In just a day and a half I’ve photographed 44 species of birds which continues Maquenque as my best birding place in Costa Rica! And to top it off, thanks to a very good birding guide this morning, I got photos of three lifers! That’s 3 birds seen for the first time in my life! Here’s photos of the three lifers and I may not get all of the others in the blog but will of course have them in my trip gallery! The weirdest one first . . .
Olivaceous Piculet (a tiny woodpecker), Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa RicaYellow-bellied Seedeater, Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa RicaCommon Pauraque, Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
These three photos will be the start of three new bird galleries in my Costa Rica Birds Galleries, which is a good place to get acquainted with birds you can see in Costa Rica, whether you live here or you are coming for a visit. Check it out! And I’ve included where I photographed each bird plus three names: English, Spanish and the Latin Scientific Name!
This is my third time to photograph a Ceraunus Blue, Hemiargus ceraunus, including one other time in my home garden and one at Hotel Banana Azul in the Caribbean. You can see those other photos in the Ceraunus Blue GALLERY and other people’s photos from all over the Americas at butterfliesandmoths.org. This is one of those tiny, fingernail-sized butterflies and seems to be fairly common in North and Central America. Here’s my three different views of this one last Thursday in my garden . . .
Ceraunus Blue, Hemiargus ceraunus, Atenas, Costa Rica
This common resident bird is found literally all over Costa Rica at most levels and this is my 4th time to see one in my Atenas neighborhood, with all other photos here in trees, bushes or on a fence, though their feeding is in the grasses! I have seen one across the street in the cow pasture grasses but without a photo! I did get photos of him in the grasses of a meadow in Curi-Cancha Reserve, Monteverde and I’ve also seen one at Celeste Mountain Lodge at Tenorio Volcano NP. See my other photos in the Yellow-faced Grassquit GALLERY. And you can read about them on eBird. He’s a resident, tropical, non-migrating bird found throughout Central America, the Caribbean Islands and the northern fringes of South America. Here’s 3 shots of this male in one of my Nance Trees . . .
Yellow-faced Grassquit, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
There are thousands of different species of insects in Costa Rica and I have no idea what this one is that I caught the other day in my garden on a Plumbago flower (Most insects don’t land on it because it is sticky and they can get stuck!). AND he appears to have little yellow shin pads or knee pads. Hmmm? Every day in Costa Rica nature there is a new discovery!
Unidentified Insect, Atenas, Costa RicaUnidentified Insect, Atenas, Costa Rica
I will put him in my Unidentified Insects GALLERY where there are 34 species now with some much more colorful and interesting. Please contact me if you can identify any of them!
It is still windy here into April which is unusual and it plays havoc with the butterflies, meaning that I am still seeing or photographing few. But this Brown Longtail, Urbanus procne, along with some of the other Skippers and a few tiny ones on the ground are all I see right now and less frequently a Yellow high in the air, seemingly riding the currents of the wind and never landing where I can photograph. This one I got the day before yesterday in my garden on a Porterweed in a brief lull of the wind.
I’ve been working on all my wildlife galleries to have both English & Spanish Common Names as the titles and the Latin Scientific Name in the subtitles as I did first with birds. The one exception is that I cannot find a single easy source of Spanish Common Names for the butterflies & moths! So I’m still working on those, though they do all have both the English common name and the Latin scientific name. But still, I’ve seen no other wildlife photo galleries with this much helpful information. I’ve completed the following categories except the Reptiles and Spanish on the butterflies, so almost finished!
CLICK above image to go to that “Other Wildlife” folder.
This small bright blue & yellow bird landed for 30 seconds or so in my Yellow Bell Tree Wednesday and I managed to get a few shots before he left. He is the male Spot-crowned Euphonia (eBird link), endemic to Costa Rica and the northern fringes of Panama, only on the Pacific Slopes, and just my third time to photograph one! First time in my garden! My other places were at Esquinas Rainforest lodge at Piedras Blancas NP north of Golfito and at Hacienda Guachipelin, Rincón de la Vieja NP in Guanacaste near Liberia. I go back to Esquinas in July for my 83rd birthday and expect to see them again!
One of my all-time favorite bird photos was of a female Spot-crowned Euphonia eating a berry at Esquinas Lodge! See that and the other shots in my Spot-Crowned Euphonia Gallery! Now here’s 3 shots from my garden Wednesday . . .
Spot-crowned Euphonia, male, Atenas, Costa Rica
Above he’s looking down, next looking up and the third looking right into the camera before flying off!
He landed in one of my Nance trees for only a few seconds and then flew away, never showing his face, which can help with ID! But after a lot of research online and in my books I am pretty certain that this fellow is a Great Crested Flycatcher which we can have here as both immigrants from the north this time of year or non-breeding residents year-a-round. But this is my first time to see one here, though I saw one in the states in the past.
Great Crested Flycatcher, Atenas, Costa Rica
For the birders reading, notice the distinctive white wing-bars and the slight reddish-orange tinting on the lower edge of his wing. Only Great Crested, Brown and Ash-throated Flycatchers have both of those, eliminating the similar Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Dusky-capped Flycatcher and Northern Beardless Tyrannulet. Plus none of those have this bright a yellow belly or this dark of a brown crest which is also the two reasons I eliminate the Brown and Ash-throated Flycatchers!
Sometimes bird ID becomes like scientific detective work! But I’m pretty confident of this ID, even without a face shot which would have shown no eye ring and a slight bit of pink at the base of his bill. Read about him on eBird. And you who live in the Eastern U.S. are possibly familiar with him as a common bird there, as shown on eBird’s map, and where I’ve seen him before.
Amazon Kindle had a special on the electronic Tarzan books, all 10 of the original stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, for only 99¢ (1.08 with tax) and I grabbed them! The early Tarzan movies had
CLICK cover image to see on Amazon.com.
a big effect on me as a child, while most of the later ones I did not consider as good and since books are almost always better than their movie counterparts, I decided for the first time in my life to read the original stories by the author. Glad I did!
I have finished the first three books and boy is it true that, in this case, the books are so much better than the old or new movies. It is hard to believe how cheesy some of those old movies were that I remember liking so much as a child! You can watch most of the old Tarzan movies free online now. And the newer movies made up their own stories, ignoring the books!
Then last week I read a climate change article in The Washington Post that really “clicked” with me and merged with my book readings caused me to decide there was a definite “Tarzan Effect” on me in my childhood of Saturday matinee Tarzan movies and that motivated me to start writing again. I now have a new set of web pages under ABOUT on my website simply titled The Tarzan Effect. They share some of the ways I think Tarzan affected me for the better and at one point I even link to stories and essays on how he affected several other people including Jane Goodall who is reported to have said “I fell passionately in love with Tarzan — this glorious creature living out in the jungle doing all the things I wanted to do, and what did he do? He married the wrong Jane.”
Three butterflies I got the other morning at the same time that are not new to me but I think handsome butterflies, The Tanna Longtail(normal sized) and the Rawson’s Metalmark(tiny fingernail sized), the same species I featured 6 days ago on March 22, and a Plain Longtail not much different from the first one above.
Tanna Longtail, Atenas, Costa Rica
Note that this Tanna Longtail is very similar to the Teleus Longtail (darker side spots, thinner median band) and the Brown Longtail (also with darker side spots) and thus my ID is not guaranteed but I’m pretty sure!
Rawson’s Metalmark, Atenas, Costa RicaPlain Longtail Skipper, Atenas, Costa Rica
The weirdest one first . . .
