Category: National Parks & Wildlife Reserves

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Stately Female Quetzal

While the male is more “showy” with his very long two green feathers that really impress when he is flying (that I can never capture in the camera), the female is just as colorful and maybe more “stately” in my opinion. Only one shot here, but you can see my other photos in this trips “Trip Gallery Sub-gallery”: Resplendent Quetzal Female.

Resplendent Quetzal Female, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

And you who have visited the tropics might look at her tail and say that she looks like a Trogon – and you would be basically correct, in that the Quetzal is in the Trogon family, just a little more colorful and showy than most Trogons, though some of them are pretty colorful too! Just no long green feathers like the Quetzal Male.  :-)

Today is the day I leave San Gerardo de Dota to return to my home in Atenas, Alajuela Province, but I will continue sharing images from these beautiful mountains over the next week or so and be developing a new trip gallery, so keep reading! :-)

¡Pura Vida!

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A “Parade” of Quetzals

Well, I call it a “parade” because I’ve never seen so many Resplendent Quetzals in one place before. I got a different guide yesterday after getting no good Quetzal photos on Christmas day and told him that my goal was to get some good photos of Quetzals! He asked “Are you willing to pay $5 to go on someone’s private property?” I said “Yes!” and he said “We will go to the best place to get photos of Quetzals.” And it was! But I didn’t even get the name of it, if it has a name! It is behind a farmer’s house where he has a bunch of Wild Avocado trees planted and built several perches near them because they like to perch before and after grabbing a Wild Avocado. Note that these are much smaller or about 1/4 the size of our human Avocados. It is interesting to see them eat one. They put the whole thing in their mouth and eat all the Avocado meat off the seed, then spit the seed out. :-)

Here is only one photo because of slow internet here, but you can go to the only sub-gallery I’ve created yet in my trip galleries and see all 17 shots and most are different individuals with 2 or 3 photographed twice. It is simply called Resplendent Quetzal Male gallery and will ultimately be a part of this trip’s gallery. Tomorrow I’ll do the same thing with the female Quetzal which were there in almost equal number with the males who would fly acrobatically over the females to impress them. And if you are interested in seeing some very different photos of Quetzals from my earlier trips to San Gerardo de Dota and Monteverde, check out my Resplendent Quetzal GALLERY going back to my first trip here in 2009! :-) Quetzals are just one of the special treats in Costa Rica!

Resplendent Quetzal Male, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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Mexican Silverspot

I’ve seen this cool butterfly in only two places, here and at Guayabo Lodge near Turrialba. It is found from Texas to Brazil. Since I’m limiting myself to one photo per post from this location, see the other shots in my Mexican Silverspot GALLERY plus my earlier shots.

Mexican Silverspot, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.

See shots from other places on butterfliesandmoths.org. And oh yeah, I did not get a good Quetzal shot yesterday morning, so I’m trying again this morning. Wildlife does not usually pose for photographers! :-)

¡Pura Vida!

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Tennessee Warbler in Costa Rica

Yeh! He’s a regular “Snow Bird” who migrates down here from my former state and others every winter. I hiked down the road to Batsu Gardens yesterday for Christmas Eve and my 9th Anniversary in Costa Rica. This Tennessee Warbler was just one of many birds I photographed, meaning I have lots of photos to process. But today’s focus is on the “Christmas Quetzal” as I was scheduled for the 5:15 am “Quetzal Tour” on Christmas Morning with one of the hotel guides. Maybe a report on that tomorrow morning! :-)

Tennessee Warbler, Batsu Gardens, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

&

Merry Christmas!

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Smallest Hummingbird

in Costa Rica and 2nd smallest in the world! (Smallest is Bee Hummingbird not found here.) Plus this one it is endemic to Costa Rica and Panama. At higher elevations it is replaced by its slightly larger “cousin” the Volcano Hummingbird. Here’s one shot made here at Hotel Savegre in San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. Read about the Scintillant Hummingbird, Selasphorus scintilla, on eBird and see more photos from San Gerardo de Dota, both at Savegre and Batsu Gardens, AND from El Silencio Lodge, my only places to see this species, in my Scintillant Hummingbird GALLERY. Because of slow internet here, only one photo.

Scintillant Hummingbird, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.

