After a 3.5 hour drive up to Boca Tapada near the Nicaragua border on the San Carlos River, I crossed the river and got settled in my little rainforest “bungalow” on a small lake where I’ve already photographed more birds and other wildlife than I can count! But I will stay simple the first night and post only one photo, the back porch of my cabin overlooking the lake. Pura vida! 🙂
Back porch of my rainforest cabin at Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, San Carlos, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Since it is such a short post, you might want more information:
A view of our tranquil little farm town from a hill in my neighborhood.Plants up the driveway from my house that said “resurrection” to me.One of the most joyful flowers in my garden, to me, the Flame Vine or Triquitraque here,
PERSONAL NOTE: Tonight I will be at one of my favorite nature lodges, Maquenque Ecolodge in Boca Tapada on the Nicaragua border from which you can expect weeks of nature photos and maybe one tonight! 🙂
This common resident bird is found literally all over Costa Rica at most levels and this is my 4th time to see one in my Atenas neighborhood, with all other photos here in trees, bushes or on a fence, though their feeding is in the grasses! I have seen one across the street in the cow pasture grasses but without a photo! 🙂 I did get photos of him in the grasses of a meadow in Curi-Cancha Reserve, Monteverde and I’ve also seen one at Celeste Mountain Lodge at Tenorio Volcano NP. See my other photos in the Yellow-faced Grassquit GALLERY. And you can read about them on eBird. He’s a resident, tropical, non-migrating bird found throughout Central America, the Caribbean Islands and the northern fringes of South America. Here’s 3 shots of this male in one of my Nance Trees . . .
Yellow-faced Grassquit, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
There are thousands of different species of insects in Costa Rica and I have no idea what this one is that I caught the other day in my garden on a Plumbago flower (Most insects don’t land on it because it is sticky and they can get stuck!). AND he appears to have little yellow shin pads or knee pads. Hmmm? Every day in Costa Rica nature there is a new discovery! 🙂
Unidentified Insect, Atenas, Costa RicaUnidentified Insect, Atenas, Costa Rica
I will put him in my Unidentified Insects GALLERY where there are 34 species now with some much more colorful and interesting. Please contact me if you can identify any of them!
It is still windy here into April which is unusual and it plays havoc with the butterflies, meaning that I am still seeing or photographing few. But this Brown Longtail, Urbanus procne, along with some of the other Skippers and a few tiny ones on the ground are all I see right now and less frequently a Yellow high in the air, seemingly riding the currents of the wind and never landing where I can photograph. This one I got the day before yesterday in my garden on a Porterweed in a brief lull of the wind.
The most frequently heard song in my garden in April is always the melodic song of the Clay-colored Thrush, called Yigüirro in Costa Rican Spanish. Local tradition is that he is singing in the rainy season, begging God for rain and thus he usually goes near the top of trees to sing and why my photos seldom show him singing. It sounds like he is trying really hard to do a good job and loud! As locals say, “singing his heart out!” You can hear one recording on eBird, click the “Listen” Button.
But they do come down to the lower limbs occasionally for my photos, 🙂 with these two shots from two different days. Usually we have a light start of rain the middle of April scattered over several days with the “real” rain beginning in earnest in May when we can have a shower or more every afternoon through November.
This year we had the unusual experience of 4 days of showers in March! Climate change! I live in the “Central Valley” which would not be considered a “rainforest” like both coasts and their corresponding “slopes” where it rains year around and occasionally all day. I like visiting the rainforests but the Central Valley is better for daily living. 🙂
This one Rufous-tailed Hummingbird appears to be the only one living in my gardens right now and occasionally he almost poses for a photo. I have not been putting out the Hummingbird feeder for a long time now because these Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds are very territorial and he chases any others off. But after next week’s trip I will have nearly 3 months of no travel and may try the feeder again, not to necessarily feed this guy but hope it attracts other hummingbirds. We will see! 🙂
Right now they depend on flowers alone for food! I guess that is more natural! 🙂 But in the past I had a lot more than this!
I just completed my latest photo book, the second one on Blurb’s “Lay Flat Pages” (no gutter) with 100# Premium Lustre Photo Paper containing 16 sunrise photos in my favorite sunrise place, 14 are two-page spreads! I made it for both the fun of creating and as a gift to the Hotel Banana Azul where all photos were made! There are now several hotels like this across Costa Rica that feature my photo books about them in their lobbies. 🙂 And by the way, this is one I think is worth taking advantage of my bookstore’s “Free Preview” electronically by clicking the cover image below or going to this address and just click the pages to turn them! 🙂
CLICK cover image to go to a free electronic preview!
¡Pura Vida!
And by the way, that other “Lay Flat Book” was done way back in 2018 and titled Costa Rica Sunrises and Sunsets. It too is worth taking time for the “Free Preview” with mostly sunsets in that book! Just click that title to go there!
Costa Rica Expat Living: My Story of Being a Dependent (With an Unexpected Twist)Story of a “dependent” (wife) of a legally working husband and how new law opened up legal work for her (which wasn’t allowed before). CR welcomes us retirees who bring our retirement income with us, but younger working adults who might compete with locals for jobs have many more hoops to jump through! 🙂 But from this story it seems to be getting easier! And I am seeing a lot more working young adult expats, even in little Atenas now, though still most of them work on the internet which is non-competitive to local workers.
I’ve been working on all my wildlife galleries to have both English & Spanish Common Names as the titles and the Latin Scientific Name in the subtitles as I did first with birds. The one exception is that I cannot find a single easy source of Spanish Common Names for the butterflies & moths! So I’m still working on those, though they do all have both the English common name and the Latin scientific name. But still, I’ve seen no other wildlife photo galleries with this much helpful information. 🙂 I’ve completed the following categories except the Reptiles and Spanish on the butterflies, so almost finished! 🙂
CLICK above image to go to that “Other Wildlife” folder.
This small bright blue & yellow bird landed for 30 seconds or so in my Yellow Bell Tree Wednesday and I managed to get a few shots before he left. He is the male Spot-crowned Euphonia (eBird link), endemic to Costa Rica and the northern fringes of Panama, only on the Pacific Slopes, and just my third time to photograph one! First time in my garden! 🙂 My other places were at Esquinas Rainforest lodge at Piedras Blancas NP north of Golfito and at Hacienda Guachipelin, Rincón de la Vieja NP in Guanacaste near Liberia. I go back to Esquinas in July for my 83rd birthday and expect to see them again! 🙂
One of my all-time favorite bird photos was of a female Spot-crowned Euphonia eating a berry at Esquinas Lodge! See that and the other shots in my Spot-Crowned Euphonia Gallery! Now here’s 3 shots from my garden Wednesday . . .
Spot-crowned Euphonia, male, Atenas, Costa Rica
Above he’s looking down, next looking up and the third looking right into the camera before flying off! 🙂
