Category: Places

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Turquoise-browed Motmot

It has been a long time since I’ve photographed one of these fave birds in my yard, so I was smiling when I photographed him in my back Nance Tree, uphill or above my roof. Then I went straight in the house and started processing the photos and this shot was my favorite, writing this blog post 12 days ago. The Esquinas trip got me ahead of schedule and I just may stay that way with good birds like this stopping by! 🙂

Turquoise-browed Motmot, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

We can regularly have two different species of motmots, this Turquoise-browed Motmot and the Lesson’s Motmot (both linked to eBird). The Lesson’s used to be called blue-crowned which was more descriptive, but there are reasons for name changes. And of course I have lots of photos of both in my galleries plus a few of the other 2 Motmots:

¡Pura Vida!

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Mella Skipper

If my ID is correct, this is another new species for me. It is hard to be sure when I cannot get both the top view and the side view like this. But the top view here matches best this new species for me, Mella Skipper – Anatrytone mella.

Mella Skipper, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Juvenile Emerald Basilisk

Eating flower leaves in my garden! The Emerald or Green Basilisk (link to National Geographic page) adult has the big crest or plume on his head and back, like a little dinosaur, and is know for “walking on water” (actually running very fast) and is thus called by some “The Jesus Christ Lizard.” You wouldn’t think that I would have them in my garden and though I am more likely to see in rainforests or along streams, there is a stream across the cow pasture from me here. 🙂 Here’s two shots of a juvenile climbing up my Lantana flower pot at the end of my tiny driveway parking space.

Juvenile Emerald Basilisk, Atenas, Costa Rica (all of his long tail in the next shot)
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Last Friday with Linda & Carlos Cobos

An old friend from seminary and Miami days, Carlos Cobos, was in Costa Rica this past week on a choir tour with his wife Linda from their church in Conway, Arkansas. They had a “free day” Friday while their group was in a hotel in La Fortuna. So I went with my driver and we showed Carlos & Linda a few things in that part of Costa Rica that they chose from my list of options. The last activity was to see the La Fortuna Waterfall, but since it was pouring down rain by then, we did not do that, considering the steep climb down and back up from the waterfall in rain. But we did a lot of other things like the Butterfly Conservatory and Sky Adventure for lunch with views of volcano and Lake Arenal! You can see the photos in my photo gallery titled: 2023 July 21 – Day Around Arenal Volcano.

There are too many photos to share in a blog post, so I hope you will check out the gallery! The feature photo of a sloth is repeated below after this shot of the three of us on the Bogarin Trail in La Fortuna. Interestingly, we paid to see a sloth (and other wildlife) on this trail and did not! But later saw a sloth alongside the highway! 🙂 Luck!? We did see birds and other wildlife on the Bogarin Trail though, so not a waste of time! 🙂

Charlie, Linda, and Carlos on the Bogarin Nature Trail, La Fortuna, Costa Rica
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth along the highway near La Fortuna, Costa Rica.

Now see more photos in the gallery: 2023 July 21 – Day Around Arenal Volcano which includes lots of nature of course! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Sunning in My Cecropia Tree

This Variegated Squirrel (link to article on “Canopy Family” website) is the most common squirrel in Costa Rica and here he seemed to enjoy the warm sunshine in the branches of my Guarumo or Cecropia Tree one morning back before my Esquinas Trip. He is seen all over Costa Rica as my Variegated Squirrel Gallery shows. Here’s two more shots for my collection . . .

Variegated Squirrel, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Morning Panorama

These mountains or a wider vista of them is one of the things I look at during breakfast every morning that I’m at home, though I have never been able to fully capture exactly what I see. Here is another effort with a 5-shot panorama. You can see many of the other efforts in my GALLERY: From My Roca Verde Terrace – and just like sunrises and sunsets, no two are alike! 🙂 ¡Pura vida!

Morning Vista from My Terrace

¡Pura Vida!

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4 Species of Orchids

that I added to my garden just before the recent art sale. They are tiny “shade orchids” that I used to “fill in” where I felt I needed some more flowers. Like with most flowers, I prefer the close up shots, but the last photo here shows them in relation to that particular flower bed and thus their small size, though multiple blooms on each. And each is so fragile that it came tied to a wooden stake. 🙂

Orchid, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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La Gamba Field Station

I earlier promised a blog post on this unique place adjacent to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and then I will lay off posts from that area for awhile. 🙂 And begin again tomorrow doing blog posts from my garden and the community of Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica! 🙂

Normally the station is full of students and other researchers as in this photo from their website, but the week I was there, they were in between research projects and I talked with only two students.

The University of Vienna in Austria does an exceptional amount of tropical and rainforest research with not only their professors and students, but with many guest researchers from other parts of Europe and from the USA and Latin America. Read more about this important research station on their English-language website: https://www.lagamba.at/en/ while being aware that the primary language there is German. 🙂 Austrians speak an Austrian dialect of German.

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