This Blue-vented Hummingbird (my gallery link) is right now in October more frequently seen than the usual dominant one, the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird.
¡Pura Vida!
Click title to see post online.
Blue-vented Hummingbird
The Security of Tree Limbs
I’m noticing that most birds (with exceptions of course) tend to land in a tree on a limb that is surrounded by other limbs and thus I assume that they purposefully find a “safe spot” out of the reach of possible predators. And in the case of this White-winged Dove (my gallery link) in a Nance Tree, they also make themselves difficult to photograph! 🙂 Or at least the kind of open and posed photo on a clean limb humans like to see. Maybe you could call it “Nature’s Security.” 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Sad Loss of a Young Tico Friend
And of course 38 is young to me! 🙂 Yeison went by “Jason” with his English-speaking friends and was one of two, then 12 years younger, guys assigned to me to “practice” my Spanish and as would probably be expected, he practiced more English than I did Spanish, 🙂 but that was okay.
After that first year I saw him only occasionally and he continued to be like too many of his generation of males here, not wanting to work or not keeping a job for long (it seems to me). With his good English, he tried 3 different U.S. Call Center jobs here in Costa Rica and hated all of them, none lasting long. He tried working in A/C Sales for an uncle in Jaco, but “that didn’t work out,” he said. Then off and on jobs as a security guard which he was at my bank when he died last month. During his off and on work he married and had a cute little baby boy, but was not sufficiently supporting his family and she divorced him and he was ordered to pay the equivalent of $400 per month child support and had become quite depressed with the difficulty of that (for him) and seldom getting to see the child.
Last month he walked out on the Atenas railroad bridge (highest in the country) and jumped off into the deep rocky canyon of the Rio Grande River. He was reported missing and not found for two days, and then by the Red Cross Ambulance Service after someone called to report seeing a body in the bottom of the canyon. The official government report of his death is here: https://crhoy.com/nacionales/encuentran-en-rio-el-hombre-de-joven-desaparecido-en-atenas/
My Blog Post Search for my mentions of Jason Quesada
It was mostly during those first 2 to 4 years when I was with him, often as a needed translator then, or at the beginning treating him to a Star Wars movie (his 1st) as the only blog post showing a photo of him (below). But the idea is that in those early years here in CR, he was a part of my life and I deeply regret that I was not able do anything to stop his suicide. He is just one example of the difficulties of being poor in this world, sometimes living a hopeless life. And of course he brought some of his problems on himself (lack of ambition, education and good work ethics), but the popular lifestyles and systems of this world (highly American-influenced) also have some blame. It saddens me to lose a friend who gave up on living in this hectic, crazy world. He was a believer and I put faith in the verse from Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” I don’t understand, but hope that he is close to God now.
Jason in my life 2015-2018 . . .
- “Country Lane Birds & More!” just mentioned the 2018 hike with Jason
- “DiosArte”
- “The Birthday that Won’t Go Away!” (Jason brought me a birthday cake!)
- April 13, 2018 “Thanks to Nashville First Adults for Bringing Rain!” Jason made the group photo in this blog post about my friends from Nashville here on a mission trip
- “Finishing the country road walk today . . .”
- August 26, 2017 “NORMAL! NORMAL! — Mi Aventura Médica”
- August 23, 2017 “Spending the Night in Hospital”
- June 2, 2017 “No Angiogram Today”
- May 18, 2017 “Fern Haiku & My Simple Life”
- July 8, 2016 “After Much Effort – I’m Insured Again”
- December 23, 2015 “VIP Star Wars in Costa Rica!”
Rose-throated Becard
This is a young male Rose-throated Becard (my gallery link) whose throat has not turned rose colored yet and iNat says that some in the rainforest never get the rosy-pink throat. The female is overall reddish brown as you can see in my above-linked gallery. This one landed in a neighbor’s tree for a minute or so, then flew off. I don’t see them very often. They are found from Southern Arizona & Texas south to Panama, so mostly Central American. Read more on eBird.
¡Pura Vida!
Hudsonian Whimbrel
This bird used to be called just “Whimbrel” and that common name and its scientific name was for all Whimbrels world-wide. Now “they” have split them into two species with the old scientific name going for the ones in Europe & Asia and the ones in the Americas (North, Central and South) are called Husonian Whimbrel (Numenius hudsonicus) (my gallery link).
Thus another one of my galleries had to have a name change, including each individual photo. Just part of having up-to-date science! 🙂 This smaller, “chunkier” one (compared to the majority) was seen last week at Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge. And if you notice the water is darker and reddish or rusty, it is because the ocean’s saltwater at high tide went up into the Mangrove Forest and the Bloodwood Trees there react to the salt, releasing a reddish sap this time of year, turning the water red as the tide goes back out. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Banana Azul Photo Gallery Ready!
