Rejoice!

A view of our tranquil little farm town from a hill in my neighborhood.
Plants up the driveway from my house that said “resurrection” to me.
One of the most joyful flowers in my garden, to me, the Flame Vine or Triquitraque here,

He has risen!

He has risen indeed!

¡Pura Vida!

For a few shots of old Traditional Easter Pageantry, see the trip gallery of my 2016 Visit to Granada, Nicaragua Easter Week, called “Semana Santa” en español.

PERSONAL NOTE: Tonight I will be at one of my favorite nature lodges, Maquenque Ecolodge in Boca Tapada on the Nicaragua border from which you can expect weeks of nature photos and maybe one tonight!   🙂

Mystery Insect with Shin Pads?

There are thousands of different species of insects in Costa Rica and I have no idea what this one is that I caught the other day in my garden on a Plumbago flower (Most insects don’t land on it because it is sticky and they can get stuck!). AND he appears to have little yellow shin pads or knee pads. Hmmm? Every day in Costa Rica nature there is a new discovery!  🙂

Unidentified Insect, Atenas, Costa Rica
Unidentified Insect, Atenas, Costa Rica

I will put him in my Unidentified Insects GALLERY where there are 34 species now with some much more colorful and interesting. Please contact me if you can identify any of them!

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

 

Brown Longtail Manages the Wind

It is still windy here into April which is unusual and it plays havoc with the butterflies, meaning that I am still seeing or photographing few. But this Brown Longtail, Urbanus procne, along with some of the other Skippers and a few tiny ones on the ground are all I see right now and less frequently a Yellow high in the air, seemingly riding the currents of the wind and never landing where I can photograph. This one I got the day before yesterday in my garden on a Porterweed in a brief lull of the wind.

Brown Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica

See my Brown Longtail GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

 

The “Brown is Cool” Butterflies

Three butterflies I got the other morning at the same time that are not new to me but I think handsome butterflies, The Tanna Longtail (normal sized) and the Rawson’s Metalmark (tiny fingernail sized), the same species I featured 6 days ago on March 22, and a Plain Longtail not much different from the first one above.

Tanna Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica

Note that this Tanna Longtail is very similar to the Teleus Longtail (darker side spots, thinner median band) and the Brown Longtail (also with darker side spots) and thus my ID is not guaranteed but I’m pretty sure!  🙂

Rawson’s Metalmark, Atenas, Costa Rica
Plain Longtail Skipper, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

See my galleries of other shots of these two at:

¡Pura Vida!

Nature as Contemporary Art

Delicate flower buds, a dead leaf and a huge tree on the hill above my house – just using my imagination and playing with nature in the camera . . .

Nature as Art, Atenas, Costa Rica
Nature as Art, Atenas, Costa Rica
Nature as Art, Atenas, Costa Rica

Fingernail-sized Butterfly

This tiny butterfly in my garden the other day that I am identifying as a Rawson’s Metalmark. These very tiny little brown butterflies are difficult to identify!  🙂   Here’s 4 shots of this one from different angles . . .

A tiny Metalmark Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

Continue reading “Fingernail-sized Butterfly”

AM Garden Bird Sightings

These are just the ones I recently photographed with the Saltator and Yellow Warbler seen less often but not really rare and the other 4 regulars seen almost daily now with the White-winged Dove and Chachalaca also fairly regular but no pix this time. Now that the wind is starting to lessen, I expect to see a lot more birds! There are few butterflies now, but their “big season” here seems to be June to October, so I look forward to that also! Here’s one bird for the email notice and 5 more below that online . . .

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica. Note the long white tongue sticking out of the red and black bill!  🙂

 

Continue reading “AM Garden Bird Sightings”

Garden Pix

Walking through the garden on two mornings (March 11 & 12) and I chose these shots to share in a little slide show. Rainy Season usually sorta starts the middle of April and really starts in May, but by March 12 we have already had 3 little but nice rains! So I’m glad as is my garden!  🙂

Each and every bloom is unique and beautiful to me. Enjoy walking through my garden with the slide show below and here is the only one I can’t identify, from across the driveway in neighbor’s yard . . .

Unidentified in Neighbor’s Yard

Continue reading “Garden Pix”

Tortuguero 2023 GALLERY

I have finally cleaned up my many photos and organized them into a “trip gallery” for this year’s trip to Tortuguero (my 4th) to a new lodge that I will evaluate in another blog post later. To see the gallery, click the linked image of the first page below or use this linked web address:  https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-February-12-16-Tortuga-Lodge-Tortuguero-NP

First page of Tortuguero 2023 Trip Gallery by Charlie — CLICK image to go there!

¡Pura Vida!