Category: Wetlands

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Insect Bites on Hikes?

One of my regular readers asked about insects and bug bites on all the wilderness hikes I make with every trip and in a little-less wilderness around where I live in Atenas, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. And he asked what I did about them.

YES, in the tropics, and Costa Rica specifically, there are actually more insect species than all of the U.S. and Canada combined. Generally they seem to me to be worse at hot times, our summer which is North America’s winter – ironically the time of year we have the most tourists! ? But also location is a big factor, para ejemplo (for example) hotter lowland rainforests and year-around wetlands seem worse to me than mountain cloud forest like I was in last week. And that includes most beaches which have more mosquitoes for example than I have ever seen here in the central valley. But the government has done an excellent job of keeping down the population of mosquitoes all over the country because of diseases they carry and I seldom see one. But there are still many other bugs that bite all over the country! And spiders too!

And you birders remember than many birds eat insects, thus the places I have photographed the most bird species like Maquenque Lodge Boca Tapada and Rancho Humo Guanacaste are wetlands year-around and thus more insects than some dryer places. Here in the Central Valley I see more insects just before and at the beginning of rainy season (April-May) than I do during the daily rains like right now. Not sure why.

When hiking in the reserves and parks I usually spray with Deep Woods Off (a high % of Deet) before going out, and occasionally here at home when I see lots of insects. For treatment off bites I always take a tube of Allergel with me or a similar antihistamine gel/ointment /cream to relieve the itching (many brands here from Europe, U.S., etc). When you live in the tropics you must learn to live with insects! ?

Around my house I notice at different times of the year an influx of different flying insects that are pests more than biters, while at other times I get biten and don’t even know by what! 🙂 I just pull out the antihistamine gel and treat it and so far I have lived through all my bug bites! 🙂

Frogs have it easy, they can eat what bugs them. ~Unknown

¡Pura Vida!

See my Insects Gallery which is separate from my Butterfly Gallery or an earlier blog post titled “Living with Bugs.”

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Through the eyes of a child . . .

The subtitle of my newest travel book is “When you look through the eyes of a child” describing how I tried to present this photo-travel book on Maquenque Eco-Lodge and Reserve. Yes – it is in Spanish this time but for you English-only people, don’t worry! All the photo captions are in both languages and the poem from which I got the subtitle is also in both languages, and here it is in English:

“Everything seemed possible,
when I looked through the eyes of a child.
And every once in a while;
I remember,
I still have the chance to be that wild.”
― Nikki Rowe

It’s a photo book with 141 photos, including photos of the 61 species of birds I got this visit. THE ELECTRONIC PREVIEW IS FREE, so go to this link or click the cover image below and you can see all 92 pages of the book for free! Of course full-screen is best for photos! 🙂

https://www.blurb.com/b/10228384-maquenque-m-gico

In English: “Maquenque Magic, When you look through the eyes of a child, by Charlie Doggett”

Or just for the downloadable photos, go to my “Trip Gallery” titled:

2020 June 30–July 6- Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve

¡Pura Vida!

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Nature as Art

“Nature as Art” was the name of my little photo business for a few years in Nashville and I was reminded of that theme during my week at Maquenque with lots of “little things” I photographed and enjoyed just seeing! 🙂

As much as I love most art, no artist can compete with the creative handiwork of God in Nature!

All art is but imitation of nature.
~Seneca the Younger

For more of Maquenque “Nature as Art” see these galleries:

Nature as Art 2020

or

Nature’s Designs 2019

¡Pura Vida!

From Maquenque 2019 Gallery

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Maquenque Oropendolas

There are two species of Oropendolas common in Cost Rica and at Maquenque, the Montezuma Oropendola (3 photos here) and the less common Chestnut-headed Oropendola (1 photo here). There are two more Oropendolas in Central America, both in Panama with the Crested Oropendola occasionally coming over the border into southern Costa Rica and the Black Oropendola is found only further in southern Panama. Male & female appear the same in all Oropendolas.

This week at Maquenque I observed a mother Montezuma Oropendola feeding a baby or juvenile blackbird (either a Melodious Blackbird or a Giant Cowbird if the eye is red like some said). It was interesting to watch and the pair are in one photo below and I featured them in a post while I was there titled A BLM Example in Nature.

CLICK an image to enlarge or start a manual slide show.

  • Mother Montezuma Oropendola & baby Blackbird
  • Montezuma Oropendola
  • Chestnut-headed Oropendola
  • Montezuma Oropendola

See my Maquenque Birds 2020 Gallery from this trip with 61 species!

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

Or my travel gallery Maquenque Eco-Lodge July 2020 Visit

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Pigeons & Doves

Much more interesting than than those city park pigeons pooping on the statues (though some statues deserve it) are the 32 species of pigeons and doves in Central America! I have photos of 13 of those species in my Costa Rica Birds Photo Gallery, meaning I have a ways to go in this group! 🙂 And I got usable photos of only 3 at Maquenque with none being new for me. CLICK a photo to enlarge. I think all are beautiful!

  • White-tipped Dove
  • Pale-vented Pigeon
  • Short-billed Pigeon

I just completed my Maquenque Birds 2020 Gallery from this trip with 61 species!

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque’s Small Birds

“Small” is relative and normally would have included the Honeycreepers and Hummingbirds which came in earlier posts. And of course these two swallows could have also been with the Wetland Birds. I’m just trying to spread out the many bird photos from Manquenque.

The smallest birds are fun to see and try to photo, though difficult in rainforest shadows and often overcast skies. Here’s my efforts with these 6 and go back to see the Honeycreepers, Hummingbirds, and Wetland Birds if you missed those posts and like birds! 🙂 CLICK an image to enlarge.

