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Saturday morning, both before and after breakfast, before leaving around noon, I got shots of the beautiful Hecale Longwing (Heliconius hecale) and a couple of moths with one quickly identified, using my Costa Rica Rainforest Moths book! 🙂 The other moth is unidentified, though I think he is in the Tiger Moth family. Here’s 2 shots of the Hecale and one of each moth . . .
I only photographed 12 butterflies here this year and the photos of 3 are too bad a quality to share, but I will share the other 9 which are all but one repeats of species I’ve seen before, unless that unidentified one becomes a new species. 🙂 I did not go to the Butterfly Conservatory this year in nearby El Castillo-Arenal, or I would have more species photographed. And by the way, I consider it the best butterfly garden of the many all over Costa Rica, in case you are ever nearby. Here’s one shot for the email announcement, followed by a gallery of the 9 species . . .
It was just 3 miles, but there were several hills and a lot of steps going down into the canyon to see the waterfall, but worth it to this childlike old man who is still in awe of such things! And I’ve been to this waterfall 4 other times before! But never get tired of it! 🙂
I always hesitate to include a selfie photo, but here I am as a nearly 84 year old survivor of cancer whose left eye can no longer blink and thus waters and fogs of my glasses :-), in a wide-brim hat and SPF-50 sunscreen that my Costa Rican doctors expect of me! 🙂 While I still enjoy all the little awesome things in life like this hike through a rainforest to a tropical waterfall! It’s my pura vida! 🙂 Here’s 5 photos, including one of the two sets of moss-covered steps I climbed down with my trekking pole and camera!
It is probably not unusual, but it was my first time to see a bird eating from a Bird of Paradise Flower, in this case a Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (linked to my Rufous-tailed Gallery). It was before breakfast this morning near the end of our birding hike as we walked through some of the lodge gardens on our way to the restaurant.
Arenal Observatory Lodge (their website)
¡Pura Vida!
At least in this area, it is the time that most of the birds are nesting, meaning a different kind of bird activity. The feature shot at top is of a Yellow-throated Toucan coming out of her nest with a berry or seed in her beak. Below you can see a shot of how small the hole is that both the male and female squeeze through. I guess their beak determines the size of the whole, usually a remade or enlarged woodpecker hole. 🙂
And in the spirit of nesting season, there’s also a shot of an unidentified bird on her nest and a hummingbird nest. All this reproduction activity is an important part of the ecology of the rainforest that seems to be coming at the beginning of the rainy season.
This is my 5th time to spend five nights at Arenal Observatory Lodge and all 5 times in the same room because I liked it on my first visit! 🙂 It is close to the beginning of all hiking trails and just across a courtyard from the restaurant, and as a corner room, it has two great views! Looking north, I look up at the volcano and looking west I look out over Lake Arenal and this time of year at some magnificent sunsets. Here’s a shot of each of my two views and one of the courtyard between my building and the restaurant. As they say here, “Perfecto!”
This morning my usual transportation of Walter Ramirez Tours and Taxis is taking me away from my home “garden” or “mini-jungle,” featured above, to one of my favorite forest getaways for 5 nights . . .
Arenal Observatory Lodge, the only hotel inside the Arenal Volcano National Park, where I will spend 5 days hiking the trails of a forest with a great variety of plants and animals! Tree Ferns to Toucans and more!
Below are four shots of my little mini-rainforest garden in Atenas that I am proud of and in which I photograph much for this blog! Then following that, another 4-shot gallery from my last trip to the Observatory in 2022. I chose to go in May this year because that is the month I got good sunset photos over Lake Arenal in 2018 and my most monkey shots that year, though anytime is a good time to visit Arenal Observatory Lodge! (lodge website link) 🙂 Looking forward to just being there!
Continue reading “From Mini-Jungle to Rainforest!”
This is just my third time to see this unusual Yellow (among the many Yellows!). The Barred Yellow, Eurema daira (linked to my gallery) is found from Argentina north to the deep south of the U.S. It’s uniqueness is the brown, orange & yellow bars on the top of wings. The side view is similar to many Whites & Yellows. I’ve seen it twice here in Atenas and once at Arenal Observatory (where I’m headed tomorrow). See photos from other countries including the U.S. at butterfliesandmoths.
This one I’ve seen multiple times in my garden but still love him: the Tropical Checkered Skipper, Burnsius oileus. You can see my other photos in my gallery or what others have submitted to butterfliesandmoths.
The Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon bazochii, (butterfliesandmoths link) is a new species for me and a nice one! I have these same 3 images in my gallery, so I won’t link to it. But I was fortunate to get both the side view and a top view, which really helps with the identification! And with all the wind this year, few ever land with wing open and it is very difficult to catch one in flight on the camera as I did here! 🙂
