During breakfast this morning I got 7 species of birds from my terrace, but because I was eating, I photographed only one, just at the end of my time looking – The Yellow Warbler, both a migrant from the north and a resident sometimes, meaning I don’t know how to tell if this particular one is a migrant or a resident enjoying an insect for breakfast! 🙂
Yellow Warbler, Atenas, Costa Rica
And the other 6 birds I saw were Great Kiskadee, Turkey Vulture, one of the Swallow species (unidentified), Tropical Kingbird, and Clay-colored Thrush or Yiqüirro.
I hope you are counting birds in your backyard this weekend and reporting to eBird!
You North Americans think you are crazy about American Football, you should see some of the Ticos get excited about their REAL FUTBOL (soccer) team. Liga Deportiva Alajuelensesurvived a late scare to beat Saprissa, 3-2, and win the 2021 CONCACAF League. This is like the “Super Bowl” of Costa Rica!
Atenas only has high school football but we are in Alajuela Province, thus that is “our” team! No. I have not suddenly become a football fan! I wasn’t in the states and not here, BUT I am a fan of my local people and many of them, especially young men, are big fans. And this was so important because we (underdogs) beat the “big” team from San Jose! 🙂 They are arrogant, big city bosses who needed to lose a game! And they lost more than one! 🙂 And to show my support I chose my Banco Nacional credit card colors in the colors of Liga, our team!
Join thousands of others around the world on February 12-15, 2021, on any one of those days, and count how many birds you see in your backyard to help science with another statistic! 🙂 Read about it on the Great Backyard Bird Count Website and/or get motivated with their short little video below:
I’ve been watching, counting and photographing birds my whole adult life. See my BIRDS Gallery for some of the photos of more than 500 species from 10 different countries with the most in Costa Rica of course! 🙂
Here’s some of the many beautiful visitas from Hotel Savegre. And I would not ask my driver to stop for photos on the way up or down the narrow, steep, winding, mountain road, but the drive down gives even more beautiful vistas! (If your aren’t the driver!) – 🙂
Costa Rica Begins Vaccinating Entire Population Today
Starting today the government of Costa Rica will begin the Covid19 vaccinations of everyone age 18 and older at no cost to the person. Read the Tico Times article. And older people like me will be first. I was told they would call me within the month for my appointment at the local public clinic.
One of the many wonderful things about Hotel Savegre is the huge piece of property it sits on in a mixture of primary and secondary forest – the “secondary” parts being where early farmers cleared land that has now been “re-forested” as has a large portion of Costa Rica as farming methods have improved and are becoming less destructive of the natural environment. The guide in some of the photos is Marino Chacon, a son of the man and woman who pioneered this first hotel/lodge in the truly amazing hills of San Gerardo de Dota. His parents are pictured on one of the trail signs included below in my two collections. CLICK image in first gallery to enlarge, which you can’t do in the second one as a slideshow.
Well . . . only three! Though I saw many more, most never stopped for a photo, especially those dratted Yellows! 🙂 The Mexican Silverspot never let me see his top but Orange Mapwing did let me get both a side-view and top-view, just not both in good focus. 🙂 And then right before making this post, I decided to make a second, more zoomed-in version of some of these photos for a closer look, where you can see more details on the more drastically cropped versions, such as in the feature photo of the Orange Mapwing (butterfliesandmoths.org Link) found only in Central America.
The Painted White (Wikipedia Link), was my first sighting of this butterfly, found from Mexico south to Paraguay. In my butterfly galleries you can see that it is similar to other Whites. And the Mexican Silverspot (butterfliesandmoths.org Link) is found from Brazil north through Mexico with strays in New Mexico & Texas and also a first time photographed. All were identified with my trusty book A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America and reconfirmed online with different sites.
Orange Mapwing
Orange Mapwing
Orange Mapwing
Orange Mapwing
Painted White
Painted White
Mexican Silverspot
Mexican Silverspot
Butterflies photographed at Hotel Savegre & Batsú Gardens, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.
Because I’ve seen it before, I had a gallery for the Orange Mapwing with 2 other photos from El Silencio Lodge, Bajo del Toro Amarillo. The Painted White was a first-time sighting and thus only this one photo in that gallery for now and the Mexican Silverspot is also new this trip but I have 3 photos in it. If you like butterflies, I have 126+ species now in my Butterflies of Costa Rica Gallery, one of the largest, if not the largest, photo gallery of Costa Rica Butterflies on the internet. 🙂
This third of my mountain hummingbirds found only in Costa Rica and Western Panama was a “Lifer” (1st time seen) observation this trip. Learn more on the eBird article for White-throated Mountain-gem. My gallery has only these two photos since it is new to me. As always, CLICK an image to see larger:
White-throated Mountain-gem
White-throated Mountain-gem
Photographed at Batsú Gardens near Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
I am down to the hummingbirds in my photos from San Gerardo de Dota, the most difficult to identify for me. But I am sure of this first one, Lesser Violetear (eBird Description) and like many of our mountain birds, found only in the mountains of Costa Rica and Western Panama with a former name of “Green Violetear.” (“They” are always changing names which is frustrating for us birders!) There is a larger version of this bird called the “Mexican Violetear” found only in the countries north of us. There is also a Brown Violetear found all across Central America, but less seen by me.
Unlike most hummingbirds, this one’s “ears” actually stick out a little and are very purple or violet. Here’s a few shots from the Batsú Gardens across the road from Hotel Savegre. The hotel no longer uses any feeders of any kinds with only natural plants to attract birds in the forest and gardens, thus some birds are easier to see across the road. 🙂 Though I did get two other hummingbirds in the hotel gardens.
Lesser Violetear
Lesser Violetear
Lesser Violetear
Lesser Violetear
Photos made at the Batsú Gardens near Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota.
Large-footed Finch is the “official” English common name for this cloud forest bird that my excellent guide, Marino, found for me this morning. This “lifer” for me (1st time seen) is one of several we found near the top of our mountain on the Robles Trail this morning. The feature photo above is the only one to show his feet, which don’t seem that large to me, but maybe to a finch? 🙂
I will share more birds from today later. CLICK image to see larger . . .
Large-footed Finch
Flight Initiated!
Large-footed Finch
Large-footed Finch
Large-footed Finch
Large-footed Finch at Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
It would be hard to praise Hotel Savegre too much with virtually everything perfect here from the food to the rooms, trails, birds and vistas! 🙂 Though the birds of this trip haven’t been added yet, you can see all my others in Costa Rica Birds Gallery, 350 species!
I enjoy photographing all of nature so much that it is difficult to stop or reduce the number of photos I share on this blog and I know that fewer can be better and simpler but here I go again, with only one more blog post on Arenal tomorrow, then I will begin another photo adventure – so get ready for more but different nature! 🙂 And the above feature photo is the morning walk guide explaining the Breadfruit Tree with a close-up of a breadfruit in “Other Nature Shots” below. And yes, it is edible, mostly by monkeys but some humans cook it and use with other more tasty foods. 🙂
