Category: Travel

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Hudsonian Whimbrel

This bird used to be called just “Whimbrel” and that common name and its scientific name was for all Whimbrels world-wide. Now “they” have split them into two species with the old scientific name going for the ones in Europe & Asia and the ones in the Americas (North, Central and South) are called Husonian Whimbrel (Numenius hudsonicus) (my gallery link).

Thus another one of my galleries had to have a name change, including each individual photo. Just part of having up-to-date science! 🙂 This smaller, “chunkier” one (compared to the majority) was seen last week at Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge. And if you notice the water is darker and reddish or rusty, it is because the ocean’s saltwater at high tide went up into the Mangrove Forest and the Bloodwood Trees there react to the salt, releasing a reddish sap this time of year, turning the water red as the tide goes back out. 🙂

Hudsonian Whimbrel, Gandoca-Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Banana Azul Photo Gallery Ready!

This year’s visit to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica included a week at Hotel Banana Azul with a day hike in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge and my collection of photos are ready to see at https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2026-09-14-18-Banana-Azul-Gandoca-Manzanillo or you can click on the first page image below to get there. Two disclaimers as to why there are not as many photos this year: The bizarre weather with a Super-El-Niño, wind and rain every day (normally the driest month there), a muddy beach road with no butterflies at all (my main thing there now) and the global-warming and ocean rising has caused enormous erosion of the beaches there now, with almost no beach left. But it is still a beautiful nature place and I have a lot of photos from this year’s trip.

CLICK above image to go to the photo gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

I’ve done blog posts of Caribe photos ahead through the end of September, but wanted to announce my trip gallery now. The first of October I will continue sharing nature photos from my garden and on walks in my hometown of Atenas. If I just look, there is some nature to experience every day! 🙂

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Common Black Hawk . . .

. . . used to be one of the birds I photographed at Banana Azul every year, but not this year. (I did see one fly off one day.) But I got several shots of this one in Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge and we saw him in 3 or 4 places searching for crabs (his favorite food) or other small animals to eat. Just two shots here, but you can see more in my gallery: Common Black Hawk (linked). It is found from the Southwestern U.S. south through Mexico and all of Central America to the northern shores of South America. We have them on both slopes of Costa Rica.

Common Black Hawk, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Collared Aracari

This small toucan is found from Mexico south to Columbia and Venezuela. In Costa Rica it is found mostly on the Caribbean Slope with the only ones on the Pacific side being in the Northwest or the Nicoya Peninsula. While his first cousin, the Fiery-billed Aracari is found along the Central and Southern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. That includes Atenas where I’ve had Fiery-billed in my garden. It looks like this one except for the red bill. See my other photos of this one in my gallery: Collared Aracari (linked).

Collared Aracari, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Manzanillo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Eroding Beaches, Diminishing Wildlife, and . . .

I am not through sharing photos from this year’s trip to Banana Azul and haven’t even started on the photos from a morning hike in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (source of my most wildlife sightings this year), but with all the praise I’ve given Banana Azul over the years and what was an annual trip every September (the month with usually less rain), I need a “DISCLAIMER” to previous recommendations for this hotel and area and to explain why I will not continue annual trips here and may not even return to Banana Azul.

At places on the beaches there is barely a space for walking out of the water and in others no dry space at all! Playa Negra, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica. From a beach to a trail!

Read on for my explanation or reasons and to see more photos . . .

Continue reading “Eroding Beaches, Diminishing Wildlife, and . . .”
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Scarlet-rumped Tanager

This one on the Caribbean side has an identical male as the Pacific side male with a slightly different female and they are thus considered different subspecies. I keep my photos separated in two galleries. For more of these from the Caribbean Slope, see Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Passerini’s (my gallery link) and yes, when I first came to Costa Rica these were call Passerini’s Tanager, while the ones on the Pacific side were called Cherrie’s Tanager. If you want to see if you can tell the difference in the two females, check out the other gallery: Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Cherrie’s (linked). And note that some sources say that the difference is seen only in the immature birds! 🙂 It is also interesting that some sources also say that the Cherrie’s is found only in Costa Rica and thus the scientific name includes the Latin “costaricensis.” 🙂 In my photos it seems that the Pacific side females are slightly darker in color with no other differences to me and I have never been where I could compare immature ones. These two photos are both male.

Scarlet-rumped Tanager, male, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Ghost Anole

Another new species of lizard for me! The Ghost Anole, Anolis lemurinus (my gallery link with only these 2 photos now) or you can check out the parent gallery LIZARDS (22+ species) (linked) where you will find 8+ anole species in the Genus Anolis, plus a lot of other interesting tropical lizards. Just more of the adventure of living in Costa Rica! 🙂 And yes, this one was found at Hotel Banana Azul in the Caribe. And because I went to Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge on the last day there, all of those photos are yet to come. 🙂

Ghost Anole, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Tabacón

For those familiar with the Arenal Volcano area of Costa Rica, you know that name as the name of a Hot Springs Resort there, but did you know that it was named after a plant, Anthurium upalaense (Tabacón) (Research Gate article link)? It is much larger than the anthuriums in my garden and is found on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica with some also overlapping into nearby Nicaragua and Panama. The large leaves of the plant collect small dead leaves falling from other plants where they rot to feed the anthurium. That long red spadix is not a flower but contains many many tiny little flowers that are pollinated by insects and turn into many berries that are eaten by birds. Another amazing new discovery in nature for me! 🙂 And almost exclusive to Caribbean Costa Rica!

Anthurium upalaense (Tabacón), Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limon, Costa Rica
Anthurium upalaense (Tabacón), Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limon, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Blue Morning

I was out on the beach early yesterday morning with hopes of a brilliant sunrise. Instead, God gave me a rich blue sky, quickly followed by a nourishing rain in this tropical forest. This year’s more extreme weather promises some more extreme experiences! 🙂

Sunrise Caribe South, Banana Azul, Limon, Costa Rica

And as the light increased from the above first sight, see the changing blues added to other colors in the next three shots . . .

Continue reading “Blue Morning”
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Rough Water

The combination of global warming and the “Super Nino” this year has made where I live on the Pacific Slope hotter and drier this year with not much of a rainy season. While the other sided of Costa Rica, the Caribbean (Atlantic) is wetter with more rain, but also hotter and thus more humid than usual. And the ocean seems rougher and high tide is higher. One photo shows a whole tree on the beach that probably blew down somewhere else and washed up here OR was washed away here by high tide and high winds and just hasn’t made it out to sea yet. I don’t know.

I didn’t get here until the afternoon with a good flight through the clouds and I’m settled in my room and made a walk down the beach road looking for nature. More tomorrow with hopes of a good sunrise and some butterflies!

Playa Negra, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limon, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

See more of this side of Costa Rica in my gallery Caribbean Beaches. And tonight I go to sleep with the sound of the surf and a little heavier surf than in the past.