Category: Nature

My profession is to always find God in nature.

– Henry David Thoreau

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Birds of San Gerardo de Dota

All photographed in the San Gerardo de Dota, along the road or at Mariam’s Quetzals Cabins in the steep mountain canyon along the Savegre River, Talamanca Mountains, Costa Rica, at an altitude of 2200 meters above sea level (72,178 feet). It was cold in the nights and early mornings!

Acorn Woodpecker (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Sooty Thrush (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Flame-colored Tanager Male (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Flame-colored Tanager Female (1st sighting for me)
Immature Rufous-collared Sparrow below her
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Emerald Toucanet (1st sighting in wild for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
(Fruits are wild avocados, favorite food of Quetzals)

Black-capped Flycatcher (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Black-billed Nightingale Thrush (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Possibly a White-throated Thrush or Nightingale (?)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Flame-throated Finch (1st sighting for me)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
Resplendent Quetzal Female
No males seen even though they were the reason we went to this place.
I had better luck on my two other trips here. See my Quetzal Gallery.
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Violet-headed or Magnificent Hummingbird
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Magnificent Female or Green Hermit Hummingbird
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica

Fiery-throated, Magnificent or Violet-headed Hummingbird (?)
San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica
I did this birding experience with the Birding Club of Costa Rica after my personal 2-day retreat at Rio Chirripo in the same mountain range. A productive and full week! Lots of new birds!
Tomorrow I go to the Pacific coast and the port city of Puntarenas with the Atenas Community Band to a band festival and parade with bands from all over the country. The public high school near me, Colegio Liceo, is also going from Atenas. It will be an interesting one-day bus trip to the hot coast with a bunch of noisy kids. Then Thursday I go to the Nicaragua border again to renew my visa. So it may be a couple of more days without a post. We’ll see!  🙂  Then October 8 I go back to to the Caribbean Coast to explore some more and birding with the club at Manzanillo.  Pura Vida!
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Birds Along Rio Chirripo

Most were shot in the Cloudbridge Reserva but two on my lodge grounds. But first the two waterfalls I photographed in Cloudbridge:

Rio Chirripo Pacifica Waterfall
See daring teens come over on kayaks on video
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Mirador Cloudbridge Waterfall
These are just 2 of many waterfalls in this reserve
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica
Kiskadee
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Masked Tityra
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica
Blue-tailed Hummingbird ?
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Sulphur-winged Parakeet
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Slate-throated Redstart
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica
Magnificent Hummingbird
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Stripe-tailed Hummingbird
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Western Peewee
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica
Yellow-thighed Finch
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Wilson’s Warbler
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Rufous-collared Sparrow
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica
Mountain Elaenia
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Blue-gray Tanager
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

Black & White Warbler
Rio Chirripo, Costa Rica

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Unidentified Butterfly

Unidentified Butterfly
In My Garden, Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
I’m seeing fewer now. June & July are the peak months for butterflies here.

If you know the identity, please leave a comment below. Thanks!  -Charlie

And my Spanish post today: Verbos Tallo Cambio

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Unknown Moth or Butterfly

He flew into the house last night. Not in either of my books.

My Spanish Blog tells about Getting Spanish Conversation Practice for the Cost of a Pizza.

And for more moth & butterfly photos, see my Costa Rica Butterflies PHOTO GALLERY

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Labeling My Wildlife Photos

Some of the books I use plus the internet now.

Before the Yorkin Trip I had four books specifically for Costa Rica wildlife (in above photo) and the bird book, A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica, was the best of those (seen in above photo by Stiles & Skutch, 1989). I am now replacing it with a 2014 book by one of the members of the birding club I just joined, Robert Dean, The Birds of Costa Rica, A Field Guide. It is obviously more up to date and has more birds. This is the second edition of his book. I’ve ordered it from Amazon.com and it should be here by next week via Miami.

Our birding guide for the club and my first club trip, Pat O’Donnell, also recommends an app (he co-authored) which I got for both my phone and Kindle called “Costa Rica Birds – Field Guide” which is available from most app stores or directly from the producers at BirdingFieldGuides.com  It is very good with lots of photos of all the birds of Costa Rica and a filter to help you label your bird photo. I may end up using it more than the book. We’ll see! With my Kindle Fire I have gone to almost all electronic books anyway.

The Panama bird book (in first photo)is very good, more recent than my first Costa Rica book, and can be used as a backup for identification. We almost have the same birds with a few exceptions. It is our southern birds and their northern birds that overlap. Likewise our northern birds overlap with Nicaragua.

