I saw one really cool and new-to-me moth at Santa Elena Reserve, two butterflies at Selvatura Park and all the rest were at Monteverde Lodge & Gardens where they have a really nice small butterfly garden indoors. There is one dining table for up to 4 people that can be scheduled for a private Butterfly Dinner! 🙂 Kind of neat! And two of the moths I photographed on my little private room terrace/patio.
Selvatura claims to have the largest butterfly garden in Central America and the huge dome looks like it but this trip it was horrible with only two (2) species of butterflies. There is a Monteverde Butterfly Garden operated by a couple of nature lovers but I did not go this time. Three years ago it was great! There were a lot of butterflies, especially blue morpho, flying around in all four reserves, but difficult to photograph there.
Butterflies & Moths
Blue Morpho at Selvatura
Owl’s Eye at Selvatura
Blue Morpho at Lodge
Blue Morpho at Lodge
Blue Morpho at Lodge
2 Blue Morphos at Lodge (open-wings & closed-wings)
Bajo del Tigre Reserveis the smallest of the nature reserves within Monteverde even though it is a part of the largest total Nature Reserve in Costa Rica called Children’s Eternal Rainforest or better known here by its Spanish name Bosque Eterno de los Niños. The better part around Monteverde is outside of town in the forests where you must stay in cabins to see many birds or other wildlife. And the very best area of the bigger reserve for birds is east of here near Arenal which I hope to visit sometime.
Here’s my better photos of wildlife seen in about 2.5 hours on the Bajo del Tigre Trail. The close-up of a Three-wattled Bellbird was when he came down near us (me & my private guide) feeding or looking for fruit to eat. Wild avocados are ripe right now. 🙂
Bajo del Tigre Wildlife
Brown Jay
Lesson’s Motmot (formerly Blue-crowned)
Armadillo
Brown-hooded Parrot
Red-tailed Squirrel
Emerald Toucanet
Long-tailed Manakin
Three-wattled Bellbird
“Away, away, from men and towns, To the wild wood and the downs, — To the silent wilderness, Where the soul need not repress its music.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
Selvatura Parkis (or was) a great combination Nature Park next door to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve AND an Adventure Park (which part is now taking over). It was a super place when I visited 3 years ago with the biggest and most impressive Butterfly Garden I had ever seen and they claimed it to be the largest in Central America. Well this time the butterfly garden had only two species of butterflies – my hotel has more in their tiny butterfly garden! Their Hummingbird Garden is flowers & feeders attracting wild hummingbirds, so what seemed like fewer this year may just be what is happening in the wild (or what they are feeding them and fewer butterfly-attracting plants). I refused to pay extra for the serpentarium or insect exhibit, expecting they had gone down like the butterfly garden.
The hanging bridges seemed to be about the same and like before I saw one Bellbird and one Quetzal. So they are more about the forest than birds and I enjoyed the bridges the most, but I do not recommend spending the high amusement park prices if you just want a nature visit. The adventure business of zip lines, tram ride, a new “Superman” zip and other such has taken over here. For nature lovers and birders I recommend sticking with the four nature reserves in Monteverde. Here’s 4 slide shows of what I saw there which was still nice as I hope the photos show.
A day late because I had so many photos and so little time yesterday. Curi-Cancha Reserve is probably my favorite reserve in Monteverde, not only because I photographed more birds there but because I think it is the most beautiful and I apologize for no scenery photos except this one unusual tree below. I use my cell phone for scenery shots and had let Rodiber, my guide, carry my phone because he gets great bird shots on it for me through his high-powered scope.
In 1970 the Lowther family purchased the property of Hubert and Mildred Mendenhall and named it Curi-Cancha, the name derived from “Golden Enclosure” in Inca. At that time the property was approximately 1/2 pasture and 1/2 virgin rainforest. In the ensuing 45 years the Lowthers cleared no areas and allowed the majority of the pastured areas to re-grow into forest.
The fact that some pastures still remain there as meadows is part of the beauty and that openness makes it easier to photograph birds. We saw a lot more birds, but here are 17 that I got decent photos of:
It was another great morning with the same super guide at a different Cloud Forest Reserve. The Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve of the Tropical Science Center is the first private area for the conservation of wildlife founded in Costa Rica in October of 1972.
We did a lot of walking with a lot of hills but it paid off with more birds today and two that birders all over the world come here hoping to get: The Resplendent Quetzal and the Three-wattled Bellbird. Below are my photos of some birds we saw and as always I see more than I get photos of. I’m not sure yet, but 3 or more lifers today! One bird is still unidentified.
