All of these birds were photographed on the Rancho Humo hotel property (100’s of acres of farmland) with some fields flooded by a tidal irrigation system from the Tempisque River. Many of the fields are shared with some of the 800 cows they have here along with wild deer, howler monkeys, and all the smaller wildlife like coatis and iguanas, etc. Tomorrow I go into the Palo Verde National Park which will probably give me some new birds along with some of these. CLICK AN IMAGE TO SEE LARGER or to begin a slideshow with larger images than the automated slideshow.
I photographed so many birds today that I can’t get them all processed to show tonight, so they’ll come tomorrow.
Above was sunrise from my room and below where I road in a safari jeep on the hotel property photographing birds and at bottom the sunset today. Lots of bird photos coming tomorrow!
The Wetlands around Rancho Humo Estancia, Costa RicaAnother fabulous end to another fabulous day – Rancho Humo!
Northwest Costa Rica, the Guanacaste Province, is mostly flat, dry and generally with more sun than rain with lots of cattle ranching. Today Walter drove me to and through this area of Costa Rica for my 5-night stay at Rancho Humo where it is near the end of Rainy Season, so nice and green now! Above photo is from my room deck when I arrived. Here’s a few shots enroute and on the first of 6 days at “Home on the Range.”
First a Turkey Vulture soared overhead like a messenger from God, then 3 simple birds landed in 3 different trees and I felt close to God during breakfast today – even without colorful, rare or gorgeous birds – just plain birds smiling at me as I smiled back!
Birds in My Garden at Breakfast Today
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My heart is like a singing bird.
~Christina Rossetti
And tomorrow morning, Saturday, I leave for Palo Verde National Park. See yesterday’s post for more information.
Saturday morning I leave early for a 3 hour drive to the dry tropical forests of Northwest Costa Rica or the Provincia de Guanacaste. But since water is necessary for life (including birds) I’m going to a park with a grand river running through it, Rio Tempisque (Wikipedia) in Palo Verde National Park (Facebook) while staying just outside the park in Rancho Humo Estancia. In addition to the boat and jeep tours this hotel offers, I hope to also visit the Palo Verde Biological Station in the heart of the park for birds, though not staying there. And being in November, the last month of rainy season, it won’t be dry there at this time.
And my main birding goal? It is to get a photo of a Jabiru Stork, the largest stork in the world. And an island in this river is considered their main nesting spot, so maybe I will see one or more even though I just learned that they don’t nest until April, which means I may have to return in April-May? 🙂
This trip will be quite a bit different from my rainforest visit last month!
On this linked google map the Palo Verde is left center and Atenas (my home) lower right side: https://goo.gl/maps/zjweRutu3Pv
Or here is location (Red X) on a Costa Rica Relief Map:
Red X is the location of Palo Verde National Park, Costa Rica
Earlier I posted on “Construction Begins on New Park” with photos of the construction screening and architect’s drawings – now it seems that they are going very slowly (Pura Vida!), but there is progress! In this photo they have cleared the central circle of the park of everything (trees, shrubs, benches, sidewalks) for construction of the Kiosk, Band Shelter or Gazebo which locals are calling “quiosco” o “kiosco.” It is the biggest item, so hopefully remodeling will go faster after that is completed but most expect it to be way into next year before finished. Everything is slow here.
You have to click the image at least 2 times to get an enlargement.
Yesterday afternoon I saw my Dermatologist who presented me the lab’s very detailed report with color microscope photos and the diagnosis en español:
“Carcinoma epidermoide bien diferenciado, invasor, de al menos 4 milímetros de diámetro mayor, que alcanza los márgenes de resección.” Or in English according to SpanishDict.com translation:
“A well-differentiated, invasive epidermoid Carcinoma of at least 4 mm greater diameter, reaching the margins of resection.”
The Doc assures me he can cut it all out by going a prescribed mm distance all the way around it (a big chunk of flesh!) and with several stitches will heal that part of my right forearm back to normal. That’s a $600 surgery or for $4,000 he can do a much tinier section removed while a separate pathologist is testing (continuous biopsy) every little bit of skin to make sure they get all the cancer without taking as much of a chunk! He recommends this for a growth on the nose, etc. where removing more is more obvious. Of course I’m doing the cheaper one which he assures me has always been successful for him and what he recommends. Just a little scar on my right forearm. It is scheduled for 19 November after my next trip which is to Palo Verde National Park 10-15 November. My doctors work around my trips and not vice-a-versa. 🙂
It is interesting that Dermatologists here say the same thing they told me in the states, that these growths that keep popping on my body in old age are caused by getting too much sunshine when I was a little boy. No one told us that back then! Or maybe I was not paying attention when Mom wanted me to use sunscreen? 🙂 The young are invincible and us old ones just smile at our little problems. 🙂
Since this is a retirement blog, I guess this kind of gory medical report is appropriate. Anywhere you live in retirement you must deal with these things and the medical services in Costa Rica are simply great and so much more affordable that I’m just using a private doctor again instead of the free public ones, which are slower but just as good and free! 🙂 I still use a public doctor to monitor my heart arrhythmia, but other things I’ve been happy with the quick responses of private doctors, like this Dermatologist, Dr. Gamboa.
And more specifically I pray that a huge majority of you will vote in opposition to the lying, hateful, racism that is destroying what used to be a great country. Your future as a country and your place in the world is at stake tomorrow.
When you lie down among the sheepfolds, You are like the wings of a dove covered with silver, And its pinions with glistening gold. ~Psalm 68:13
WWJD
Photo is of a Homing Pigeon in Alajuela this week. Beautiful and with a better map memory than humans. It’s the closest bird photo I have to a dove with glistening silver and gold! 🙂
POST SCRIPT: Based on the response to this post by my friend Leo (below) I am going to try to leave politics out of this blog in the future and just talk about my retirement in Costa Rica, the purpose of the blog. I apologize to anyone I offended and will try to keep this blog about my retirement here in Costa Rica. I’ll save politics for Facebook, though I don’t use it as much now.
Some youth in the city of Alajuela left a sidewalk chalk message for pedestrians the other day: something like “Be aware of the city and REDUCE pollution!”
