Orange Howler Monkey?

I have a lot to share from today’s (Saturday’s) excursion to Caño Negro Wetlands Reserve, but the most unusual (and all I have time to present tonight) is the totally orange Howler Monkey. And of course the first question is why?

  1. Albino? That is what the CostaRica.com website says and what I believe is the reason.
  2. Pesticides? That is what this article in Costa Rica Star says, a mutant caused by the sulphur-laden pesticides sprayed on the nearby pineapple plantations. I guess possible.
  3. Our guide today said it was caused by incest which might relate to or be the cause of #1.

Regular Mantled Howler Monkeys are black with an orange spot or streak on their backs (mantled). But this rare mutant fellow is all orange and the first I’ve seen like this.

Today’s (Saturday’s) trip was an all-day affair, not returning until 4 PM, so I am tired and can’t process all the many other photos from today now, but will share later.

Tomorrow morning I return home and will then finish processing many more photos from this great Christmas Week at Arenal Observatory Lodge inside Arenal Volcano National Park. Yes, we had some rain this week but that didn’t dampen my spirits! 🙂 And it was sunny the whole time at Caño Negro today!

¡Pura Vida!

Monkeying Around Christmas Eve

December 24 was a beautiful, sunshiny day! And my 6 year anniversary of living Retired in Costa Rica! I arrived on Christmas Eve 2014 and haven’t stopped exploring this tropical paradise a single day and I’m still blogging about it! Except for the first two Christmases getting “settled in” as a Costa Rica Resident, I have traveled every Christmas week since, to a National Park or other nature preserve.

The 23rd (day before yesterday) was when I scheduled Néstor, my birding guide here, and it was totally cloudy and raining all day. With nothing planned the 24th, it was a bright blue sky, sunny day! So I went hiking on my own, figuring maybe I could see some of the same birds in better light for better photos. Nada! Nothing! Almost no birds! Maybe they were in the tree tops “sunning?” 🙂 But . . .

On the other hand, on the first three rainy days I saw no monkeys and yesterday on the trail looking for birds I saw this troop or family of Mantled Howler Monkeys (my gallery link). They were way high in the Cecropia trees eating leaves, but I managed to get a few distant shots of these common monkeys here:

“We’ve just barely stopped being monkeys.”

~Duncan Trussell

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Christmas Day’s main event was a visit to the nearby Butterfly Conservatory this morning, but it may be a few days before I get to those photos! 🙂 A Merry Weekend to you! And tomorrow, Saturday, I go to Caño Negro Reserve for birding – always a good place for birds.

Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano National Park

¡Pura Vida!

1st 24 Hours of Birds

My birding hikes are not until tomorrow, so these 20 species I got on my own and wanted to get them out before what I hope will be some new or different birds with Guide Nestor whom I’ve had on both of my previous trips here. He is good! They always ask if you have any target birds for the hike and I will tell him the same thing I did last year, “Yes, the Umbrella Bird and the Yellow-eared Toucanet.” These are both fairly rare birds and difficult to find in the thick forest and I want to add them to my collection. 🙂 But I won’t get my hopes up!

I just hope we don’t have rain tomorrow morning like we have had most of today. Here we are on the Caribbean Slope which tends to have more rain than the Pacific slope where I live. But it is still the beginning of the dry season here with less rain than they’ve had the last 6 months. We will bird from 6-8 AM, have breakfast, then the rest of the morning. So I’m hopeful with a half day with a birding guide I will get lots of birds!

Now a slide show of the last 24 hours of birds on my own with two shots of Scarlet-rumped Tanager because the male and female are totally different and two of the Brown Jay with one flying and the other perched; 22 shots of 20 species including my “lifer” I introduced yesterday:

See my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

“The bird who dares to fall is the bird who learns to fly.”

¡Pura Vida!

A “Lifer” in first afternoon

I arrived at Arenal Observatory Lodge in time for lunch with my driver and my first afternoon of looking for birds with 11 species photographed including the above Emerald Tanager (link to eBird description) which is a “Lifer” or first-time-seen bird for me! And a colorful one found only in Central America plus Columbia & Ecuador.

I did lots of walking including to the top of the 28 meters or 92 ft. tall observation tower with 146 steps on stairs. I’ve gotten lots of birds and monkeys from this tower in the past, but not today with it being overcast and very windy when I went up today, but I got several landscape shots including this one I call “A Sea of Treetops.”

My “Sea of Treetops” shot today from the top of Arenal Observatory’s observation tower.

“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.”

– Martin Luther King Jr.

¡Pura Vida!

House in the Forest

I just found this feature image from the May 9 “Big Day” of bird counting for eBird when I walked, counted and photographed birds in Roca Verde and adjacent Calle Nueva. The only non-bird photo was this above of a “House in the Forest” which I think I shot because it was so appealing to me, beckoning me into the forest.

