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My profession is to always find God in nature.
– Henry David Thoreau
I managed to get photos of 6 butterflies at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel out of about 10 different species I saw. These aren’t great photos but they document what I saw all over the hotel property from gardens to the lakes. Of these 6, four are first-time-seen butterflies for me, all but the Yellow and the White Peacock. Here’s one photo for the email announcement of this post, then all 6 are in a gallery in the full post online.
On one of the small lakes or ponds at Chachagua Rainforest lived a family of Muscovy Ducks (eBird link) which are native to Central & South America plus Florida & the West Indies. For the second time I’ve been able to capture these resident ducks with babies. Everyone loves little ducklings! 🙂 See some more slightly older Muscovy Ducklings I photographed at Macaw Lodge near Carara National Park in my Muscovy Duck Gallery. Now here are 3 more photos from Chachagua Rainforest . . .
Continue reading “Muscovy Ducklings”
In some ways that is what I do by living in Costa Rica, “Living in a Garden,” 🙂 but in traveling to visit the many wonderful lodges and hotels around the country I literally eat & sleep in a garden, and some of my hiking is in a garden with even the “wild” rainforest having flowers blooming year around! Chachagua Rainforest Hotel (their website link) in San Ramon Canton of Alajuela Province, Costa Rica had one of the largest and better gardens I have visited with all of their plants growing in a rainforest on the Caribbean slopes of the mountains (the rivers flow to the Atlantic Ocean or on the eastern side of Continental Divide).
I’ll place one photo here for the emailed version of post then a gallery of 20 flowers will be only in the online post. Just click the “see more” link! 🙂
. . . is one of the most common birds all over Costa Rica and Chachagua was no exception. Here’s two shots from Chachagua and you can read about him on eBird or see more of my photos in my Great Kiskadee Gallery. 🙂
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
-Maya Angelou
¡Pura Vida!
Here’s 9 photos of 7 or 8 different species of Dragonflies and Damselflies. After I got home I used my new dragonfly book to try and identify these guys, but the book has too many that are similar and yet not exact matches to these, so I still have a big ID job! 🙂
All were photographed on two of the many lakes at Chachagua Rainforest Hotel and one stream on the one day that was sunny during my week there. Be sure to see my photo gallery of Dragonflies and Damselflies (58 photos of 30+ species) and if you are in Costa Rica and interested in Dragonflies, the new book is titled: Dragonflies & Damselflies of Costa Rica. (Link is to Cornell Press, the publisher, but it’s also available on amazon.com and some bookstores here.)
One photo here for the emailed version of post, then 8 more photos in the gallery that follows online.
Yes, the above water plants are floating on a lake in Chachagua and living on the nutrients they gain from the water as do the plants below call “air plants” that live on the nutrients from both the tree (or vine in this case) and the water in the very humid air of a rainforest. A gentle reminder for us to drink our 8 glasses of water a day! 🙂
Yesterday morning at the beginning of my last full day at Chachagua Rainforest we had a Yellow-throated Toucan (eBird link) juvenile join those of us who were early enough. The waiter was feeding him fresh papaya which he enjoyed, but after a while he seemed to gaze into the forest where his momma taught him to find food and he was back into his natural habitat. But a few of us enjoyed his brief visit with the humans! 🙂 4 photos . . .
I frequently see the Black Phoebe (eBird link) in or by streams, but this is my first at a swimming pool, the big pool by the big restaurant here at Chachagua. For those seen in other parts of Costa Rica, including at nearby Arenal Observatory, see my Black Phoebe Gallery.
That’s the official name and commonly called just Heliconius doris (Wikipedia article link) or Doris Longwing, whether the red or blue version. Though not usually said about butterflies, this is a “Lifer” butterfly for me! First one to see or photograph! And if you count my “Lifer” fungus, this makes 3 lifers on this trip! 🙂 So my Heliconius doris viridis Gallery has only these 3 photos in it for now. This butterfly is said to be more common in the Amazon of Brazil, though I didn’t see it when I was there. 🙂
This Variable Seedeater (eBird link) Female was on my porch right after breakfast yesterday. We saw both male and female on the pre-breakfast bird hike but I did not get a photo of one then. They are fairly common all over Costa Rica it seems, feeding on seeds in the grasses mostly. See my Variable Seedeater Gallery of photos from all over Costa Rica.
