Just one photo that is linked to my Trip Gallery Grounds & Gardens Sub-Gallery with more photos and then in a few days I will share some really beautiful flowers, but this week has become overwhelming and I will be a few days later processing my flower photos with a guest from Canada here, medical lab work tomorrow at the National Hospital de Geriatria in San Jose, a trip to a new nature reserve for me Thursday with my Canadian friend and removing all my stuff from the Galería on Saturday. A really full week! But I see tranquility in next week! :-)
Just one corner of many gardens! CLICK IMAGE for more photos.
I’ve completed one more chunk of my Christmas Trip Gallery, the BIRDS Gallery with 20 species and some of my better bird photos including 5 species of Hummingbirds! You can click the gallery first page image below this one bird photo or just go to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-December-22-28-San-Gerardo-de-Dota/BIRDS
Talamanca Hummingbird, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. Indigenous to Costa Rica!1st 6 of 21 galleries! CLICK this image for my Christmas Trip BIRD GALLERIES.
For locals in Atenas:
This is my last week (Jan. 8-13) in the Gallería Artenas! (At Plaza Calle 2 next to Linea Vital.) So if interested in any of my photos there or the Floral Accent Pillows, this week is your last opportunity to shop for them in person, in town, except the Photo Greeting Cards which starting next Sunday, January 14, will be available at Hotel Colinas del Sol, with everything else available only online through my Gallery, – – – Bookstore, or – – – CafePress Shop.
From now on I will consider my nature photography as my funand for this daily blog post, with any online sales and the Colinas del Sol greeting cards as “incidentals” to my fun hobby! No more gallerías, arts & crafts shows or physical selling for me! (Which, by the way, has always been tiring and at a financial loss for me.) Now I photograph only for fun! :-)
I am immensely grateful for each and every one of you who read my blog regularly, occasionally or just look at the photos! My site host reports more that 2,000+ “hits” online at my website/blog every month! 🙂 And that doesn’t count many of the 500+ subscribers who only look at the email version nor most of the 650 Facebook Friends who look at the one feature photo without clicking the the link to the post!
I also appreciate the hundreds of comments left on the posts monthly and many “contacts” or messages through my contact page or by email. Just yesterday I responded to a man in England with questions about photographing wildlife at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and a friend in the States commented with a meaningful Bible verse about my post yesterday on hugging the 800 year old tree. Nature is fun! :-) And you who read or just look at the pictures are the ones who make it fun for me! :-) THANKS! Keep reading or looking at the pix! And click the gallery links for more pix!
As usual, I’m ending the year with 12 photos from this year, equaling one per month but not literally from each month, since some months have weaker or fewer photos. Nor are these necessarily my top 12 favorite photos from this year, but are representative 2023 photos from “Retired in Costa Rica” this year, with birds and butterflies obviously being two favorite subjects again! :-) One shot here for the email version and eleven more online with a quick click below of “Read More”!
in Costa Rica and 2nd smallest in the world! (Smallest is Bee Hummingbird not found here.) Plus this one it is endemic to Costa Rica and Panama. At higher elevations it is replaced by its slightly larger “cousin” the Volcano Hummingbird. Here’s one shot made here at Hotel Savegre in San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. Read about the Scintillant Hummingbird, Selasphorus scintilla, on eBird and see more photos from San Gerardo de Dota, both at Savegre and Batsu Gardens, AND from El Silencio Lodge, my only places to see this species, in my Scintillant Hummingbird GALLERY. Because of slow internet here, only one photo.
Scintillant Hummingbird, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.
This one is either a female or immature male, both of which have spotted throats. Mature males have a solid orange throat.
Have a wonderful Christmas Eve and I plan on one more post today, my 9th year anniversary of living in Costa Rica. :-)
Right after breakfast in a garden behind the restaurant I got several shots of this male and a few weaker shots of the female Yellow-bellied Siskin – Spinus xanthogastrus (eBird link). Because the wifi or internet is weaker or slower here I will be trying to use only one photo per post but to include both male & female, two photos today! :-)
Yellow-bellied Siskin, Male, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica. Yellow-bellied Siskin, Female, Hotel Savegre, San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica.