This year’s visit to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica included a week at Hotel Banana Azul with a day hike in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge and my collection of photos are ready to see at https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2026-09-14-18-Banana-Azul-Gandoca-Manzanillo or you can click on the first page image below to get there. Two disclaimers as to why there are not as many photos this year: The bizarre weather with a Super-El-Niño, wind and rain every day (normally the driest month there), a muddy beach road with no butterflies at all (my main thing there now) and the global-warming and ocean rising has caused enormous erosion of the beaches there now, with almost no beach left. But it is still a beautiful nature place and I have a lot of photos from this year’s trip.
¡Pura Vida!
I’ve done blog posts of Caribe photos ahead through the end of September, but wanted to announce my trip gallery now. The first of October I will continue sharing nature photos from my garden and on walks in my hometown of Atenas. If I just look, there is some nature to experience every day! 🙂
Common Black Hawk . . .
. . . used to be one of the birds I photographed at Banana Azul every year, but not this year. (I did see one fly off one day.) But I got several shots of this one in Gandoca-Manzanillo Refuge and we saw him in 3 or 4 places searching for crabs (his favorite food) or other small animals to eat. Just two shots here, but you can see more in my gallery: Common Black Hawk (linked). It is found from the Southwestern U.S. south through Mexico and all of Central America to the northern shores of South America. We have them on both slopes of Costa Rica.
¡Pura Vida!
Collared Aracari
This small toucan is found from Mexico south to Columbia and Venezuela. In Costa Rica it is found mostly on the Caribbean Slope with the only ones on the Pacific side being in the Northwest or the Nicoya Peninsula. While his first cousin, the Fiery-billed Aracari is found along the Central and Southern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. That includes Atenas where I’ve had Fiery-billed in my garden. It looks like this one except for the red bill. See my other photos of this one in my gallery: Collared Aracari (linked).
¡Pura Vida!
Eroding Beaches, Diminishing Wildlife, and . . .
I am not through sharing photos from this year’s trip to Banana Azul and haven’t even started on the photos from a morning hike in Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge (source of my most wildlife sightings this year), but with all the praise I’ve given Banana Azul over the years and what was an annual trip every September (the month with usually less rain), I need a “DISCLAIMER” to previous recommendations for this hotel and area and to explain why I will not continue annual trips here and may not even return to Banana Azul.
Read on for my explanation or reasons and to see more photos . . .
Continue reading “Eroding Beaches, Diminishing Wildlife, and . . .”Scarlet-rumped Tanager
This one on the Caribbean side has an identical male as the Pacific side male with a slightly different female and they are thus considered different subspecies. I keep my photos separated in two galleries. For more of these from the Caribbean Slope, see Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Passerini’s (my gallery link) and yes, when I first came to Costa Rica these were call Passerini’s Tanager, while the ones on the Pacific side were called Cherrie’s Tanager. If you want to see if you can tell the difference in the two females, check out the other gallery: Scarlet-rumped Tanager, Cherrie’s (linked). And note that some sources say that the difference is seen only in the immature birds! 🙂 It is also interesting that some sources also say that the Cherrie’s is found only in Costa Rica and thus the scientific name includes the Latin “costaricensis.” 🙂 In my photos it seems that the Pacific side females are slightly darker in color with no other differences to me and I have never been where I could compare immature ones. These two photos are both male.
¡Pura Vida!
Listen. Wonder. Belong.
A local friend just shared a free online article titled “The Voices of Birds and the Language of Belonging” by David G. Haskell (linked) that is partly technical and partly inspirational.
It reminded me of the Tropical Screech Owl that often sings to me during the night hours from my Higueron Tree, singing me to sleep (never got a photo of it). The article also reminded me of how I prepared for works presented by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (15 years ago) by going an hour early for a 30 minute discussion of what we were about to hear. It’s amazing how much more you hear and experience when you prepare to listen! 🙂 That was back when Giancarlo Guerrero (from Costa Rica) was the Music Director. But, back to the article whose author said in the last line . . .
Let’s answer the birds’ invitation, stepping outside to give them the simple gift of our attention. Listen. Wonder. Belong. ~David G. Haskell
Here’s one of several YouTube videos of the Tropical Screech Owl singing . . .
Or if really into it, you can listen to archived audio recordings and calls of the Tropical Screech Owl (Megascops choliba) through the Xeno-canto Tropical Screech Owl Database, which features hundreds of field recordings.
Or read about them and see their distribution map on eBird. And thanks to Judith LaBelle for the article on listening to birds! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Listen. Wonder. Belong.
And the featured photo of a Tropical Screech Owl in Costa Rica was copied off the internet and not my photo. I am yet to photograph one. The one I hear singing at night is in the dark and I don’t have the equipment to photograph at night and when I got up and looked for him once, I never even saw him. BUT, I do have photos of 6 other owls here in Costa Rica that I photographed in daylight . . .
And my favorite is probably that last one, the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, though I like them all! 🙂