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The largest family of butterflies is Nymphalidae – BRUSHFOOTS and you can click that link for my galleries in that family where I now have photos of 93 species. I did get one more photo from this family that I cannot yet identify, so not included here.
¡Pura Vida!
And the 2023 Xandari Trip Gallery is now ready for you to see all my photos from this colorful nature resort.
Though there will still be a few more blog posts on my little 2-night visit to Xandari Costa Rica, I’m going ahead and sharing the completed photo gallery for this trip. After the blog posts, my “Trip Galleries” are the main depository of my photos made all over Costa Rica and I encourage people traveling here to explore the trip galleries to see which places fit their interests best.
You can click the image of the first page of this gallery below or use this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-January-31-February-2-Xandari-Resort
¡Pura Vida!
And now I’m getting ready for my next trip which is 4 nights in Tortuguero, “The Amazon of Costa Rica,” February 12-16.
Continuing to blog my butterfly sightings in families, here are the 2 Skippers or Hesperiidae butterflies from this past week’s visit to Xandari. You can see more of this type of butterfly in my Hesperiidae-SKIPPERS Galleries.
¡Pura Vida!
I’m still working on my photos and identifying species and just discovered another new species for me, the Wedge-spotted Cattleheart, a butterfly in the family with Swallowtails. Here’s three shots of this one, all with folded wings (he refused to open them). And for the students of butterflies, note that it is similar to or could be confused with the Iphidamas or Transandean Cattleheart, but there are small differences! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
For more photos of this family of butterflies go to my galleries in the family folder: Papilionidae – PARNASSIANS & SWALLOWTAILS
In my short two-night stay at Xandari Costa Rica I photographed 13+ species of butterflies with a few more still unidentified, so maybe more. 🙂 It is my #1 best location for wild butterflies so far! In this post I present the the only two “lifers” or first-time seen butterflies on this trip.
This one is easily confused with the Tulcis or Pale-banded Crescent and the Ardent Crescent (both in my gallery).
And this one is easily confused with both the Mayan and Cryptic Crescents with only the Mayan in my gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
You can find more of the “Crescents” Butterflies in my BRUSHFOOTS FAMILY of galleries.
There is not a lot of water in many streams during dry season, though springs provide some, and this Waterfall #5 is the biggest one during the rainy season, but not much to look at on my last morning hike down the steep path to see it. Of course there is a much larger and nicer falls at Arenal Observatory Lodge and even better are the 3 giant falls at El Silencio Lodge in Bajó del Toro, but still I like all waterfalls, so here’s 4 shots of a little one from this morning. 🙂
I got 8 more butterflies today and at least one a “lifer” or new one for me, but identifying and processing hundreds of photos is just too much to share those today and the birds were just a very few! It is quite windy here this time of year.
So for today’s post, the easy way out, a handful of vistas from the hotel, many from my room and most of these are untouched straight out of the camera to facilitate my limited time for this post today! 🙂 One shot of last night’s sunset from my room just for the email announcement, and then all in a slide show that follows . . .
I arrived at Xandari in time for a little snack lunch and was assigned the same room, Villa 19, that I was in last August also for just two nights (they’re expensive is why short stays). See the room gallery for last year if you want to know what it looks like. All rooms are very nice here!
I walked the inner-circle trails photographing only these four butterflies and a whole lot more flowers and other nature which I will share later. It was bright sun and hot all afternoon, which is what butterflies like and there were a lot flying around but not stopping for a photo, especially the yellows and I saw some Julias too, but only these 4 landed where I could photograph. Tomorrow I will walk some deeper forest trails which have different butterflies and birds, though I got no birds this afternoon. Birds will be in the morning.
This is my second time to photograph the Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon istapa, in my garden. The first time, back in November when one was on a Heliconia flower being attacked and eventually eaten by a Jumping Spider. See that blog post. This one was at the top of my garden along the top of the garden wall, flitting from plant to plant. A tiny, thumbnail sized butterfly in the Gossamer Wings Family, Lycaenidae. See both sets of photos in my Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak GALLERY.
Here’s 3 more photos of this guy . . . Continue reading “Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak”
According to the Washington Post, today is the official “Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.”
You could use this day to start 2023 with a pop, or possibly several hundred. 🙂 But instead of driving your family crazy, think about how the packing material could be used to make art. For an amazing example, check out the work of professional artist Bradley Hart (bradleyhart.ca). 🙂
Or better yet, see this cool YouTube Video on making art from bubble wrap . . .
¡Pura Vida!
And I’ll share a few others of the many strange and silly “special days” during the rest of this year – maybe one a month – just for fun or to bring a smile. Doing something different makes one smile and live longer! 🙂 So look for another silly national day here on this blog during each month this year! 🙂