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My profession is to always find God in nature.
– Henry David Thoreau
Not often enough do I look at the details surrounding me in a rainforest like Maquenque Lodge & Reserve – but this time I did get a few shots of small nature art:
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
My photo gallery 2019 Maquenque Ecolodge Visit
And/or other Flora & Forest Nature Designs all over Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
And after a week of sharing bird photos I thought I would share another Mary Oliver poem, one about birds! 🙂 And singing birds like my above photo of a Singing Clay-colored Thrush (Yiqüirro) the national bird of Costa Rica known for singing in the rains in late April or early May.
It was spring
and I finally heard him
among the first leaves––
then I saw him clutching the limb
in an island of shade
with his red-brown feathers
all trim and neat for the new year.
First, I stood still
and thought of nothing.
Then I began to listen.
Then I was filled with gladness––
and that’s when it happened,
when I seemed to float,
to be, myself, a wing or a tree––
and I began to understand
what the bird was saying,
and the sands in the glass
stopped
for a pure white moment
while gravity sprinkled upward
like rain, rising,
and in fact
it became difficult to tell just what it was that was singing––
it was the thrush for sure, but it seemed
not a single thrush, but himself, and all his brothers,
and also the trees around them,
as well as the gliding, long-tailed clouds
in the perfect blue sky–––all of them
were singing.
And, of course, so it seemed,
so was I.
Such soft and solemn and perfect music doesn’t last
For more than a few moments.
It’s one of those magical places wise people
like to talk about.
One of the things they say about it, that is true,
is that, once you’ve been there,
you’re there forever.
Listen, everyone has a chance.
Is it spring, is it morning?
Are there trees near you,
and does your own soul need comforting?
Quick, then––open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.
-Mary Oliver
These are the most beautiful little birds and I think this is some of my better shots yet of some of them, especially the Red-legged Honeycreeper & that Blue Dacnis with both shots being made at a cultural stop on our Rio San Carlos boat trip at a small farm which was a joy in addition to these two photos, relating to a simple small farm family. 🙂 Pura vida.
Click Image to Enlarge
¡Pura Vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
These are some of the most beautiful and interesting birds with some eating flies or ants and another one doing a “Michael Jackson Dance” to attract a female.
Click Image to Enlarge
¡Pura Vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
Hiker’s Bonus
The other day I told about the coast to coast hiking trail El Camino de Costa Rica and mentioned that the one section I hiked was nearly all uphill and I then decided I would not try to hike the entire trail. To visually see what I’m talking about as a mountains trail, see this Map with Elevation Chart of Camino de Costa Rica.
Of course you could also say that half the trail is downhill or about the same amount of downhill and uphill as you travel from sea level to sea level over the mountains, one over 7,000 feet tall! 🙂
And in Politics
Costa Rica recognized Juan Guaidó as the president of Venezuela.
Water birds are impressive and numerous all over Costa Rica with most of these found in all lowland waters on both the Pacific and Caribbean sides. I never tire of river trips or wetland visits because the surroundings are always changing and even though I see some of the same birds every time, they are never the same! At Maquenque I had both a river trip and lived for 5 days on lagoons that attract the same birds in these wetlands (el humedal en español) of the Caribbean Slopes of northern Costa Rica. A birding paradise!
Click Image to Enlarge
¡Pura Vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
Yeah, when I did the “Big Birds” post I failed to mention that some of the water birds are pretty big too, especially some of the Herons and the Anhinga. And here they are:
Click Image to Enlarge
¡Pura Vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
And a BONUS article in Tico Times for you who are more adventurous, like my 82 year-old friend Jorge who completed The 280 Kilometers, 16 Day, Coast to Coast Hike on el Camino de Costa Rica.
Pura vida for mountain hikers! I did one day on this trail and the almost constant uphill climbs was too much for me, though of course the whole trail is not uphill! 🙂
Everyone loves parrots and the general family includes not only Parrots, but Macaws, Parakeets and these other more distantly related birds, the Ani, a Woodpecker and Trogons plus I’m including two types of Oropendolas which are in a category of their own, all at Maquenque. Enjoy!
¡Pura Vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
Of course “Big” is relative, but these are probably the 7 biggest birds I photographed at Maquenque Lodge & Reserve, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica – with yesterday’s toucans and tomorrow’s parrots tying for second largest, then we get to smaller ones–lots! I photographed more than 50 species of birds at this lodge which I think only Esquinas Rainforest Lodge has equalled and maybe Selva Verde, Sarapiqui. I highly recommend Maquenque for birding!
See also my earlier post on just the King Vulture with more shots of him/her plus a juvenile, and yesterday’s post on the three types of Toucans at Maquenque Lodge. The gallery and then a book are both coming soon! All about the wonderful Maquenque Lodge & Reserve! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
I just decided to share the birds from Maquenque in smaller doses and this is the three kinds of toucans we had at breakfast every morning: (1) Keel-billed Toucan, (2) Yellow-throated Toucan, and (3) Collared Aracari Toucan. I have hundreds of photos but only sharing 2 of each type! 🙂 Though I should note that the featured photo for this post is of three juvenile Collared Aracari, possibly siblings. Lots of baby birds around now. Click an image to enlarge:
¡Pura vida!
You may also enjoy my Costa Rica Birds Gallery
and my 2019 Maquenque Lodge Trip Gallery
See the lodge website: Maquenque Ecolodge
This week’s death of Nature Poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019), and article about her in Washington Post, plus reviewing her poems led me to her “Journey” which in some ways describes what I was unable to describe in my 2014 “Decision Process” I called it then, of getting away from the depressing world of conservative Middle Tennessee, the clouds of a failed marriage and subsequent loss of family, branches and stones in my path of a vocational “calling” manipulated by power-hungry “rulers” ending unceremoniously first in 1999 and finally by 2002 in unplanned early retirement. In a daze . . .
I’ve always tried to “make lemonade out of lemons” and I turned my retirement into an adventure of nature travel and photography as much as I could afford, including visits to all 54 state parks in Tennessee with a book about that, A Walk in the Woods, along with many other nature/travel books and my growing nature photo gallery. But I was still looking for something else.
Moving from the vibrant life of rowhouse living in downtown Nashville to a suburban “Independent Living Retirement Home” was still not what I was looking for.
It was to commune closer with nature, to travel in natural exotic places that my limited income could not afford, then suddenly it hit me, why not move to one of the nature places in which I love to travel and just live there?
With only 2 family members left and no grandchildren, it was easier for me than some people to make such a life-changing move! And now I see it described in a new way in this poem by Mary Oliver:
The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.
~Mary Oliver
¡Retired in Costa Rica!
¡Pura Vida!