One of the lesser-seen butterflies is this Banded Tigerwing, Aeria eurimedia (my gallery link) found only in Central America and Northern South America. I think it is a handsome butterfly and I almost used one of my photos of it on my ’23 Christmas Card! 🙂
All the birds in Tortuguero aren’t water birds, and on the Jaguar Trail in the park, running parallel to the beach, I had a park guide (Manuel) who like guides everywhere in Costa Rica, was more skilled at finding birds than butterflies (my target for that trail) and thus I got several good bird shots along with some butterflies. We were looking at a long line of Soldier Ants when this Antshrike showed up! 🙂 See my gallery with more photos from Cahuita NP and Maquenque Eco Lodge, along with these, all on the Caribbean Slope: Black-crowned Antshrike, Thamnophilus atrinucha. Here’s two shots from yesterday’s hike on the Jaguar Trail in Tortuguero National Park. We also saw a Laughing Falcon and I may share one of those photos tomorrow. 🙂
This is another new species for me! And I keep finding them in my own garden! The Common Mylon – Mylon maimon (linked to Wikipedia) is found from Mexico to Argentina. One of the many Skippers. And on iNaturalist Costa Rica my observation is only the 13th in Costa Rica and I’m only the 10th person to report seeing one. But one of those others has the best photos I’ve seen and on his own website: Dr. Heiner Ziegler, MD (Switzerland). Costa Rica attracts nature lovers from all around the world!
This is my first one seen this year, but you can see photos of others photographed in the past plus a few more from this sighting in my garden in my gallery: Simple Patch, Chlosyne hippodrome.
Simple Patch, Chlorosyne hippodrome, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaSimple Patch, Chlorosyne hippodrome, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
Transitioning from My Garden to the Jungle Tomorrow!
Tomorrow morning I will post the last of the August nature sightings from my garden, though not all that I saw in a very productive August for nature photos! 🙂 Then tomorrow night I will do my first nighty post from Tortuguero National Park, “The Amazon of Costa Rica,” where I will be for 4 nights, posting a lot of things I can’t from home, including monkeys, maybe a sloth and of course lots of waterbirds, lizards, crocs & caiman, plus hopefully much more! 🙂 There are always surprises!
I’ve not seen as many Satyrs this year as in the past, but maybe they are starting to appear now. In my BRUSHFOOTS Galleries you can see that I have photographed 22 different species of Satyrs (at the end of that folder) and this White Satyr, Pareuptychia ocirrhoe (my gallery link) is one of the more frequently seen species for me. Just this one photo from my garden last Saturday . . .
This Zopherus jansoni (iNaturalist link) is one of multiple species of the Ironclad Beetle, this one found only in Central America and just photographed on my terrace. Here’s four shots from different angles . . .
The “Southern” in the name doesn’t refer to just the deep south of the U.S. but also to further south as in Tropical America (Central & South + Caribbean Islands) where you can also find this butterfly. See some more of my photos made here in Costa Rica in the GALLERY: Great Southern White – Ascia monuste. Here’s two shots of the same butterfly in my garden with different light, making it look like two different insects!
This Gray Cracker, Hamadryas februa (my gallery link) is one of 5 different species of Crackers I have photographed in Costa Rica, every single one on a tree trunk, and they can all be seen in my Brushfoot Galleries. This one landed on my Cecropia Tree the other day for just a few seconds before flying off, with me getting only two shots at an angle. And yes, I know that he is not literally “gray,” but the previous one photographed that was even more of a tan color. He is identified by specific spots and not the overall color. Just one shot . . .