I’m suddenly getting a lot of spider webs all around my yard and we still have rain almost every afternoon. Not sure what it means. This particular web did have its spider in the center, a little white spider.
White Spider in center of its web, Atenas, Costa Rica.
In addition to the Satyrs, several of these Banded Peacock butterflies are staying around while the bulk of butterflies seem to have gone from my gardens.
This one is more “normal” or typical of spider webs than the strange one taking over a plant the other day. If you look close, there is one insect trapped in the web but I do not see the spider.
Spider Web in my garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
A female in one of my trees and the “snowbirds” are coming – both literally and figuratively! 🙂
TODAY is Thanksgiving Day in the States and though not a holiday here, I’m having a traditional Thanksgiving Day Dinner with friends from New Hampshire up the street from my house.
Baltimore Oriole Female, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Or at least it seems like they are the last two to be active this season, though I know I will have more soon or by January. The most active time for butterflies in my garden has been May to November, roughly the time of our “winter” or Rainy Season, though I do have some year around and see even more at the lodges I visit during our “summer” or Dry Season, December to April. But these two Satyrs, Carolina and White Satyrs, are the only two I’ve been able to photograph on my little hill recently, while thankfully more birds are returning! 🙂 And the rain is slowing down with less of it less often, like we are getting ready for dry season early? I hope not too early! The rain with the sun is what makes it so green and beautiful here!
White Satyr, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaCarolina Satyr, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
And, oh yeah, there’s a lot more of these thumbnail-sized Carolina Satyrs than the Whites! 🙂 I have no explanation for why.
He’s the most common squirrel in Costa Rica, a Variegated Squirrel, and I managed to get these two shots of him looking for green figs on my Strangler Fig tree Sunday morning and he did eat that one he’s approaching in the second photo. The first photo would be my favorite if the leaf behind him wasn’t “sticking out of his head” like a Unicorn, but to remove it in Photoshop would mean removing some of his whiskers and I didn’t think that would look right either, so “this is the way it really was!” 🙂
Variegated Squirrel, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
In next photo he approaches the tiny green fig that he ultimately eats.
This is one of several common brown & yellow birds with Black & White trim and this one most often is confused with the Great Kiskadee as about the same size. Social Flycatcher is colored the same but always smaller (and chubbier) and after awhile you get an eye for size and even the personality of birds which in this Boat-billed is different from the cockier Great Kiskadee. Plus I got a shot from behind and the white ring around this one’s head has all black in the center while the Kiskadee has yellow plus a spot of yellow on the black next to his beak. AND this Boat-billed has a bigger or fatter beak (boat-shaped?). But at first glance all of these look almost the same! I further verified my ID by running 3 of these photos through Merlin, the magical bird-ID app for your phone from eBird. 🙂
I’m starting to see more birds in my garden trees now with yesterday and today including a Keel-billed Toucan, Squirrel Cuckoo, Gray-headed Chachalaca, White-winged Dove, Red-billed Pigeon, Clay-colored Thrush, Great Kiskadee. Rufous-naped Wren, and today a Summer Tanager Female which was the only decent photo I got. Here’s three shots of her at different angles . . .
Coming down the driveway in early morning I noticed something white in the tops of my neighbors Red Palms or Palmas Roja, an ornamental plant, not a tree and snapped this shot on the cell phone . . .
Then I go get my camera and go for a closer look seen in the next three photos with not a single spider seen anywhere! I will try to research these online to learn more about them, but it looks like a huge “spider city” is being built! 🙂