Category: Insects

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Thank You for 2023!

I am immensely grateful for each and every one of you who read my blog regularly, occasionally or just look at the photos! My site host reports more that 2,000+ “hits” online at my website/blog every month! 🙂 And that doesn’t count many of the 500+ subscribers who only look at the email version nor most of the 650 Facebook Friends who look at the one feature photo without clicking the the link to the post! 

I also appreciate the hundreds of comments left on the posts monthly and many “contacts” or messages through my contact page or by email. Just yesterday I responded to a man in England with questions about photographing wildlife at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and a friend in the States commented with a meaningful Bible verse about my post yesterday on hugging the 800 year old tree. Nature is fun! :-) And you who read or just look at the pictures are the ones who make it fun for me! :-) THANKS! Keep reading or looking at the pix! And click the gallery links for more pix!

As usual, I’m ending the year with 12 photos from this year, equaling one per month but not literally from each month, since some months have weaker or fewer photos. Nor are these necessarily my top 12 favorite photos from this year, but are representative 2023 photos from “Retired in Costa Rica” this year, with birds and butterflies obviously being two favorite subjects again! :-) One shot here for the email version and eleven more online with a quick click below of “Read More”!

Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Thank You for 2023!”
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“Hug a Tree!”

After the jeep ride up the mountain (yesterday’s post) going past the mirador (Spanish for a vista overlook platform), we stopped at the trailhead for multiple trails. Me and the 3-generation Tico family chose the shorter trail through the forest down to the Savegre Mirador. Just one experience here, so be sure to see the others in the Hiking the Pioneers Trail Photo GALLERY.

An 800 Year Old Tree says “Hug Me!”
A Mother & Child Hug the 800 year old Tree.

And for more pix on the trails at Savegre, click the linked blog post below titled “Trails and Trees” where Marino Chacón (a different son of the founder than this year) took me on a longer trails hike for the early morning bird hike back in January 2021, just the 2 of us.

¡Pura Vida!

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Gray Wasp with Blue Wings

I continue to find insects in Costa Rica to be so interesting and sometimes weird! And I quickly gave up on using a close up lens for insects because to get as close as is needed you scare off the bug! :-) Thus I use the same lens that I use for birds high in a tree, my 150-600 mm zoom lens and can get images sometimes nearly as good as a close up without scaring of the insect off.

One of those, besides the many butterflies that I prefer, was this blue and gray wasp with an fun face! enjoy these two shots and I have no good way to identify for sure, but think “Blue & Gray Wasp” is a pretty good temporary name for this one! And I searched several websites without finding this one out of hundreds of species here! :-) 

Blue & Gray Wasp, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa Rica
Blue & Gray Wasp, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa Rica

Check out my non-butterfly insects in the MORE INSECTS GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

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November Macaw Lodge GALLERY!

Finally, I have the photo gallery for my November trip to Macaw Lodge completed, just 6 days before I begin my Christmas Trip to San Gerardo de Dota! I have been very busy since that last trip! 🙂 I will now blog those 6 days before Christmas trip on my garden and some more from Macaw Lodge. :-)

This was just my second time to go to Macaw Lodge which is at the closest national park to where I live. And though I’ve visited 4 other lodges/hotels near that park, Macaw is my favorite and I’m likely to be returning! :-) You can read about the lodge on their website linked here: Macaw Lodge, and it is a lot more than a yoga retreat which the site seems to emphasize! :-) And now for my unique (and I think good) collection of photos from just 3 nights at Macaw Lodge last month, click the gallery image below or go to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-November-21-24-Macaw-Lodge-Carara-NP

CLICK image to visit this gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

AND ABOUT MY OTHER BLOG POST TODAY: Back in January I read an article about fun or funny “Annual National Days” in the U.S. and quickly did a blog post on what I thought was the most interesting one for each of the 12 months and today is the last one on “Underdog Day!” I promise not to do anything like that again, though it was kind of fun when I put together all 12 posts! :-) Tomorrow I’m back to only one nature blog post each day! My real passion! :-) 

¡Hasta luego!

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2nd Sighting of Rare Butterfly!