The Costa Rica butterfly book in the top photo is very limited, so I also use the U.S. National Audubon Society guide (glad I kept it!). The only more thorough butterfly book for Costa Rica I’ve found is a college textbook for $80+ and I haven’t gone that far yet! Plus it is probably more technical than I want. I just want images to help me identify my photos.

The internet is good for some creatures, but not all. I still have unidentified butterflies and birds in my photo collection! I have also joined some websites or online organizations to help with birding and bird identification, but not a lot of help yet. So please know that when I label something “Unidentified,” it is not because I didn’t try!   🙂

Likewise I have one book on Costa Rica plants and it is about as limited as the butterfly book. So plants are sometimes even more difficult to label and I’m learning that the common Spanish names and English names are not simply translations of each other. Maybe I should go with the Latin!  🙂

Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing.
~Wernher von Braun

——
“Costa Rica Extra” Sports Tidbits:

Was Recreational Ziplining Really Invented in Costa Rica? Yes indeeeed! No data on whitewater rafting which is also big here.

The most popular sport in the little farm town of Atenas is el voleibol (volleyball) with one high school the national champion most years! We have a park with a beach volleyball court, all sand! I don’t know how it ranks in popularity in the country of Costa Rica, but is definitely popular, especially on the two coasts along with surfing there.

Though el futbol (soccer) is the most popular spectator sport in Costa Rica, el beisbol (baseball) is a close second as is el practicar surf (surfing) and el ciclismo (cycling) where we were just ranked high in the El Tour de Francia. And Costa Rica has the Latin American Champion Surfista (surfer) almost every year!

The happiest people on earth love their sports and recreation and smart gringos avoid driving to the beach on weekends when the highways are literally packed bumper to bumper with Ticos at the beaches! Pura Vida!
——

Heraclitus

“Time is a game played beautifully by children.” 
― Heraclitus, Fragments



Bill Watterson

“Weekends don’t count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.” 
― Bill Watterson
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RAIN in the Garden!

Has the “Rainy Season” really started now? Afternoon rain for 2 days in a row! 🙂

Rain dripping off a Guarumo leaf.

Wet Palmetto leaf in my garden.

Wet Heliconia leaves in my garden. Camera doesn’t show rain, just wet!
My miniature rainforest in the rain; habitat of birds, butterflies, frogs, & lizards.
But you can’t see the rain in the photo.  🙂   Believe me. It is raining!
Babies!
My pride and joy, rare Maraca Plant (Shampoo Ginger), has 4 new sprouts!
Snapped this as rain stopped and I finished post. See ground cover filling in?
My garden is one of the best things about this house and done from scratch!
With a rare plant to boot! It came from being nice to the gardeners.  🙂

“Open up, heavens, and rain.
    Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness!
Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation;
    sprout right living.
    I, God, generate all this.”
Isaiah 45:8
The Message


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Textures of the Rain Forest

While along the Yorkin River in a Bribri indigenous people village I captured several shots of the forest & its textures.
East of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica

 

All photos made by Charlie Doggett at the Casa de las Mujeres Yorkin

 

 

 

 
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
 
Frank Lloyd Wright

 

 

 

Gustave Flaubert

“I tried to discover, in the rumor of forests and waves, words that other men could not hear, and I pricked up my ears to listen to the revelation of their harmony.” 
― Gustave Flaubert, November

 

 

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Birds in the Yorkin Bribri Forest

We heard and even saw hundreds from a distance. Two club members had big lenses on their camera and I’m sure got much better photos. This is what I could do with my cheap 300 mm lens. Many have been cropped and enlarged to the point of almost seeing dots, but I’m still happy with these 13! 🙂

Montezuma Oropendola
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica
Long-tailed Hermit Hummingbird
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica
Scarlet-rumped Tanager
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica

Rufous-tailed Jacamar
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica

Violaceous Trogon
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica

Boat-billed Flycatcher
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica

Long-tailed Tyrant
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica

Pale-billed Woodpecker Male
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica

Blue Ground Dove
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica
Gray-capped Flycatcher
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica

Paltry Tyrannulet
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica

Short-tailed Hawk
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica
Black Vulture
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica
White-fronted Parrots
Yorkin River Bribri Indigenous People Forest, Costa Rica

And the Blue-headed Parrots photos were even darker silhouettes than these, plus another 10 or so bird photos that are not very good and/or unidentified. It was an effort to photograph in mostly poor light of a dark rainforest with overcast or rainy skies while wading through mud. So with those conditions and my amateur camera, I’m happy to have gotten these photos! I’m easy to please!  🙂

They will eventually be added to my Costa Rica Birds PHOTO GALLERY, so check it out sometime for a lot more bird photos collected over the last six and a half years in Costa Rica.

