Category: Nature

My profession is to always find God in nature.

– Henry David Thoreau

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Chachalacas Stop By!

The full name of this one is Gray-headed Chachalaca (Ortalis cinereiceps) with the only other one named “Plain Chachalaca” and it’s found only in Guanacaste (dryer NW Costa Rica). This one is a regular “chicken-sized” bird living in my neighborhood, though like other birds, I’ve been seeing fewer for a while. They always come in groups or families and “chatter” a lot, thus Ticos sometimes jokingly call a person who talks a lot “a Chachalaca!” :-)

Here’s three shots of them moving between my trees and you can see more photos in my Gray-headed Chachalaca GALLERY. I see them in many parts of Costa Rica and they are indigenous to Central America.

Gray-headed Chachalaca, Atenas, Costa Rica.
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Eastern Tailed-Blue

Another interesting butterfly not often seen, the Eastern Tailed-Blue, Cupido comyntas, in my garden. I have seen him once before in my garden as shown in my Eastern Tailed-Blue GALLERY.

Eastern Tailed-Blue, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Plain Longtail with Orange Smudges?

I continue to find what appear to be “new” species for me, though this one is pretty much identical to the “Plain Longtail” with the exception of a slightly shorter tail (he could have broken off the tip as he did the 2nd tail) and the “orange smudges” on the wings, large on top and smaller on bottom or side view. I’ll label this the Plain Longtail, Urbanus simplicius and let one of the coordinators at butterfliesandmoths correct me if they believe otherwise. These little detailed differences continue to be an ID challenge for me! 🙂 Here’s 2 shots, one side view & one top view . . .

Plain Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Saltbush Sootywing

Saltbush Sootywing is the common name and the scientific name is Hesperopsis alpheus. This is a new species for me. And my ID is based on the Glassberg book where it is an exact match, but my photos don’t match the ones on butterfliesandmoths.org for this species, so I will probably be flagged and if so, I hope whomever can give a good identification for this butterfly, IF this ID is not correct. Note that the two photos are of the same insect on the same leaf within seconds apart, but the changing light or capture of the camera has them as two different colors. 🙂

Saltbush Sootywing, Atenas, Costa Rica
Saltbush Sootywing, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Covadonga Skipper

Pheraeus covadonga is the scientific name and the website uses “Covadonga Skipper” as the common name, while the Glassberg book uses “Etched Solar-Skipper” as the common name. The “etched” in that name refers to the black and white spot that is barely seen in my photo, but that’s what separates it from all of the other little yellow Skippers. And this is a new species for me! 🙂

Covadonga Skipper, Pheraeus covadonga, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

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Cobalopsis Nero or Nero Brown Skipper

This is the first of three new species for me that I photographed in my garden on the 17th & 18th of this month! The other two coming in the next two days. At first glance, all brown Skippers seem to look alike, but there are so many variations and this is one of those! 🙂 Butterfliesandmoths.org just uses the scientific Latin name as the common name, Cobalopsis Nero, while the Glassberg book calls it the “Nero Brown Skipper” as a common name.

Cobalopsis nero, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Cobalopsis nero, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See all of my SKIPPERS Gallery to see some of the many variations in Skippers, 67 in my gallery alone and there are many more!

¡Pura Vida!

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Carolina Satyr

This one is almost as common in my garden as yesterday’s Banded Peacock, or it was last year especially when I seemed to see it everywhere! It is also common in the Southeastern U.S. west through OK & TX and south through Mexico and all of Central America with a slightly different species in South America. We also have more than 20 other species of Satyrs with color differences and uniqueness of those eye spots. They are mostly quite tiny, like only a bit bigger than my thumbnail, with of course a few exceptions! :-)

Carolina Satyr, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See more in my Carolina Satyr Gallery.

Or to explore more of the larger Satyr Sub-Family of butterflies scroll down to the bottom of my BRUSHFOOTS FAMILY GALLERY where I have 22 different species of Satyrs photographed! It’s quite an intriguing sub-family of mostly tiny butterflies, though a few are large, like the Moon Satyr, and all have variations of the eyespots seen on this one.

Butterflies are soooo interesting!

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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New Higueron Leaves Budding

Higueron Tree (Strangler Fig) Leave Budding – Atenas, Costa Rica.

NOTE: This is an old “Draft” blog post from December 2022 that I just found and since I like it and I’m cleaning up old files, I’m posting it quite late with more current reports coming! :-)

¡Pura Vida!

See my Flora & Forest Costa Rica GALLERY

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The Savegre Trip Gallery Finished!

It took longer after this trip to put the gallery together with a lengthy flurry of activities and first of year requirements, but my Christmas Trip of 2023 December 22-28 — San Gerardo de Dota, Hotel Savegre is ready to visit with all my birds, other wildlife, flowers and landscapes ready to view!

CLICK this Gallery Image to go visit it.
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