From the cow pasture near my house, an Eastern Tailed-Blue, Cupido comyntas (linked to my gallery with 2 pix showing the blue tops + 2 more shots from this sighting).
¡Pura Vida!
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Cow Pasture Nature Photography
I don’t go to the cow pasture enough for birds, butterflies and a lot of other nature to photograph, so on a recent morning I walked down the road along the pasture fence to that only big tree on right side of pasture by the road and back to my gate from where the feature photo was made. In about 15 to 20 minutes I photographed 6 species of butterflies and the other nature items in a gallery below this one mimosa plant photo . . .
“The Hills”
“The greatest gift of life on the mountain is time… to sit and stare at the shapes of the hills.” ~Phillip Connors:
¡Pura Vida!
Neighborhood Flower with Funny Name
On one of my walks to town I used my cell phone to snap a photo of this yellow flower along the side of the road. iNaturalist AI labeled it a Be-still Tree – Cascabela thevetia (linked to iNaturalist). “Be still” was appropriate on that day as the wind was blowing strongly and this flower would not be still for a photo! 🙂 There is another species in this genus known as Yellow Oleander (Cascabela thevetiodes) and thus some people call this one Yellow Oleander too. They are similar.
¡Pura Vida!
And for a look at other things I photograph on my walks in Atenas, see the gallery Walking in Atenas.
Four-spotted Sailor
A new species for me! Or my first time to see and photograph, thus these 2 photos are the only ones today in my Gallery Four-spotted Sailor, but who knows, I might see another one tomorrow! 🙂 And a fun fact about this one is that I photographed him through my kitchen sink window, where I spotted him while washing dishes! 🙂 There are several kinds of “Sailor” butterflies and I’ve seen only one other, the Pale Sailor, which I’ve seen 2 different years in my garden plus nearby on 8th Avenue near Hotel Colinas del Sol, so a lot more photos!
¡Pura Vida!
Yellow-crowned Euphonia
This is the first time I’ve seen any Euphonia in quite a while, maybe more than a year and usually somewhere else other than my garden. And I got both the male and the female, though the male was in the shadows and thus not as good a photo.
¡Pura Vida!
See more in my Yellow-crowned Euphonia Gallery where I have photos from 3 other locations, with this being the first of this species in my garden.
In Awe of Leaves
I continue to photograph leaves that give me a moment of awe. Here’s five shots from 3 plants in December that awed me . . .
December Flower Shots
Almost every day of every month (when at home) I walk through my garden with camera in hand looking for birds, butterflies or other wildlife. When none are seen, I usually snap a photo of a flower or an interesting leaf. And recently I have been presenting some of those photos at the end of the month or in the next month. So here are last month’s flower shots not already shown. I do occasionally have a post on one of my flowers, like the Desert Rose for my Christmas Card in December! And I won’t repeat those images. 🙂 Below this introductory photo is a gallery of 7 flower shots from December.
Idiarthron Genus
I know, it looks like a grasshopper and it may be, but the AI on iNaturalist would only go so for as the genus in identification, so I will wait for a bug expert to identify which grasshopper this is! 🙂 Here’s two shots, the top view with my cell phone and the side view with my telephoto lens on a Canon camera. And I do expect it to be identified eventually.
African Trees?
I like looking up the big hills on two sides of my little house on the side of a small hill. The other day I snapped photos through my zoom lens of two trees that I liked the looks of: First is an African Tulip Tree which I know the identity of, but the second one and my feature photo is labeled by Google LENS as a Ficus Thonningii Tree which is native to Africa, though the iNaturalist AI would not specify a species, it just said that is is probably one of the Ficus Trees or one of the Squirrel Trees. (First I’ve heard of squirrel trees!). 🙂 But anyway, I like both trees and I’m sharing these two by photos. And if both are from Africa, it is not that unusual here for people to plant trees and shrubs/flowers from other tropical continents.
