Category: Cloud Forest

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“Hug a Tree!”

After the jeep ride up the mountain (yesterday’s post) going past the mirador (Spanish for a vista overlook platform), we stopped at the trailhead for multiple trails. Me and the 3-generation Tico family chose the shorter trail through the forest down to the Savegre Mirador. Just one experience here, so be sure to see the others in the Hiking the Pioneers Trail Photo GALLERY.

An 800 Year Old Tree says “Hug Me!”
A Mother & Child Hug the 800 year old Tree.

And for more pix on the trails at Savegre, click the linked blog post below titled “Trails and Trees” where Marino Chacón (a different son of the founder than this year) took me on a longer trails hike for the early morning bird hike back in January 2021, just the 2 of us.

¡Pura Vida!

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4×4 Jeep Up the Mountain

Of course many choose to hike all the way up to several different trails and the Mirador (vista platform) which I did last time here, but I chose the jeep ride up and down this time with just a short nature trail which I will tell about tomorrow. Here’s one shot of the jeep we road up in with its dog co-pilot! :-) I road with a 3-generation Tico family on vacation there, a 3 or 4 year old boy, his parents and grandparents. The two weeks either side of Christmas are vacation time for most government employees and many big companies not involved in retail sales of course! :-) Thus half or more of the people at the hotel were Ticos. The rest were tourists from the States, Canada, Australia, and all over Europe. Another charming thing about traveling about Costa Rica! :-)

The jeep we road up and down the mountain in with it’s dog co-pilot. 🙂

See some other photos in my gallery: 4×4 Jeep Ride up the Mountain. And tomorrow some photos from our hike on the Pioneers Trail!

¡Pura Vida!

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Stately Female Quetzal

While the male is more “showy” with his very long two green feathers that really impress when he is flying (that I can never capture in the camera), the female is just as colorful and maybe more “stately” in my opinion. Only one shot here, but you can see my other photos in this trips “Trip Gallery Sub-gallery”: Resplendent Quetzal Female.

Resplendent Quetzal Female, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

And you who have visited the tropics might look at her tail and say that she looks like a Trogon – and you would be basically correct, in that the Quetzal is in the Trogon family, just a little more colorful and showy than most Trogons, though some of them are pretty colorful too! Just no long green feathers like the Quetzal Male.  :-)

Today is the day I leave San Gerardo de Dota to return to my home in Atenas, Alajuela Province, but I will continue sharing images from these beautiful mountains over the next week or so and be developing a new trip gallery, so keep reading! :-)

¡Pura Vida!

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A “Parade” of Quetzals

Well, I call it a “parade” because I’ve never seen so many Resplendent Quetzals in one place before. I got a different guide yesterday after getting no good Quetzal photos on Christmas day and told him that my goal was to get some good photos of Quetzals! He asked “Are you willing to pay $5 to go on someone’s private property?” I said “Yes!” and he said “We will go to the best place to get photos of Quetzals.” And it was! But I didn’t even get the name of it, if it has a name! It is behind a farmer’s house where he has a bunch of Wild Avocado trees planted and built several perches near them because they like to perch before and after grabbing a Wild Avocado. Note that these are much smaller or about 1/4 the size of our human Avocados. It is interesting to see them eat one. They put the whole thing in their mouth and eat all the Avocado meat off the seed, then spit the seed out. :-)

Here is only one photo because of slow internet here, but you can go to the only sub-gallery I’ve created yet in my trip galleries and see all 17 shots and most are different individuals with 2 or 3 photographed twice. It is simply called Resplendent Quetzal Male gallery and will ultimately be a part of this trip’s gallery. Tomorrow I’ll do the same thing with the female Quetzal which were there in almost equal number with the males who would fly acrobatically over the females to impress them. And if you are interested in seeing some very different photos of Quetzals from my earlier trips to San Gerardo de Dota and Monteverde, check out my Resplendent Quetzal GALLERY going back to my first trip here in 2009! :-) Quetzals are just one of the special treats in Costa Rica!

