Category: Trees

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“It All Came Together!”

That is what I said about this particular pix when the way the Montezuma Oropendola perched in relation to the tree limb with both in focus is not always the way my bird photo come together! 🙂 But this one did!

And since this is the morning of my serious 6-hour surgery to remove a cancer from the left side of my head, I am praying that this surgery too “will all come together” for a successful removal of all cancer! Thanks for your prayers! No updated posts on my health for probably 3 days or more! 🙂 But here is where I will post it first!

¡Pura Vida!

This photo was made on my last December Trip to Arenal Observatory.

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Beloved Tree

“If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.”

― Hal Borland
A mighty old tree at Caño Negro Reserva, Costa Rica, loved by ferns & air plants & a family of bats. 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

And more of my December 2020 at Caño Negro Reserva:

The Landscapes! – AND – The Birds!

HEALTH UPDATE: Yesterday morning I had my Covid Test and by last night an email report that it is negative as required – my last pre-operation requirement completed until leaving my house at 5:15 AM Monday morning. 🙂

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Two “Lifer Birds” This Week!

  • Tropical Parula
  • Black-throated Green Warbler
Sorry for lousy photos! Tiny birds, high in trees and in poor light is my excuse. 🙂

And the interesting thing is that I got both birds on my last full day here and the Parula in front of my cabin! 🙂 Tomorrow, Friday, I leave El Silencio Lodge & Reserve – my newest “Favorite Places” in Costa Rica! 🙂 I highly recommend this lodge!

Read on for more about my new passion of planting trees from the “One Tree Planted” organization . . .

Continue reading “Two “Lifer Birds” This Week!”
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Sunrise Behind the Mountain

Sometimes a beautiful hill or mountain hides the sunrise as it did yesterday for my early morning bird walk, making photos of birds in the shadows difficult – but patience! The sun eventually comes over the hill! 🙂

El Silencio Lodge & Reserve, Bajos del Toro, Alajuela, Costa Rica

And today I slowed down my activities by necessity.

Continue reading “Sunrise Behind the Mountain”
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In the Clouds

This afternoon the clouds slowly moved in until I was in a mist it seemed.

El Silencio Lodge and the nearby pueblo of Bajos del Toro are in the Cloud Forest in mountains much higher than where I live in Atenas though not as high as my January visit to San Gerardo de Dota – but still the clouds move in sometime as they did this afternoon after my arrival and during my first walk around the property.

Continue reading “In the Clouds”
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First Morning, Great Backyard Bird Count

During breakfast this morning I got 7 species of birds from my terrace, but because I was eating, I photographed only one, just at the end of my time looking – The Yellow Warbler, both a migrant from the north and a resident sometimes, meaning I don’t know how to tell if this particular one is a migrant or a resident enjoying an insect for breakfast! 🙂

Yellow Warbler, Atenas, Costa Rica

And the other 6 birds I saw were Great Kiskadee, Turkey Vulture, one of the Swallow species (unidentified), Tropical Kingbird, and Clay-colored Thrush or Yiqüirro.

I hope you are counting birds in your backyard this weekend and reporting to eBird!

¡Pura Vida!

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To Be in a Forest

To be in a forest may be my favorite activity in Costa Rica, like looking out over the forest below at Arenal Volcano National Park . . .

Arenal Forest from the Observation Tower, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica.

Or seeing the inter-connectedness of everything in the forest like Jane Goodall says in this minute and a half YouTube Video:

Or to know that I’ve helped save an endangered globe by Planting One Tree! Check out that link for how you can plant a tree in parts of the world needing them most, OR go plant one in your own backyard or nearby park! 🙂

🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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Loving All Trees!

Tree in parking lot of Super La Coope, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Yes! I even love this tree in my supermarket parking lot which adds beauty and oxygen to my simple life here in Atenas! 🙂

“Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that? Let us love trees with every breath we take until we perish.”

― Munia Khan

OneTreePlanted.org

¡Pura Vida!

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In the Shadow of Trees

Darkness is absence of light. Shadow is diminution of light.

~Leonardo da Vinci

A photo from San Gerardo de Dota that I liked and didn’t include in my flower post. Sometimes it’s the little things that impress me the most, yet often get overlooked like this diminution of light.

¡Pura Vida!

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Tree by the Pasture

Yeah! I know, it seems that I like every tree! And maybe I do, but this one by the cow pasture in front of my house is special I think because of its shape. Though that one little tree to its left sort of takes away from the shape 🙂 it’s still a neat tree!

The Featured Photo above is the broad look from the cow pasture with that tiny sliver of roof on the far left edge of photo being my house on the hill. The tree is the one in center of above photo to the left of the 3 big houses. And below is a closer view.

Big Green Tree by the Pasture.

“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”

― Kahlil Gebran

¡Pura Vida!

My TREES GALLERY has all kinds! 🙂

FOUR MORE RECENT ACCOLADES FOR COSTA RICA

Described in the Live in Costa Rica Blog or here’s my quick summary:

  1. The #1 best country to retire in according to International Living Magazine (Again!)
  2. The #1 best country to visit or vacation in according to National Geographic for 2021.
  3. The highest inoculation rate against Covid -19 virus in Latin America with goal of every adult in the country!
  4. “Rumor” is that Costa Rica may host the 2022 Miss Universe Contest. A new convention center in San Jose makes things like this more likely, though final decision not made yet.

FOR ME? It is the Best Place to Experience NATURE!

🙂

¡Pura Vida!