Tag: Maquenque Lodge & Reserve

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Farm Visit Today

I was going to avoid all tours but decided the two I did today would not be that popular and not so many people and that was true! My early morning pre-breakfast bird hike was just me and a masked young couple from Europe, he from France and she from Germany plus our local guide Jose. (more on it later) Then at 9 Jose also led the farm tour with just me and a nice lady from Germany and her daughter 11 or 12ish. They were of course masked and her Dad was not interested in the tour. 🙂

A weird-looking Katydid on the farm!

Below is a slide show from the farm tour today with pix not in chronological order . . .

Continue reading “Farm Visit Today”
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This Week’s “Wildness”

“Wildness . . . has also been defined as a quality produced in nature, as that which emerges from a forest, and as a level of achievement in nature.”

~definitions.net

I leave tomorrow morning for my third visit to a favorite rainforest lodge, Maquenque Ecolodge & Reserve in Boca Tapada, which is in my province of Alajuela but in the far north near the Nicaragua border, a 3 hour drive for my driver Walter. 🙂 Read on for why this is a favorite lodge and check out the links to my two other visits there . . .

One branch of a very large lake plus they are on a big river.
Continue reading “This Week’s “Wildness””
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Through the eyes of a child . . .

The subtitle of my newest travel book is “When you look through the eyes of a child” describing how I tried to present this photo-travel book on Maquenque Eco-Lodge and Reserve. Yes – it is in Spanish this time but for you English-only people, don’t worry! All the photo captions are in both languages and the poem from which I got the subtitle is also in both languages, and here it is in English:

“Everything seemed possible,
when I looked through the eyes of a child.
And every once in a while;
I remember,
I still have the chance to be that wild.”
― Nikki Rowe

It’s a photo book with 141 photos, including photos of the 61 species of birds I got this visit. THE ELECTRONIC PREVIEW IS FREE, so go to this link or click the cover image below and you can see all 92 pages of the book for free! Of course full-screen is best for photos! 🙂

https://www.blurb.com/b/10228384-maquenque-m-gico

In English: “Maquenque Magic, When you look through the eyes of a child, by Charlie Doggett”

Or just for the downloadable photos, go to my “Trip Gallery” titled:

2020 June 30–July 6- Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve

¡Pura Vida!

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Nature as Art

“Nature as Art” was the name of my little photo business for a few years in Nashville and I was reminded of that theme during my week at Maquenque with lots of “little things” I photographed and enjoyed just seeing! 🙂

As much as I love most art, no artist can compete with the creative handiwork of God in Nature!

All art is but imitation of nature.
~Seneca the Younger

For more of Maquenque “Nature as Art” see these galleries:

Nature as Art 2020

or

Nature’s Designs 2019

¡Pura Vida!

From Maquenque 2019 Gallery

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Tanagers & Flycatchers

My last bird post from Maquenque is two of the largest and most frequently seen groups of birds – Flycatchers and the more colorful Tanagers. Enjoy! And to see all of the bird species I saw on this trip to Maquenque, go to the Maquenque 2020 BIRDS Gallery or better yet, see all my June-July 2020 Maquenque Photos! 🙂

Below, please CLICK an image to enlarge.

  • Palm Tanager Immature
  • Gray-capped Flycatcher
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager Female
  • Great Kiskadee
  • Scarlet-rumped Tanager Male
  • Blue-gray Tanager
  • Social Flycatcher in Hard Rain
  • Palm Tanager Baby

See my Maquenque Birds 2020 Gallery from this trip with 61 species!

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery. 343 species!

And for more about the place: Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

Or my travel gallery Maquenque Eco-Lodge July 2020 Visit.

And a new website: Visit Boca Tapada with info on all the lodges there.

And now I’ll get back to photos and reports about life here in Atenas, Costa Rica where everyday life is far from boring! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Blackbirds & Saltators

I got all three of the Saltators found in this part of the country with only one other species (Streaked Saltator) found only in the southwest corner of Costa Rica around the Osa Peninsula and the only one I’ve not photographed.

Plus I got 4 of the many types of “blackbirds” here. And if you didn’t see the post about a Oropendola mother raising a blackbird, you might want to read A BLM Example in Nature. CLICK image to enlarge.

  • Grayish Saltator
  • Black-headed Saltator
  • Buff-throated Saltator
  • Melodious Blackbird
  • Giant Cowbird Immature
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Black-cowled Oriole

See my Maquenque Birds 2020 Gallery from this trip with 61 species!

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for more about the place: Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

Or my travel gallery Maquenque Eco-Lodge July 2020 Visit

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Big Birds

“Big” is somewhat relative, but just another way to group my bird photos from a week at Maquenque Eco-Lodge and Reserve. I used two photos of the common Turkey Vulture to show the easiest way to tell the difference in him and the Black Vulture – the white on the underside of the Turkey Vulture goes all the way across and the white on bottom of Black Vulture is only on the tips of the wings. The Red and Gray Heads are another way, but not always clearly visible and as seen here the red is not always very obvious.

And the Featured Image is a Laughing Falcon, one of my favorite big bird, just hard to get close to for a great photo, but I have a few times as you can see in my CR Birds Gallery.

CLICK image to enlarge.

  • Turkey Vulture
  • Black Vulture
  • Laughing Falcon
  • Gray-headed Chachalaca
  • Turkey Vulture

See my Maquenque Birds 2020 Gallery from this trip with 61 species!

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

Or my travel gallery Maquenque Eco-Lodge July 2020 Visit

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Oropendolas

There are two species of Oropendolas common in Cost Rica and at Maquenque, the Montezuma Oropendola (3 photos here) and the less common Chestnut-headed Oropendola (1 photo here). There are two more Oropendolas in Central America, both in Panama with the Crested Oropendola occasionally coming over the border into southern Costa Rica and the Black Oropendola is found only further in southern Panama. Male & female appear the same in all Oropendolas.

This week at Maquenque I observed a mother Montezuma Oropendola feeding a baby or juvenile blackbird (either a Melodious Blackbird or a Giant Cowbird if the eye is red like some said). It was interesting to watch and the pair are in one photo below and I featured them in a post while I was there titled A BLM Example in Nature.

CLICK an image to enlarge or start a manual slide show.

  • Mother Montezuma Oropendola & baby Blackbird
  • Montezuma Oropendola
  • Chestnut-headed Oropendola
  • Montezuma Oropendola

See my Maquenque Birds 2020 Gallery from this trip with 61 species!

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

Or my travel gallery Maquenque Eco-Lodge July 2020 Visit

¡Pura Vida!