charliedoggett.net
Like I think nearly all the kids of my generation my Father used to tell us about the long country miles he walked to school in all kinds of weather and indeed his generation were naturally walkers much more than mine, though I walked to school too! Just in a town! 🙂 But of course no photos of him walking. But these two photos of my Mom give a sense of the walking in their age . . .
Walking – the main physical activity of my life since around age 1 – purposefully made important in my adult years – and now that I no longer own a car and live surrounded by nature in Costa Rica – WALKING the PATHS of Nature is even more central in my life. The feature photo at top is a hiking trail at the Trogon Lodge, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica, one of many I experience here.
This begins a brief blog post series of just 5 more days on one of the most important things of my life, walking!
The motivation for the series came in part from the book, In Praise of Paths: Walking through Time and Nature, by Torbjørn Ekelund, a Norwegian young man diagnosed with Epilepsy who now walks everywhere and also does cross-country hikes in a bigger way than I’m able to at twice his age! 🙂
I will not copy or repeat the book, but discuss the influence of walking since before my birth through my now car-less retirement in Costa Rica! 🙂
On September 25 I reported that work is being done on the northwest corner of the park that people from the city hall were out observing and discussing then, but I’ve not seen a lot since then with the gate closed on all of my walks by there since. with one taxista telling me it was the section devoted to the county or canton. Peeking through the fence crack or shooting over the fence I have only the below photos to show. Like always, slow progress.
Now they are constructing something for seating maybe?
Continue reading “Central Park Renovation”
Okay, I’m kind of “cheating” here by showing two different types of toucans that have perched in my Cecropia or Guarumo Tree: The Fiery-billed Aracari (eBird description) and the Keel-billed Toucan (eBird description). And with many more shots of both from all over Costa Rica, see my Fiery-billed Aracari Gallery and/or my Keel-billed Toucan Gallery. Since I have so many photos from so many different places, I will not try to feature the locations, though the location for both of these shots is my own garden in Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica! 🙂 I am indeed fortunate!
I was really excited the first time I saw a Squirrel Cuckoo (eBird description) in my garden, thinking that all cuckoos were rare exotic birds. I’ve since learned that this particular one is fairly common all over Costa Rica and you will find 5 locations in Costa Rica in my Squirrel Cuckoo Gallery. Plus eBird says it is “widespread” throughout Central and South America. It is one of 6 different species of Cuckoos found in Costa Rica. Beyond this one, I have photos of just 2 other species in Costa Rica: The Mangrove Cuckoo (2) and the Lesser Ground-Cuckoo (1). See more information and links in The Backstory below . . .
The Spot-crowned Euphonia (eBird description) is a favorite for many reasons, including that this photo is so detailed of the female eating a little berry that even her tongue is showing. 🙂 Plus this bird is endemic to Costa Rica, meaning it is found only here and a few spots over the border in Panama. In my Spot-crowned Euphonia Gallery I have shots from only two places and will link to those places and TRIP GALLERIES in The Backstory below, plus I’m adding a photo of the male so you can see the difference. It was photographed at the same time and place as the female and thus they could be mates.
The Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (eBird description) is definitely the most common hummingbird in my garden, to the point of having chased away other types of hummingbirds. 🙂 And it may be the most common all over Costa Rica or at least I’ve seen it all over! In my Rufous-tailed Hummingbird Gallery you will see my shots from 9 locations in Costa Rica. It is found only in Central America and the northern edges of South America. Because it is found almost everywhere in Costa Rica, I will not link Trip Galleries for this bird but just credit the feature photo and my second favorite Rufous-tailed shot which appears below with the two places linked . . .
I became aware of the Rose-throated Becard (eBird description) when in 2017 I got this close-up of a female in my own garden! 🙂 See other shots in my Rose-throated Becard Gallery from only 2 different locations in Costa Rica, one other in my neighborhood and one at Punta Leona on the Pacific Coast.
The Red-legged Honeycreeper (eBird description) is a favorite bird and this photo a favorite shot, shown by the fact that I used in on my “Big Bird Book” cover seen below. You can see a sampling of my photos of this bird in My Red-legged Honeycreeper Gallery with shots from 5 different locations in Costa Rica which are noted in The Backstory below with links to all of the TRIP GALLERIES of where the shots were made.
It is both a fave bird and favorite photo of the Pygmy Owl! Read about them at Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl (eBird description) as the Central & South American version of the pygmy owls found around the world. See also my Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl Gallery for my shots from 3 different locations in Costa Rica. Plus below I’m adding a shot from Guatemala of a whole family of them! 🙂 My other favorite pygmy owl photo! 🙂 And also below I will include the TRIP GALLERIES of all 4 trips where I photographed this owl and The Backstory of the featured photo.