Happy Valentines Day!

From my garden to you with nature’s red, heart-shaped flower, the Anthurium, Anthurium andraeanum (linked to Wikipedia). It is native to Central and South America and has many common names in English such as anthurium, tailflower, flamingo flower, pigtail plant, and laceleaf. They bloom year-around in my garden and in a pot on my terrace where these photos were made.

Anthurium, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Anthurium, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Happy Valentines Day!

Solo Polydamas Swallowtail

I earlier said that my only butterfly now in the garden is a few Banded Peacocks and I don’t count the Yellows flying up in the trees for reasons I don’t know. Well, the next day after that post, this lone Polydamas Swallowtail showed up in my garden. But still no birds beyond the hummingbird! 🙂 See more of my photos of this Polydamas Swallowtail, Battus polydamas in that gallery. During the butterfly season he is a regular!

Polydamas Swallowtail, Atenas, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Nance Trees Blooming!

Along with dozens of other trees that bloom here during the dry season, which at first seemed strange to me, but I guess it is all about the sun. 🙂 These little yellow and orange cluster flowers will eventually turn into clusters of Nance Berries (yellow) which many birds will enjoy! And the iguanas too! 🙂 And here a few people eat them or make jams-jellies or marmalade with them. I tried eating one and did not like it as a bitter taste to me. Read about them on Wikipedia: Nance Tree, Byrsonima crassifolia.

Nance Tree Flowers that will become berries, Atenas, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

Gone With the Wind!

So it seems with most birds & butterflies! Except for two! A couple of Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds and a couple of Banded Peacock Butterflies! IT IS VERY WINDY! Yet I caught these two species flying anyway! 🙂

These two Banded Peacocks doing some kind of mating dance in the air!
And this is the male of the two Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds.

¡Pura Vida!

And those were my Monday afternoon photos to get the blog going again! Busy with other things the last two days! 🙂 For more photos of these two hardy creatures, see my Galleries:

Reduced Travel This Year

As my age, health and increased cost of living here begin to require, I simply need to reduce the big activities, so only 3 trips this year of 4 nights or more, and I may sneak in some day trips or even a 2-nighter at a nearby lodge – we’ll see! 🙂 But I’m still focused on nature and have plans for a few changes in my garden this year. And the three “big” trips are going to be very good, as always! 🙂

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird in a Heliconia Flower, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito, Costa Rica.

It will be a coastal rainforest jungle in July as I return to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge for my 3rd visit and second time on my birthday! 🙂 Both photos with this post were made at Esquinas Lodge.

Then in September I’m exploring the “Amazon of Costa Rica” again at Tortuguero National Park on the Caribbean Coast instead of my usual Hotel Banana Azul beach trip. I like all the lodges in Tortuguero, but Tortuga Lodge & Gardens gets my vote for the most comfortable with the best food! And I don’t care if it is more expensive! 🙂

Then I finish the year with Christmas at Ballena National Park, Uvita in another favorite lodge, Hotel Cristal Ballena with a room overlooking the Pacific and nightly sunsets! Plus their 30 acre rainforest refuge! 🙂 And “Ballena” = “Whale” in English.

¡Pura Vida!

Golden Torch

The Heliconia psittacorum x spathocircinata is one of many heliconia in Costa Rica that are easy to confuse in identify! And like some of the others, it has several common names, but I prefer “Golden Torch” for this one in my garden. 🙂

Golden Torch, Atenas, Costa Rica

See more of my flower photos in FLORA & FOREST Costa Rica including a whole gallery of just flowers in my garden.

¡Pura Vida!

“Rare Snake Plant Flower”

Or most online sites say “relatively rare” but vary in the reasons from being very healthy or the “right amount of sun” to being stressed or root bound. Not sure why my snake plant in the frog pot on the terrace is blooming, but it is, and I thought a first for me, but after loading this I find my 2017 blog post with another one blooming. I had forgotten! 🙂

Snake Plant (Mother-in-law’s Tongue), Dracaena trifasciata.

Flowering Snake Plant (Mother-in-law’s Tongue), Dracaena trifasciata, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Flowering Snake Plant (Mother-in-law’s Tongue), Dracaena trifasciata, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Banded Peacock in Windy Season

January to March is very windy here and maybe that is one reason for fewer butterflies, but one of the larger and more colorful ones that keeps hang on around my gardens is the Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link). While several Yellows fly around high in the trees and never seem to land for a photo and a few Skippers can be seen close to the ground, it is mainly these Banded Peacocks who frequent my gardens now.

Banded Peacock, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Banded Peacock, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

A New Rufous-tailed Visited

This older and much larger Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Amazilia tzacatl (my gallery link) was visiting a couple of days ago and has not been back. I think that the smaller and younger one is chasing all other hummingbirds away as if he owns the place. The Blue-vented I had here earlier last month has not returned either. I filled the feeders again, hoping if would attract others, but maybe not with a little boss bird around. 🙂

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Green-browed Skipper – A Lifer!

Yesterday was a new species of birds for me and today a new species of butterflies for me, the Arita Skipper or Green-browed Skipper, Arita arita. No link to my gallery because this is the only photo in it now. 🙂 And no good article online, though there are 2 other photos on butterfliesandmoths.org and 5 more sightings from Costa Rica on the iNaturalistCR site. Not a spectacular butterfly, but one more species which brings my CR Butterflies Galleries up to 320 identified species now! 🙂

Green-browed or Arita Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~Henry David Thoreau

¡Pura Vida!

2,000 Blog/Website Visits in January! THANK YOU!

One of the services provided by my WordPress blog/website host is a monthly report of page visits on my site and it has been typical for the last few years to have around 2,000 page views of my blog/website at charliedoggett.net each month!

And though my photo gallery is a menu item on the website, it is actually separate and hosted by a different business, SmugMug.com, and they started in February 2022 counting my gallery visitors with several galleries now having had over 1,000 visitors in 2 years! And the shocker for me, as I typed this (yesterday) is that I’ve had 1,957 views of the gallery “My Home Gardens.” 🙂 Flowers are more popular than birds?! So I express my THANKS to all of you who read the blog (with more pictures than words)! 🙂 And then go on to look at my photos in the gallery! 🙂 Maybe “A picture is worth a thousand words” is a true statement after all! 🙂

Moving to Costa Rica 10 years ago and immersing myself in the incredible nature here was definitely one of the best decisions I every made! And I’m thankful for the many people who have joined me in my adventures vicariously by reading the blog posts and looking at the photos! ¡Pura Vida!