charliedoggett.net
Both my gardens and ones I visit
I was impressed by this little article in The Washington Post today:
The garden has lessons for us in this quarantine, if we are willing to stop and listen
Photo above in my garden today.
My Gallery Flora & Forest
¡Pura Vida!
The day for all of us to count birds where we are to help science better determine the stability of our fragile planet. Today, 9 May 2020 is GLOBAL BIG DAY of counting birds.
Find out how at:
https://ebird.org/news/global-big-day-9-may-2020
¡Pura Vida!
And after you have counted bird, check out my collection of BIRDS photographed from around the world!
And here’s an interesting NPR article shared by Larry, especially for those who are noticing their birds more – read or listen to at:
Do Those Birds Sound Louder To You? An Ornithologist Says You’re Just Hearing Things
My gardeners made a special trip over today with three new plants to freshen up three pots, two outside and one inside. I may show them later, but after completing the job they gifted me with a bunch of bananas (probably from one of the yards they service) and I had just bought some yesterday! So – extra bananas!
I keep them in the frig because earlier I had bats eating my bananas in a fruit bowl on the counter, so they will keep – but I still need to eat them more frequently this week. Thus I had a banana split after my spaghetti dinner tonight! Small dips of different kinds of ice cream: Fig, Rum-Raisin, and Chocolate Mint with chocolate syrup and two cherries on top! Betcha you never had that combination! Pretty good! 🙂
Yeah, in Central American Banana Republics we eat a lot of those! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Read The Washington Post stories that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize Especially the one explaining climate change!
Thanks to my friend Larry for catching this fine AP News Article: Bird-watching soars amid COVID-19 as Americans head outdoors Read the article linked to see what people all over the U.S. are doing more of now, then head over to eBird or just use your phone to download the free app Merlin to identify birds and start your “bird collection” online or in a photo gallery. My world-wide (10 countries) ebird count is over 530 now! 🙂 Thank you Larry for this great way to relieve one’s boredom from quarantine! And feel free to peruse my BIRDS photo collection that include 76+ species I photographed in the States before moving to Costa Rica.
Now, this quote from the article:
“The birds don’t know that there’s a pandemic. They’re migrating, building nests and laying eggs, just like they always have,” ~Michael Kopack Jr.
¡Pura Vida!
One week from today, May 9, is GLOBAL BIG DAY for bird counting all around the globe. Click that link to see how you can participate from your home while in quarantine. It is easy to get a free eBird account then record the number and species of birds you see or it can be done through the Audubon Society.
If you have trouble identifying birds in your yard and don’t have a field guide to help (or even with it) download the free phone app called Merlin that will help you identify your bird. It is fun and free and can be done from anywhere in the world, even from inside your house looking out a window. Try participating in GLOBAL BIG DAY of bird counting wherever you are next Saturday, May 9. Get ready now.
And to help motivate you, check out my collection of BIRDS photographed from around the world in my “older” adult years! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Okay, yesterday I compared waterfalls so today as I finished my last gallery in the Pre-Costa Rica TENNESSEE Photos gallery, I must do the same with wildflowers. The last gallery for the state of Tennessee is simply Tennessee WILDFLOWERS and again I tried to pick just one photo from each of about 150 species of wildflowers for this gallery with more variety or multiple images in the location galleries where they first appear. The wildflowers were another of the many elements of nature that I enjoyed during my 37 years in Tennessee with an amazing variety!
And the featured photo at top is on a huge Magnolia tree in the same park near my house. The beauty of nature is everywhere!
-o-
Similarly I have enjoyed the beautiful tropical wildflowers (most of my garden is wildflowers). See my Costa Rica through regional flower galleries in my big gallery of flowers I call FLORA & FOREST Costa Rica. Click and enjoy! I’ve only been here 5 and a half years, but spend most of my time with nature now! Just one of the many reasons I love being Retired in Costa Rica!
“Do you know why wildflowers are the most beautiful blossoms of all, my son?”
Dain shook his little head.
Soft waxen curls blew forward in the breeze as she lifted her storm-gray eyes to gaze out over the sea of petals. “Wildflowers are the loveliest of all because they grow in uncultivated soil, in those hard, rugged places where no one expects them to flourish. They are resilient in ways a garden bloom could never be. People are the same, son—the most exquisite souls are those who survive where others cannot. They root themselves, along with their companions, wherever they are, and they thrive.”
― The Maiden Ship
¡Pura vida!
Not Spanish, but the technical name for the new butterfly or skipper I discovered today in my garden with the book’s common name of “Evergreen Poan” as closest match in A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America.
Below are my photos from a walk in the garden this morning and here are some websites that tell you more about this particular species and they say it is only in Mexico, but I think it may be the same or a close cousin! 🙂 And the only ones I find with the “frosting” on the wings are this and a Zebulon which is not as good a match. Mine seems to have longer antennae than the ones on these sites, but otherwise almost the same: – Naturalista – iNaturlist – Wikipedia (Poanes in general) – enciclovida – Not much info out there with most of these sites using the same info and photos! Hmmmm. If you think you know the identification, please let me know!
Check out my Butterfly Gallery
¡Pura Vida!
I’m pretty sure I’ve shown this flower before and still don’t know its name, but like it! It is one I regularly pass by on my walks to town, which is only about 2 times a week now. Staying inside or in my yard mostly and may start showing more of my own flowers again as I did 2 days ago with “Mini-Art”, though most from my garden will be repeats for the blog.
And then there’s my FLORA & FOREST Galleries if you want more! 🙂
PLUS
Earth Day Live is a three-day live stream and an epic community mobilization to show support for our planet, through which millions of people can tune in online alongside activists, celebrities, musicians, and more. The massive live event — which starts on April 22 and concludes on April 24 — is organized by climate, environmental, and Indigenous groups within the US Climate Strike Coalition and Stop The Money Pipeline Coalition.
And it features a very special Costa Rican!
¡Pura Vida!
And read the book THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE
All art is but imitation of nature.
And that Yigüirro is singing his heart out every day now “calling the rains in” which happens every April in anticipation of the May rains or the beginning of the rainy season, our winter here. That is why he is the national bird of Costa Rica.
See my FLORA & FOREST Gallery for more flowers or Birds Gallery or Butterfly Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
🙂
Or almost no place better for birds than my home in the Roca Verde Neighborhood of Atenas, Costa Rica. My long-time intentions to do a photo book of birds photographed at home just got fulfilled!
Check out the free preview of this book of 80 photos of more than 40 species of birds found in my garden and neighborhood. Plus this book is bigger than my travel series books, a full 8 x 10 inches, making it acceptable as a “Coffee Table Book.” 🙂 The hardcover edition is printed on a higher quality of lustre photo paper, though the paperback edition is nice on standard paper. Enjoy! 🙂
https://www.blurb.com/b/10034408-roca-verde-birds
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
~John Muir
¡Pura Vida!