Nature Archives - Retired in Costa Rica

July 4, 2025July 4, 2025

Tropical flowers are my Fireworks!

I love all of the tropical flowers, and among my favorites are the 35+ species of Heliconia flowers native to Costa Rica, and yes, they do grow in the wild, especially in rainforests or along rivers and other bodies of water. My cabin this week is surrounded by at least a dozen different species of Heliconia flowers. Below the one photo for the email version you will find a gallery of fourteen heliconia blooms from around my cabin. Happy Fourth of July! And yes, I’m having a great 85th birthday! And the rain is never a problem! That helps make all these beautiful flowers! 🙂

Heliconia Flower at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Costa Rica.

July 3, 2025July 3, 2025

La Gamba Tropenstation

This morning after breakfast I walked the maybe half mile down the road to La Gamba Rainforest Research Station sponsored mainly by the University of Vienna, Austria, hoping to see more butterflies! But only got one there plus one on the road near Esquinas Lodge which I will share later as part of Esquinas. 🙂

At the research station, I simply walked the garden trails, looking for nature to photograph and got quite a few photos in less than an hour. Here is a sampling of the photos in a gallery below the email photo with not everything identified yet. I have to go to the dining room for internet connection, but prepare these posts and the photos on my cabin porch during the afternoon rain, though it didn’t rain this afternoon, but will tonight! 🙂

Brown Basilisk, La Gamba Rainforest Research Station

July 2, 2025July 2, 2025

Toucan Rendezvous

For maybe an hour this morning, two Yellow-throated Toucans called out to each other from two different trees behind my cabin. Finally, they got together in one tree, though my last pix indicates that one is shy, hiding behind an air plant with her back to the other. Always fun to observe nature in action! 🙂 This was one of 11 bird species I photographed today, here at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge. A nice day! And though cloudy most of the day, no rain. Below this photo for the email is a photo of the two together or almost together! 🙂

Yellow-throated Toucan, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica

July 1, 2025July 1, 2025

Agouti!

Good evening from the rainforest! We had a good hour & a half rain this afternoon that was cooling, though of course it is quite humid here all the time. Reminds me of growing up in South Arkansas just a few miles from the Louisiana line and it was quite humid there too, at least in the summer! 🙂

My cabin is surround by maybe up to 10 or more species of Heliconia flowers and I started out to do a post on the Heliconia, but just too many photos to process in a limited time! Maybe for another night this week!

Thus, because of time, I chose to share just one photo of a favorite tropical animal for tourist down here, the Central American Agouti. This one was foraging for fallen nuts streamside behind my cabin. I’m sure I’ll see more of him this week!

Central American Agouti, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

July 1, 2025June 24, 2025

Rainforest Trip Begins Today

June 30, 2025June 21, 2025

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird . . .

. . . is the most common hummingbird in gardens from southern Mexico to northwestern South America, says one website, meaning they are throughout Central America and I see at almost every lodge I visit. Plus, hands down he’s the most common bird in my garden! 🙂 In June I was photographing them a lot and chose my 12 favorite shots from June for a gallery in the online version of this post (below this one photo for the email version). The software for my chosen blog template doesn’t support galleries in the emailed version. Plus, if you’d like to see more photos of this active and colorful bird, I’ve added these 12 shots to the 130 already in my GALLERY: Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Amazilia tzacatl (linked to the gallery). There you can see my favorite shots of one feeding on a Bird of Paradise Flower at Arenal Observatory Lodge and several shots over the years of one feeding on my Torch Ginger flowers, as the most colorful meal here! 🙂 While the most common flower everywhere for them is the “Porterweed” in these photos. 🙂

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

June 29, 2025June 16, 2025

A New YELLOW for me

I’m getting my best help with identification through iNaturalist or through multiple channels with them. And I finally determined that this new Yellow for me is Westwood’s Yellow, Eurema westwoodii, linked to iNaturalist, but not much info there or anywhere else online about this species and it is not even included in BAMONA. I have a gallery for Westwood’s Yellow with just two observations, June 2 & 7 this year. The 2 photos here are from my June 7 observation.

Westwood’s Yellow, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

June 28, 2025June 28, 2025

Garden Dragonfly

This is a Blue-eyed Setwing, Dythemis nigra (linked to my Gallery) which is not a new species for me and these photo IDs have been confirmed by iNaturalist. I have both dragonflies and damselflies visiting my garden somewhat regularly, though they tend to stay closer to the water of a stream across the cow pasture from me. Two shots from different angles . . .