On butterfliesandmoths.org I have the only reports of this Yellow-haired Skipper, Typhedanus cajeta. My first sighting was earlier this year in my garden and this time it was at Macaw Lodge, Carara National Park. The above link is to the online butterfly site I volunteer for with only my sightings included there now. Plus here is a link to my Yellow-haired Skipper GALLERY. And below are 3 photos of this simple brown butterfly from my November visit to Macaw Lodge . . .

Yellow-haired Skipper, Macaw Lodge, Carara, Costa Rica
Continue reading “2nd Sighting of Rare Butterfly!”
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Rooftop Iguanas

Though I haven’t noticed them as much recently, I think they are always around, maybe a family, as one of these looks younger than the other.

Black Spiny-tailed Iguana, Atenas, Costa Rica

The featured photo is of the older one on the roof, so email recipients have to go to the website by clicking the post title. 🙂 For more photos of this species, go to their gallery: Black Spiny-tailed Iguana.

¡Pura Vida!

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Colorful Peacock Butterfly!

The Banded Peacock is one of those steady friends you can always expect to be here every year and in this strange weather year, he was again always here, even if in fewer numbers, continuing to add color to my gardens and other places I visited. These two photos were made just before I left for Macaw Lodge and I like how he contrasts with both the green and the yellow leaves as another butterfly with a rich brown color. There will be fewer butterflies now until next May, but fortunately a tropical country has some butterflies year around! And soon my copies of the Second Edition of Pura Vida Butterflies book will be here with 240+ species of butterflies, the most of any book available right now! Click that link to order your copy!

Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica

For more photos, see my Banded Peacock GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

And don’t miss this weekend’s BIG ART FAIR at Plaza Calle 2! JIT! Just in time for the Holidays with gift possibilities for everyone!

CLICK image for the JIT Facebook Page!
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Another New Butterfly Species!

Sorry that I keep switching between more photos from the Macaw Lodge visit and photos in my own garden at home. But another new species is a big deal to me, even though this one did not make my new butterfly book which is already being printed! 🙂

It is another tiny Metalmark with the English name of Blue-based Theope and the scientific name of Theope virgilius. The top of his wings are a bright sky-blue, but because it was windy, he never perched with wings spread and thus no photos of top. I saw the blue when he was flying, but too fast to photograph! 🙂

Blue-based Theope, Atenas, Costa Rica
Blue-based Theope, Atenas, Costa Rica

And see more shots I made of him in my garden in my Blue-based Theope GALLERY.

There haven’t been many submitted on butterfliesandmoths.org, but you can see those four from Mexico and Costa Rica at that link plus a few more at butterfliesofamerica, also from Mexico and Costa Rica. Our regional guanacasteconservationarea includes photos of the caterpillars and iNaturalistPanama has some nice photos of the butterfly which they call “Tourmaline Butterfly” in Panama, but it is the same one. 🙂

Butterflies are amazing and beautiful and there are so many of them! The frequent new discoveries I’m having are a joy! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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A New Tiny Butterfly

As I said in yesterday’s post, on the morning I published the second edition of my big butterfly book, I captured a photo of another new species that just barely made it into the book! 🙂 It is the Clench’s Greenstreak – Cyanophrys miserabilis and I adjusted the size of another Gossamer Wings butterfly in the book to make this last minute addition fit. Fun! And that is in addition to the other last minute addition of just 4 days before that when I got the Red-headed Firetip – Pyrrhopyge phidias at Macaw Lodge which I featured in an earlier blog post and also adjusted the size of another photo to make that Skipper butterfly fit in the book. 🙂 Here’s one shot of the Greenstreak for the email followed by a little gallery of 4 shots.

Clench’s Greenstreak, Atenas, Costa Rica
Continue reading “A New Tiny Butterfly”
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Second Edition of Pura Vida Butterflies

And today just before publishing it, I added another new butterfly! 🙂 I’ll share that butterfly tomorrow, but here is the link to my new Costa Rica Butterflies book:

348 photos of more than 240 species of butterflies in Costa Rica makes this the largest current photo book of just Costa Rica Butterflies. Use as a coffee table book or for identification and research with a complete index of both common English names and the Latin scientific names. And this is right on the heels of the release of my second edition of the smaller Hotel Banana Azul Butterfly book! 🙂

Follow this link or click the image of the book’s front cover below for a free electronic preview of every page! https://www.blurb.com/b/11802842-pura-vida-butterflies

CLICK this cover image for a FREE PREVIEW!

¡Pura Vida!