Not new for me, but an understated, simple beauty, I think – the Great Southern White, Ascia monuste (my gallery link) and here are 3 recent photos from my garden . . .
Great Southern White
Iguanas in the Heat
I captured these two different Black Spiny-tailed Iguanas (my gallery link) dealing with the higher heat than normal this year. They seemed to almost be panting like a dog does in the heat. As with the rest of the world, Costa Rica has broken temperature records this year and all of us from the birds and iguanas to the people are looking forward to the start of the rainy season, which is normally in May! Our Dry Season (December-April) is considered Summer here and we are concluding our hottest summer yet! Global Warming is very real!
Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak
This Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak or Strymon ziba is another new species of butterflies for me! Also found only in Central America and southern Mexico. See more of him on butterfliesandmoths. Here’s one of my shots and you can see more in my gallery: Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak.
¡Pura Vida!
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Beautiful White-winged Dove
Three totally different shots . . .
And a surprising image of him/her taking flight . . .
Continue reading “Beautiful White-winged Dove”Tropical Greenstreak
The Tropical Greenstreak, Cyanophrys herodotus, (linked to butterfliesandmoths) is another new species for me this year AND another one found only in Central America & Mexico! 🙂 It is also earlier than I had been getting new species in past years. This makes about 4 or 5 new species before the month of May this year, which surprises me because it is so hot and windy this year. But then, nature never ceases to surprise! 🙂 There are only a few more shots of this same tiny green fellow in my Tropical Greenstreak GALLERY, but I expect I will be adding more in the future. Heres 3 shots for the blog . . .
Garden Walk
Yes, I know, I’ve done this post before, several times, but every time the flowers are different and I see or photograph them differently. And this time it is a collection of favorite shots from the previous few weeks, late March and early April. Below this one shot for the email version is a gallery of 18 photos, all different flowers and species repeated only when each flower is quite different. Enjoy God’s beautiful jewels from my tropical Costa Rica garden 🙂 . . .
3 Interesting Insects
These could all 3 go into my unidentified insects gallery, though I’m going to classify 2 as general types of wasps and the other a type of bee (I have all types of bees together in one gallery). There are so many insect species here and I only really work at identifying birds and butterflies and somewhat at dragonflies. 🙂 Here’s one photo of each of these 3 recent ones in my garden . . .
Dancing Swallowtails!
I’m not sure that I can explain why, but these Polydamas Swallowtails reminded me of flying acrobats or dancers as they swoop in and out of the flowers for their feeding. Fun to watch! 🙂 They are Polydamas Swallowtail, Battus polydamas (link to my Polydamas GALLERY with many more shots of their graceful flying and perching).
Revisiting the “Chinese Lanterns”
Some weeks back I shared a couple of shots of what I found are Physalis “Chinese Lanterns” growing on a vine over my neighbor’s fence and I have been mesmerized by them! They seemed to have turned red as they matured and then faded before falling to the ground. Here’s 6 shots I made of them recently (the unidentified insect is a bonus!) . . .
Ceraunus Blue: Corrected Version of Post
I made a mistake on the identification of this photo when this post was first published. I called it a Western Pygmy-Blue, Brephidium exilis which was incorrect. The correct identification of this butterfly is the Ceraunus Blue, Hemiargus ceraunus (linked to my gallery where I have others). And you can see others’ photos from throughout Central America and the southern half of the United States on butterfliesandmoths.
¡Pura Vida!