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My profession is to always find God in nature.
– Henry David Thoreau
. . . was a Buff-rumped Warbler, Myiothlypis fulvicauda (eBird link) who literally followed along with me on the trail through the forest, sometimes leading the way. 🙂 He was always in the shadows, thus no good photos, but I do have better photos from other locations in my Buff-rumped Warbler Gallery. He is found only in Central America and northwestern South America.
. . . at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge is surprisingly also one of the largest! (a little larger than toucans.) And maybe size does help with visibility, 🙂 plus the fact that the ones living there are used to people (all nature-lovers) and thus don’t run at the site of a dangerous human! 🙂
The Great Curassow, Crax rubra (eBird link) is a tropical pheasant-like bird found from eastern Mexico throughout Central America to the northwestern edges of Columbia and Ecuador. I see them in most of the protected forests and national parks I visit in Costa Rica. See some of my other photos in the Great Curassow Gallery. Just another of the many nature joys in Costa Rica! 🙂 And yes, they are similar to the Crested Guan (my gallery link) also here and about the same size, but with a bright red waddle. I heard guans on this trip but neither saw nor got photos. Both of these birds remind North Americans of Wild Turkeys, which we do not have here.
And a gallery of 5 shots . . . (click an image to enlarge)
Continue reading “Most visible Bird . . .”
. . . is one thing I photographed at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge last week and they are all 7 together in a gallery below this email photo . . .
There are two ponds here at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, and both can have Caiman in them, with a total of 3 Caiman living here, a smaller version of the American Alligator. They are a native wild animal in this area, seen in most forests and farms. The 2 shots on land were at the central pond and the water shot at the Caiman Pond along the entrance road. Below these 3 Caiman photos are three of me and my birthday cake last night when the younger staff members sang “Happy Birthday” to me – in English! The first time since I moved to CR 10+ years ago! I had gotten use to “Feliz Cumpleaños.” 😊
See more of my photos of Caiman in my Caiman Gallery.
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! 🙂
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! 🙂
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! 🙂
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!
¡Pura Vida!
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. . . 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. 🙂
