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And the interesting thing is that I got both birds on my last full day here and the Parula in front of my cabin! 🙂 Tomorrow, Friday, I leave El Silencio Lodge & Reserve – my newest “Favorite Places” in Costa Rica! 🙂 I highly recommend this lodge!
Read on for more about my new passion of planting trees from the “One Tree Planted” organization . . .
Continue reading “Two “Lifer Birds” This Week!”
Sometimes a beautiful hill or mountain hides the sunrise as it did yesterday for my early morning bird walk, making photos of birds in the shadows difficult – but patience! The sun eventually comes over the hill! 🙂
And today I slowed down my activities by necessity.
Continue reading “Sunrise Behind the Mountain”
During breakfast this morning I got 7 species of birds from my terrace, but because I was eating, I photographed only one, just at the end of my time looking – The Yellow Warbler, both a migrant from the north and a resident sometimes, meaning I don’t know how to tell if this particular one is a migrant or a resident enjoying an insect for breakfast! 🙂
And the other 6 birds I saw were Great Kiskadee, Turkey Vulture, one of the Swallow species (unidentified), Tropical Kingbird, and Clay-colored Thrush or Yiqüirro.
I hope you are counting birds in your backyard this weekend and reporting to eBird!
¡Pura Vida!
One of my new favorite lodges in Costa Rica is El Silencio Lodge at Bajos del Toro in my own province of Alajuela, north of San Ramon in the cloud forest mountains where there are many waterfalls. I was there last September and as I frequently do, I made a little 7X7 inch photo book about my experiences there, sending them a copy plus one each of my general birds and butterflies books for their other guests to enjoy. When the owner came down from San Jose and saw the books he was so impressed that he told the staff to offer me two free nights in this luxury lodge.
Well, of course I accepted the offer and will add-on two more nights at my cost for a great 5-day visit the middle of February! 🙂 If you want to see a free electronic preview of the book online, click the title here: El Silencio, Touching Souls, inspired by a quote from Mother Teresa:
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.
~Mother Teresa
¡Pura Vida!
Or you may like visiting my “Trip Gallery” on 2020 September El Silencio Lodge.
Join thousands of others around the world on February 12-15, 2021, on any one of those days, and count how many birds you see in your backyard to help science with another statistic! 🙂 Read about it on the Great Backyard Bird Count Website and/or get motivated with their short little video below:
I’ve been watching, counting and photographing birds my whole adult life. See my BIRDS Gallery for some of the photos of more than 500 species from 10 different countries with the most in Costa Rica of course! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Though I still have posts coming through Tuesday, February 2, the photos have all been processed and collected in on of my “Trip Galleries” to see all of the photos in one place called 2021 San Gerardo de Dota Hotel Savegre. Click the linked title or the gallery image below to see.
¡Pura Vida!
This mountains or foothills hummingbird is found in all of Central America and Mexico. But in Costa Rica & Western Panama there is another almost identical bird called the Black-bellied Hummingbird. Now, the belly is not fully shown in this photo, but doesn’t appear to be black even though there is black on the face, as both can have. Though only the stripe-tailed has the little white post-ocular spot, thus with all things considered, I’m claiming this as a Stripe-tailed Hummingbird (link to eBird article). 🙂
My Stripe-tailed Gallery also has a couple of shots of one in Monteverde.
This trip’s Hotel Savegre BIRDS Gallery (23 species)
¡Pura Vida!
This mountain hummingbird has a “near-twin” looking almost identical, the Volcano Hummingbird at a higher altitude, but theoretically both are possible at San Gerardo de Dota, sort of on the border of both. But my guide and eBird Merlin software both called my photos the Scintillant Hummingbird (eBird article link). And again this bird is endemic to or found only in the mountains of Costa Rica and Western Panama. My only other time to see this one was this past September at El Silencio Lodge, Bajo del Toro Amarillo, Alajuela Province. Both sightings are shown in My Scintillant Gallery. Here’s the ones from Hotel Savegre last week – CLICK to enlarge:
This trip’s Hotel Savegre BIRDS Gallery (23 species) or total
Costa Rica Birds Gallery (350 species)
¡Pura Vida!
This third of my mountain hummingbirds found only in Costa Rica and Western Panama was a “Lifer” (1st time seen) observation this trip. Learn more on the eBird article for White-throated Mountain-gem. My gallery has only these two photos since it is new to me. As always, CLICK an image to see larger:
This trip’s Hotel Savegre BIRDS Gallery (23 species)
¡Pura Vida!
The second in my featured mountain hummingbirds is the Talamanca Hummingbird (eBird article) as one I’ve seen in 2 other locations and of course have a Talamanca Hummingbird Gallery! 🙂 The name “Talamanca” is the name of the major mountain range through the center of Costa Rica where this bird lives only in Costa Rica and the western edge of Panama.
¡Pura Vida!
This trip’s Hotel Savegre BIRDS Gallery (23 species)
There have been at least 3 contacts now including the initial congratulations. Here’s more in this Tico Times online article in English: ‘Multilateralism is back!’ How Costa Rica’s leaders celebrated U.S. inauguration
¡Pura Vida!