One of those beautiful butterflies with its simplicity I think, the Golden Melwhite, Melete polyhymnia (link to my Gallery).
¡Pura Vida!
Golden Melwhite
Red-headed Firetip
I’ve seen this one only one other time and just the top of wings then, which are a bright blue, while this folded wing view shows the underneath side of wings to be brown. He is the Red-headed Firetip, Pyrrhopyge zenodorus (linked to my gallery). Photographed yesterday across the street from where I live.
And yeah, I know, the top of this one seems to be more brown than blue, so maybe one of nature’s exceptions. You can see a bright blue one in my gallery linked above. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Lichens, Leaves & Things . . .
. . . are a part of the often unseen beauty in nature and have become a regular category of photos for me when I trek in the forest. Here’s 2 photos plus the feature at top, but you can see several more in my Lichens, Leaves & Nature Things GALLERY from the Caribe Sur this month.
¡Pura Vida!
And beyond this recent trip to Hotel Banana Azul, I have a bigger gallery of collected Leaves & Nature Things pulled from many trips and my garden that just might interest you and another of Just Fungi (lichens, mushrooms, etc.). Both are from all over Costa Rica. 🙂
Since I first wrote this I have completed the entire Trip Gallery for Hotel Banana Azul, Playa Negra, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón Province! 🙂
And though I could continue sharing photos from Banana Azul, I think I will stop for now and come back to photo shares from my garden in Atenas, Alajuela Province, starting tomorrow. But you can see more in the above-linked Trip Gallery. ¡Pura Vida!
Fiery Skipper
This is probably one you have seen, found in most of the Eastern and Southern U.S. all the way south to Argentina, the Fiery Skipper, Hylephila phyleus (my gallery link). Like many butterflies, the top and folded wings views are different and distinct. Here’s a shot from the Caribe of both views, and of course the one with a bee in it made me smile! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
5 Coastal Water Birds
These were not a particular goal for me and of course there were many others, had I spent more time at water’s edge of the beach or on any nearby stream, but here are 5 very common ones I did see, with the Cormorant being the most frequently seen this time, though not always the case. And note that all of these can be seen inland on fresh water except the pelican, though all are more frequent near the ocean or nearby mangroves and estuaries . . .
Caribe’s Polydamas Swallowtail
This swallowtail is the species of swallowtails that I see most often in my garden – and I still like it! 🙂 You can see the many that I’ve photographed in my Polydamas Swallowtail Gallery (linked). The scientific name is Battus polydamas and even though most of the other swallowtails are more colorful, he/she is striking! (Male & female are basically identical). Here’s a front view and a side view and you can see several top views in the above-linked gallery which is all black with a yellow dot row. This is my first one to photograph outside my garden. He is found from South Texas and Florida south to Argentina.
¡Pura Vida!
Black-cheeked Woodpecker
This Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Melanerpes pucherani (my gallery link) is possibly the woodpecker I’ve seen the most of in my 10 years in Costa Rica, out of 13 species found here, and in the above-linked gallery I have photos of this one from 9 different locations (all on the Caribbean Slope). And none from my garden, where the Hoffmann’s Woodpecker is the most common. That may be because they are more common on the Caribbean Slope and I live on the Pacific Slope. 🙂 But they are found on both slopes from Southern Mexico to Ecuador.
In my CR Birds big gallery you will find galleries for 9 of those 13 species (I’m missing 4!) and one Olivaceous Piculet, which is really a tiny woodpecker without the name! 🙂
If interested in more info, see the Black-cheeked Woodpecker eBird Page.
¡Pura Vida!
Africanized Honeybee
The Africanized Honeybee, Apis mellifera (Wikipedia article link), was introduced from East Africa into Brazil and it migrated north throughout Central American and into Texas. I’m pretty sure of this ID and that is what Google Lens called it. Photographed on a wildflower along the beach road, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, Limón, Costa Rica.
All of the bees I’ve photographed in Costa Rica are in a general Bees Gallery, with several species and most unidentified so far. 🙂 They were photographed before Google Lens! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Julia Heliconian in Caribe
This is one of my favorite butterfly species and I keep finding them almost everywhere I go in Costa Rica. See more of my photos of this beauty in my gallery: Julia Heliconian, Dryas julia.
¡Pura Vida!
Driftwood: Nature’s “Trash Art”
All natural beaches around the world have driftwood, which usually changes during every tropical storm or other reason for big surf! 🙂 The exception is a rare few beaches near big rich corporate hotels that have driftwood removed to maintain their “pristine” beaches. 🙂
This particular piece of driftwood was on Playa Negra (“Black Beach,” named for the dark volcanic sand there) directly behind Hotel Banana Azul in Puerto Viejo and is more like a simple log, partially buried, but it had a nice glow in the early morning sunrise last Saturday along with the color and texture. Of course there are more interesting shapes of driftwood, usually older and often sun-bleached to a light gray, nearly white.
In some coastal towns people display large, unusually shaped pieces of driftwood as works of art in their homes, restaurants and other businesses, both here and in every other coastal area I’ve visited around the world. See the driftwood links below these 2 photos . . .
Here’s some driftwood-related websites I found online:
- Bay Island Museum in India (sculptures & other driftwood art)
- Driftwood Sculptures on Pinterest
- Coastal Driftwood – items made out of driftwood on Etsy
- Driftwood Wall Art available on Amazon dot com
- Driftwood Girl, artist’s Facebook Page
- Coastal Driftwood Designs, artist’s Facebook Page
- DIY Driftwood Art YouTube Video (19 min) to make your own!
- Driftwood Upcycled, a silly DIY YouTube video by 2 girls (2 min)
¡Pura Vida!