In addition to the Satyrs, several of these Banded Peacock butterflies are staying around while the bulk of butterflies seem to have gone from my gardens.
Banded Peacock
The Final Two Butterflies
Or at least it seems like they are the last two to be active this season, though I know I will have more soon or by January. The most active time for butterflies in my garden has been May to November, roughly the time of our “winter” or Rainy Season, though I do have some year around and see even more at the lodges I visit during our “summer” or Dry Season, December to April. But these two Satyrs, Carolina and White Satyrs, are the only two I’ve been able to photograph on my little hill recently, while thankfully more birds are returning! 🙂 And the rain is slowing down with less of it less often, like we are getting ready for dry season early? I hope not too early! The rain with the sun is what makes it so green and beautiful here!
And, oh yeah, there’s a lot more of these thumbnail-sized Carolina Satyrs than the Whites! 🙂 I have no explanation for why.
¡Pura Vida!
My Carolina Satyr GALLERY
My White Satyr GALLERY
A Poan Skipper?
Again I photograph one in my garden that I cannot positively ID. The white fringe on the wings makes it a Cloud-forest Poan or Snow-fringed Skipper (Poanes niveolimbus) while the back and shoulders are more like the Inimical Poan (Poanes inimica) and the red-orange coloring overlaps with many of the Poans and other Skippers too, plus the tail on this one doesn’t match any of the above, so much to my disappointment, I may have to mark it “Can’t Identify!” Though I’m leaning toward the “Snow-fringed Skipper!” 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Check out some of my other Skippers in my GALLERY: Hesperiidae – SKIPPERS (37+) where there are more unidentified plus many more named. And so far, the online websites have been no help to me on this one.
Jumping Spider Eats Butterfly!
I never before thought of my garden as a place of carnage, but insects eating other insects is quite normal and helps with the balance and ecology – then I witnessed it first hand this past Tuesday morning as I focused my camera on what I hoped was a new butterfly species (it was!). This, my first Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak (Strymon istapa) was flying and landed on one of my Heliconia flowers (1st photo below) and when I snapped this photo that tiny Jumping Spider (Salticidae) down below him in the photo jumped up on the little butterfly (with attached silk thread) and grabbed the butterfly by its head, biting it with a venomous bite that instantly paralyzed and will soon kill the butterfly which the Jumping Spider will eat. I did not stay around for the full meal, but photos of three stages follow this one. 🙂
3 more photos below of the capture, paralyzing and preparing to eat.
Continue reading “Jumping Spider Eats Butterfly!”Christmas ART SHOW! – Plan now!
I will be one of the participating artists in this year’s “Just in Time for Christmas ART SHOW” in Atenas, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica.
Mark your calendar now! Just 1 month from today!
Weekend of 9-11 December
Hotel Colinas del Sol, Atenas
- Friday, 9 December, 3-8 pm — Jack, Piet & Syl Music at 5 pm!
- Saturday, 10 December, 10 am to 8 pm — Poison Dart Frogs Band at 5 pm!
- Sunday, 11 December, 10 am to 4 pm
“Nature As Art” Photo Gifts
- FREE Photo Book “Retired in Costa Rica” to first 39 customers who purchase anything, even a greeting card! 🙂
- FREE Gift Boxes for the first 6 books purchased!
- Wall Art: “Float Mounted MetalPrint” to brighten any home! At below my cost!
- Selected Photo Books at below my cost with first 6 sold receiving a free gift box!
- Real Photo Greeting Cards (blank inside) only $3 or CRC 2,000 each! With envelopes! And they are frameable too! Send some pura vida!
- Limited Misc. Items: 2 Photo Calendars 2023, 3 tote bags, 1 Toucan T-shirt XL, 1 Toucan Mouse Pad – FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED! 🙂
Read about the other Artists at JIT for Atenas!
See you December 9-11!
¡Nos vemos del 9 al 11 de diciembre!
¡Pura Vida!
