Brown Longtail

All the Longtail Skippers are brown, but this one has slightly different markings to give him the color name. 🙂 And you may have noticed that I’m much heavier on Skippers in general this year which may mean that they can handle the different weather better or some other reason I don’t know. And I continue to have fewer birds and fewer of the brighter colored butterflies, whatever the reason may be.

Brown Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica

These range from a lighter brown than this to a dark brown as seen in my Brown Longtail GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

Rounded Metalmark

Rounded Metalmark, Calephelis perditalis, is a beautiful tiny butterfly that I’ve seen several times over the years in my garden and this identification is my best effort! I say that, implying some doubt, because my Glassberg book says it has “no white check” on the wing border, although both websites I use have photos of this species with and without the white check, so I’m sticking with this ID for now. The next closest one is in the Glassberg book that is not an official species which he calls “Bright Scintillant (Misol-ha CHP), a Calephelis species” and is probably a sub-species of this Rounded Metalmark. A closer match to this, but I want to put a name on as many as possible and it matches the two websites. Of course no source, book or web, is infallible! 🙂 Here’s one photo for the email version followed by 3 more! Those 2 websites on this species are:

Rounded Metalmark, Atenas, Costa Rica
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First Report of this Species in CR

The Butterflies and Moths dot com doesn’t even have this species included on their website yet (I’ve requested it!) and otherwise online I find it reported from Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, so my photo may be the first reported of this species from Costa Rica (IF my identity is correct) 🙂 and this is not the first time for me to add a new species on that website! 🙂 I’ve found online two common names and two scientific names for what seems to be the same species of butterfly . . .

COMMON NAMES: Yellow-haired Skipper and Yellow-haired Pyramid-Skipper

SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Typhedanus cajeta cajeta and Cogia cajeta cajeta

This is not terribly unusual with so many species of butterflies and new ones being discovered or named every year. And I just wait to see what my supervisor at Butterflies and Moths dot com decides to do with it. 🙂

Yellow-haired Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Caribbean Trip Gallery Finished!

And of course there are many more blog posts I intended to write on this almost annual trip to the Atlantic Coast of Costa Rica, but the opening of a new art gallery is demanding all of my time now! Maybe more later. In the meantime if you are interested in Costa Rica’s Caribe South, I hope you will check out this quite extensive “Trip Gallery” with all of my decent photos included in category folders by clicking the Page 1 Gallery Pix below or going to this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-September-18-24-South-Caribbean-Costa-Rica

CLICK this 1st page image to OPEN GALLERY

BUTTERFLIES are the real stars this year! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

34 Butterfly Species + Busy Schedule

I finally got through all my butterfly photos made on the property at Hotel Banana Azul in Costa Rica’s Caribe South and they total 34 species! Unfortunately I have 11 different Skippers labeled “Unidentified” and I really need some better sources to help with identification. I am including two photos here and one is an unidentified Yellow or Sulphur. You can see all of the 34 species in my Banana Azul 2023 Butterfly GALLERY. And this is in addition to all those already reported on from Gandoca-Manzanillo and Cahuita reserves making a total of 54 species! 🙂

Definitely one of the Spreadwing Skippers, but not specifically identified.
One of the Yellows or Sulphurs but again not specifically identified.

And oh yeah, the feature photo at the top of post has been identified as a Pompeius Skipper, Pompeius pompeius.

¡Pura Vida!

¡Muy ocupado! — Very Busy!

Read on for why I am behind on my blog posts now and what is happening in my personal life, from my new “free” doctors to helping open a new art gallery in Atenas . . .

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Half My Banana Azul Butterflies

I initially was able to identify only about 15 of the 30 or more species of butterflies photographed at Hotel Banana Azul. Most of the remainder of the butterflies are various types of Skippers and hopefully I will eventually identify most of them! 🙂 I’m getting behind again, so not sure when I will get them posted but maybe tomorrow. I’m working on posts only 4 days ahead now, so we will see. 🙂

Arawacus Togarna, Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica
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Nite in Colinas del Sol

Yesterday I had my house fumigated for insects, mainly for an invasion of two different kinds of ants and believed the treatment would be more effective if I left my house closed up with the fogging and spray overnight and thus not healthy for me to sleep there. So I spent last night at our little neighborhood hotel, Colinas del Sol, which is a group of cabins along with a few larger, long-term rental houses. I was put in Villa 3 and snapped a few shots before the afternoon rain started. I can’t go anywhere without capturing photos of the nature there!

I’m writing this last night and my plans are to enjoy their breakfast included with the room this morning and mid-morning return home to open up and air out the house, with all the ceiling fans on for awhile! 🙂 Then enjoy my ant-free house! And tomorrow’s blog post will return to the continuing reports on Hotel Banana Azul in Caribe Sur! I’m still processing photos with a lot more to share! 🙂

View from my Cabin surrounded by forest-like gardens.
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Hiking at “Backdoor” of Cahuita NP

Whether coming as a tourist or a local who visits national parks here, you might want to know that there are two entrances to Cahuita National Park. There is a “main entrance” in the little town of Cahuita where most people enter, including a lot of locals for the easily accessed beaches, coral reef for snorkeling, plus very good hiking trails both along the beach and through the interior rainforest. You can see my previous photos from 2 hikes at that main entrance in these galleries:

Now here’s just 4 shots of the “back door” hiking trail also called officially Sector Puerto Vargas, as basically a 2 km long boardwalk (or bridge) over land that is sometimes under water. It leads you through a beautiful second growth rainforest with lots of wildlife possibilities to a connection with the two trails from the main entrance, one along the beach and one through the forest for a one-way total of about 8 km (using 1 of the main entrance trails + boardwalk) if you go all the way! Me and my guide, Henis, settled for the 4 km round trip on the boardwalk 🙂 where I got my “lifer” bird photo of a Ruddy-tailed Flycatcher, photos of 14 Butterfly Species and some Other Wildlife! Plus these four general shots . . .

My guide Henis on the Boardwalk Trail in Sector Puerto Vargas, Cahuita National Park, Limón, Costa Rica.
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Gandoca-Manzanillo

The wildlife refuge was Wednesday and the best report on that is my Gandoca-Manzanillo GALLERY. And as a sample, here’s one bird, one butterfly and one “other” wildlife pix! 🙂 PLUS one shot of the cloud covered sunrise this morning. At 8 am today I’m going to Cahuita National Park with a report on that later and tomorrow (Saturday) will be my last day for nature around the hotel which will be reported on even later. A good week! Here’s 4 sample shots from Gandoca and one of sunrise today.

Purple Giant Grasshopper, Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica.
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