This one is either a female or immature male, both of which have spotted throats. Mature males have a solid orange throat.

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve and I plan on one more post today, my 9th year anniversary of living in Costa Rica. :-)

¡Pura Vida!

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A “Lifer” Bird First Morning!

Right after breakfast in a garden behind the restaurant I got several shots of this male and a few weaker shots of the female Yellow-bellied Siskin – Spinus xanthogastrus (eBird link). Because the wifi or internet is weaker or slower here I will be trying to use only one photo per post but to include both male & female, two photos today! :-)

Yellow-bellied Siskin, Male, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.
Yellow-bellied Siskin, Female, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.

See my gallery of Yellow-bellied Siskin with more shots from this morning. This morning I went to a new garden on the hotel campus and have a lot of photos of a lot of birds that I will slowly share, one bird at a time and then tomorrow morning I plan to go to Batsu Gardens across the road for even more birds. I did get a couple of butterflies this morning and a caterpillar, but this trip will be mostly birds it appears! :-)

¡Pura Vida!

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“Nature Things”

Often when photographing in the forests of Costa Rica I’m compelled to photograph an interesting leaf or something that I don’t know what it is, thus I usually have a folder for photos of “Leaves & Nature Things!” And today’s photo is one of those! :-) They might be seeds or flower buds or nuts or who knows what? But I find this “whatever “Nature Thing” seen at Macaw Lodge to be worth sharing in my nature blog. And if you know what it is, leave a comment below.  🙂

One of my “Nature Things” photos.

¡Pura Vida!

And the GALLERY: Leaves & Nature Things.

🙂

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Gray Wasp with Blue Wings

I continue to find insects in Costa Rica to be so interesting and sometimes weird! And I quickly gave up on using a close up lens for insects because to get as close as is needed you scare off the bug! :-) Thus I use the same lens that I use for birds high in a tree, my 150-600 mm zoom lens and can get images sometimes nearly as good as a close up without scaring of the insect off.

One of those, besides the many butterflies that I prefer, was this blue and gray wasp with an fun face! enjoy these two shots and I have no good way to identify for sure, but think “Blue & Gray Wasp” is a pretty good temporary name for this one! And I searched several websites without finding this one out of hundreds of species here! :-) 

Blue & Gray Wasp, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa Rica
Blue & Gray Wasp, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa Rica

Check out my non-butterfly insects in the MORE INSECTS GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

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November Macaw Lodge GALLERY!

Finally, I have the photo gallery for my November trip to Macaw Lodge completed, just 6 days before I begin my Christmas Trip to San Gerardo de Dota! I have been very busy since that last trip! 🙂 I will now blog those 6 days before Christmas trip on my garden and some more from Macaw Lodge. :-)

This was just my second time to go to Macaw Lodge which is at the closest national park to where I live. And though I’ve visited 4 other lodges/hotels near that park, Macaw is my favorite and I’m likely to be returning! :-) You can read about the lodge on their website linked here: Macaw Lodge, and it is a lot more than a yoga retreat which the site seems to emphasize! :-) And now for my unique (and I think good) collection of photos from just 3 nights at Macaw Lodge last month, click the gallery image below or go to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-November-21-24-Macaw-Lodge-Carara-NP

CLICK image to visit this gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

AND ABOUT MY OTHER BLOG POST TODAY: Back in January I read an article about fun or funny “Annual National Days” in the U.S. and quickly did a blog post on what I thought was the most interesting one for each of the 12 months and today is the last one on “Underdog Day!” I promise not to do anything like that again, though it was kind of fun when I put together all 12 posts! :-) Tomorrow I’m back to only one nature blog post each day! My real passion! :-) 

¡Hasta luego!

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2nd Sighting of Rare Butterfly!

On butterfliesandmoths.org I have the only reports of this Yellow-haired Skipper, Typhedanus cajeta. My first sighting was earlier this year in my garden and this time it was at Macaw Lodge, Carara National Park. The above link is to the online butterfly site I volunteer for with only my sightings included there now. Plus here is a link to my Yellow-haired Skipper GALLERY. And below are 3 photos of this simple brown butterfly from my November visit to Macaw Lodge . . .

Yellow-haired Skipper, Macaw Lodge, Carara, Costa Rica
Continue reading “2nd Sighting of Rare Butterfly!”