These 4 species of birds were finding their breakfast as I ate mine on the patio of Hotel Banana Azul in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica this morning. How fortunate I am to live and travel in such a beautiful, peaceful little country! ¡Pura Vida!
Breakfast at Banana Azul
Common Black Hawk
Palm Tanager
Blue-gray Tanager
Gardens Full of Flowers!
Female Scarlet-rumped Tanager
Male Scarlet-rumped Tanager
“The sky’s gone blue: azure, the ocean bluer: cerulean, the trees are swirls of every hella freaking green on earth and bright thick eggy yellow is spilling over everything.”
― Jandy Nelson, I’ll Give You the Sun
I guess this is becoming typical of me, too many photos the first day of a trip. There just seems to be so many photo possibilities that I can’t stop. To not look overwhelming, I’ve grouped them into slideshows. Pick the one that interests you! 🙂
From expansive beaches to overpowering vistas and sunsets dotted with colorful tropical birds – my newest photo book captures the magic of where I live as well as any! With it my photos show the adventure of birding in three hotels just an hour from Atenas — Punta Leona Resort, the Macaw Lodge and my recent visit to Villa Caletas, all with easy access to beaches, Carara National Park and Tarcoles River plus each having their own private forest reserve and trails. Nature at its best! All in one beautiful photo book!
You can preview the entire book electronically online at:
I just uploaded the last photo I’ve chosen to share from a very photogenic resort! I’m pleased with a lot of the photos and you can see them in the gallery at:
As the first and only customer in restaurant for a 7 AM Breakfast I was greeted not only by the friendly waiters but by a couple of Scarlet Macaws in the nearby trees. The major group of other guests here is a group of vacationing Mexicans and the waiters said that they like to party late and breakfast late! 🙂
But anyway, I got a few shots of the Macaws before they flew off and all the other customers missed them! 🙂 They are hard to photograph – always on the move and when they land it is behind limbs and leaves! Pura vida! 🙂
Scarlet Macaws
CLICK image to enlarge.
Scarlet Macaw
Scarlet Macaw
Scarlet Macaw
I head back to Atenas this morning. My little 4-day excursion in search of sunsets was a good one! It was relaxing, with some good photos, even one lifer bird and my best photo yet of a Gray Hawk.
Plus now I am knowledgeable of another beach-view hotel at Jaco. It is too expensive for me normally and not that great for birds, but some of the best food I’ve had and the sunsets are great! Thus I recommend Villa Caletas for a relaxing vacation if money is not an option.
And I have started working on my “Trip Gallery” 2019 July Villa Caletas which will soon have my collection of photos from here, maybe by tonight. 🙂
Slowing down a little – here’s my shots from the last full day at Villa Caletas and a very relaxed 4 days. The featured image is of a hotel worker walking up the street in front of my room towards the Zephyr Palace.
Butterflies
The prettiest things here along with the vistas . . .
No gardens, just pots and plantings around buildings.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Birds
Such as there were today . . .
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
This is not the very best birding place even though you do see toucans and macaws. The concierge never worked out my two requested birding hikes because no others here wanted them and they don’t do for one person. No problem! I’ve already been to Carara NP 4 times and Rio Tarcoles about 8 times! Hanging out here was more relaxing and it was a good time on the mountaintop!
Wednesday Sunset
CLICK image to enlarge.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
All shot from my room before dinner.
“Happiness consists of living each day as if it were the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation.”
The little trip to the beach gave me some different birds than the many toucans & macaws around the hotel, plus I saw a new type of Euphonia today in a tree off my room terrace, just not a good photo, but a “lifer” for me! (First time to see that species.) Only 6 birds but interesting ones:
Tuesday Birds
CLICK image to enlarge.
Melodious Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Gray Hawk
Thick-billed Euphonia
Yellow-throated Toucan
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Faith is the bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark.
Well . . . my goal for today was to photograph a toucan and a macaw. Goal accomplished! Plus some other colorful creatures before, during an after breakfast, with several butterflies included and a most interesting blue-winged insect on my breakfast table! Remember, nearly all restaurants in Costa Rica are alfresco! Enjoy my photos from Villa Caletas today.
“Guarumo” is the Spanish name Ticos call a Cecropia Tree (English name) and about 4 years ago I asked my gardeners to plant one in my front yard because I had heard that they attract toucans for the easy perches and the food of the flowers. I would be patient, not really knowing how fast they grow!
In just 4 years it is the tallest tree in my yard, more than twice the height of my little house and my favorite “Bird Gallery”or place for birds to land so I can photograph them because it is such an open tree with a limited number of large leaves. See in the tree photos below what it looked like when we planted it and how big it has grown.
No telling how many birds I miss that land in the top of the tree! 🙂 But the lower limbs are what I watch while eating breakfast every morning and where I photographed from my terrace the birds in the birds photos below, including two kinds of toucans! I love nature’s gallery of birds that helps me grow my own photo gallery of birds! ¡Pura Vida!
Birds in Tree
CLICK photo to enlarge or start manual slideshow.
Fiery-billed Aracari
Yellow Warbler
Fiery-billed Aracari
Great Kiskadee
Gray-headed Caracara
Rufous-naped Wren
Keel-billed Toucan
Clay-colored Thrush
Yellow-bellied Elaenia
Rufous-naped Wren
Melodious Blackbird
Montezuma Oropendola
Palm Tanager
White-winged Dove
Gartered Trogon
Squirrel Cuckoo
Gray-headed Caracara
Fiery-billed Aracari
The Tree
CLICK photo to enlarge or start manual slideshow.
Easy to See & Photograph Birds
Open Limbs, Few Leaves
Gardener Trims Limbs from House
Top When First Planted
A Skinny Little Tree When Planted
The Tallest Tree at End of House
“Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that? Let us love trees with every breath we take until we perish.”
I have not been having many interesting or colorful birds at breakfast for awhile, with many rufous-naped wrens & clay-colored thrush! And it seems like maybe a year since I’ve seen one of the Blue-crowned Motmots now renamed to be Lesson’s Motmot (wish they wouldn’t do that!). But yesterday at breakfast, early for me, about 6:20-6:30 I had a motmot visit. This one Lesson’s Motmot flew into the Nance Tree looking for Nance Berries I assume, staying there 3 or 4 minutes, occasionally flying to the ground and briefly foraging, maybe for fallen berries or an insect. Then he was gone. If I spent more time on my terrace I would undoubtedly see more birds! i.e. Two different neighbors have seen Crested Caracaras in the cow pasture in front of my house and I haven’t. Too much time on my computer?! 🙂 Well, I focus more on birds on my monthly trip and that is when I photograph the most. But it is nice to know that I still have a large variety of birds near my house!
Lesson’s Motmot
Lesson’s Motmot
Lesson’s Motmot
Lesson’s Motmot
Lesson’s Motmot
Note that this one has both pendants on the end of his tail which is almost unusual now as most seem to catch then on a tree or something and tear one or both off as you can see in my gallery.
See some of my other Lesson’s Motmotsphotos (better photos!) as a sub gallery of my bigger Costa Rica Birds Gallery where you can find other sub galleries for 3 other types of motmots:
These 3 can be seen in the right parts of Costa Rica, though the Lesson’s is most common and most widely distributed and favors the Pacific side of CR.
“Wake up with the birds and go to sleep with the stars.”
― Marty Rubin
