Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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A New Tiny Butterfly

As I said in yesterday’s post, on the morning I published the second edition of my big butterfly book, I captured a photo of another new species that just barely made it into the book! 🙂 It is the Clench’s Greenstreak – Cyanophrys miserabilis and I adjusted the size of another Gossamer Wings butterfly in the book to make this last minute addition fit. Fun! And that is in addition to the other last minute addition of just 4 days before that when I got the Red-headed Firetip – Pyrrhopyge phidias at Macaw Lodge which I featured in an earlier blog post and also adjusted the size of another photo to make that Skipper butterfly fit in the book. 🙂 Here’s one shot of the Greenstreak for the email followed by a little gallery of 4 shots.

Clench’s Greenstreak, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Second Edition of Pura Vida Butterflies

And today just before publishing it, I added another new butterfly! 🙂 I’ll share that butterfly tomorrow, but here is the link to my new Costa Rica Butterflies book:

348 photos of more than 240 species of butterflies in Costa Rica makes this the largest current photo book of just Costa Rica Butterflies. Use as a coffee table book or for identification and research with a complete index of both common English names and the Latin scientific names. And this is right on the heels of the release of my second edition of the smaller Hotel Banana Azul Butterfly book! 🙂

Follow this link or click the image of the book’s front cover below for a free electronic preview of every page! https://www.blurb.com/b/11802842-pura-vida-butterflies

CLICK this cover image for a FREE PREVIEW!

¡Pura Vida!

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10 Different Dragonflies

Macaw Lodge is, like the nearby national park, a “Transitional Forest” near the coast and lowland rainforests, yet at a higher elevation but not quite high enough for a cloud forest, and though sometimes drier than a rainforest, definitely not a tropical dry forest like those in nearby Guanacaste, thus the indication of “Transitional Forest.” Yet they have a lot of water (mountain streams they route portions through lily ponds) which helps attract frogs and dragonflies. Here’s 10 dragonflies I photographed and though I’ve identified a few, not most, I will not identify any of the photos here until I’m sure of the identity, which continues to be difficult with over 300 species and a great similarity of many of the species! 🙂 One photo for the email version and then a gallery with all 10.

Dragonfly, Macaw Lodge, Carara National Park, Costa Rica
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Emerald Glass Frog

Macaw Lodge has many lily ponds which attract all kinds of frogs and dragonflies, but this particular glass frog is arboreal and was see on a vine growing over a little arbor over a bridge over a stream. They are called “glass” frogs because with some you can see inside their bodies and some of their organs. This one was tiny (as most glass frogs), maybe 1.5 inches at most. There are 154 identified glass frogs in Central and South America with 14 known species in Costa Rica. See my Amphibians Costa Rica GALLERY where I have 4 species of glass frogs among about 50 frogs! 🙂 And I am not certain with this particular identification of “Emerald,” but was the best match in my amphibians book! 🙂

Glass Frog, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Red-headed Firetip

Out of about a dozen species of butterflies photographed here at Macaw Lodge, it looks like the only new one for me will be this Red-headed Firetip, Pyrrhopyge phidias. I have photos of the Royal Firetip, but neither seem to be seen often. And this one looks a little like the Guava Skipper, though in a different sub-family. They are all in the big Skipper family. See all my Skippers in that family gallery.  😊

I have enjoyed my little 3-night getaway at Macaw Lodge and I return home tomorrow. Even with a lot of rain, I managed to photograph much in this truly “off the beaten tracks” lodge in a partially old growth forest adjacent a national park. I got about 17 species of birds and a dozen species of butterflies along with landscapes and other nature things!  😊 The food is good and the people super-nice, both the rural locals and the guests that included a group from Europe this week. For anyone considering wilderness places in Costa Rica, I do recommend this lodge! It is my second visit with the other time in 2019.

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The “Perfect” Motmot Portraits

🙂 This Lesson’s Motmot, Momotus lessonii (formerly Blue-crowned) was healthy, with good color, and best of all, the tail was not broken like in most of my photos of Motmots, plus both medallions at the end of his tail were in perfect condition! Then to top that off, he posed on all sides, front and back, facing both left and right! These are my best ever Motmot photos and to think that I almost missed them because my lens was fogging up from the morning rain! 😊 But removing the protective lens solved that problem! And though it rained all night, we had sun all morning and it was a very good morning with lots of both birds and butterflies to photograph! My Thanksgiving Blessing! 🙂 And check out my Lesson’s Motmot GALLERY for more photos of this beautiful bird! And here’s three of many shots from this morning . . .

Lesson’s Motmot, Macaw Lodge, Carara National Park, Costa Rica.
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The Colorful Brown

One of the few butterflies that are still hanging around is the Rounded Metalmark, one of my most seen tiny butterflies this years and unlike a lot of the brown Skippers, he/she is a “colorful brown” to me. I like blue and brown together with the orange and those big beady eyes! And he’s only a little larger than my thumbnail! 🙂

Rounded Metalmark, Atenas, Costa Rica

More in my Rounded Metalmark GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

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Orchard Oriole

Less common here than the Baltimore Oriole, this male is different from the Baltimore with his richer “chestnut” or dark orange (rust) color and a tiny curvature on his bill plus being a little smaller than the Baltimore Oriole. This was a difficult call for me because it is rarer here, though Merlin backs me up on calling it an Orchard, having run both of these photos through that A-I bird identification program on my cell phone. It is a lifer for me, Orchard Oriole, Icterus spurius, linked to the eBird description. And if you would like to compare with the Baltimore Oriole, see that link to my gallery on them where you will see that the male is a brighter yellow-orange and even part yellow. Both species summer in North America and winter in Central and northern South America starting in October. As you can see in the above gallery link, I’ve seen a lot more of the Baltimore here than the Orchard! My first today! Just these two shots from my Cecropia Tree this morning:

Orchard Oriole, Atenas, Costa Rica
Orchard Oriole, Atenas, Costa Rica

For more photos of this bird this morning, see my Orchard Oriole GALLERY, though my two favorite shots are here! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!