Category: Flowers

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Chocolate Butterfly?

Well, not many butterflies have such creative names! And that is not the name of this very brown (chocolate-looking) butterfly with the scientific name of Vacerra litana and the major butterfly websites using the common name of Litana Skipper while my best butterfly book calls it the Common Therra. It is found throughout Central America into the northern edges of South America as far a Guyana. There are so many brown and brownish Skippers! But this one that I photographed in my garden looks the most like chocolate to me, AND it is another NEW SPECIES FOR ME! Here’s 4 photos of the one in my garden:

Litana Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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50+ Maracas!

The last time I tried to count my Maraca Flowers (Shampoo Ginger) I counted around 52 of them! These are the ones behind my house in a very full garden area compared to another Maraca plant out front more in the open which flowers earlier than these and they are more red while these are mostly yellow. Having tropical gardens is a fun past time! 🙂

Maracas or Shampoo Ginger Flowers, Atenas, Costa Rica
Maracas or Shampoo Ginger Flowers, Atenas, Costa Rica

See also My Garden GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

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Rounded Metalmark

One of my favorite tiny butterfly designs is on this Rounded Metalmark, Caliphelis perditalis. And it is rare to see any butterfly on a Plumbago flower because they are sticky and could trap some small butterflies like this one. But notice the intricate design on his wings! Another “Nature as Art!” 🙂 See my Rounded Metalmark GALLERY.

Rounded Metalmark, in my garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Rounded Metalmark, in my garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Red-studded Skipper

This only my second time to see this species of butterfly, Red-studded Skipper, Noctuana stator (linked to my Gallery) with the other sighting being at Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica – that’s on the Caribbean side where I will be in September. 🙂 This time I saw it here in Atenas on one of my walks to town in that Zinnia Garden at 8th & 3rd where I’ve seen a lot of butterflies.

Red-studded Skipper, Noctuana stator, Atenas, Costa Rica.
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Tanna Longtail Skipper

This one has been common in my garden in the past but not this year reminding me that I need some different flowers. This quick cell phone shot was made on a walk to town along Avenida 8 in that Zinna bed so popular with butterflies. I must add zinnas if I can find them! Not a common flower here and I’ve never seen them in any Vivero.

Tanna Longtail on a Zinnia along Avenida 8, Atenas.

And that GALLERY: Tanna Longtail

¡Pura Vida!

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New Species of Butterfly!

Back on July 21 when I took Linda & Carlos Cobos to the Butterfly Conservatory, I was busy relating to them and did not photograph as many butterflies as usual there, but I did get 12 species! And best of all, one of those was a new species for me and my collection! it was the Consul fabius or Tiger-striped Leafwing. That common name is because when his wings are open, instead of folded as here, the top of his wings are black and orange striped like a lot of “tiger” butterflies but with different shaped wings that when closed look like a dead leaf for protection from predators! Only this one never opened his wings for me and we had to keep moving through the greenhouses. Maybe people look like predators to him! 🙂 But, regardless, I got my first photos of a Tiger-striped Leafwing! It is always fun to see something for the first time! 🙂

Tiger-striped Leafwing, Consul fabius, Butterfly Conservatory, El Castillo, Arenal Alajuela, Costa Rica

See all of my Costa Rica Butterflies GALLERIES!

246+ species!

¡Pura Vida!

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Green Plant has Tiny Flowers

I can’t find this in any of my tropical plants books or online, so I think is a foreign introduced plant and will try to get my gardner’s ID next time he is here. Most of of the time it is a dark green plant with white or cream bordered long leaves. Then occasionally it sprouts these long thin stems with tiny little yellow buds that finally open into a tiny white flower with a tinge of blue or purple and yellow stamens. These 5 photos are in order to tell the story of 1-green plant, 2-sprouting long stems with tiny flower and photos 3-5 gradually zooming in on the flowers.

Often it is just a green plant like this.
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Gracefulness in Nature

This Heliconia Leaf seems to me to be gracefully bowing its head as the first signs of deterioration begin it’s final days with only a little touch of brown now and the folding of the once tall and straight green leaf. Nature as Art continues to inspire me as I find my own life slowing down and less capable than before. May I conclude my life as gracefully as this Heliconia Leaf! 🙂

Nature as Art

¡Pura Vida!

See another Heliconia Leaf in a further stage of death that I used on the cover of a recent photo book titled Designed by Nature which you can preview for free online. Nature is truly graceful!

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Wren in Garden

Several wrens have been checking out my severely pruned Triquitraque Vines or Flame Vines that I asked the gardeners to cut back and they cut way back! 🙂 Plus all the ground cover around them! Oh well – it will grow back and the vines are already sprouting new growth. But I think it is the open soil and not the sprouts that attract these Rufous-naped Wrens, probably looking for worm or insect food! 🙂 It has always been one of my common or regular birds year around and, though decreased recently, they seem to be returning in greater numbers now. Here’s 4 shots of these birds in their dapper plaid sport jacket! 🙂

Rufous-naped Wren, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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New Children’s Playground

The new Central Park Playground has been finished and open for maybe two months and I’m just slow reporting on it. At first I reacted negatively to all the bright colors and what looks like cheap Chinese Plastic, but I think I mis interpreted! It is designed for younger Elementary School and Preschool kids and now I think it is perfect for them! And the artificial turf too! The other day I stopped by one afternoon after many kids would be out of school and it wasn’t raining and there was a lot of activity! It was fun for me to see the creativity of some kids using the space under the tree house or slide and climbing wall to gather as in their “clubhouse.” The hyper little boys had plenty to keep them busy and I noticed for older elementary kids maybe, there was a tic-tac-toe wall with changeable X’s and O’s. Clever! And as expected, the swings were the busiest. I tried not to get any closeup photos of children and their faces for their privacy, staying on the periphery for all photos. Here’s four . . .

New Children’s Playground, Central Park Atenas
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