Category: Photography

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Fading Flowers & Butterflies

Banded Peacock on Fading Zinnia, Atenas, Costa Rica

The little Zinnia Patch in my uphill garden is fading just as are the number and type of butterflies with the Banded Peacock being the most numerous butterflies now, along with the less-noticed Skippers and a few Yellows that seldom land. Below is a slide show of my images of the fading Zinnias and Banded Peacocks in front of my “Bird & Butterfly Bench” as I will now be more focused on the birds than butterflies for a while, though we do have some butterflies year around in our “forever Spring!” 🙂 Rainy Season has pretty much ended with only a few straggler showers in December and it’s Dry Season from now until May when things turn back to green and are covered in butterflies! While dry season has us covered in tourists! 🙂

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Sloth Rescue . . .

. . . on a busy street in downtown Atenas, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. I was in a taxi running errands downtown when I realized that the man in the tree was not a tree-trimmer but a National Park employee rescuing a Hoffmann’s Two-toed Sloth, Choloepus hoffmanni (my gallery link) from a tree near Central Park on a busy street full of businesses where he/she would certainly be killed by a car soon. He/she will be taken to a national park or wildlife reserve to live peacefully in the wild as God intended. I jumped out of the taxi and tried to make a few photos with my cell phone, which show what was happening but are not good shots of the sloth. They are all difficult to photograph as mainly big balls of fur that don’t frequently show their faces (both 2 & 3 toed). Just a report of a moment of excitement in busy, pre-Christmas, downtown Atenas! (For which my stopped taxi blocked traffic for about a minute on Calle 1!) 🙂

Sloth Rescue, Downtown Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

More photos in the online version of the blog post . . .

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Artisan Birds Christmas Tree

My collection of artisan bird ornaments got pulled out of storage this year and stuck on an ugly artificial tree or bush, but I think that the Latin American Artisan Birds are beautiful, so I created a slideshow of about 20 closeup photos of some of my collection. See them in the online version of this post . . .

ÅS

See 20 (not all) of my artisan bird collection in the slideshow online . . .

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Blue-gray Tanager

Here’s just two of the shots I made in November of this frequently seen tropical bird, the Blue-gray Tanager, Thraupis episcopus (eBird link) is found only in tropical Central & South America and is one of the more frequently seen birds for me in Costa Rica as my Gallery: Blue-gray Tanager will show.

The feature photo at top is what most of this species looks like and I am guessing that the more rotund one below is a pregnant female, with several eggs to lay. 🙂

Blue-gray Tanager, my garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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A Sulphur that’s White, Green & Yellow

For the White Angled-Sulphur, it depends on which side and angle you are viewing it, with the top of open wings (didn’t get this time) it is bright white with two bright yellow patches and four brown spots, but the folded wings views can be either green, as one of these shots sort of is, or a more yellow look as two of these three photos appear and one shows a sliver of the bright white top. See all of the many looks in my White Angled-Sulphur, Anteos clorinde GALLERY.

White top and greenish/yellowish bottom of wings: White Angled-Sulphur, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Bird & Butterfly Bench

Just the day before yesterday I had my gardeners install a new garden bench up the hill beside my house at roof level and beside “K’s Little Zinnia Patch” (linked to an earlier blog post) under a palm tree with easy photography of butterflies in both the Zinnia Patch and in my row Porterweeds which also attracts hummingbirds. PLUS a view of the trees and the hills around me for birds. It will become one of my morning rituals to go sit and photograph nature around me! It is a challenge to hike up the steep driveway and then I needed a place to sit. So I installed one! 🙂

A secluded nook in the shade by the Zinnias

And see more photos of the bench and its vistas in this slide show online:

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Hoffmann’s Woodpecker

Possibly the most seen woodpecker in my garden is this Hoffmann’s Woodpecker, Melanerpes hoffmannii (eBird link), distinctive with it’s gold nape and for the male (this photo) a bright red crown! It is exclusively in Costa Rica and Nicaragua with a few strays into El Salvador and Honduras. See some more of my photos in my Hoffmann’s Woodpecker Gallery made over the years literally all over Costa Rica. Here’s three shots from my garden recently that I’m adding to that gallery collection . . .

Hoffmann’s Woodpecker in my garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Two New Species in November

Whether a bird, butterfly or other animal or plant, photographing a new species is always special for me! And living in the country with the most species per square kilometers makes that a continuous possibility, even after 10 years of living here! 🙂 During the week of a visit from Nashville friends, Gary & Kenna Eaton, I got photos of two: a butterfly and a moth caterpillar, with still some uncertainty on the ID of the caterpillar, while hoping for a confirmation of my ID by a scientist or naturalist on iNaturalist or on butterfliesandmoths.org. Here’s the two photos . . .

Silver-studded Leafwing, Hypna clytemnestra, La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park,
Sarapiqui, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica

Read more about this butterfly on iNaturalist Costa Rica which calls it a “Brightwing” butterfly (in Spanish of course) where you can see many other photos of this “uncommon” butterfly in Costa Rica. There are also two more photos on butterfliesandmoths.org, one other from Costa Rica and one from Cuba, where incidentally it appears on a postage stamp! 🙂

Now the humble little caterpillar . . .

Spotted Apatelodes Moth Caterpillar – Apatelodes torrefacta,
Carara National Park, Tarcoles, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

See all of my 313 identified Butterflies & Moths of Costa Rica GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

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Gallery Completed of the Eaton’s Visit

It takes me a while to process the many photos I usually take and then label and get into galleries – but it is done! for the November 10 & 17-22 Visit by the Gary Eaton’s. Linked to the gallery or click on the image of first page below . . .

CLICK ABOVE IMAGE to go to the gallery.

I placed it in my “CR TRIP GALLERIES” because it was their trip and much like a trip for me with a variety of photos, many of which are okay even if not my best! 🙂 After all, I had cancer surgery on my nose in the middle that week and was dealing with feet & leg inflammation from the new blood pressure medicine, but in spite of all that, I had great time Gary & Kenna! And I hope you are able to return to Costa Rica in the future to see other areas and different National Parks! I love it all! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!