Category: Butterflies

Butterflies photographed in Costa Rica and nearby

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Xandari GALLERY #4 Published

The “4” can mean my 4th trip to Xandari or the 4th Gallery on Xandari or the fact that I was there for 4 days this time! 🙂 The featured photo is on my walk to the restaurant from my villa.

It is a magical getaway every visit and I tend to photograph many new things or the same things in different ways each time, like this time I didn’t even hike to the waterfalls but spent more time with flowers & butterflies and a feature on the bamboo forest. So if considering a visit to Xandari, check out each of my photo galleries from 4 different trips there with 4 different perspectives:

  • 2020 August 21-24 – A Weekend Retreat during a World Pandemic with masks & solo activities in nature. Most butterflies & flowers this time.
  • 2020 January 12-16 – Five days when I installed my photo books library and photographed all kinds of nature with more birds than above.
  • 2019 July 1-6 – My birthday week with them providing a cake and great celebration and me making another different set of nature photos all over. A very good week! Or see the Photo Book, Brilliant! My Birthday Week at Xandari!
  • 2018 July 14-18 – My first trip to Xandari and maybe my most photos as I was thrilled with the discovery in every way! Or see the Photo Book, Xandari – Enchanted by Nature

¡Pura Vida!

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Bountiful Butterflies

This trip to Xandari I photographed more butterflies than birds, which I think is a first for anywhere I have visited in Costa Rica. Xandari has always given me a lot of butterflies, partly because of their lush gardens, but today I have photos of 16 different species, a new record! Multiple are new species for me, bringing my butterfly collection up to somewhere near 120 in my Butterfly Gallery. Check it out! Quite a variety!

The only WordPress inline Gallery that now allows labels, which I want to include, is their “regular” gallery which crops each image to same size/shape, meaning you need to click on an image to see the full-size presentation of each and I prefer my framing than their boxes. Clicking one also can start a manual slide show of all 16.

  • Heart-spotted Heliconian
  • Guatemalan Ithomia Glasswing
  • Malachite
  • Double-white Satyr
  • Erato Heliconian or Postman
  • Mottled Longtail or Silver Spotted Skipper
  • Unidentified
  • Blue-winged Sheemark
  • Unidentified Skipper
  • Carolina Satyr
  • Yellow-tipped Flasher
  • Actinote Anteas or Doubleday’s
  • Black-bordered Tegosa
  • Lemon-patched Oxeo
  • Variegated Ticlear
  • Unidentified Eyemark Butterfly
Bountiful Butterflies at Xandari Nature Resort

A part of the “Colourscape” of the place:

Xandari Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Breakfast Butterflies

This was yesterday at breakfast and today I will be leaving by noon today for Xandari where I expect a lot of different types of butterflies along with the birds.

I apologize that I cannot give an exact ID on all these guys, but as frequently happens there is not an exact match in my two butterfly books and the Skippers are particularly difficult, but still fun to watch! 🙂 CLICK image to enlarge.

  • Brown or Teleus Longtail Skipper
  • Ridens Skipper Maybe
  • Banded Peacock
  • Green or Emerald Flasher
  • Giant White
  • Unidentified Skipper
From a quick walk through my garden after breakfast yesterday.

Expect some “X-factor” Xandari Nature as Art the next few days! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

2 minute introduction to Xandari, my “Oasis!”

Xandari is my Nearest “OASIS.”

GALLERIES FOR MY 3 PREVIOUS VISITS TO XANDARI:

AND MY TWO PHOTO BOOKS ON XANDARI:

Find out why I like Xandari so much – check out the above video, galleries & books.

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Adding to the Charlie Doggett Library

This weekend I go to Xandari Nature Resort near Alajuela, which is the only place in Costa Rica that you can see all of my Costa Rica Photo Books, other than at my house. I installed the library of photo books in January there for the benefit of their guests and this weekend I will be adding two more books, the only ones made since January for all of Costa Rica. (I also did a photo book on my Roca Verde neighborhood birds, but figure that is too narrow a focus, but may decide to take one of those too.)

Two new books for the Charlie Doggett Photo Library at Xandari Resort.

¡Pura Vida!

