Category: Uncategorized

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Maquenque Wildlife

Here are some shots of non-bird wildlife I haven’t already shown on the blog other than the monkeys and frogs that got their own blog posts earlier. A real rainforest like this is full of wildlife of all kinds and the photo ops are numerous and I’ve seen more than shown here.

 

The photos of my main target, birds, is almost overwhelming as I now have gotten photos here at Maquenque of over 50 different species and with new lifers my total Costa Rica collection is close to 300 species now, though not tabulated yet. I am still sorting and labeling photos and may be for days,  🙂    but will soon have a blog post and an online gallery of Birds at Maquenque. That will include 2 manikins, 2 trogons, plus a Little Tinamou and a Water Thrush as lifers plus more new ones for me!

¡Pura Vida!

You may also enjoy my Other Wildlife Gallery

and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery 

See the lodge website:  Maquenque Ecolodge

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Church Group Cancels & I Add Monteverde!

Anytime you are dealing with groups of people there are complications and changes and this happened with the First Baptist Nashville group that were coming back to Atenas to work again in the Hogar de Vida Children’s Home this April. Pam told me yesterday that it did not work out, so instead of a week with them I now have scheduled a week in the Quaker town of Monteverde in April and already scheduling guided birding hikes while there.   🙂

IMG_1732-A-WEB
Rare Three-wattled Bellbird I photographed at Selvatura Monteverde in 2016

I limit myself to one birding trip a month and somehow for 2 years now I have not been able to get back to Monteverde where I had only 2.5 days back in 2016 on a Birding Club Trip that I added an extra night to but still did not have enough time for all the reserves and other places for nature. I’ll stay 6 nights this time with my first priorities guided birding hikes in three reserves: Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve (or Official Site in English), Santa Elena Reserve (or Official Site in Spanish), and Curi-Cancha Reserve. That’s three days! Then a really good commercial nature reserve there called Selvatura that has the longest canopy hanging-bridges in the country plus a fabulous butterfly garden & hummingbird garden and more! That will be another full day, to which I will then add shorter trips like one of the best night hikes in the country, the excellent Monteverde Butterfly Garden, not to mention the trails and gardens at the Monteverde Lodge & Gardens where I will be staying. A full and fulfilling week!   🙂   So Nashville guys, I will miss you, but not be bored!   🙂

And I change my 2019 Trips Map with #4 (April) moved from Atenas to Monteverde.

Click to enlarge

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=ClJTt-GqlBw

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Flower Garden at Night

I’m not often in my garden or even out of my house at night, but with late watering tonight I saw how different it looks and tried to photograph it, though a photo can’t capture the magic of night in a garden. The blue flowers are Plumbago.

 

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

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Damas Island Estuary, Quepos

This morning I got to go on a boat trip through the mangroves and thus saw lots of birds! Though mostly water birds, I did get one new species there that is not a water bird, it is the Common Pauraque (a type of Nightjar bird) which is pictured above. Here’s all the ones I got photos of:

BIRDS at Damas Island Estuary

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River Scenes

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Lizards

 

A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

See this TRIP GALLERY   2018 December Si Como No.

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Birds at Hotel & Park

That’s a Fiery-billed Aracari in above feature photo which is the rarest bird yet for me here, shot from the deck of my room. I’m doing this as a separate birds post from what I will see tomorrow on:

Damas Island Estuary Boat Trip

Discover the complex estuary system of Damas Island. From your covered boat, you’ll wind you way through coastal mangroves for up-close looks at the abundant wildlife, including a variety of sea birds and tropical birds, reptiles, and monkeys.  ~from the hotel website Tours descriptions

Note, that even with their own “Wildlife Refuge” at this hotel, I have seen fewer birds here than most of the lodges I visit and in this national park the only bird photo I got was of the stationary Hermit Hummingbird nest. I did see a Kingfisher and Woodrail on the hotel night hike but no photos. I expect my most bird photos tomorrow in the mangroves.

Si Como No Birds:

 

Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain. 

~Douglas Coupland

I have started my TRIP Gallery for this 2018 December Si Como No trip.

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Good Night from a Seaside Rainforest

The sunsets from my room are worth every penny of the trip here! Every night is absolutely beautiful!

“Harry looked down and saw deep green mountains and lakes, coppery in the sunset.” 
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

 

Yes, just a cellphone camera, as with all of my sunset shots.

See this TRIP GALLERY   2018 December Si Como No.

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Website/Gallery Adds

For anyone interested in improved details, that is what I have been doing for a couple of weeks and for my stay-home day today:

BIRD GALLERIES

  • IMG_4840-AIn all of the BIRD galleries (1 for each country) I have now arranged the birds by families in the order found in that country’s field guide, which is a big improvement for serious birders! In the case of a couple of countries that I had no good guidebook for, I used the “official” list for that country on Wikipedia which is arranged by families like the field guides.
  • Folder with multiple galleries — And in Costa Rica and eventually in other countries with a lot of birds, that gallery becomes a “folder” with a sub-gallery for each bird, giving you multiple photos or different views of that species, male & female, front & back, and often with activity like eating, flying. This is particularly important for my Costa Rica birds now that I have 294 species which is too many photos for one gallery! Yet I see the need for multiple shots of many birds.
  • And I realize that most people don’t really care about this, but a few might and it is more helpful to me.   🙂

 

TRAVEL PAGES & GALLERIES – MEXICO ADDED

 

This is just the beginning of how I will share photos and stories about my exciting life BEFORE COSTA RICA!  More is coming – It’s a Wonderful Life!    🙂   And as I finish writing I hear from across my little valley a children’s choir singing beautiful Christmas music in Spanish. What a delight!   🙂

Merry Christmas!

¡Feliz Navidad!

 

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Pancakes at the Cathedral

I had a package to pick up at Aeropost Alajuela Saturday morning, so I went early before they opened and had pancakes and sausage with coffee at the shiny new (remodeled) McDonalds Restaurant across from Central Park Alajuela. They’ve always had an upstairs with a balcony overlooking the park, just new and nicer now! Sorry I didn’t photograph their new modern furniture and white tile floors and walls, but nice.

Yes, the photo above was shot through large hole screen wire which is necessary to keep the park’s pigeons off your table and food! And remember, with perfect weather here, we need no air conditioning or heat, thus it is an open air restaurant like almost all here. It is very pleasant to me to eat a breakfast outside (as I always do at home) and here I enjoy watching Our Lady of the Pillar Cathedral also called Alajuela Cathedral and watching people in the park. It helps make my 45 minute free bus ride to Alajuela worth the time, plus I picked up my newest travel photo book on Rancho Humo.   And read the Washington Post on the bus!

I was back home before 11 and had a quiet rest-of-the-day at home adding photos of Africa to my gallery and website. I introduced those new web pages yesterday. I enjoy life here!

¡Pura Vida!