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Striking colors and striking patience is how I see this common water bird, the Little Blue Heron. I can’t stop photographing him! 🙂 These 3 shots are typical of this bird and they were shot from a moving boat! But he didn’t move! 🙂
There are 3 species of toucans on each side of Costa Rica with the Keel-billed and Yellow-throated on both sides and a different Aracari (smaller toucan) on each side, Collared Aracari on the Caribbean (Atlantic) side and Fiery-billed Aracari on the Pacific slopes. And of course this past week I was in the Caribbean. Here’s two shots of each species with a link to my gallery for that species if you want to see more and different photos. One photo for the email notice and then the three galleries online . . .
I managed to get usable photos of 5 dragonflies while in the Tortuguero wetlands but cannot guarantee the identification of the four I’ve labeled. The fifth one never landed and thus my photos of him flying are next to impossible to identify, so I just labeled him “unidentified,” and one or more of the others could be also. 🙂
I’m up to photos of about 40 bird species plus at least 20 other animals and I don’t leave until noon tomorrow, so it will be a while before I report on all of those, thus here’s a few representative shots from the different boats I floated on through the Tortuguero rivers and canals . . .
Here’s 10 more shots, some of which could be considered art (I think) . . .
This was only my third time to see a Sungrebe. The first time was here at Tortuguero in 2016 when Reagan came and we traveled to Tortuguero Laguna Lodge. My second sighting was in 2017 at Caño Negro and now again at Tortuguero but in the dark shadows of plants along the water’s edge and very difficult to photograph. See my shots from earlier years (which are better) in my Sungrebe Gallery and here’s the most representative shot from yesterday, a female behind brush along the canal where they usually stay, out of the sun and away from people. The female has an orange cheek and the male a plain white cheek of which I have one photo below this one of a female for a total of 4 photos, not of high quality, but representative of this bird . . .
3 more photos below . . .
Continue reading “Sungrebe – The Rarest Bird seen yesterday”
I look out over the main river in Tortuguero when in my colorful Caribbean Cottage. I’m in the downstairs one on the left in photo below. It rained off and on much of my arrival afternoon but I got a few photos with an Oropendola my only bird. Took the night walk and might have some photos from that later. And in the morning I do my favorite boat tour of the national park with lots of birds and other animal possibilities, then tomorrow afternoon visit a small community in the middle of the rainforest. So lots of photo-ops! 🙂
From the top of a volcano to the mangroves at the ocean’s edge and even in the tiny garden behind my casita, I’ve daily photographed nature for 8 years here and called that photography “Nature as Art!” and shared it in this blog. 🙂
I like this Collins Online Dictionary definition:
Nature is all the animals, plants, and other things in the world that are not made by people, and all the events and processes that are not caused by people.
Thus in nature I worship God and find my peace & inspiration from Him, the creator of it all!
Each year I find it difficult to select only 12 photos from the year and I first tried to come up with 12 “categories” of nature to make sure I selected a variety, but that became as cumbersome as trying to have a “photo-a-month.” So I decided to just stick with “12 favorites,” even if more than 12 are favorites! 🙂
So, however labeled, here’s 12 photos I made in 2022!
Happy New Year and Pura vida! 🙂
To the nearly 500 email subscribers: I hope you read on for the other 11 favorite photos . . .
The brown on either side of the eye appears to go through the eye and is thus “the mask.” Like many frog species, he comes in different colors making ID less obvious as you can see in my Masked Tree Frog GALLERY or read about the Smilisca phaeota on Wikipedia. We found him in the fountain pool outside the Reception Lobby of Arenal Observatory Lodge.
¡Pura Vida!
And . . .
Historic Biodiversity Agreement in Montreal! Tico Times article
That’s the species name with there being 5 different species of Leptodactylus genus frogs in Costa Rica, all five appearing on the Pacific Slope and 3 on the Caribbean or Atlantic Slope. World-wide there are 75 species of Leptodactylus! This Leptodactylus savagei appears on both slopes of Costa Rica and was earlier called “Savage’s Thin-toed Frog,” but now goes by two common names: “Central American Bullfrog” and “Smoky Jungle Frog.” This genus Leptodactylus is the largest frog in Costa Rica (and probably all of Central America.) This particular species appears from Honduras to Colombia.
I just got a new Amphibian Field Guide here at this lodge which will help me to better identify and explain the sightings and photos I post on this site. There are 3 other frogs pictured in my Central American Bullfrog GALLERY and I’m reasonably certain that they are all in the genus Leptodactylus, but I need to study them more to specify the exact species. I don’t think they are all “savagei.”
This was just one more of the creatures spotted and photographed on my private Night Walk last night, seen at the lodge’s “Frog Pond” just like the Red-eyed Tree Frogs I posted early this morning. I will be posting other creatures from that night walk here in time. 🙂
My main reason for going on “Night Hikes” is to get more photos of this beautiful symbol of Costa Rica that almost looks “unreal” with his bright colors and “other worldly” look. But he is very real and best photographed with a cellphone as these two were, in the light of a flashlight. Just one more totally cool thing about living retired in Costa Rica! 🙂
I got a lot of other photos of other frogs, snakes, spiders, other insects, but these were my two favorite, so all for now with more to be shared another time.
¡Pura Vida!