Appreciating a Neighbor
My walks to town or “Central Atenas,” as they call it here, always includes passing the house of a family that plants many flowers, including a zinnia garden at least twice a year. As I walk by I often pull out my cell phone and snap a butterfly or flower. To show my appreciation of these who take the time to plant flowers, I made a little 20-page photo book of the butterflies I photographed over the last year in their garden and will take 3 copies to them as a Christmas gift once the books arrive. You can preview every page of the book for free by clicking the front cover image below or go to this address and click the word “Preview” then each page to see the next: https://www.blurb.com/b/11328129-jard-n-de-mariposas
Of course it’s in Spanish. That’s the language of Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Unidentified Moth
Well – – – I think it is a moth! I photographed it in the street in front of my house in the daytime and the color and pattern is similar to one of the Tiger Moths, but not a match! Those colors and patterns are also similar to one of the Netwing Beetles, but still not a match! 🙂 Because one of the antennae is curled, I think it might be in the Dioptinae subfamily of moths, but still did not find a match searching there, so I just sent it to the “I can’t identify” folder at butterfliesandmoths.org. 🙂 If you know what it is, please use the “Contact” form to share your knowledge. Thanks! 🙂
Butterfly Bonanza!
This past Friday morning about 8am I made the 9 to 10 block walk to our Technical High School after which Avenida 10 turns into a dirt road (Calle Nueva) that skirts Residencial Roca Verde and goes through some farms to the village of Rio Grande on the connector highway to Ruta 27 (our “semi-freeway”).
I did not have to go far to meet my goal! It was a good source of birds in the past, if I went early. But this time I sought butterflies and they don’t get out until about 8am. I was not disappointed! 🙂 In a couple of hours and 200 meters of dirt road, I saw and tried to photograph about 20 different species of butterflies and 6 species of dragonflies (that I’ll share soon).
I got useable photos of only 11 species of butterflies but 8 of these are totally new species for me (* starred pix titles), first time ever seen! And I identified all but one with my trusty butterfly book. Below is one shot for the email announcement and then a gallery of 11 different species of butterflies I saw last Friday morning. A nice morning! 🙂
My Wildlife Safari on Avenida 8
Yesterday morning I spent about an hour or so walking down an old favorite, “Shady Lane,” that I haven’t walked in quite awhile. It is the extension of 8th Avenue past the Roca Verde entrance in what is still a semi-rural area. Since I’m focusing on butterflies now, I waited until after 8am because they require plenty of sunshine and most of my butterfly photos are made between 8 & 2. 🙂
Below is a gallery of 16 different species of wildlife seen along this urban street and 4 of them aren’t butterflies! 🙂 Plus a slide show of some flowers and trees also seen on this tropical neighborhood safari!
Continue reading “My Wildlife Safari on Avenida 8”My New Butterfly Photo Gallery
The general address for my Butterflies & Moths of Costa Rica stays the same, but all the sub-galleries or individual butterfly galleries will unfortunately have new web addresses. This is because I want this gallery to be scientifically accurate to match my volunteer work with butterfliesandmoths.org. Thus each of nearly 200 individual butterfly galleries will be titled with their common name and sub-titled in smaller letters with their scientific name. Then they have been placed in folders or family galleries according to their taxonomy. Thus the first level of galleries you see on the first screen image below are the families such as Hesperiidae – SKIPPERS (35+) or the largest family in my collection is Nymphalidae – BRUSHFOOTS (79+). The individual butterfly galleries are presented inside these family folders in the taxonomic order found on butterfliesandmoths.org, making my gallery a good research tool for anyone doing research on butterflies and moths in Costa Rica! 🙂 The bad part is that all my old blog posts (before yesterday’s) that have a link to an individual butterfly gallery – that link will no longer work! So sorry! But that is the cost of scientific accuracy. Before I just had them arranged alphabetically by common name – not the best way! 🙂 To check out my Costa Rica Butterfly & Moth Photo collection, click the first page image below or go to this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/Butterflies-Moths
I have one of, if not the largest collections of Costa Rica Butterfly photos online that I know of at about 200 species. Before getting involved in the butterfliesandmoths website, my primary source was and still often is the excellent book A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America by Jeffery Glassberg.
And I could say the same things about my CR Birds Gallery which has about 360 species and has always been arranged in taxonomic order by families based on the order found in Princeton Field Guide: Birds of Central America, my preferred bird guide now, other than eBird online.
¡Pura Vida!