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Impulsive Weekend Plans

Doing some things on impulse is part of being retired in Costa Rica I think and I’m tired of being cooped up at home in Atenas. One of my favorite nearby get-a-ways announced they were open on weekends only for now with special discounted prices, so I took the bait and will go to Xandari Nature Resort this weekend, an hour away, Friday afternoon to Monday morning; to hike their forests, waterfalls and most beautiful gardens. Hope to get some good photos and will avoid group hikes or any other interactions with people, eating alone, maybe even relaxing in their solo hot tub by reservation. But mainly some new nature experiences, some with my mask and face shield as we continue to fight the spread of COVID19 here. I will stay safe! And I forgot to say yesterday that I now have my “Permanent Residency” in Costa Rica! 🙂

The feature photo today is one of the sunsets from my last visit to Xandari in January.

Retired in Costa Rica!

¡Pura Vida!

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Morning Skippers

There are dozens of species of Skipper Butterflies and in fact I have 17 plus species in my Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery. This morning after breakfast I walked into the garden to see what I could find and though I saw more, here are 4 different species of Skipper Butterflies I got usable photos of – CLICK to enlarge:

  • Esmeralda Longtail Skipper
  • Chisos Banded Skipper
  • Plain Longtail Skipper
  • Yellow-rimmed Skipper
Four Skippers at Breakfast this Morning

Border Opens to More Countries: Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and China. So if you live in one of those “safer” countries, you can be a tourist in Costa Rica! Come on over! The water’s fine! 🙂 You will have to be certified free of Coronavirus and follow a few new health rules, but everything else is great as always here!

¡Pura Vida!

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Dina Yellow

Another repeat butterfly species for me on the same flowers I saw the Simple Patch butterfly the other day while walking to town. Observing and enjoying NATURE is the best way to survive the world-wide pandemic, in my opinion! 🙂

See more in my Dina Yellow Gallery that includes one of my favorite butterfly shots against a dark blue sky. 🙂 Also see my others in the Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery. Pura vida!

Dina Yellow

 Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. —Khalil Gibran

¡Pura Vida!

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Another New Butterfly Species!

New species for me that is – Scientific Name: Chlosyne hippodrome, and two common names: “Simple Patch” in A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America, my only good printed guide, while several websites are calling it “Simple Checkerspot,” with checkerspots and patches being “cousins” in the larger “Brushfoot” family of butterflies or maybe checkerspots being a type of patch butterfly – not clear to me yet. Confusing? Yeah, labeling butterflies has always been difficult for me and I still have several “unidentified” butterflies in my gallery. There doesn’t seem to be as much world-wide coordination of butterfly naming and following like with birds.

But anyway, this one is similar to Crimson Patch which I already had a photo of and also similar to the Banded Peacock of which there was one flying near where I got this guy on a zinnia at the Corner of Avenida 8 & Calle 3 while walking to town. Butterflies continue to amaze me! 🙂

See all 3 of my “Patches” butterflies along with about 112 other species in my Costa Rica Butterflies Photo Gallery.

And CLICK an image below to see it larger.

  • Simple Patch or Simple Checkerspot
  • Simple Patch or Simple Checkerspot
  • Simple Patch or Simple Checkerspot
  • Simple Patch or Simple Checkerspot

¡Pura Vida!

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White Angled Sulphur

Another repeat butterfly for me today, though I only got a side view. The top view of this guy is a lot different – white with two yellow splotches plus the little brown spots you can barely see here, though I was unable to photograph the top this time. See more in my White Angled Sulphur Gallery. Another interesting butterfly I can enjoy in my garden during this rainy season.

White-angled Sulphur

My Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery has many more!

Never bored with butterflies! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Poan Skipper

I have studied the Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico & Central America plus the internet and cannot find an exact match, but certain it is in the “Poanes” scientific family name with many called something Poan Skipper, thus my generic name here. It is my second time to see this butterfly in my garden, see my Poan Skipper Gallery for the other one. I have decided it was the angle of sunshine that caused my first one to appear more orange and thus I originally called it “Evergreen Poan Skipper” which is not correct, partly because book says they live only in Mexico. Maybe we have an un-labeled Costa Rica version? Hey! It still happens in all categories of wildlife here. 🙂

  • Poan Skipper
  • Poan Skipper

My Costa Rica Butterflies Gallery has many more!

Never bored with butterflies! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!