  • Black-crowned Tityra
  • Variable Seedeater
  • Long-tailed Tyrant
  • Northern Rough-winged Swallow
  • Olive-backed Euphonia
  • Mangrove Swallow

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for more about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Wetland Birds

Or you could call them “water birds” since they eat fish and other water creatures requiring water. 🙂 Because there are so many rainforests and bodies of water all over Costa Rica, most of these birds are fairly common here with the featured image being an exception: The Green Ibis is seen only in a few place, more rare than the White Ibis which was not seen here this year.

I’m still working on my bird photos of 60+ species and will continue to present them here in manageable groupings and then I will introduce a Maquenque 2020 Gallery where you can see all my photos from last week’s visit to my best birding lodge in Costa Rica! While still at Maquenque, I presented these 3 groups of birds on the blog (click titile to see):

  1. Parrots and Toucans (My “Rainforest Fireworks” for 4th of July)
  2. Honeycreepers (a favorite small bird category)
  3. Kingfishers (expert fishers who could be included here)

And today’s I call Wetland Birds: CLICK image to enlarge.

  • Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
  • Anhinga Male
  • Anhinga Female
  • Northern Jacana
  • Green Ibis
  • Green Heron
  • Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
  • Purple Gallinule
  • Little Blue Heron Juvenile
  • Great Egret

Tomorrow will be 6 Hummingbirds at Maquenque which were hard to photograph in the dark shade of the forest, but always interesting! 🙂

See also my Costa Rica Birds Gallery.

And for about the place, Maquenque Eco-Lodge & Reserve Website.

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Rainforest Flowers Part 1

Yes – these all grow wild in the rainforest even if they have moved some up near the lodge. And I really tried to get a name for each flower which I did for the 13 today and for all but 3 of the 14 for tomorrow. I make a big deal out of all the birds here and could just as easily for all the unique flowers. Enjoy and remember to CLICK an image to enlarge.

  • White Ginger or Butterfly Lily
  • Red Ginger
  • Phytolacca rivinoides
  • Pastora de la Montana
  • Pastora de la Montana
  • Panama Hat or Carludovica rotundifolia
  • Heliconia
  • Heliconia
  • Golden Trumpet
  • Fire Bush
  • Fern
  • Crepe Ginger
  • Bamboo Orchid

14 more rainforest flowers tomorrow in Part 2!

See also my Flora & Forest Gallery.

¡Pura Vida!

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Maquenque Damsel & Dragonflies

I walked over two wetlands bridges every time I approached or left my room (3 or 4 times a day) and thus saw a lot of dragonflies, but sorry to say no really great photos, but they are always interesting! 🙂 And there is no easy way to identify this beautiful creatures. Online websites are conflicting and no dragonfly book for Costa Rica.

  • Dragonfly
  • Red-faced Dragonfly
  • Scarlet Skimmer Dragonfly
  • Scarlet Skimmer Dragonfly
  • Damselfly
  • Red-tailed Dragonfly
Dragonflies photographed at Maquenque Eco-lodge Costa Rica, July 2020.

My CR Dragonfly Gallery has more!

By discovering nature, you discover yourself. ~Maxime Lagacé

¡Pura Vida!

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Virgen Rainforest Paradise

This morning I leave at 8 AM with Walter, my local transportation for out-of-Atenas trips, on a 3 hour drive north of here but still in our Alajuela Province. It’s on the San Carlos River near the Nicaragua border as a private nature reserve and eco-lodge that is one of my favorites in Costa Rica, where I’ve photographed more species of birds than any other one place and where I can sleep in a tree house room, watching howler monkeys and spider monkeys from my room. See my 2019 experience there and this short video of the virgen rainforest reserve says it all:

My Paradise Rainforest this week!

I will be here through next Monday – 6 nights in the tree house to celebrate my 80th birthday on Saturday the 4th of July! And, as long as the WiFi in their main building works, I will be posting blog reports every day! Maybe one tonight.

Because of world-wide increasing Coronavirus, the borders of Costa Rica remain closed to non-residents where we have the lowest infection rate in Latin America! But hotels, lodges like this one, and restaurants can open at 50% capacity to local residents only with required social distancing and masks, making places like this more pleasant (no “Ugly Americans” or “aggressive Japanese”) and less crowded. Two weeks ago they told me that in addition to me they had two couples coming for part of the week with me alone the other days, though that could change with late registrations! 🙂 Many Ticos are just now discovering the great tourism in their own country.

I will wear a mask when not eating and around other people, including my birding guide just to be extra cautious. I will not take their delightful boat trip to a little jungle village with great people that I enjoyed but will avoid this time due to COVID19 possibilities. I will mostly traipse through the jungle solo and stay safe from the virus. There have been NO CASES among the lodge employees (mainly one family) nor in the nearby town of Boca Tapada. But I will still be cautious because it is close to Nicaragua where the virus is more rampant and we are still getting new cases in Costa Rica.

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.” – A.A. Milne

My BIG BOOTS Adventure . . .

Yep! I’m taking my big boots this trip because I’m going in a car and can! 🙂 Plus they fit me and the lodge loaners don’t always fit . . . and I’ll be in a rainforest during the rainy season so they are needed! And my poncho!

I know . . . the boots are dusty, but why clean when they will get muddy this week! Plus I had to empty out the spiders and spray with that bug spray before I consider putting my hand or foot inside! 🙂

“Adventure is worthwhile.” – Aesop

¡Pura Vida!