Category: Wildlife

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The Humble Sparrow

I photographed only 20 species of birds at the combination of Guayabo Lodge and CATIE Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center in Turrialba. I will not post all 20 species because frankly some of the photos just aren’t worth sharing and after my two-day’s-ago post of the toucan in my garden, nothing from the Guayabo trip compares! 🙂 But all birds are important to me and be sure to see my Guayabo BIRDS Gallery.

And I do like these four shots of my most commonly seen sparrow all over Costa Rica, the Rufous-collared Sparrow (eBird link) found only in Central and South America. Locals call it “Come Maíz” in Spanish (it eats corn). I have a pretty good collection of this bird in my Rufous-collared Sparrow Gallery including one from my first trip to CR in 2009 of a mother bird feeding her child a worm! 🙂

Also in my Costa Rica Birds Galleries I have photos of 5 other types of Sparrows here in Costa Rica: (1) Orange-billed Sparrow, (2) Olive Sparrow, (3) Black-striped Sparrow, (4) White-eared Ground-Sparrow, and (5) Stripe-headed Sparrow. They are each beautiful in their own ways and certainly a part of the great ecology of Costa Rica.

Rufous-collared Sparrow, Guayabo Lodge, Turrialba, Cartago, Costa Rica
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A Colorful Visitor Today!

This afternoon I got up from the computer where I was working on my Guayabo bird photos (boring compared to this!), and as I walked across the living room there was a Keel-billed Toucan in my Cecropia Tree! I quickly got my camera and shot through two panes of glass (sliding door open) which was still better than shooting through the screen! 🙂 And the photos aren’t nearly as blurry as I expected! After some rapid shots, I slowly approached the screen as he hopped up the tree, but by the time I was quietly out, he flew away! Oh well, even quick experiences like this in my own house and garden are just a few of the many reasons I enjoy living “Retired in Costa Rica!” ¡Pura vida!

Keel-billed Toucan, My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Keel-billed Toucan, My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Mooning me? Keel-billed Toucan, My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

See my GALLERY: Costa Rica Keel-billed Toucans

With other shots made in my garden! 🙂

Plus more from all over Costa Rica!

🙂

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The Blushing Phantom

Yeah, that’s the real common name for this butterfly, Blushing Phantom, (link to Wikipedia article with very little info), the Cithaerias pireta pireta (Mexico to Colombia, Ecuador) also known as the “Pink tipped Clearwing Satyr” and the “Rusted Clearwing Satyr.” It is my first one to see and also the only “clearwing” I’ve seen with an eye spot! It was in the jungles of the archaeological site Guayabo National Monument, Costa Rica, so maybe it’s a prehistoric butterfly! 🙂

Blushing Phantom Clearwing Satyr Butterfly, Guayabo National Monument, Costa Rica
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A Dazzling Surprise

Ventral Side of Mexican Silverspot, Guayabo Lodge, Turrialba, Costa Rica.

I spent more than an hour searching for the identification of this butterfly that I photographed from beneath or below in the Gardens of Guayabo Lodge, Turrialba last week. Then I suddenly realized that it is the same butterfly as yesterday’s, just the other side! 🙂 Dummy me! The closest similarity was the underside of the Dione Juno Heliconian Butterfly, but I am fairly certain that this one is Mexican! 🙂

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Mexican Silverspot & A Wasp

I’m not sure if the wasp was challenging the butterfly for the flower or just happen to pass by. 🙂 But as usual, neither stayed long! This is a common butterfly and you can see one more in my Mexican Silverspot Gallery and how different the other side of their wings are; but the flower is what’s unusual and at Guayabo Lodge was my first time to see it. It is a “Red Vein Indian Mallow” (Abution striatum) sometimes incorrectly called a “Chinese Lantern” and one of the Ticos there called it a “bottle flower” in Spanish, “Flor de botella.” I will do a later post on just this flower with more information and better photos of the flower. 🙂

Mexican Silverspot & a wasp on a Red Vein Indian Mallow flower, Guayabo Lodge, Turrialba, Costa Rica.
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Crimson Patch & Semana Santa

One is a butterfly and the other maybe the busiest week in Costa Rica.

