Dina Yellow

Another repeat butterfly species for me on the same flowers I saw the Simple Patch butterfly the other day while walking to town. Observing and enjoying NATURE is the best way to survive the world-wide pandemic, in my opinion! 🙂

See more in my Dina Yellow Gallery that includes one of my favorite butterfly shots against a dark blue sky. 🙂 Also see my others in the Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery. Pura vida!

Dina Yellow

 Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. —Khalil Gibran

¡Pura Vida!

As High as an Elephant’s Eye?

It’s not the corn in the musical “Oklahoma!” but the grass in the cow pasture across from me is as high as my eyes now, thanks to the regular rains! That’s why some call this time of year “The Green Season.” And the cows are mostly eating around the edges of the pasture. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Another New Butterfly Species!

New species for me that is – Scientific Name: Chlosyne hippodrome, and two common names: “Simple Patch” in A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America, my only good printed guide, while several websites are calling it “Simple Checkerspot,” with checkerspots and patches being “cousins” in the larger “Brushfoot” family of butterflies or maybe checkerspots being a type of patch butterfly – not clear to me yet. Confusing? Yeah, labeling butterflies has always been difficult for me and I still have several “unidentified” butterflies in my gallery. There doesn’t seem to be as much world-wide coordination of butterfly naming and following like with birds.

But anyway, this one is similar to Crimson Patch which I already had a photo of and also similar to the Banded Peacock of which there was one flying near where I got this guy on a zinnia at the Corner of Avenida 8 & Calle 3 while walking to town. Butterflies continue to amaze me! 🙂

See all 3 of my “Patches” butterflies along with about 112 other species in my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery.

And CLICK an image below to see it larger.

¡Pura Vida!

Color!

On a walk to town I’m energized by red, orange, yellow, green, blue – the colors of the rainbow found in the yards of Atenas houses as I walk by them. Truly . . .

“Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams.”

~Paul Gauguin

See also my Flora & Forest Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

White Angled Sulphur

Another repeat butterfly for me today, though I only got a side view. The top view of this guy is a lot different – white with two yellow splotches plus the little brown spots you can barely see here, though I was unable to photograph the top this time. See more in my White Angled Sulphur Gallery. Another interesting butterfly I can enjoy in my garden during this rainy season.

White-angled Sulphur

My Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery has many more!

Never bored with butterflies! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Poan Skipper

I have studied the Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico & Central America plus the internet and cannot find an exact match, but certain it is in the “Poanes” scientific family name with many called something Poan Skipper, thus my generic name here. It is my second time to see this butterfly in my garden, see my Poan Skipper Gallery for the other one. I have decided it was the angle of sunshine that caused my first one to appear more orange and thus I originally called it “Evergreen Poan Skipper” which is not correct, partly because book says they live only in Mexico. Maybe we have an un-labeled Costa Rica version? Hey! It still happens in all categories of wildlife here. 🙂

My Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery has many more!

Never bored with butterflies! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Montezuma’s Cattleheart

This is my first of this particular Cattleheart and I got them mating! In my CR Butterflies Gallery I have 4 other species of Cattlehearts but not this one until now. It is found from Mexico south to Costa Rica with supposedly fewer this far south, but they were in my garden and for this photo on the outside wall of my house. I’m up to 110 species of butterflies here now! 🙂

Montezuma’s Cattleheart Butterflies mating.

¡Pura Vida!

Costa Rica Coronavirus Treatment & Tourism Restarts

Read this interesting health new article in English explaining how Costa Rican scientists developed drug that stops the coronavirus. (article from qcostarica.com) It has been verified effective by George Washington University in the States and is undergoing trials here now. A vaccine is still needed for prevention, but this treatment will help prevent many deaths. Again Costa Rica leads the way!

Costa Rica coronavirus updates for Monday, August 3, article in TicoTimes.net. Not good, but we still had our first flight here from out of the country after 173 days of no flights. Those who come from only Europe, UK and Canada have very strict requirements related to Coronavirus to enter the country. Read more at:

Immigration Administration clarifies new Costa Rica entry policies, article in TicoTimes.net. And if you think you have a work-around by flying to Canada first, don’t! Because your passport tells where you live and if you go to another accepted country first, they will require you to stay in that country 14 days before coming on to Costa Rica. 🙂

Watch: Iberia plane receives water-cannon salute as commercial flights resume in Costa Rica, article in TicoTimes.net with video. The first tourist flight here since March is celebrated in multiple ways, but these tourists from Spain have a lot of Coronavirus health requirements to meet to continue their visit here, including a stay in quarantine if not already officially tested for the virus before arriving. Results of tests are usually in less than a day, depending on various factors. Read previous article for all the requirements. Even if from a “qualified” country, you have to really want to be here to “jump through all the hoops.” 🙂

I’m glad that as a resident I can visit any tourist spot open with only the requirement of a mask. But with an abundance of caution, I go nowhere else until the middle of September on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica in one of my favorite beach hotels, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca. 🙂

U.S. repatriation flights to & from Costa Rica will continue in August, TicoTime.net. This is for both directions, U.S. citizens “trapped” here can fly to Fort Lauderdale and Costa Rican citizens (not expat residents like me) can fly back to Costa Rica only to the San Jose airport and will be placed in quarantine for 14 days and verified virus-free.

TMI? One friend in the states likes to say that to me when I give “Too Much Information!” But this is only for those interested or needing the information. Plus all of this is a part of “The Year to Remember – 2020!”

¡Pura Vida!

Giant White

Another repeat butterfly for the blog, but a special one found almost only in Central America, the Giant White (Ganyra josephina) (Wikipedia), seen from South Texas through Mexico and Central America to northern Columbia, with rare strays into New Mexico & Kansas. They are plentiful here in Costa Rica though difficult to photograph because they are constantly on the move and I seldom get in sharp focus. These three shots from my garden yesterday morning. And all of my earlier shots of Giant White Photo Gallery were also from my garden. 🙂 CLICK image to enlarge.

My Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery

¡Pura Vida!