Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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Lizard for Lunch!

WARNING! The photos in this post are graphic and could be considered gross, especially if you are a lizard or have close friends who are lizards!   🙂

I was waiting for my driver from Atenas to arrive at Maquenque for lunch and our return trip home when one of the lodge staff come running in, excitedly telling me that there was a Toucan in a tree in front of the restaurant eating a lizard. Of course I grabbed my camera and ran out for some photos which were difficult because of the poor light in the tree at almost 12 noon! But here’s 5 shots of the Yellow-throated Toucan with his captured lizard and the final shot of another toucan either stealing lizard meat from him or having it shared. I could not tell which.   🙂

Yellow-throated Toucan eating a lizard for lunch at Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica.

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Long-tailed Tyrant

Not a new bird for me but definitely in the best positions for photos! It was like he was posing for 3 or 4 of us photographers at breakfast this morning! ? You can read about them on eBird  – found from Guatemala south as far as Paraguay and from north to south in Costa Rica, though mostly on the Atlantic or Caribbean Slope in both Costa Rica & Panama. Here’s 4 shots I made this morning that I’m pleased with because I could get close enough. Usually I have to try and photograph from a great distance. Another beautiful and different bird found here. My GALLERY of them is linked at the bottom of this post.

Long-tailed Tyrant, Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica.

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Ceraunus Blue

This is my third time to photograph a Ceraunus Blue, Hemiargus ceraunus, including one other time in my home garden and one at Hotel Banana Azul in the Caribbean. You can see those other photos in the Ceraunus Blue GALLERY and other people’s photos from all over the Americas at butterfliesandmoths.org. This is one of those tiny, fingernail-sized butterflies and seems to be fairly common in North and Central America. Here’s my three different views of this one last Thursday in my garden . . .

Ceraunus Blue, Hemiargus ceraunus, Atenas, Costa Rica

 

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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!   🙂

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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!

 

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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!

 

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The Concert Master

The most frequently heard song in my garden in April is always the melodic song of the Clay-colored Thrush, called Yigüirro in Costa Rican Spanish. Local tradition is that he is singing in the rainy season, begging God for rain and thus he usually goes near the top of trees to sing and why my photos seldom show him singing. It sounds like he is trying really hard to do a good job and loud! As locals say, “singing his heart out!” You can hear one recording on eBird, click the “Listen” Button.

But they do come down to the lower limbs occasionally for my photos,  🙂  with these two shots from two different days. Usually we have a light start of rain the middle of April scattered over several days with the “real” rain beginning in earnest in May when we can have a shower or more every afternoon through November.

This year we had the unusual experience of 4 days of showers in March! Climate change! I live in the “Central Valley” which would not be considered a “rainforest” like both coasts and their corresponding “slopes” where it rains year around and occasionally all day. I like visiting the rainforests but the Central Valley is better for daily living.  🙂

Clay-colored Thrush, Yigüirro, Atenas, Costa Rica

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My Solo Hummingbird

This one Rufous-tailed Hummingbird appears to be the only one living in my gardens right now and occasionally he almost poses for a photo. I have not been putting out the Hummingbird feeder for a long time now because these Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds are very territorial and he chases any others off. But after next week’s trip I will have nearly 3 months of no travel and may try the feeder again, not to necessarily feed this guy but hope it attracts other hummingbirds. We will see!  🙂

Right now they depend on flowers alone for food! I guess that is more natural!   🙂  But in the past I had a lot more than this!

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And more in my Rufous-tailed Hummingbird GALLERY.

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Small Endemic Bird – Spot-crowned Euphonia

This small bright blue & yellow bird landed for 30 seconds or so in my Yellow Bell Tree Wednesday and I managed to get a few shots before he left. He is the male Spot-crowned Euphonia  (eBird link), endemic to Costa Rica and the northern fringes of Panama, only on the Pacific Slopes, and just my third time to photograph one! First time in my garden!  🙂  My other places were at Esquinas Rainforest lodge at Piedras Blancas NP north of Golfito and at Hacienda Guachipelin, Rincón de la Vieja NP in Guanacaste near Liberia. I go back to Esquinas in July for my 83rd birthday and expect to see them again! 🙂

One of my all-time favorite bird photos was of a female Spot-crowned Euphonia eating a berry at Esquinas Lodge! See that and the other shots in my Spot-Crowned Euphonia Gallery! Now here’s 3 shots from my garden Wednesday . . .

Spot-crowned Euphonia, male, Atenas, Costa Rica

Above he’s looking down, next looking up and the third looking right into the camera before flying off!  🙂

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Great Crested Flycatcher

He landed in one of my Nance trees for only a few seconds and then flew away, never showing his face, which can help with ID! 🙂 But after a lot of research online and in my books I am pretty certain that this fellow is a Great Crested Flycatcher which we can have here as both immigrants from the north this time of year or non-breeding residents year-a-round. But this is my first time to see one here, though I saw one in the states in the past.

Great Crested Flycatcher, Atenas, Costa Rica

For the birders reading, notice the distinctive white wing-bars and the slight reddish-orange tinting on the lower edge of his wing. Only Great Crested, Brown and Ash-throated Flycatchers have both of those, eliminating the similar Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Dusky-capped Flycatcher and Northern Beardless Tyrannulet. Plus none of those have this bright a yellow belly or this dark of a brown crest which is also the two reasons I eliminate the  Brown and Ash-throated Flycatchers!

Sometimes bird ID becomes like scientific detective work!  🙂  But I’m pretty confident of this ID, even without a face shot which would have shown no eye ring and a slight bit of pink at the base of his bill.  Read about him on eBird. And you who live in the Eastern U.S. are possibly familiar with him as a common bird there, as shown on eBird’s map, and where I’ve seen him before.

¡Pura Vida!