Monteverde Reserve Birds
Azure-hooded Jay
Yellowish Flycatcher
Resplendent Quetzal
Three-wattled Bellbird
Purple-throated Mountain-gem
White-throated Thrush
Steely-vented Hummingbird
Buff-fronted Quail-Dove
Tufted Flycatcher
Green-crowned Brilliant
Emerald Toucanet
Unknown
Bananaquit (stealing hummingbird sugar-water)
Magenta-throated Woodstar
Hear how the birds, on every blooming spray, With joyous music wake the dawning day.
My first of 6 different Cloud Forest Reserves this week (where trees, wildlife, water and air is protected) was this morning at Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve(right click on page for English translation). It is beautiful and less crowded than the one I will visit tomorrow. The above featured cell phone photo is from the highest point in the reserve looking East/Northeast at Arenal Volcano which I visited last year at Arenal Observatory and going again in November. The photo at bottom is looking the other direction at the mountains and clouds you are above in a Cloud Forest.
I had a wonderful guide through the hotel’s tour service, Costa Rica Expeditions, Rodiberi, and we saw 14 species of birds, several new to me. Here are my photos of 9 of those species, two of which are lifers for me:
Birds at Santa Elena Today
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Cool birds huh? Most live only in the cloud forest.
Other wildlife will be a separate post for the whole week.
One of the views from the highest point in the reserve, looking West/Northwest
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.”
― John Muir
One of the better lodges I have visited yet in Costa Rica even though older. The service is superb with all the staff knowing my name and calling me “Charlie” everytime they see me. Food is some of the best yet in Costa Rica and the grounds are a part of the Cloud Forest both their gardens and their forest trails with lots of birds and other wildlife to photograph when not out in one of the official reserves. A great place for a nature lover to stay. See their Website for more information. And below is my little slide show of first day shots I did not have time to post yesterday:
Monteverde Lodge Slideshow
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This morning I had a guide for birding in the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve and hope to report on it by this evening. Note that the 4 birds I photographed here on hotel property yesterday afternoon were posted last night and two were “lifers” for me. A good place ! 🙂
And you history buffs will be interested in how Monteverde was started and settled by Quakers from the states in the 1940’s. See The History of Monteverde.There is no other place in the world like Monteverde!
I arrived today at Monteverde Lodge & Gardens, a really nice hotel and restaurant that I will really enjoy when not on a birding hike in one of the reserves. Tomorrow I will post more photos of the hotel. The above featured photo is looking out of my room over my deck hammock into one of the many gardens here. And below are the first four birds I photographed in the hot sun this afternoon on a hotel trail:
Costa Rica announced Tuesday that 34 fast charging points for electric cars will be in operation this year. They will be part of a network of charging stations the government plans to expand in the upcoming years.
Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.
~William Wordsworth
Emerald Toucanet Monteverde 2016
In planning for my trip to Monteverde, I scheduled a different cloud forest reserve for each of the 5 full days I have there, believing the variety will give me more bird photos and I am expecting some “lifers” (1st time seen birds) on this trip.
My biggest discovery in the planning was learning about the reserve I’m visiting on my last day there – Children’s Eternal Rainforest. Wow! What a place with a great history from the Quakers setting aside virgin forest for a reserve, to the children of Sweden rallying financial support and to the reserve being a place where Montessori schools all over the globe bring their children to experience and learn from rainforest nature. From them I got the above Wordsworth quote. See some of the videos on their website linked to their name and you will know that I have a treat coming along with each of the reserves for which I have private tours scheduled:
And for the whole week I’m staying at Monteverde Lodge and Gardens, a step up from the local cabins I stayed in on my last trip there (2016). I’m really looking forward to this week! This hotel uses Costa Rica Expeditions (a tour company connected to select hotels over CR) to plan their excursions and they are handling the first three days plus the night hike Thursday. I made my own arrangements for Selvatura and Children’s Eternal Rainforest, both of which will pick me up at my hotel and return me there.
Brown Jay, Monteverde, 2016
For people visiting here from out of country, a tour company like CR Expeditions is the best way to go because they connect all your needs like transportation, hotels, and the kinds of activities you want. You will notice in the right column I also recommend “My Costa Rica”because they were a big help in a tack-on trip I added in 2014 to my relocation tour. Both companies are excellent! And when I go to the Caribbean side of CR I use the services of the very helpful crew at Caribe Fun Tours who have an office in Hotel Banana Azul where I always stay. I use these companies and I live here! So I definitely recommend them to foreign visitors!
Costa Rica is such a wonderful and diverse place to visit with something for everyone! I will never finish exploring it! But for next week, I’m in nature’s classroom of the cloud forests of Monteverde – photographing birds and much more! Stay tuned for nightly reports beginning Sunday.
