Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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Blue-vented Hummingbird

This is my other “non-Rufous-tailed” hummingbird from the one shared yesterday and actually the first species of hummingbird that I photographed just 3 days after moving into this house back in 2015. (Bad photo but good memory!) 🙂 As today’s featured photo shows, it has a rich, deep blue tail that helps it to stand out among other birds. See more of my photos of this special hummingbird in the gallery: Blue-vented Hummingbird. And almost all have been photographed in my garden, though maybe my favorite of this species was photographed at Xandari in 2018! 🙂

Blue-vented Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Blue-vented Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

14,000 Views!

That is how many views my blog & website got during the month of May according to the Jetpack program on my site. That is a lot! THANK YOU for reading my blog/website and the related and linked Gallery! It makes my retirement activities seem more important to have that many people looking at my photos! 🙂

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Canivet’s Emerald & Porterweed

This Canivet’s Emerald (my gallery link) is one of the 3 hummingbirds in my garden, with Blue-vented being the other one secondary to the Rufous-tailed who thinks he owns the garden and when I fill the feeders, hogs them and chases off other hummingbirds (the Canivet’s & Blue-vented), but these other two have easier access to my large number of Porter Weeds, officially called Blue Porterweed, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (Wikipedia link). They are in the verbena family and are the most popular flower here for both hummingbirds and butterflies. And they are not all blue! 🙂

Canivet’s Emerald, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Blue Porterweed, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica And yeah, they’re not all blue but that’s the name in English! Or Cola del Toro en español

¡Pura Vida!

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May Flowers

Because I give priority to wildlife & travel in my blog posts, there are often not a lot of my garden flowers shown, thus I recently started using the last day of the month to feature photos I took that month of flowers in my garden not yet in the blog. Here are my photos from the month of May in two galleries, one of verticals and one of horizontals, simply because they display better that way. 🙂 Both galleries appear in the online blog after this one image for the emailed version of the blog post . . .

Torch Ginger or El Bastón del Emperador
Continue reading “May Flowers”
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Banded Yellow

This tiny butterfly appears at first to be plain beige with dark patches showing through from the top side (they are dark brown patches). But if you look close you can see a faint yellow band along the edge of the forward wing. The only ones I’ve seen have been in my garden and on the nearby Calle Nueva dirt road. See my other shots, including one top view showing those dark brown patches and at least one with a more obvious yellow band! 🙂 All in my gallery: Banded Yellow, Limoncito de Faja, Eurema elathea.

Banded Yellow, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Pink-spotted Cattleheart

One of the few unique butterflies I saw in May, the Pink-spotted Cattleheart (my gallery link) is found only from Mexico to Costa Rica. They like my garden. 🙂 But this one would not come out in the open like a few in my above-linked gallery. All but one in the gallery were seen in my garden, with the one exception being at Villa Caletas, Jaco, just an hour west of here. Like with a few other butterfly species, I am the #1 observer of this in Costa Rica on iNaturalist. 🙂

Pink-spotted Cattleheart, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Pink-spotted Cattleheart, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

My sick stomach is slowly getting better with meds & careful eating.

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Two Nights at Xandari

Blue-vented Hummingbird at Xandari Costa Rica

Starting today, I will spend a couple of days at Xandari Nature Resort on the outskirts of the city of Alajuela, our provincial capital. It is not exactly cheap, so two nights is enough for one of my top 3 or 4 butterfly locations while I hope they have less wind there than we do in Atenas, less than an hour away. We will see! Oops! I just had to cancel because of a sick stomach and asked if they could move my special price to another date. Hope so! Though not suppose to make changes on pre-paid specials. 🙂 Well, they did make the change to June 8-10, same reservation, just two week later and hopefully with a healthier old man! They told me that I was a special guest and they were happy to postpone the reservation. 🙂

Garden Art, Xandari Costa Rica

Here’s links to the “trip galleries” of my earlier visits to Xandari, in a resort chain with headquarters in India, adding to the exotic nature of the place with waterfalls, forest trails, birds & butterflies and some of the best flower gardens in the country, plus a small farm for their restaurant. A cool place on a hilltop overlooking downtown Alajuela and the San Jose Airport from a lush tropical forest.

Southern Guava Skipper, Xandari Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Almost Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture, Xandari Costa Rica
Sunset Xandari Costa Rica

I’ll start posting photo reports tonight, Now that will be the night of June 8! 🙂

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Great Kiskadee

One of the more common birds seen in my garden has always been the Great Kiskadee (linked to my gallery) and here are 2 shots of this tropical bird common all over Costa Rica.

Great Kiskadee, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Great Kiskadee, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Silence in Photography

See my notes on yesterday’s class on SILENCE for Photography & Mindfulness at:

Pause 6: Silence including a link to YouTube recording of song “The Sound of Silence” or find links to my collection of notes on Photography & Mindfulness. 🙂

Dina Yellow, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Pre-rain cloudiness this morning, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Great Spreadwing

This Great Spreadwing Damselfly (my gallery link) has the scientific name of  Archilestes grandis and the Spanish common name of Caballito Crucifijo Mayor. The name refers to the fact that it is one of the few damselflies that always lands with wings spread out. And this is my 4th sighting of one in my garden. It must like Atenas too! 🙂 See more photos in my gallery linked above.

¡Pura Vida!

It is still windier than usual for May, but less frequently now. I’ve photographed a lot of birds in my garden but no great photos yet. And fewer butterflies. 🙂 I’m staying home and resting this weekend because of a little stomach virus (taking medications) and want to be full of energy for my Monday to Wednesday visit to Xandari which has been a good butterfly source in the past.

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Light & Shadow + Pause 5 Class Notes

The theme of today’s online class was “Light & Shadow” and you can see my class notes and comments at Pause 5: Light & Shadow. (linked to my notes) Still not excited about the class, but this was a good photo-activity! 🙂

So I went outside at about 3pm yesterday (not the best time for long shadows, but okay). Here are a few of my shots in a gallery that won’t work in the email, so one pix for the email and then go to the online post for the gallery . . .

Every forest is light & shadow! This one across the cow pasture by the stream.
Continue reading “Light & Shadow + Pause 5 Class Notes”