Ready for Hurricane Otto!

Copied from La Nacion  –   Heavy rains & flooding BEFORE the hurricane hits in Caribe.

Costa Rica’s first hurricane since 1851 is expected to hit land tonight in the northern Caribbean near by beloved Tortuguero National Park or further north in Nicaragua. Atenas is not in the “Red Zone” that expects the most wind and rain, but we will get both all day on the American Thanksgiving while I eat turkey with my neighbor.

For more on the hurricane, today’s Tico Times article

And track it on The Weather Channel and a hundred other websites!  🙂

And the best coverage in Spanish is in our national newspaper La Nacion which Google will translate into English for you. Lots of photos and videos.

They are forecasting up to 20 inches of rain and very high winds in the path (north of us) as it travels all the way across the peninsula to the Pacific Ocean. We will get rain as we have all day today and some winds, but probably not the very high, damaging winds. Yet hurricanes do change paths sometimes, so I bought my bottled water and prepared if it knocks out our power and water. Which could mean no blog post tomorrow night! 🙂

There wasn’t a run on water at the supermercado,
meaning I guess that most don’t really expect us to have much damage.
I’m always the Boy Scout! Being prepared!

Seeing Behind the Leaves

In the forest or my garden, one must look through tiny windows to see behind the leaves:

Blue-crowned Motmot at breakfast this morning
In Yellow Bell tree that will soon be blooming, Atenas, Costa Rica
As usual, I said “Oh fuey! He’s not in the open for a good shot!”
But this is a more common view! 

Tropical Kingbird (pretty sure, can’t see breast)
From my terrace, Atenas, Costa Rica

Maraca or Shampoo Ginger
In jungle of my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Heliconia behind Heliconia plants
My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Red Ginger amongst the ginger leave
My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Red Ginger amongst many plants
My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Layers of Leaves
My garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Heliconia
Overshadowed in my garden, Atenas, Costa Rica

Between the leaves in my garden
Atenas, Costa Rica

Maybe My 2 Most Frequent Visitors

These two I see from my terrace every day and possibly more often than any other birds.

Rufous-naped Wren
Seen at breakfast from my terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
White-ringed Flycatcher
Seen at breakfast from my terrace, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Similar to the very common
Social Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee & Boat-billed Flycatcher.
But white on head makes a complete ring around his head
and Kiskadee & Boat-billed are noticeably larger with larger bills.

See also my BIRDS Photo Gallery

This Morning’s Garden

 Each morning I walk through my garden and then eat breakfast on my terrace. Today I liked:

There are many more blooming of course, especially the red ginger and porter weed all the time, but not sure I’ve shown the above recently, so enjoy! I love life in the natural, slow lane in Costa Rica! With no car!   🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See also my photo gallery call Flora and Forests for more flower photos. 

Biggest Moon or Magic Moon?

The news media told us the moon would be bigger tonight than it has been since 1948! (November 14, 2016) Well, it was definitely a full moon, and big, and bright! But since not close to our horizon when I tried to photograph, it did not seem that huge to me. But for the “magic” see my second image where it appears that I photographed the moon and the earth together! I’m assuming that is a reflection of the moon somehow in my camera, but interesting!  🙂

Shooting directly at the moon & cropping for this position.
Pointing camera away from moon I get the earth too? Magic? Reflection?
And you can even see a star in the distance. I don’t know how I did it!
Cool! Bazaar! Weird! Fun!

Here’s a better full moon shot I made in Nashville a few years ago.

And a shot of a quarter moon sitting on Lower Broadway in Nashville

Montezuma Oropendola

Montezuma Oropendola
Across street from my house, Atenas, Costa Rica

Montezuma Oropendola
Across street from my house, Atenas, Costa Rica
Montezuma Oropendola
Across street from my house, Atenas, Costa Rica

Read article on Montezuma Oropendola on Wikipedia & click for sound of their bubbly song and see photo of their cool, long nests that prevent monkeys from stealing eggs.

I usually go to exotic birding lodges for these guys but now they may be taking up residency in our neighborhood of Roca Verde in Atenas, Costa Rica. Kind of neighbors I like!  🙂
And I have better photos from other locations on my BIRDS PHOTO GALLERY  (in both the Costa Rica and Nicaragua galleries, including a nests photo)

A Pleasant Evening in Atenas, Costa Rica!

Overlooking my house on a cloudy sunset around 5:15.
 “And all is well on the western front!”  🙂
Yep, the sun shines from between 5 & 5:30 AM to the same in PM
Every day, year around – 12 hours of dark & 12 hours of light! Nice!
That’s because we are close to the equator. Same sunrise/sunset daily.

And to my fellow Americans, forgive me for saying I was ashamed last night. The election did not go the way I thought was best, but God just may have something much better in store for us! So today I posted on Facebook the following quote and Scripture verse that better reflects my faith:

“God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.
So we will not fear when earthquakes come and
the mountains crumble into the sea.” Psalm 41:1
¡Pura Vida!