute videos! But both are a taste of what I regularly see and photograph in my retirement in Costa Rica: 

¡Pura Vida!