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It is tempting to call this a Green Iguana, but those do not live in my garden and these do! 🙂 The babies and juveniles of both species are very much alike, so location determines this ID. I see them in my garden a lot! And their parents & big brothers & sisters walk around on my roof and climb the trees! 🙂
See more of my many photos of this species in my GALLERY: Black Spiny-tailed Iguana. And oh yeah, the scientific name is: Ctenosaura similis.
¡Pura Vida!
I’ve seen this large daytime moth several times in my garden & house and the only other place was at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge near Golfito on the Pacific Coast. The other day I saw two, one on my Cecropia Tree and another injured one hiding among plants in my garden. When not wanting to be seen, they are this plain beigey brown color with off-white spots and bars. But when they fly or lift their forward wings, the hindwings are a bright orange and white. You can see this from earlier sightings in my GALLERY: Giant Butterfly Moth, Castniomera atymnius (linked to the gallery). Just two shots here from this November sighting.
¡Pura Vida!
Regular noisy visitors all around my house that I haven’t been trying to photograph much recently. Interesting chicken-sized “chatterboxes.” 🙂 The Gray-headed Chachalaca, Ortalis cinereiceps (linked to my gallery). Here he is in my slowly dying Cecropia Tree that I will replace in another year or so.
¡Pura Vida!
Another new species for me in my gardens during October was the Large Orange Sulphur, Phoebis agarithe. My collection is growing with over 300 species now!
¡Pura Vida!
Gary & Kenna Eatons, friends from my Nashville days, began their tour of Costa Rica with Caravan Tours yesterday coming a day early for a tour of two great museums Sunday in San Jose led my me and my driver/guide Walter, who took his selfie here with our group in front of the National Museum (the yellow building). The other couple, the Huskey’s, are friends of the Eaton’s, also from Nashville. And I took a few other cell phone photos in a gallery: Two Museums Tour.
When their tour ends next Sunday morning, Walter & I will take them on an art museum tour before taking the Huskey’s to the airport and bringing the Eaton’s to Atenas for an extended visit of Costa Rica with me and Walter. 🙂
My landlord “K” has really brightened his other properties with Zinnia flower beds and thus hundreds of butterflies for his tenants, especially in his two AirBNB short-term rentals where tourists and short-term visitors will be thrilled with the butterflies. Then he recently had his gardener plant a little patch along our driveway next to my upper garden of Porterweeds. So now I have two different major attractions for butterflies. Here’s just one shot with a slide show online including some shots with butterflies on them! 🙂 And one with a ladybug! 🙂
I saw this simple little guy with his distinctive three squarish spots two or three times in October and here’s just two of the photos with more to be seen in my Brazilian Skipper Gallery. As the butterfly season slows down here (peak time for me is May-September) I am seeing less of the more colorful butterflies and many more of the skippers. I just roughly counted more than 20 species of skippers photographed in October this year! And around 4 or 5 were new species for me! This one was not new but is a nice little Skipper that is also seen in a good portion of the states.
. . . are almost no one’s favorite wildlife, even though they are an important part of ecology and eliminate other less desirable insects. I try to photograph many of them that I see at home and when traveling which can be seen in my Spider Gallery of photos. Here’s two of the lastest seen at my house, one inside and one outside . . .
¡Pura Vida!
. . . is all I get in my garden since I am not very close to consistent water like the little stream about two blocks away. And this one is actually a Damselfly that I have identified as a female Thorn-tipped Dancer, Argia elongata (linked to my gallery), though I’m never totally sure of my IDs on these little guys. I also just submitted it to iNaturalist Costa Rica where the Dragonfly Expert there will confirm or correct my identification. It is always fun to find something different from the usual wildlife in my garden. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Not a new one for me but rather an almost regular visitor every year and not just for Halloween! 🙂 And yes, some are black, but definitely not all of the Black Witch Moth, Ascalapha odorata (linked to my gallery) with some having the rich multi colors of this one on my bedroom drapes. When my maid swept the floor the next morning, he was one of several dead insects she swept up. And he is big! 8-10 inch wingspread!
¡Pura Vida!
What can I say when the majority of my home country just re-elected a criminal, fascist, racist, rapist, liar for president? I’m sure glad I moved to Costa Rica 10 years ago! Every great nation in history has fallen when it began to rot from within. Is that what is happening to the USA? It is not the country I grew up in, though I saw continuing movement this direction over the last 30 years. I will now spend my final days of life peacefully here in Costa Rica surrounded by nature and trying to ignore what used to be home. I wish all my friends and family in the states the best and believe you will survive as “this too shall pass.” And with you I will hope for a better future.
This is a new species for me and thus no gallery yet. Though this Banded Yellow, Eurema elathea is is very similar to the Barred Yellow, Eurema diaria which is in my gallery and I could have some of those mis-identified, or this one! 🙂 I still struggle with some identifications, but believe this one to be Eurema elathea, which is more common in South America, but we have lots of South American butterflies here in Costa Rica and iNaturalist Costa Rica has recorded 9 observations.
¡Pura Vida!