Then just as I started to use it in this post as a wishful place, PRESTO! I realized that I already have it! It is the same kind of thing I have created with my little rental house, planting trees and flowers all around it where there were none already until I now have a slightly more modern version of the above house in the woods. Mine is seen below:

I love my “house in the forest” and the “jungle” I’ve created around it. This was “wide open” or mostly barren when I came 5.5 years ago, so I’m proud of my “reforestation!” 🙂 Plant a tree! It will make you happy!

A few weeks ago I spoke to this “living in a forest” with my blog post Forest Window and back in January I did a post titled My Windows – My World where I actually showed you the view I have from every room in my house! 🙂 You see, I love forests and living in them! 🙂

But I also live periodically all over Costa Rica now and those many forests can be seen through my eyes in a Flora & Forest Gallery and of course other galleries with the birds & other animals in these forests! And oh yes, today is the day I leave for one of my favorite forests in Costa Rica, Arenal Volcano National Park and the wonderful in-park wilderness lodge Arenal Observatory Lodge (link to lodge website). So maybe an arrival-day blog post report tonight! 🙂 Enjoy your own trees and plant some more! 🙂

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”

– John Muir

¡Pura Vida!

Forest Details

At the end of Avenida 8 on the “Country Lane” part of the land is forest even though private property. As everywhere here in Costa Rica, if you look deep into the forest you see more details and colors like the orange Heliconia in the foreground of this photo and towards the back left the Red Ginger flowers. Yes, these flowers do grow wild in the forests as well as being cultivated in home gardens. Tropical Costa Rica! And even the variety of leaves and shades of green bring me joy as I continue to love forests more and more!

“In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike.”     

~Paulo Coelho

See also my Flora & Forest Galleries.

¡Pura Vida!

The Sun Rose

I’ll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time. The steeples swam in amethyst, The news like squirrels ran. The hills untied their bonnets, The bobolinks begun. Then I said softly to myself, “That must have been the sun!

~Emily Dickinson

Charlie Doggett Photo of sun rise on the Central Church of Atenas, Costa Rica.

NOTE: Today’s photo makes 8 days of blog photo posts all from the one morning walk of photos last Thursday, 10 December, a week-a-go today. And I had prepared all 8 posts by Friday afternoon the 11th. I don’t always do a week’s worth at once in advance, but glad I did this time as I have other projects I’m working on. Starting next Monday I will be doing daily blog posts one day at a time, reporting at least a portion of that day at Arenal Observatory, Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica, My Christmas Treat Trip! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

The Cattle on a Thousand Hills!

God is speaking . . .

For all the animals of field and forest are mine! The cattle on a thousand hills! And all the birds upon the mountains! 

~Psalm 50:10-11 The Living Bible

On that overcast morning of so many other hazy photos of birds I see this group of cows on a nearby hill just waking up. Yep! I’m up before the cows! 🙂 At least the ones on that hill shot below on my cell phone. The cows above were zoomed in on my big camera. It was truly an inspiring morning as I tried to photograph “all the birds upon the mountains (the last few days of photos) and the cattle on a thousand hills!” God provides a lot for me to photograph! 🙂

The sleeping and waking cows are under that central tree on the horizon. A nice wake-up scene! 🙂 I zoomed in on that central tree for the feature photo at top.

And God concludes that Psalm and my walk by saying . . .

But true praise is a worthy sacrifice; this really honors me. Those who walk my paths will receive salvation from the Lord.

~Psalm 50:23 The Living Bible

And with that I’m preparing to spend time with God in Nature for Christmas next week, my favorite kind of worship and photography that I will share daily. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

The “Sculptured” INCA DOVE

To me, this second most common dove/pigeon around my house looks sculptured, almost as if he were carved out of wood. Read eBird on Inca Doves for more information or to see more of my many photos, my Inca Dove Gallery with some better photos.

 “Every bird, every tree, every flower reminds me what a blessing and privilege it is just to be alive.”

– Marty Rubin

Costa Rica launches crowdfunding campaign for reforestation ~A Tico Times article

¡Pura Vida!

2 “Rare” Birds in Neighborhood

At least “Merlin,” my eBird identifier says they are “rare” for this location, though I know there are manakins in Atenas and I have seen the grosbeak in nearby Alajuela, so I don’t think they are really that rare here! 🙂 They are a female Long-tailed Manakin (feature photo) and an immature or female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. And I believe the latter is an immature male because another poorer photo shows a touch of rose color coming on the breast and the females do not have that. NOTE: The name links above are to eBird descriptions. You can also see more of my photos of these in my bird GALLERIES: Long-tailed Manakin and the Rose-breasted Grosbeak galleries.

It was an overcast morning with no good light, thus the poor quality images when against the sky:

Reusing, recycling, rethinking ~The Washington Post Article

¡Pura Vida!