In these last 2 or 3 days I’ve seen a lot of the same birds but also got 5 new species shown here plus I’m adding the juvenile of the kingfisher and a new shot of a Muscovy Duck in the rain that I really like which is different from the Mom and babies I shared earlier. Enjoy!
Final Birds, Macaw Lodge
Masked Tityra feeding young in nest
Yellow-throated Toucan
Female Belted Kingfisher
Muscovy Duck in Rain
Buff-rumped Warbler
Juvenile Belted Kingfisher
Palm Tanager
Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.
In a very wet rainforest like this one where it rains every day, there are a lot of “interesting” things growing on trees, on the ground, etc. Here is just a little sample. There is so much more that I am tempted to photograph! It’s such a beautiful and visually stimulating place!
Tomorrow I will share some new birds I got in the last 2 or 3 days here and tomorrow is when I return home to Atenas. Got more to share after that! So keep reading or looking at my photos!
“Rainforest Greens”
Click an image to see larger or start a manual slideshow.
“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul”
― John Muir
There are so many beautiful, tropical flowers everywhere I go in Costa Rica that I just can’t not photograph some of them, but please know that this is just a few I managed to grab shots of. There are so many more here! Pablo, the owner and director of the lodge is a horticulturalist, a lover of plants and he just keeps adding more plants, more gardens, more trees (like the new orchard of almond trees to attract macaws. The place is beautiful! And I am still trying to grab photos of the grounds which is hard to depict in a few photos!
When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.
The first photo below is of the back of the frog made on my cell phone and the other, a side view, with my Canon. To avoid scaring him away, both had to be shot from a distance in little forest light,f thus had to be cropped a lot, so not very good shots, but you can see what he basically looks like and online you will see some varieties of colors, etc.
I love dragonflies with some of my past favorite nature photos being dragonflies, like the Blue Dasher Dragonfly I photographed at Montgomery Bell State Park in Tennessee that was my most popular photo in 4 years of Arts & Crafts Fairs. 🙂 Who would have thunk? 🙂
See all of my Costa Rica Dragonflies in my CR dragonfly gallery! And I have a long way to go since there are about 270 species of dragonflies in Costa Rica! 🙂 The one above is right here at Macaw Lodge and I’m unable to identify it right now.
“I love to see the sunshine on the wings of the Dragonflies… there is magic in it.”
― Ama H.Vanniarachchy
These 19 photos are in addition to the bird photos I posted my first day here and of course there will be more! 🙂
There are lots of birds everywhere here, but finding them close enough to make a photo is sometimes a challenge. My guide this morning helped some since he knows the area and where some birds are often found. That will help me with the rest of my days here as I continue to find and photograph birds on my own plus other wildlife and nature. Enjoy!
Birds Today at Macaw Lodge
Muscovy Duck Mama
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Sunbittern rushing up cliff by waterfall
Black-headed Trogon
Muscovy Duck Babies
Clay-colored Thrush
Golden-naped Woodpecker
Melodious Blackbird
Gray-capped Flycatcher
Baby Something (maybe clay-colored thrush)
Lesson’s Motmot
Gray-cowled Wood-Rail
Variable Seedeater
White-tipped Dove
Streaked Flycatcher
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Golden-naped Woodpecker
Cherrie’s Tanager or Scarlet Rumped Tanager Cherrie’s
And I hope you saw my earlier post of the sunrise on my early morning birding hike today! Beautiful!
“Some people are very competitive in their birding. Maybe they’ll die happy, having seen a thousand species before they die, but I’ll die happy knowing I’ve spent all that quiet time being present.”
― Lynn Thomson, Birding with Yeats: A Mother’s Memoir
This morning I did my birding hike at Macaw Lodge and kind of liked this photo of the sunrise along our trail. Thought I would share it in addition to the birds I photographed which will be in another blog post.
“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.”
― Jo Walton
This morning after breakfast I hiked to the waterfall and “Natural Spa” on the lodge property. Tonight I only report on that. You never get many bird photos on thick forest trails like that one, but I did get an unusual frog that I will share later plus a lot more birds today in lodge gardens plus a fleeing Sunbittern at the waterfall! There is Wifi only in the dining room, so I’m doing one post a day just before dinner. And tonight after dinner I’m going on the night hike for probably more frogs! 🙂 Pura vida!
Trail to the Waterfall
Waterfall Slideshow
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Natural Spa
“The waterfall winks at every passerby.”
― Marty Rubin
I wandered around the grounds when I arrived but did not make it to the waterfall today. Had a beautiful, healthy salad for lunch when I met a lovely young couple from Germany who are thinking about moving to Costa Rica. He is a photographer. They are not staying the night in lodge, just day visitors.
I am the only overnight guest here now. It is off season or rainy season and the ride up the mountain from Tarcoles is a rough 45 minutes on a bad road which discourages some, but it is really isolated! That is one thing I love about it! It is also very “wild” with rainforest noises as dark arrives (mostly frogs). It rained much of afternoon so I will explore more tomorrow. Just a few shots for today:
Birds Today
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Other Wildlife
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Grounds Shots
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My Cabin
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Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter. ~John Muir
Hard to prove it by me. They just keep welding pieces of metal on what will be the “Kiosk” or Bandshell and now they are trimming and taking out some trees, so that speaks to more of the garden renovation. We will see. It was originally going to be completed by the end of 2018 and now I think they will really have to speed up the work to get it done by the end of 2019! 🙂 I made these two photos yesterday, so up-to-date June 16, 2019!
The city has a Facebook Page presenting the remodeling with architect drawings of what they expect it to look like – The New Central Park Atenas. Click on one of their pictures to enlarge it and begin a manual slideshow of the new park.
Are they pruning the old trees or will they be removed?