charliedoggett.net
Both my gardens and ones I visit
On butterfliesandmoths.org I have the only reports of this Yellow-haired Skipper, Typhedanus cajeta. My first sighting was earlier this year in my garden and this time it was at Macaw Lodge, Carara National Park. The above link is to the online butterfly site I volunteer for with only my sightings included there now. Plus here is a link to my Yellow-haired Skipper GALLERY. And below are 3 photos of this simple brown butterfly from my November visit to Macaw Lodge . . .
She was in the early morning shadows at breakfast on my terrace, thus poor photos, but I had to share since it’s the first Yellow Warbler I’ve gotten in a long time, maybe this year, though usually more common. There can be both local residents and migrants from the north, with this one being an adult female, meaning I can’t tell since both local and migrant females are the same, while males are different with the male in CR having a rusty-red head. There is also a CR Mangrove Warbler that is almost identical, but it only lives in the Mangroves along the coast, thus never here in Atenas in the Central Valley, while the Prothonotary Warbler can be in both locations but is a little more distinct or never confused with this one.
See more in my Yellow Warbler GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
Though I haven’t noticed them as much recently, I think they are always around, maybe a family, as one of these looks younger than the other.
The featured photo is of the older one on the roof, so email recipients have to go to the website by clicking the post title. 🙂 For more photos of this species, go to their gallery: Black Spiny-tailed Iguana.
¡Pura Vida!
The Banded Peacock is one of those steady friends you can always expect to be here every year and in this strange weather year, he was again always here, even if in fewer numbers, continuing to add color to my gardens and other places I visited. These two photos were made just before I left for Macaw Lodge and I like how he contrasts with both the green and the yellow leaves as another butterfly with a rich brown color. There will be fewer butterflies now until next May, but fortunately a tropical country has some butterflies year around! And soon my copies of the Second Edition of Pura Vida Butterflies book will be here with 240+ species of butterflies, the most of any book available right now! Click that link to order your copy!
For more photos, see my Banded Peacock GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
And don’t miss this weekend’s BIG ART FAIR at Plaza Calle 2! JIT! Just in time for the Holidays with gift possibilities for everyone!
¡Pura Vida!
And if you like my Christmas Card photos, see all of the ones I’ve sent from Costa Rica in my Christmas Card GALLERY.
Sorry that I keep switching between more photos from the Macaw Lodge visit and photos in my own garden at home. But another new species is a big deal to me, even though this one did not make my new butterfly book which is already being printed! 🙂
It is another tiny Metalmark with the English name of Blue-based Theope and the scientific name of Theope virgilius. The top of his wings are a bright sky-blue, but because it was windy, he never perched with wings spread and thus no photos of top. I saw the blue when he was flying, but too fast to photograph! 🙂
And see more shots I made of him in my garden in my Blue-based Theope GALLERY.
There haven’t been many submitted on butterfliesandmoths.org, but you can see those four from Mexico and Costa Rica at that link plus a few more at butterfliesofamerica, also from Mexico and Costa Rica. Our regional guanacasteconservationarea includes photos of the caterpillars and iNaturalistPanama has some nice photos of the butterfly which they call “Tourmaline Butterfly” in Panama, but it is the same one. 🙂
Butterflies are amazing and beautiful and there are so many of them! The frequent new discoveries I’m having are a joy! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
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.
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
¡Pura Vida!
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.
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! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!