Category: Flowers

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Two Toucans for Breakfast

Every morning at Tortuga Lodge & Gardens there were two little flocks of two species of toucans directly behind my room eating berries from different trees; Keel-billed Toucans and Yellow-throated Toucans. Here’s just one photo of each species with more in my species galleries linked below the photos.

Yellow-throated Toucan, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
Keel-billed Toucan, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica

See more photos from this trip and from many other places in Costa Rica, including my gardens at home, with a gallery for each species:

¡Pura Vida!

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Chestnut-colored Woodpecker male

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! 🙂

Chestnut-colored Woodpecker, Tortuga Lodge, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
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Banded Tigerwing

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! 🙂

Banded Tigerwing, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica
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Common Mylon

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!

Common Mylon, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Simple Patch Butterfly

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 Rica
Simple 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!

¡Pura Vida!

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Broken Silverdrop

Another nice Skipper Butterfly is this Broken Silverdrop,  Epargyreus exadeus or Epargyreus cruza (my gallery link) a unique butterfly found in both Central and South America. Here’s two shots made recently in my garden . . .

Broken Silverdrop, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Great Southern White

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!

Great Southern White, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
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Laverna Metalmark

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) . . .

Laverna Metalmark (Calephelis laverna), Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Giant White

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 . . .

Giant White, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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This Julia reminds me of Juli

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 Rica
Julia Heliconian, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

My living room remembrance of Juli from “Compassionate Friends” support group.