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One of the lesser-seen butterflies is this Banded Tigerwing, Aeria eurimedia (my gallery link) found only in Central America and Northern South America. I think it is a handsome butterfly and I almost used one of my photos of it on my ’23 Christmas Card! 🙂
All the birds in Tortuguero aren’t water birds, and on the Jaguar Trail in the park, running parallel to the beach, I had a park guide (Manuel) who like guides everywhere in Costa Rica, was more skilled at finding birds than butterflies (my target for that trail) and thus I got several good bird shots along with some butterflies. We were looking at a long line of Soldier Ants when this Antshrike showed up! 🙂 See my gallery with more photos from Cahuita NP and Maquenque Eco Lodge, along with these, all on the Caribbean Slope: Black-crowned Antshrike, Thamnophilus atrinucha. Here’s two shots from yesterday’s hike on the Jaguar Trail in Tortuguero National Park. We also saw a Laughing Falcon and I may share one of those photos tomorrow. 🙂
They are almost always hiding behind tree limbs, leaves and/or adjacent shrubs along water, meaning that I seldom get a clear shot of their whole body and face. These two shots were my top clearest views yesterday morning as our guide and boat captain stopped by a known nesting place for Boat-billed Herons (one of many reasons to always use a guide). See some more shots from yesterday and photos from earlier years in my Boat-billed Heron, Cochlearius cochlearius GALLERY. This bizarre bird is called Pico Cuchara in Spanish and is found only in tropical Central & South America in mangroves and lowland rivers.
¡Pura Vida!
This was one of about a dozen birds I photographed yesterday morning on a morning boat trip in Tortuguero National Park, along with monkeys, caimans, basilisks, butterflies and and cool waterscapes. More photos to be shared later. I’m having a fun and relaxed time in the park with only one project a day. Today I hike the Jaguar Trail in the park looking for butterflies which my research said was the best place in this park. Tomorrow night, if conditions are right, I will get to go on the beach and watch sea turtles lay their eggs. But no photos because flash is not allowed on this park ranger led event.
I love flying on the little planes across Costa Rica which I get to do occasionally and on my way to Tortuguero this time I observed a heavily polluted river and saw where it merged with an otherwise clear and clean river which at the merge became polluted too! And all the junk from either farming or manufacturing is dumped into the already filthy ocean. Our world is in deep trouble ecologically, even in a country that supposedly thinks green like Costa Rica!
The feature photo is of an undisturbed forest compared below with how farming is replacing forests. Then a shot of a “clean section” of Tortuguero Nacional Park that doesn’t show one of the lodges which may be a small pollution, but I’m afraid even that diminishes the wildness of what was once all wild.
This is another new species for me! And I keep finding them in my own garden! The Common Mylon – Mylon maimon (linked to Wikipedia) is found from Mexico to Argentina. One of the many Skippers. And on iNaturalist Costa Rica my observation is only the 13th in Costa Rica and I’m only the 10th person to report seeing one. But one of those others has the best photos I’ve seen and on his own website: Dr. Heiner Ziegler, MD (Switzerland). Costa Rica attracts nature lovers from all around the world!
Is another new species for me this month, right here in my own garden! And I’ve had two sightings of this “another brown Skipper!” 🙂
It is said to be found from the southwestern U.S. to Argentina, but only two of us have posted photos on iNaturalist CR and only two on BAMONA. So it must be a little rare! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This colorful bird is not always around but seen more this year than usual and the other day in my big Strangler Fig or Ficus Tree, called a Higuerón in Spanish. See more of my photos in the gallery: Lesson’s Motmot, Momotus lessonii. Interestingly to me is that since February 2022 (when a counter was added) I’ve had more than a thousand visitors to that gallery. 🙂 Just this one photo here . . .
¡Pura Vida!
Another nice Skipper Butterfly is this Broken Silverdrop, Epargyreus exadeus or Epargyreus cruza (my gallery link) a unique butterfly found in both Central and South America. Here’s two shots made recently in my garden . . .
One of my interesting garden lizards is this Black Spiny-tailed Iguana, Ctenosaura similis (my gallery link) who lives only on the Pacific slope of the continental divide. One week from today I will be in Tortuguero on the Caribbean Slope where I will definitely see some of the Green Iguanas, similar but different. Watch for those photos next week. 🙂
I’ve not seen as many Satyrs this year as in the past, but maybe they are starting to appear now. In my BRUSHFOOTS Galleries you can see that I have photographed 22 different species of Satyrs (at the end of that folder) and this White Satyr, Pareuptychia ocirrhoe (my gallery link) is one of the more frequently seen species for me. Just this one photo from my garden last Saturday . . .
¡Pura Vida!