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I have photographed so many different species of butterflies the last three months that I will never catch up on sharing all of them, but this one is just too colorful to miss! 🙂 Thoas Swallowtail, Papilio thoas (linked to my gallery) is almost a twin to the slightly larger Giant Swallowtail and easily confused. He is found from South Texas to Brazil and fairly common here in Costa Rica. Here’s three different views of one in my garden recently . . .
Another shot of the hills of Atenas I watch during breakfast each morning on my terrace. I can’t stop photographing them! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
And a Gallery of earlier Photos from My Roca Verde Terrace.
My “best” butterfly ID book has 5 whole pages of butterflies identified as some kind of “Sister” (about 32 species or in human comparison, “cousins” with all having similar markings). Before this month I’ve seen or photographed only three of these “Sisters,” the “Pithy Sister”, the “Iphicleola or Confusing Sister” and the “Cytherea Sister” (links to my galleries) and all were seen away from home on both the Caribbean and Pacific Slopes. But this month I added my home garden as another sighting place for at least 3 of the many Sisters! 🙂
The one that overlaps with my garden is the above linked “Iphicleola or Confusing Sister.” And the two new ones, now also with galleries, are the “Band-celled Sister” and the “Iphiclus or Pointer Sister” (linked to their galleries). And that’s my five sister butterflies now in my collection of about 300 species photographed here in Costa Rica! 🙂 And I’ll make them in honor of my real sister, Bonnie, whose birthday is this month! 🙂
This year’s rainy season has been one of my best butterfly years yet with new species almost every week! Butterflies have turned out to be as much fun as photographing birds, which for some reason have been more scarce this year for me. But I still like both and all other nature! 🙂
And for anyone wondering what happens to all these photos after my death (the blog & gallery will go when I go unless someone wants to pay the “rent” on them after my death). I thus also post all of my butterflies & moths on butterfliesandmoths.org, all of my bird photos on eBird, and now I’m posting all other nature on iNaturalist Costa Rica (Naturalista Costa Rica). All three sites provide data for research and the photos to be used for science in posterity. Available to the public and all researchers.
To show that the “cousin” butterflies do associate with each other, the first photo is of two different species together and then another photo of the third species seen in my garden the other day.
Hummingbirds are a delight to watch and one thing for sure that you will see, is them feeding on the nectar of flowers or sugar water in a feeder. To maintain the energy necessary for their high-speed flights and almost constant movement they must eat almost constantly as shown here with this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (my gallery link) in my garden feeding on a Torch Ginger or the more fun Spanish name of Bastón del Emperador.
I have three hummingbird feeders that when I fill them they are empty again in 2 or 3 hours and I imagine that sugar water is not as good for them as flower nectar, so I may quit using again, as I did earlier for about 3 years. As long as I have flowers, I will have hummingbirds and butterflies! 🙂
. . . my first to see in 5 years now and hopefully I will be able to handle the heat and sunshine if it’s as hot as yesterday! I’m planning to find a place to sit on the steps of La Tribunal near the point where the parade first enters the Central Park area, so I can leave as soon as over or earlier if it is too hot. Wearing my wide-brim hat, taking an umbrella and yes, smearing myself with that awful sunscreen, 50 SPF! My oncologist requires it! 🙂
It may be another day or two before I get to posting photos of this Oxcart Parade, but below are links to the three previous parades I photographed before Covid. I missed 2015 & 2019 and then it was canceled for 2020 through 2022 during the Covid Pandemic and last year they moved it from April to August and I did not get the word, so glad to try and see it this year. I’m posting my usual nature blog posts a few days ahead, so there will still be one of those today and again on whatever day I post today’s photos! 🙂 And for now, here’s 4 more photos from the past . . .
Continue reading “Oxcart Parade Today . . .”
The Tropical Greenstreak, Cyanophrys herodotus (linked to my gallery) is another tiny, fingernail-sized little butterfly that not many people even see. Here’s one shot from my garden recently.
¡Pura Vida!
Not new for me, but semi-rare and found only in Central America & Mexico. Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon ziba (linked to my gallery) is another one of those very tiny, fingernail-sized butterflies and this one I’ve seen only in my garden. You can see a few other photos from other countries on the butterfliesandmoths.org page.
¡Pura Vida!
You might ask why the Common Name for this butterfly is in Spanish? “Esmeralda” = “Emerald” in English. Yes, it is unusual, even for species found only in Spanish-speaking Central America like this butterfly. It is of course named for the emerald-colored (green or turquoise) body of this Longtail Skipper which otherwise looks a lot like other Longtails! But not to be confused with a separate Turquoise Longtail! 🙂 And of course the scientific name is in Latin (esmeraldus) like every other species in the world. Esmeralda Longtail, Urbanus esmeraldus (linked to my Esmeralda Gallery) or you can see other people’s submitted photos on butterfliesandmoths.org, Esmeralda page. Just one shot here.
¡Pura Vida!
And how can a butterfly named “Apricot” not be cool? 🙂 This Apricot Sulphur, Phoebis argante (my gallery link) I saw just a week ago in my garden for my fourth sighting! One other time in my garden and once each at Xandari and Banana Azul, my two best butterfly hotels here! Check out the different looks in my gallery linked above or study them online. Here’s two shots with more from that sighting in the above gallery.
A rare hummingbird for my garden (seen there only one other time), the Blue-vented Hummingbird (eBird link) the other day facing off with a bee. 🙂 The hummingbird left. 🙂 This bird lives only in Costa Rica & Nicaragua.