Resplendent Quetzal Male, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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Mexican Silverspot

I’ve seen this cool butterfly in only two places, here and at Guayabo Lodge near Turrialba. It is found from Texas to Brazil. Since I’m limiting myself to one photo per post from this location, see the other shots in my Mexican Silverspot GALLERY plus my earlier shots.

Mexican Silverspot, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.

See shots from other places on butterfliesandmoths.org. And oh yeah, I did not get a good Quetzal shot yesterday morning, so I’m trying again this morning. Wildlife does not usually pose for photographers! :-)

¡Pura Vida!

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Tennessee Warbler in Costa Rica

Yeh! He’s a regular “Snow Bird” who migrates down here from my former state and others every winter. I hiked down the road to Batsu Gardens yesterday for Christmas Eve and my 9th Anniversary in Costa Rica. This Tennessee Warbler was just one of many birds I photographed, meaning I have lots of photos to process. But today’s focus is on the “Christmas Quetzal” as I was scheduled for the 5:15 am “Quetzal Tour” on Christmas Morning with one of the hotel guides. Maybe a report on that tomorrow morning! :-)

Tennessee Warbler, Batsu Gardens, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Merry Christmas!

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Smallest Hummingbird

in Costa Rica and 2nd smallest in the world! (Smallest is Bee Hummingbird not found here.) Plus this one it is endemic to Costa Rica and Panama. At higher elevations it is replaced by its slightly larger “cousin” the Volcano Hummingbird. Here’s one shot made here at Hotel Savegre in San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. Read about the Scintillant Hummingbird, Selasphorus scintilla, on eBird and see more photos from San Gerardo de Dota, both at Savegre and Batsu Gardens, AND from El Silencio Lodge, my only places to see this species, in my Scintillant Hummingbird GALLERY. Because of slow internet here, only one photo.

Scintillant Hummingbird, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.

This one is either a female or immature male, both of which have spotted throats. Mature males have a solid orange throat.

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve and I plan on one more post today, my 9th year anniversary of living in Costa Rica. :-)

¡Pura Vida!

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A “Lifer” Bird First Morning!

Right after breakfast in a garden behind the restaurant I got several shots of this male and a few weaker shots of the female Yellow-bellied Siskin – Spinus xanthogastrus (eBird link). Because the wifi or internet is weaker or slower here I will be trying to use only one photo per post but to include both male & female, two photos today! :-)

Yellow-bellied Siskin, Male, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.
Yellow-bellied Siskin, Female, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.

See my gallery of Yellow-bellied Siskin with more shots from this morning. This morning I went to a new garden on the hotel campus and have a lot of photos of a lot of birds that I will slowly share, one bird at a time and then tomorrow morning I plan to go to Batsu Gardens across the road for even more birds. I did get a couple of butterflies this morning and a caterpillar, but this trip will be mostly birds it appears! :-)

¡Pura Vida!

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Beginning My Christmas Retreat

As always, my faithful driver, Walter, got me through all the Christmas traffic going around San Jose and up to my mountain hideaway in Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota. This time his wife Gabby and their year old daughter got to ride with us through the traffic of one wreck, lots of Christmas shoppers and half of Costa Rica beginning their summer vacation this weekend! I treated them to a late lunch at Savegre and the waiter made this photo. And believe it or not a Resplendent Quetzal visited us in a tree by our outside dining area. And my camera was not with me! 🙁

Walter Ramirez Family with me at Savegre.

Mountain flowers are different from those in the lowlands, so one of my first shots was of flowers and there will be many more! :-)

Mountain Flowers, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota.

¡Pura Vida!

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And the Other Birds

From El Silencio, I shared the Trogon & Chlorospingus first and then the Hummingbirds and now here’s the “leftovers!” 🙂 Actually they aren’t all bad photos, but not as interesting as the other earlier-shared 4 birds. Six here, making a total of only 10 birds this trip compared to 23 the previous visit to El Silencio. The number of birds are way down everywhere this year! And no one has a good explanation.

Continue reading “And the Other Birds”