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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! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I’ve galleries on two varieties of Scarlet-rumped Tanagers:
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.
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! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
My Red-eared Slider GALLERY.
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.
“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!
ID is from book: A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America by Jeffrey Glassberg.
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). 🙂
“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.
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! 🙂
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.
¡Pura Vida!
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:
Calling card image – part of the tropical magic of Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.”
~Martin Buber
And what do you think the following Costa Rica animals are saying with their eyes?
Continue reading “Animal Eyes”
One of the most recognized trees in the tropics of Central and South America is the Cecropia Tree or Guarumo in Central American vernacular. During my first year in this house (2015) I planted one not a lot taller than me. (Photo at right.) As one of the fastest growing trees it is now about twice the height of my house. I called it “magical” because in the early years it attracted so many different kinds of birds including toucans along with the resident squirrels and symbiotic ants.
But now the tree has grown so much that I’ve lost my magic! 🙁 Most of the limbs, leaves and flowers are now above the house! (Above photo.) That means the birds now land in the tree above my sight-line and I would have to climb up the steep hill above my house to see any birds that perch in it. 🙁 See photos below for the Terrace Views, then and now:
So with this post I’m saying goodbye to the easy magic of my Guarumo or Cecropia tree by sharing photos of birds photographed in it over the past years. Apologies if you remember a similar post back in 2019 on the birds in this tree, but this one is bigger and a sort of finale! 🙂
Continue reading “My Magical Tree’s Gone”