charliedoggett.net
Both my gardens and ones I visit
I’ve decided that two weeks of posts on this lodge may be enough, so I’m referring everyone to the gallery which has been ready awhile. Because of so many amazing flowers in their gardens, I may someday go back to more posts on them, but for now other photos from my life in nature in Costa Rica. You may click the image of gallery to go to the gallery or use this link:
https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2022-April-3-8-Guayabo-Lodge
¡Pura Vida!
Or check out ALL MY COSTA RICA TRAVELS.
There is an international committee somewhere that will occasionally change the “official” name of a bird which really keeps birders on their toes to keep up with the changes, though being a part of something like eBird helps and the app on my phone called “Merlin,” that I use to identify birds, also helps me stay up-to-date on the names. So I thank Merlin for this new name. 🙂
Since I have been in Costa Rica there have been 3 Saltator birds I’ve seen, the Black-headed Saltator, The Buff-throated Saltator and the Grayish Saltator (gallery links below). On my recent trip I got a photo of what I thought was a Grayish Saltator. Just to be sure, I ran it through Merlin and the software told me it was a “Cinnamon-bellied Saltator” (eBird Link) and I thought I had a new bird, a new “lifer,” but a guide I’ve used before at Selva Verde was at the lodge with a group tour and he told me it was just the same Grayish, with a new name. 🙂
Since then I read on Wikipedia an explanation of this name change. “They” (whoever “they” are) split the Grayish into three different Saltators: Cinnamon-bellied Saltator (mine, only in Central America & Mexico), Blue-grey Saltator (only in South America) and the Olivaceous Saltator (only on the northern coasts of South America). All of these have previously been lumped together as the “Grayish Saltator.” Looking at the photos of each online, they are slightly different and thus I understand the need for a name change. 🙂 Then with more research I found that there are 7 more species of Saltators, all different and each in narrow regions of South America except one that is only in the Caribbean Islands. Wow! 🙂 Well here is just one from Central America . . .
When I was selling photos under the name “Nature As Art” I would say that I paint with my camera and always tried to formulate in my mind through the camera lens an idea with simplicity, leading lines, contrasts, shapes and balance creating a type of “painting” with many of my photos. Yesterday’s “Melodious Morning” is a good example and in someway today’s photo of the Tropical Kingbird (eBird) sitting on a branch of the tropical Bougainvillea is another. I prefer the first image with the bird looking at us, making it more dynamic in that photo, but both images can be my tropical paintings for today! 🙂
Though I’ve never seen that cartoon, my first sight of this bird made me think “Angry Bird” for some reason, maybe the slant of his eye or something, but he is a Common Tody-Flycatcher (eBird link) and my several shots in my Common Tody-Flycatcher Gallery are all from different places, so maybe that makes him “common.” 🙂 Not my favorite bird, but certainly interesting and another found only in Central and South America.
¡Pura Vida!
More of this adventure in my “Trip Gallery” 2022 Guayabo Lodge.
I photographed only 20 species of birds at the combination of Guayabo Lodge and CATIE Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center in Turrialba. I will not post all 20 species because frankly some of the photos just aren’t worth sharing and after my two-day’s-ago post of the toucan in my garden, nothing from the Guayabo trip compares! 🙂 But all birds are important to me and be sure to see my Guayabo BIRDS Gallery.
And I do like these four shots of my most commonly seen sparrow all over Costa Rica, the Rufous-collared Sparrow (eBird link) found only in Central and South America. Locals call it “Come Maíz” in Spanish (it eats corn). I have a pretty good collection of this bird in my Rufous-collared Sparrow Gallery including one from my first trip to CR in 2009 of a mother bird feeding her child a worm! 🙂
Also in my Costa Rica Birds Galleries I have photos of 5 other types of Sparrows here in Costa Rica: (1) Orange-billed Sparrow, (2) Olive Sparrow, (3) Black-striped Sparrow, (4) White-eared Ground-Sparrow, and (5) Stripe-headed Sparrow. They are each beautiful in their own ways and certainly a part of the great ecology of Costa Rica.
The Abutilon striatum (or Abutilon pictum) – Red Vein Indian Mallow flower was possibly my best “find” on last week’s trip, or at least it is my best “lifer” or first-time-seen item of nature at Guayabo Lodge. (Note that the Golden Scarab Beetle and Black Tarantula Spider were also firsts for me in Costa Rica, but this flower was to me the most beautiful and the biggest prize! 🙂
You can read about the Red Vein Indian Mallow on several websites: gardenia.net came up first in the search window and has an especially nice photo as does anniesannuals.com, and then for more scientific sites try Wikipedia.com or worldoffloweringplants.com.
It is native to southern Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The plant has become naturalized in Central America, and is used in horticulture. Common names include red vein abutilon, red vein Indian mallow, red vein flowering maple, Chinese-lantern and red vein Chinese lanterns.
And some more photos of this unique flower at Guayabo Lodge . . .
Continue reading “Red Vein Indian Mallow”
This afternoon I got up from the computer where I was working on my Guayabo bird photos (boring compared to this!), and as I walked across the living room there was a Keel-billed Toucan in my Cecropia Tree! I quickly got my camera and shot through two panes of glass (sliding door open) which was still better than shooting through the screen! 🙂 And the photos aren’t nearly as blurry as I expected! After some rapid shots, I slowly approached the screen as he hopped up the tree, but by the time I was quietly out, he flew away! Oh well, even quick experiences like this in my own house and garden are just a few of the many reasons I enjoy living “Retired in Costa Rica!” ¡Pura vida!
¡Pura Vida!
See my GALLERY: Costa Rica Keel-billed Toucans
With other shots made in my garden! 🙂
Plus more from all over Costa Rica!
🙂
I spent more than an hour searching for the identification of this butterfly that I photographed from beneath or below in the Gardens of Guayabo Lodge, Turrialba last week. Then I suddenly realized that it is the same butterfly as yesterday’s, just the other side! 🙂 Dummy me! The closest similarity was the underside of the Dione Juno Heliconian Butterfly, but I am fairly certain that this one is Mexican! 🙂
Continue reading “A Dazzling Surprise”
I shot most of these photos on my arrival afternoon, Sunday. Please be aware that I’m in one of those places with a weak internet connection. Yesterday I uploaded the photos for the blog okay but when I tried to view them online I got only words with no photos showing up at all. If that is happening to you, you may see the photos I’ve chosen for the blog on the beginnings of my Gallery for 2022 April 3-8 Guayabo Lodge. Of course the gallery is incomplete until after the trip. For now it is an alternate way to see my blog photos if you are not seeing them as I could not yesterday, 🙂 And the problem may have been my blog host yesterday because I’m seeing them okay today! 🙂
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.”
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:
