Category: Travel

Posted on

New Species of Butterfly!

Back on July 21 when I took Linda & Carlos Cobos to the Butterfly Conservatory, I was busy relating to them and did not photograph as many butterflies as usual there, but I did get 12 species! And best of all, one of those was a new species for me and my collection! it was the Consul fabius or Tiger-striped Leafwing. That common name is because when his wings are open, instead of folded as here, the top of his wings are black and orange striped like a lot of “tiger” butterflies but with different shaped wings that when closed look like a dead leaf for protection from predators! Only this one never opened his wings for me and we had to keep moving through the greenhouses. Maybe people look like predators to him! 🙂 But, regardless, I got my first photos of a Tiger-striped Leafwing! It is always fun to see something for the first time! 🙂

Tiger-striped Leafwing, Consul fabius, Butterfly Conservatory, El Castillo, Arenal Alajuela, Costa Rica

See all of my Costa Rica Butterflies GALLERIES!

246+ species!

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Thank you! – ¡Muchas gracias!

My WordPress host, DreamHost, and a service company, Jetpack, just released the July stats for my blog “Retired in Costa Rica” and its related website, charliedoggett.net. And I say “THANK YOU” to the 501 subscribers of the blog, 650 FaceBook Friends who receive a link and hopefully follow it, 🙂 the 2 thousand views of my website/blog in July, the 95 comments on blog posts and the 158 “Likes” in July, which can only be made by other WP Bloggers, making those likes special! 🙂 I am fulfilling my dream of retirement with nature in Costa Rica that began with the adventurous move here in 2014 and the start of this blog. Thanks for coming along! 🙂

My site header pix of the valley town where I live, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
The feature photo at top is of Arenal Volcano.

I’m an old man of 83 years, retired from a publishing business in the U.S. who left the states in 2014 to live out retirement with the beautiful natural worlds of Costa Rica and its loving people, reporting in this blog. Even after a year-long battle with cancer, I’m having the best times of my life, my final years immersed in nature! I hope you will continue following my stories and photos! Your presence delights me! 🙂

That’s me planting an Almond Tree for the Great Green Macaws in the Maquenque Reserve, Boca Tapada, San Carlos in 2023.

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

A Different Kind of Photo Book

I’ve been in one of those creative moods and just churned out a 28 page photo book that is both biographical and a nature photo book! In brief paragraphs I share how nature provided healing at each of several traumas or losses in my life. Not a book for the larger public maybe, but a good cathartic expression of the ups and downs of a life full of both adventure and tragedies, plus the healing of nature at every turn. I use quotations throughout to highlight the healing. You can preview the book electronically at Life Tranquility by Charlie Doggett | Blurb Books or just click this image of the front cover:

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

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
Continue reading “Sunning in My Cecropia Tree”
Posted on

New HAIKU Photo Book!

A nice little 24 page book of Haiku Poetry printed over my nature photos and available to the public at https://www.blurb.com/b/11644063-nature-descriptions-haiku

Or click this book cover image:

Free preview of every page at online bookstore!

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

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.

Continue reading “La Gamba Field Station”
Posted on

Friends Find My Books all over CR!

Because I give copies of my photo books to hotels where I stay, friends who stay there later find one of my book like with this photo of a friend’s daughter holding up one of my books at Hotel Cristal Ballena, Uvita, Costa Rica. And if you ever stay at Xandari Resort in Alajuela, they are the only hotel that has a complete set of all my Costa Rica Photo Books! 🙂

Friend holding up one of my books found at Hotel Cristal Ballena, Uvita, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Pizote!

Pizote is what everyone in Costa Rica calls this animal which in English is the White-nosed Coati. I see them all over Costa Rica and thus a lot of photos in my White-nosed Coati Gallery. 🙂 They remind many north americans of the raccoon, but are different in several ways, plus we have raccoons here, just not as many! Here’s four shots from Esquinas . . .

White-nosed Coati, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Pizote!”
Posted on

Agouti with Baby

One of the many interesting wildlife experiences at Esquinas was having a mother Central American Agouti with a baby go by near my cabin. It was my first time to see a baby agouti.

Baby Agouti following his mother at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Costa Rica.

And some better photos up close . . .

Continue reading “Agouti with Baby”
Posted on

The Birds of Esquinas

I think I’ve shown 5 favorite birds on their own individual blog posts, now here they are with all the other birds in a gallery of 18, a fraction of the 50 species I got on my last trip there, which I will blame on both climate change and the lack of a mangrove boat trip this time, though there were still fewer birds at the lodge this time, just like there are fewer birds at my house this year! Here’s one bird for the emailed version and then a gallery of 18 total birds to follow.

White-tipped Dove on a Panama Hat Flower at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito.
Continue reading “The Birds of Esquinas”