Just in time! The night before I leave on another trip I finished my photos from the Christmas 2020 trip to Arenal Observatory Lodge with more than 50 species of birds! And 5 are lifers for me! Plus a whole lot of other photos from this favorite lodge. For now the birds are presented alphabetically by their English Common Name. Later I will make time to arrange by species families according to my birding guide book. Overall I’m pleased with this collection of photos and moving on to the next collection! 🙂 To see gallery CLICK above link or the image below:
The several swinging bridges at Arenal Observatory Lodge connecting the many trails are a lot more secure than those rope bridges we made in Boy Scouts, but just as thrilling! 🙂 Here’s some shots of two of the hanging bridges I hiked over during my Arenal Visit Christmas Week. CLICK an image to see larger . . .
Danta Bridge
Danta Bridge
Danta Bridge
Approach to Spider Bridge
Spider Bridge
Spider Bridge
Crossing Rivers & Canyons on Arenal Conservatory Trails
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.”
― Douglas Adams
Tomorrow Begins Another Adventure . . .
I don’t plan or intend to have trips just 3 weeks apart! It takes me longer than that to process the photos! 🙂
But because I had to reschedule this next trip, originally set for a March-April overlap week, just as the Pandemic was taking over . . . Soooo I told them to “reschedule it around the middle of January, not thinking about my Christmas trip – But anyway . . . I’m shifting gears from a rainforest at the base of a volcano to a cooler Cloud Forest in San Gerardo de Dota, starting tomorrow at the Savegre Hotel and Nature Reserve. (NOTE: their website is under reconstruction and only the home page shows for now.
This is one of the lodges I stayed in on my first trip to Costa Rica in 2009. It’s the best place in the world to see and photograph the Resplendent Quetzal bird. And the coldest place I’ve been in Costa Rica with fireplaces used at night. Since no rain in January, it is a little warmer at 13° C or 54° F average low to high of 27°C or 81°F, but hey guys! I freeze to death here in Atenas when it gets down in the 60’s F. 🙂
The new lodge website linked above is under construction, so instead of their photos, you can see my photo galleries of 3 previous visits, all a very long time ago 🙂 . . .
I enjoy photographing all of nature so much that it is difficult to stop or reduce the number of photos I share on this blog and I know that fewer can be better and simpler but here I go again, with only one more blog post on Arenal tomorrow, then I will begin another photo adventure – so get ready for more but different nature! 🙂 And the above feature photo is the morning walk guide explaining the Breadfruit Tree with a close-up of a breadfruit in “Other Nature Shots” below. And yes, it is edible, mostly by monkeys but some humans cook it and use with other more tasty foods. 🙂
Here’s a few views of the big lake below Arenal Volcano. There is a boat taxi that will take you across the lake to a car taxi that will take you up that mountain to Monteverde. The lake is also a favorite for local fishermen. My May 2018 trip here gave me better sunset photos of the lake – time of year does make a difference!
I thought I had more different views than this but it is no longer new to me, so didn’t take as many photos and the one I took from the butterfly garden didn’t take so here’s 2 from my room, one from a hotel garden and one from the road in front of the Butterfly Conservatory.
Wednesday I shared my photos of “Other Wildlife at Caño Negro” which was a different wetland world on a day trip away from Arenal and the 3 Monkey species seen there were shown in two separate posts. Now sometimes there are more monkeys and other animals in Arenal Observatory, but this trip I photographed 10 species and I’m sharing just 8 of the “other animals” (not birds or butterflies). All were seen on the grounds of Arenal Observatory Lodge, one of my favorite places. Later I will have my trip galleries completed and will summarize here all the amazing wildlife and other nature seen and photographed on this Christmas week trip. CLICK an image below to see it larger:
Red-eyed Tree Frog Sleeping in daytime camouflages.
White-nosed Coati
Agouti
Leafwing Butterfly
Water Cockroach
Brilliant Forest Frog
Eyelash Viper
Mantled Howler Monkey
“Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.”
Here’s my photos of just 10 of the many I saw at The Butterfly Conservatory, El Castillo-Arenal, on Christmas Day no less! 🙂 Tomorrow I will do a post on the facility which is a little-known nature gem in Costa Rica. It equals if not excels both butterfly gardens in Monteverde.
My guide there identified a some of these with all other identities found in my usual source, A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America, Second Edition by Jeffrey Glassberg and all were verified with this book.
If you really like the butterflies of Costa Rica, check out my Butterflies of CR Gallery, at about 130 species now! 🙂 I have the largest Costa Rica Butterfly Gallery on the internet.
CLICK image below to see larger:
Bordered Patch
Tiger Heliconian
White-spotted Prepona
Thick-tipped Greta
Grinning Heliconian
Dot-bordered Heliconian, Blue Form
Dot-bordered Heliconian, Red Form
Common (Blue) Morpho
Gold-bordered Owl Butterfly
Ruby-spotted Swallowtail
Butterflies photographed by Charlie Doggett, Butterfly Conservatory, El Castillo-Arenal, Costa Rica
Expats living in Atenas, Costa Rica (mostly retirees) have a Facebook Group Page where expats ask one another “how to” or “where to” kinds of questions and share important information. Each year the group has a photo contest for what will be the group’s page header that year. My shot or our town from a hill in Roca Verde one foggy morning is the winner this year! 🙂
I almost used this photo for my digital Christmas Card this year. Glad I didn’t so it will now be solely the identity of the group.
And my prize? Something yummy from Pat’s kitchen! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
The full photo below lends itself well to the narrow crop for a page header:
Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica — Photo by Charlie Doggett
And this is it for that day excursion from Arenal Observatory Lodge, having done the birds post yesterday and earlier posts on 3 species of monkeys. Caño Negro is a wildlife-rich place for a 2+ hour boat ride and in our case lunch by the river before returning.
Male Green Iguana with two females!
Male Green Iguana in Mating Orange Color
Emerald Basilisk
Tropical Slider
Tropical Slider
Spectacled Caiman
Long-nosed Bats
Other wildlife at Caño Negro Reserve beyond the birds & monkeys already shown.
“By discovering nature, you discover yourself. “
~Maxime Lagacé
For more Costa Rica Wildlife see my OTHER WILDLIFE GALLERIES.
Here’s about 20 species from my Christmas week side-trip from Arenal Observatory to the Caño Negro Reserva. We saw more than I photographed of course and about 5 I tried to photograph weren’t good enough to show. This is a bird-rich reserve in northern Costa Rica near the Nicaragua border. CLICK an image to enlarge it:
Southern Lapwing
American Kestral
Wood Stork
Nicaraguan Seed-Finch
Anhinga Female
Green Kingfisher Male
Anhinga Catching Fish
Anhinga Swallowing Fish
Amazon Kingfisher Female
Black-headed Trogon
Amazon Kingfisher Male
Olive-throated Parakeets
Gray-cowled Woodrail
Mangrove Swallow
Great Potoo (disguised as tree part)
Cattle Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Great Blue Heron
Black-collared Hawks
Great Egret
26 December 2020 at Caño Negro Reserva, Costa Rica.
Two of these were “Lifers” or first-time seen birds for me and unfortunately neither with a very good photo: The Nicaraguan Seed-Finch and the Olive-throated Parakeets. I’ve seen the American Kestrel in Panama but this was the first time in Costa Rica, though not close enough for a decent photo.