Crimson Patch Butterfly, Guayabo Lodge, Turrialba, Cartago, Costa Rica – A “Bokeh” Photo!

Crimson Patch Butterfly

This butterfly is one I photographed at Guayabo Lodge last week and my first time for it! I had earlier mistaken a Bordered Patch for this species, but the big difference is the two-toned orange on the underside of wing. 🙂 See my new Crimson Patched Gallery and to compare the two, my older Bordered Patch Gallery. Even though the photo above is of a damaged butterfly, I like that photo better than the next one below because of the better soft background which I just learned yesterday from another blog is called a “Bokeh” photo – “. . . defined as ‘the effect of a soft out-of-focus background that you get when shooting a subject, using a fast lens, at the widest aperture, such as f/2.8 or wider.’ Simply put, bokeh is the pleasing or aesthetic quality of out-of-focus blur in a photograph.” ~nikonusa.com

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A Golden Scarab Beetle

On the tile and concrete entrance sidewalk I photographed this beetle yesterday and sure it is one of the dozens of Scarab Beetles and pretty sure it is in the sub-category of Golden Scarab Beetles. I don’t have a beetle book and the internet is taking more time than I wanted to spend for the exact ID! 🙂

Golden Scarab Beetle, Guayabo Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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A Break in Blogging

Yep! I just went 6 days without blogging which is not my usual habit which is to write posts 3 or 4 days ahead then break from the routine while posts keep coming out. No health problems or catastrophes, “just tired of blogging.” But with another trip coming tomorrow, I’m in the mood and here’s a few nature photos made during this “down time.”

Two Bee or Not Two Bee

I’m still not getting many butterflies in my garden yet other than the fast-moving Yellows that never seem to land for a photo. But here’s two bees in my garden this morning:

Unidentified Bee on Triquitraque
Green Orchid Bee on Porter Weed
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Iguanas Gaining Popularity

That’s the restaurant now, not the large reptilian lizard! 🙂 But to me the food is still just “so-so” or mediocre. My second try was with nachos that I thought a young-adult oriented restaurant would do really good, but they had no chicken nachos that day and the beef was tough or hard to chew and stringy, catching in my teeth. They again asked me how was the food and I told them, so maybe they will improve? Plus, this time I walked all the way to the back of the long restaurant and out into their patio which is obviously the most popular section. It is beautiful with a cool outdoor Costa Rica mural and a statue of an iguana! Pleasing environment! 🙂 Fun, youthful restaurant! And tourists will like too!

Outdoor Patio area of Iguanas Restaurant, Atenas, Costa Rica.
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“. . . we do not yet have eyes . . .”

I’m again working on The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories of Hans Christian Andersen (link to Amazon Kindle version, the translation I’m reading), a long and sometimes boring or cumbersome 1800’s book that is an unusual mix of old-fashion fairy tales, Danish history, religion or Christian pedagogy in about 200 short stories about animals and people and in the ones about just people he seems fixated on both death and young men who want to marry “above their station” and never get their true love (pauper boy falls in love with a princess, etc.). I haven’t gotten to The Little Mermaid or Frozen yet! 🙂 I haven’t liked all of his stories and prefer the ones with talking animals and nature like the one in which I found this inspirational quote the other day . . .

It’s the last two sentences of his story titled The Toad. This toad has been trying to find the proverbial “gem in his head,” going through different aspects of nature and other animals when he decides to go toward the sun . . . then the story-teller concludes with . . .


“No, the light is too intense; we do not yet have eyes that can see all the glory God has created. But maybe someday we will have such eyes. That will be the most wonderful fairy tale of all, for we ourselves will be part of it.”

~Hans Christian Andersen

“. . . all the glory God has created . . .”
Sunset on Calle Barroeta, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Bullfrog, Si Como No Wildlife Refuge, Manuel Antonio NP, Costa Rica

And the feature photo at the top of this post is of a Masked Tree Frog at Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort, San Ramon, Costa Rica. Of course neither frog is the one Andersen wrote about, but fun illustrations! 🙂

Hans Christian Andersen reminded me of another favorite quote with a similar perspective on nature . . .

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”

~George Washington Carver

¡Pura Vida!