See my gallery of Yellow-bellied Siskin with more shots from this morning. This morning I went to a new garden on the hotel campus and have a lot of photos of a lot of birds that I will slowly share, one bird at a time and then tomorrow morning I plan to go to Batsu Gardens across the road for even more birds. I did get a couple of butterflies this morning and a caterpillar, but this trip will be mostly birds it appears! :-)
Often when photographing in the forests of Costa Rica I’m compelled to photograph an interesting leaf or something that I don’t know what it is, thus I usually have a folder for photos of “Leaves & Nature Things!” And today’s photo is one of those! :-) They might be seeds or flower buds or nuts or who knows what? But I find this “whatever “Nature Thing” seen at Macaw Lodge to be worth sharing in my nature blog. And if you know what it is, leave a comment below. 🙂
I continue to find insects in Costa Rica to be so interesting and sometimes weird! And I quickly gave up on using a close up lens for insects because to get as close as is needed you scare off the bug! :-) Thus I use the same lens that I use for birds high in a tree, my 150-600 mm zoom lens and can get images sometimes nearly as good as a close up without scaring of the insect off.
One of those, besides the many butterflies that I prefer, was this blue and gray wasp with an fun face! enjoy these two shots and I have no good way to identify for sure, but think “Blue & Gray Wasp” is a pretty good temporary name for this one! And I searched several websites without finding this one out of hundreds of species here! :-)
Blue & Gray Wasp, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa RicaBlue & Gray Wasp, Macaw Lodge, Carara NP, Costa Rica
Finally, I have the photo gallery for my November trip to Macaw Lodge completed, just 6 days before I begin my Christmas Trip to San Gerardo de Dota! I have been very busy since that last trip! 🙂 I will now blog those 6 days before Christmas trip on my garden and some more from Macaw Lodge. :-)
This was just my second time to go to Macaw Lodge which is at the closest national park to where I live. And though I’ve visited 4 other lodges/hotels near that park, Macaw is my favorite and I’m likely to be returning! :-) You can read about the lodge on their website linked here: Macaw Lodge, and it is a lot more than a yoga retreat which the site seems to emphasize! :-) And now for my unique (and I think good) collection of photos from just 3 nights at Macaw Lodge last month, click the gallery image below or go to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-November-21-24-Macaw-Lodge-Carara-NP
CLICK image to visit this gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
AND ABOUT MY OTHER BLOG POST TODAY: Back in January I read an article about fun or funny “Annual National Days” in the U.S. and quickly did a blog post on what I thought was the most interesting one for each of the 12 months and today is the last one on “Underdog Day!” I promise not to do anything like that again, though it was kind of fun when I put together all 12 posts! :-) Tomorrow I’m back to only one nature blog post each day! My real passion! :-)
Though I haven’t noticed them as much recently, I think they are always around, maybe a family, as one of these looks younger than the other.
Black Spiny-tailed Iguana, Atenas, Costa Rica
The featured photo is of the older one on the roof, so email recipients have to go to the website by clicking the post title. 🙂 For more photos of this species, go to their gallery: Black Spiny-tailed Iguana.
The Banded Peacock is one of those steady friends you can always expect to be here every year and in this strange weather year, he was again always here, even if in fewer numbers, continuing to add color to my gardens and other places I visited. These two photos were made just before I left for Macaw Lodge and I like how he contrasts with both the green and the yellow leaves as another butterfly with a rich brown color. There will be fewer butterflies now until next May, but fortunately a tropical country has some butterflies year around! And soon my copies of the Second Edition of Pura Vida Butterfliesbook will be here with 240+ species of butterflies, the most of any book available right now! Click that link to order your copy!
Banded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa RicaBanded Peacock Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
