Photographed on my last morning in Tortuguero (yesterday) and these are probably my favorite bird photos bird photos from this trip. 🙂 Chestnut-colored Woodpecker, Celeus castaneus (linked to my gallery. I’ve seen this unusual woodpecker only one other time and that was in the South Caribbean, at Manzanillo. Tortuguero is in the North Caribbean. It is found from Mexico to Panama. And this is my first time to see a woodpecker eating a flower! 🙂
One of the lesser-seen butterflies is this Banded Tigerwing, Aeria eurimedia (my gallery link) found only in Central America and Northern South America. I think it is a handsome butterfly and I almost used one of my photos of it on my ’23 Christmas Card! 🙂
This is another new species for me! And I keep finding them in my own garden! The Common Mylon – Mylon maimon (linked to Wikipedia) is found from Mexico to Argentina. One of the many Skippers. And on iNaturalist Costa Rica my observation is only the 13th in Costa Rica and I’m only the 10th person to report seeing one. But one of those others has the best photos I’ve seen and on his own website: Dr. Heiner Ziegler, MD (Switzerland). Costa Rica attracts nature lovers from all around the world!
This is my first one seen this year, but you can see photos of others photographed in the past plus a few more from this sighting in my garden in my gallery: Simple Patch, Chlosyne hippodrome.
Simple Patch, Chlorosyne hippodrome, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaSimple Patch, Chlorosyne hippodrome, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Transitioning from My Garden to the Jungle Tomorrow!
Tomorrow morning I will post the last of the August nature sightings from my garden, though not all that I saw in a very productive August for nature photos! 🙂 Then tomorrow night I will do my first nighty post from Tortuguero National Park, “The Amazon of Costa Rica,” where I will be for 4 nights, posting a lot of things I can’t from home, including monkeys, maybe a sloth and of course lots of waterbirds, lizards, crocs & caiman, plus hopefully much more! 🙂 There are always surprises!
The “Southern” in the name doesn’t refer to just the deep south of the U.S. but also to further south as in Tropical America (Central & South + Caribbean Islands) where you can also find this butterfly. See some more of my photos made here in Costa Rica in the GALLERY: Great Southern White – Ascia monuste. Here’s two shots of the same butterfly in my garden with different light, making it look like two different insects!
What I (and others) have been calling “Rounded Metalmark,” I now believe are Calephelis laverna (scientific name), Laverna Metalmark, Calephelis laverna (my gallery link). A Google AI summary of searches on the differences in Rounded and Laverna Metalmarks show the wing patterns to be almost identical with possibly “minor differences in genitalia and primary difference being the geographic distribution.” With Rounded Metalmarks found in Texas and Mexico and Laverna Metalmark (some sites use just “Calephelis laverna”) residing in Central America and parts of South America, especially noted in Costa Rica by the AI. Thus I am moving all of my Rounded Metalmarks to Laverna. Here are two photos of the one seen in my Garden Wednesday (side view & top view) . . .
There are many Whites and some are easily confused, but this one seems to be the most common in my garden and you can see other photos of it in my Gallery: Giant White, Ganyra josephina.Here’s 2 photos (when possible, I always try to get a side view & top view) of the one in my garden 3 days ago . . .
This brilliant orange butterfly, Julia Heliconian, Dryas julia (my gallery link) sometimes reminds me of my beaming special needs daughter, Juli, who died of kidney failure in 1997. She too was brilliant, hyper-active and unpredictable! 🙂 And only parents of other special needs children know what I mean. 🙂 She was the only true love in my life at that time and I will always miss her! Pura vida!
Julia Heliconian, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaJulia Heliconian, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
My living room remembrance of Juli from “Compassionate Friends” support group.
Of course there are other looks of this Florida White, Glutophrissa drusilla (my gallery link), but I kind of liked this one captured in my garden in July. See the above gallery for more looks. And I will now start posting August photos, but if the photo ops run thin, I may go back to some more like this from July! There were a lot! 🙂
Florida White, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Folk Music in Atenas Central Park
I’m not even trying to make it to all the colorful activities in our little farming community’s Central Park, but thanks to Facebook sending me links to posts they think might interest me, here’s a video from the Atenas FB Page of a folklore musical performance this past week . . .