Category: Garden

Both my gardens and ones I visit

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A Break in Blogging

Yep! I just went 6 days without blogging which is not my usual habit which is to write posts 3 or 4 days ahead then break from the routine while posts keep coming out. No health problems or catastrophes, “just tired of blogging.” But with another trip coming tomorrow, I’m in the mood and here’s a few nature photos made during this “down time.”

Two Bee or Not Two Bee

I’m still not getting many butterflies in my garden yet other than the fast-moving Yellows that never seem to land for a photo. But here’s two bees in my garden this morning:

Unidentified Bee on Triquitraque
Green Orchid Bee on Porter Weed
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Iguanas Gaining Popularity

That’s the restaurant now, not the large reptilian lizard! 🙂 But to me the food is still just “so-so” or mediocre. My second try was with nachos that I thought a young-adult oriented restaurant would do really good, but they had no chicken nachos that day and the beef was tough or hard to chew and stringy, catching in my teeth. They again asked me how was the food and I told them, so maybe they will improve? Plus, this time I walked all the way to the back of the long restaurant and out into their patio which is obviously the most popular section. It is beautiful with a cool outdoor Costa Rica mural and a statue of an iguana! Pleasing environment! 🙂 Fun, youthful restaurant! And tourists will like too!

Outdoor Patio area of Iguanas Restaurant, Atenas, Costa Rica.
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2nd Life of Triquitraque!

This Triquitraque or Flame Vine on my back wall usually blooms two months: January-February and that’s it! This January it did not have as many blooms, so I gave it a little plant food and started watering it more when wow! it started growing new vines and blooming much more than in January, so now I’m getting a “2nd Life” of it this year for hopefully all of March-April! 🙂 With more blooms! 🙂

Triquitraque or Flame Vine on my back wall, Atenas, Costa Rica.

And some other views . . .

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A Queenly Female Summer Tanager

I was impressed by the “Queenly” look of this female Summer Tanager in my garden the other day. She looks so stately and regal, holding her head up properly like Queen Elizabeth does. I keep seeing these females with no bright red males around. So I’m wondering if maybe she is a resident here and the migrants haven’t arrived yet? But then surely with resident females there would also be some resident males? 🙂

Summer Tanager female, Atenas, Costa Rica

And below she is looking straight at me, like she’s asking me, “Who are you and what do you think you’re doing?” 🙂 . . .

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Wasps at Nest

Last November I did a post on my first “Carton Wasp Nest” in my garden but there were no wasps anywhere around it. Again in December I saw another one in Uvita also with no wasps. The other day, there were a lot of wasps in and out and around my nest here! It is the first time I’ve seen wasps on one. I have no explanation as I know almost nothing about wasps. I just think the shape of this nest is pretty cool!

Carton Wasp Nest with Wasps, Atenas, Costa Rica

And how it looked last November with no wasps around . . .

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Tropical Kingbird

This is another common bird that’s around here year-a-round. Though common, I still love him and still wishing for better light on the birds in my trees! Shot from my terrace at breakfast the other day.

Tropical Kingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

And there is another shot . . .

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Breakfast Warbler

This Yellow Warbler at breakfast the other day may be the same one who comes to that same tree in the afternoons. Problem is that the light is not good there morning or night! Oh well, I like this seasonal migrant from up north and will continue to try for better shots. 🙂 In the meantime, you can find more photos in my CR Yellow Warbler Gallery.

Yellow Warbler in Nance Tree, Atenas, Costa Rica.

And two more shots . . .

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Dazzling Tropical Colors

You may get tired of me talking about my garden and continuing to photograph the flowers, but each experience with them is new and different and I am somehow compelled to share! As one of my favorite writers, Edna St. Vincent Millay, says . . .

“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.”

~Edna St. Vincent Millay
Torch Ginger or El bastón de emperador

Continue reading for a slide show of flowers I photographed yesterday afternoon on a walk through my little flower gardens – enjoy! 🙂

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Dove-Pigeon Friendship?

Although I’ve seen many “mixed flocks” of small birds feeding in the same tree before, I have only one other time seen a dove and pigeon together (2018 Post: Two Species Share Perching Space) though granted they are in the same family of birds, like, maybe cousins?

Anyway, this morning I snapped through my closed window this fuzzy shot of a White-winged Dove sitting beside a Red-billed Pigeon as if casually chatting. 🙂 And the second photo below (and feature photo online) is a Red-billed Pigeon I photographed yesterday in the dark shadows of my Cecropia tree. Neither photo is good (no good light), but maybe a good object lesson about getting along with others? 🙂

White-winged Dove and Red-billed Pigeon, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Hide-and-seek Warbler

This Yellow Warbler (eBird link) was playing hide-and-seek with me in the afternoon shadows and tree limbs/leaves. For some reason I’m getting fewer birds in this tree than I got in the past which may have to do with it being much taller than the house now and birds go to the top above my line of vision. I know that is where toucans always go, but some of these smaller song birds do stay lower. For much better photos, see my CR Yellow Warbler Gallery. And here’s 4 shadowy shots of the hide-and-seek Yellow Warbler yesterday afternoon . . .

Yellow Warbler, Atenas, Costa Rica
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