I spent nearly an hour searching my books and all over the internet for an ID on this interesting fellow I saw while walking to town the other day. He is possibly in the large Scarab Beetle family or Stag Beetle family or seems related to our Rhinoceros Beetle and Hercules Beetle, but even with those I can’t find photos of one with these large, wide “horns” or divided head. New surprises every day! 🙂
Unidentified Beetle, 2 to 3 inches long
“Any foolish boy can stamp on a beetle, but all the professors in the world cannot make a beetle.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer
A different butterfly in my garden today along with repeats of most seen yesterday. 🙂
The “Giant” Swallowtail is not really bigger than most other Swallowtails but identified by his patterns. See more in my Giant Swallowtail Gallery or go for all in the big Butterfly Gallery.
And 4 species today! 🙂 I went out and photographed the above flowers for a one-shot post when I realized there was a dozen or so butterflies beyond them on my Porterweed flowers of these 4 species (one I incorrectly named the other day}:
Cloudless SulphurStatira SulphurPolydamas Swallowtail, I mistakenly called a Red-sided Swallowtail recently. Sorry!
Cloudywing Butterfly (not sure which one of several Cloudywings)
Yesterday I saw a new butterfly for me and my best efforts at identification using my book and online sites is “Red-sided Swallowtail.” He matches all the photos of that species except for his tail, but that could be one of those “exceptions” every species seems to have. His tail is more like the “Dual-spotted Swallowtail” but the wings are just too different. And his wings are a little bit like “White Crescent Swallowtail” but not totally and those don’t live further south than Honduras, so I’m sticking with this ID for now! 🙂
Just thankful that I have one more new butterfly whatever he is! 🙂
Butterflies are nature’s angels. They remind us what a gift it is to be alive.
-Robyn Nola
One of the neat things about living in Costa Rica is that you do not always have to go look for wildlife, since it often comes to you. This has been particularly true with insects at my house! 🙂
After breakfast yesterday I soaked my oatmeal bowl in the sink with warm soapy water and finished my coffee while reading the paper. When I returned to the sink, this dragonfly had flown or dropped right into the soapy water and was dead. I gently pulled him out and lightly dabbed with a paper towel – no life. And here is my quick cellphone photo. After an internet search I declared him a Blue-eyed Darner male. I’m seldom 100% certain of insect identifications, but this is my best match on the web!
Finally – “the big book” – what I’ve been planning for nearly 6 years! Almost all the birds I’ve photographed since moving to Costa Rica in 2014. I haven’t finished photographing birds here, and next month at Maquenque Lodge I could easily get a photo I will regret is not in this book! But why not do it now, with the Coronavirus Down Time providing time to create and the year of my 80th birthday as a celebration excuse! 🙂 If I keep putting it off, there won’t be a book! And this one is so much bigger and better than my recent Roca Verde Birds book which was just birds in my yard!
Here’s the bookstore official description:
Click cover for preview. Best at full screen!
About the Book
Eighty-year-old retiree from Tennessee, Charlie Doggett, has lived in and explored the rainforests and cloud forests of Costa Rica for 6 years, sharing photos and experiences in his “Retired in Costa Rica” BLOG. This book has 420 bird photos from his blog – more than 300 species of birds, named in both English and Spanish with a complete English-names INDEX. At 230 photo pages, 10 X 8 inches, it’s a great gift or coffee table book about Costa Rica, printed on 100# Premium Lustre Gloss Photo Paper.
It’s been awhile since I’ve reported since not much obvious work has been going on except for 2 to 4 men most days working on this one radial sidewalk from the central kiosk to the northeast corner of the park since January. It has taken much of 5 months with 7 more sidewalks to go, it may be awhile before the renovation is complete! 🙂
At least I’ve learned that the sidewalks will be concrete rather than the old brick sidewalks, which at first was disappointing for the historical look, but they are definitely going for a modern look and concrete will also be more practical and cost less I would imagine and the younger generations everywhere definitely prefer modern. There is a trough down the center of the sidewalk which will probably be used to hide electrical wires, since the storm drain is a bigger pipe already buried under all this.
I like the two half circles off this walk with built-in seating for groups to assemble or people in general to visit. And not only are there built-in seats in the circle, but all the sidewalk walls are at sitting level, meaning there will be a lot more seating than the old park benches have provided. And that fits the purpose of bringing people together and the new modern look of the park too! I like it! When finished, the Central Park will really be the center of life in Atenas!
My date on this is March 30, so from this point to below in 2+ months, though they really started here in January of 2020. A long time for one sidewalk with 2 seating areas!Entrance from the NE corner of park across from POP’s Ice Cream. Brick is city sidewalk.There are two of these sitting areas off this radial walk.This is same as above seen from the other direction.The other sitting area is closer to center of park and has steps & wheelchair ramp. Tarp is workers’ for rain and sun during this construction.
“Parks and playgrounds are the soul of a city.” ― Marty Rubin
The Architect Plans Facebook Page has been taken down or the old link doesn’t work now. Sorry.
When they start looking “scraggy” I like to have a fresh start! And I recently did that with these two pots, one outside and one inside.
The inside one has had several little palms from the beginning that never lasted more than a year, if that long – evidently needing more sun. So I replaced the palm with a Monstera deliciosa, also known as the Swiss Cheese plant, which is in the philodendron family and can better handle the lack of sun, as already shown in one of the shady areas of my outside garden. A nice tropical change from the palms that kept dying! 🙂
I don’t remember the name of the green plant we removed from my outside frog pot, but it evidently needed more water than that little pot could hold and kept turning brown. So it has been replaced with a type of fan palm that is supposedly easy to grow. But with a smaller pot, I still need to be more frequent with the water! 🙂 And the green plant removed is now doing well in one of my outside gardens!
Monstera deliciosa or Swiss Cheese plant
Fan palm in frog pot.
“A dried plant is nothing but a sign to plant a new one”
― Priyansh Shah
🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See also My Home Gardens Photo Gallery and for the inside if my house:
