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I’m rather late with my monthly flowers report, but that is because of all the photos from the 3 day trips with my Canadian friends. Below this one email photo is a gallery of a dozen shots. Click one to see it larger. Enjoy my tropical paradise!
The last of the three day trips that I participated in with my Canadian Friends was to the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve better known here for its Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel where we had breakfast after a couple of hours of birding. And the clouds never lifted or burned off the entire time we were there. Click the first page of that gallery below to access it or if you prefer an address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/Birding-at-Villa-Blanca-Cloud-Forest-Reserve
¡Pura Vida!
Because we went after the Rio Tarcoles trip, it was too late in day for many birds, I got only 2 species, but I did get 10 species of other wildlife including some interesting species like the Helmeted Iguana, stick moth caterpillar, etc. and one of my dark monkey shots is visible. Click the first page of gallery below to enter or if you prefer an address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/Hiking-Carara-NP
I earlier did a post on the Helmeted Iguana and one on the Stink Bug, two of the 10 “Other Wildlife” seen at Carara this time. See gallery.
And tomorrow I will hopefully have completed the gallery for our morning visit to Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve and Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel.
¡Pura Vida!
One of the coolest things we saw at Carara National Park yesterday was a Perro Zompopo · Helmeted Iguana – Corytophanes cristatus also known as the Smooth Helmeted Iguana, Helmeted Basilisk, Helmeted Lizard and a few other common names. With that Perro Zompopo being the official Spanish common name on iNaturalist and of course that 3rd Latin name is the scientific name. He was in a lot of shade behind trees, limbs and vines in the thick transitional forest of Carara, thus difficult to photograph. The above shot with a greenish hue was on my Canon Camera while my cell phone shot through the spotting scope had a duller, brownish hue. 🙂 And my identification has not yet been approved by a specialist on iNaturalist, but I’m sort of confident of this.
We got scads of bird photos on Rio Tarcoles but it may take awhile to work through all of them, while the complicated online way of now entering national parks meant we didn’t get on trail to after 11 which is too late for birds, but our excellent guide, Andrys, found lots of other nature to experience and photograph. Both experiences were really good, though too much for one day for our age group. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This tiny little bee on the Spadix of an Anthurium (not a large pistil) was, I first thought, a Green Orchid Bee, but the AI of iNaturalist says no, it is one of many different species of sweat bees and once I post it on iNaturalist, it may or may not be given a species name, just the Tribe Augochlorini. He will go in my general Bees Gallery with only this tribal name for now. 🙂 He is less than half the size of yesterday’s orchid bee.
¡Pura Vida!
Early this morning Walter will take me and a group of 4 Canadian friends to breakfast at El Jardin on our way to a birding boat trip on Rio Tarcoles to its mouth on the coast followed by a birding hike in nearby Carara National Park, then lunch somewhere on our way back to Atenas. This is the second time I’ve arranged this always productive birding trip for this group.
Then on Thursday we go, at their request, to a mountain Cloud Forest Reserve north of San Ramon. There will not be as many birds there but all will be different from what was seen on the coast. Plus that 6:30am guided hike will be followed by a great “farm to table” breakfast at the Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort. I spent a couple of nights there during my earlier years in Costa Rica (2017) and it is nice, but I photographed only 9 species of birds that one time there. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
The unusual “Cigar Plant,” Pampano or Gadetea in Spanish (Calathea lutea, scientific name) doesn’t attract many birds (an occasional hummingbird) but this large bee seems to like its nectar. The Belted Orchid Bee, Eulaema cingulata, is one of 8+ species in my Bees Gallery for Costa Rica. I may soon break that gallery up into species galleries. And with the mostly windy days now, bees are sometimes all I can find to photograph! But tomorrow I go birding with some visiting Canadian friends to Rio Tarcoles & Carara National Park, so that will boost my lagging daily photos! 🙂
The most often seen bird in my garden with a lot of photos in the gallery: Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I got several shots roadside along the cow pasture in Roca Verde. Here is just one shot with more in my GALLERY Inca Dove, Columbina inca.
¡Pura Vida!
A small flock of these egrets flying up and away from the Cow Pasture across the street on January 31. They are regulars at the pasture but I seldom try to photograph. A small group of houses are at the south end of the pasture and the birds are flying up from the pasture and over those houses. I’m able to get closer and better photos on some of my river trips as you can see in my Cattle-Egrets Gallery. Just the one photo here.
¡Pura Vida!
This tribe level identification means it will be difficult even for the experts to identify, as that is as far down the ID latter the iNaturalist AI would go and I’m certainly unqualified to go farther. It may end up being a common species with two anomalies, that dark “plate” or whatever on his back or shoulders and the whitish tip of his tail. Neither characteristic matches any of the similar species photos I could find, so I’m leaving it at the tribe level. 🙂 Found in the cow pasture and it is the last one from that visual adventure. 🙂 This tribe is also called “branded grass skippers” which is appropriate for one found in the grasses of a cow pasture! 🙂
An added side-note on that walk along the cow pasture in my shorts is that, when I got back to the house, both legs were itching all over, possibly from some insect in the grasses or allergic reaction to some plant. A generous lathering of Allergel took care of that itching pretty quickly! 🙂 This is all from the cow pasture for now. Back to my garden! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
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