“Sweet bird!  thy bow’r is ever green, 
Thy sky is ever clear;
thou has’t no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year.”
–  John Logan 

And yesterday’s post on Bribri Insects has been updated with a correct identification on the unsure one and three more butterflies added! 

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Bribri Insects

Still working on my bird photos, so just 3 insects tonight who are not the ones that bit my legs that still itch!  🙂 We slept under mosquito nets and I sprayed myself every day with Deet-infused Off! Yet these 3 guys still let me get close enough for photos.

Great Blue Skimmer was everywhere! Lots of standing water!
Bribri Yorkin Forest, Costa Rica

Banded Satyr
Bribri Yorkin Forest, Costa Rica

Banded Peacock or Fatima Butterfly
Bribri Yorkin Forest, Costa Rica
Orange-barred Sulphur
Bribri Yorkin Forest, Costa Rica

White Peacock
Bribri Yorkin Forest, Costa Rica
Unidentified Butterfly or Moth
Bribri Yorkin Forest, Costa Rica
And for more, see my separate PHOTO GALLERIES on: 

All life is linked together in such a way that no part of the chain is unimportant. Frequently, upon the action of some of these minute beings depends the material success or failure of a great commonwealth.
— John Henry Comstock

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The Bribri on Yorkin River

A few shots of the Bribri indigenous people during our 4 days at Casa de las Mujeres Yorkin

Our guide’s son and his cousin sucking the “white stuff” off Cacao seeds as
we had done earlier. It is a sweet milky stuff surrounding the bitter seeds that
become chocolate later. Jungle kids don’t get candy or junk food, but pull neat
stuff to eat off trees all the time!

Later they were eating this red fruit that I don’t remember the name of.

We made two morning hikes (before and after breakfast) and one afternoon
hike always passing by different homes or farms on our way into the forest.
All homes are off the ground to avoid flooding and the constant mud in rainy
season and to keep out their own animals as well as wild animals.
No roads to the village but some ride horses around the community or to the
tiny town of Bambu (in Bribri language), called Bratsi by the government.  🙂
No cowboy boots, just mud boots like I wished for every day!
We traveled to and from the village in
dugout canoes with outboard motors which
is their bus and supply system, though there
is a walking trail from Bambu which is about
an 11 or 12 mile hike. Horses use it too!
Boat is the fast way at about 45-60 minutes.
The guy in front of boat used a long pole to
get the boat around rapids and sand bars.
Another guy works motor in back.

I’m still tired from the trip. My new maid comes on Tuesdays, so she helped with my laundry of muddy clothing today. If I ever go there again I will take knee high mud boots. That side of Costa Rica gets more rain year around with I guess muddy trails year around. The Bribri all wear rubber boots outside and go barefooted inside as we did. My hiking shoes were great except not high enough for stream wading and mud that comes up over the ankles. Yuk!

  1. The Bribri are an indigenous people of Costa Rica. They live in the Talamanca (canton) in Limón Province of Costa Rica. They speak the Bribri language and Spanish. There are varying estimates of the population of the tribe. (Wikipedia)
A great article about all 8 Indigenous People Groups in Costa Rica who, like most indigenous peoples everywhere are in danger of disappearing or losing their culture. The Bribri have done a better job than most here maintaining their language and culture. 
The main cash crop for the village we visited is cacao pods used to make chocolate. I will do a post on cacao later. They live off the land with no grocery stores, no refrigeration, no electricity, and we ate several vegetables and fruits I had never eaten before. They farm and have chickens for added protein along with fish of course. No beef or pork. They use powdered milk. This village was hurt when the price of cacao fell a few years ago. The women suggested tourism for cash flow and the men said it would never work and be a big intrusion. The men were later surprised at how well the women’s project has worked and a few men now help with it along with some teenagers. Read about what they do with tourists at this website of one tour operator featuring the name of the women’s project: Casa de Mujeres Yorkin 

The Yorkin River is the boundary line between Costa Rica and Panama and is in thick forest.

Well, I’m still sorting photos, so more later on this adventure including some birds!