Sometimes you see the world different from a boat on water and this was the case while on Rio Tarcoles last week. Below one photo for the email version is a slideshow of 6 shots from the river.
River Landscapes
Rio Tarcoles & Punta Leona Day Trip Gallery
Our January 7 day trip with 6 Canadian friends from British Columbia to Rio Tarcoles & Punta Leona Beach was a fun trip with lots of nature photo ops! And I now have the “Trip Gallery” finished! Click that link or the image of the first page below or this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-January-7-Rio-Tarcoles-Punta-Leona In many ways, these trip galleries are my “base galleries” from which I glean photos for subject galleries like Birds! While photos made in my home garden go directly into the subject galleries if they even make a gallery. 🙂 But I love these trip galleries because I always make more photos on a trip!
¡Pura Vida!
My needle biopsy went well yesterday and now I just wait for their report that I will receive in my February 12 appointment. And my sister Bonnie learned that her “colon cancer” was primarily an ovarian cancer that spread to her colon, and now they are about to begin chemotherapy after one more procedure. Our mother and brother both died of cancer and now it looks like the rest of us may go the same way. Only Dad never had cancer. The doctors said he died when his heart just stopped, not a heart attack. And Bonnie and I will both look for the positive while we fight our different types of cancers. Thanks for your prayers!
American Crocodiles . . .
. . . are one of the reasons a lot of tourists take boat trips on the Tarcoles River, though my priority is always the birds and why I choose this particular boat company (Jungle Crocodile Safari) which focuses on the birds more than any other and does not feed the crocodiles chickens like some boats do (which is illegal). BUT, the crocs are interesting and I usually make a few photos of them. 🙂
Here are just two photos from this trip, the feature photo at top being the face of a very old “grandpa croc.” They can live up to 80 years! (Old like me!) 🙂 While the other photo of the total croc is of a young adult or adolescent. In this Trip Gallery, which is now completed, I have 7 croc shots from this trip in a sub-gallery simply named “Crocodiles.” Or if you’re really into crocs, check out my Costa Rica American Crocodile GALLERY with croc photos from 8 different locations all over CR, though more from Tarcoles River which is the closest location to me. 🙂
And in “The Trip Gallery,” I also have photos of 26 bird species, White-faced Capuchin Monkeys, Basilisk Lizards, landscapes, other nature and even a photo of our group of 6 Canadians with a family from Denmark we shared the boat with! Exploring Costa Rica is always international! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Personal Note . . .
At 7:30 this morning I’m scheduled for “Needle Surgery” to get a bit of the spot or growth from one of the lymph nodes in my neck for a biopsy. I will go back in February for a report and to schedule any further action if needed. The doctor doubts that it is cancer, but he wants to be sure. The public health system here is huge and taking great care of me while creating a large database of all my health tests, surgeries, medications, and reports in the single system for any of my other doctors to see and be aware of. It is an amazing system! It even sends both me and my driver text message reminders of all appointments! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See the Day Trip Gallery: 2025 January 7 — Rio Tarcoles & Punta Leona
And 4 More Herons on Rio Tarcoles
Yesterday I shared photos of the Yellow-crowned Night Heron and today the other 4 herons I photographed last week on Rio Tarcoles. A very good birding river! 🙂
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
One of the many water birds you find in rivers and mangroves near the coast is the Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Nyctanassa violacea (eBird link) that you can see with his Yoga-like pose drying his wings. 🙂 Of course I have more photos from all over Costa Rica in my Yellow-crowned Night Heron Gallery. And here’s 3 shots from Tarcoles River this past week . . .
Scarlet Macaw
We saw many Scarlet Macaws on Rio Tarcoles but none where we could get a good picture, but as we were leaving the village of Tarcoles on our way to Punta Leona, we saw this one along the side of the road and thus it is my only photo of one this trip! But I have a lot more photos in my Scarlet Macaw Gallery. 🙂
This Scarlet Macaw lives mostly on the Pacific Slope of Costa Rica with a few going over the continental divide to the Atlantic or Caribbean Slope. They are listed as “threatened” and are decreasing in numbers because of habitat loss, but not listed as “endangered” yet like the Great Green Macaw which lives only on the Caribbean Slope. There are Ara Projects for both species working to save them in the wild. In Limón Province at Manzanillo there is the AraManzanillo (Green Macaw Project) and for this Scarlet Macaw there is on Nicoya Peninsula the Macaw Recovery Network which is working to preserve this beautiful parrot. Both programs use nesting boxes in the wild because there are not as many old trees left with natural holes for nests. I’ve seen these nesting boxes at both Hotel Punta Leona and at Tambor Tropical Resort. They work! with lots of macaws nesting in both places. And Maquenque Eco Lodge is adding nesting boxes and planting almond trees (favorite food of macaws). In fact, I planted one of the almond trees the last time I was there! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See the Day Trip Gallery: 2025 January 7 — Rio Tarcoles & Punta Leona
Magnificent Frigatebird
Our birding boat trip on Rio Tarcoles was both in freshwater and in the brackish tidal water near the mouth of the river and of course mangroves there. Mangroves are near the mouth of all rivers and where you see lots of seabirds and many use the mangroves to birth and raise their young, just like a lot of the sea fishes. So it is a rich in nature place to photograph nature. Today I’m sharing the biggest bird we saw, the Magnificent Frigatebird, Frigata magnificens (linked to eBird) and you can see my photos from 7 different sightings since coming to Costa Rica at my Magnificent Frigatebird GALLERY. Here’s four shots from this sighting . . .
Monkeys at Playa Mantas
I’m still working on my hundreds of photos of birds photographed on Rio Tarcoles Monday, so I will start with one of the last things we saw, a Troop of White-faced Capuchin Monkeys among the trees along Mantas Beach (Playa Mantas), which I first visited while staying at Hotel Punta Leona in March of 2019. The beach photo below was made then. 🙂 The hotel and resort development owns most of the land but the government says beaches cannot be private, so Walter took us to a little trail at the end of one street in the village of Punta Leona to get here, mainly for the monkeys and sloths. I did not get a sloth photo this time, but some of my Canadian friends did. To see more of these monkey photos, go to what will become a sub-gallery of this Trip Gallery: Playa Mantas Monkeys 2025 or if you want more, see my capuchins from all over CR in gallery: White-faced Capuchin Monkeys.
Blue-vented Hummingbird
A new regular that’s seen about as much as the Rufous-tailed! See more photos in my GALLERY: Blue-vented Hummingbird.
¡Pura Vida!
Birding Today!
I’m out birding with friends from British Columbia, Canada today and expect to have a lot of photos to share over the next week or so. Stand by! Starting with blog in two days. 🙂
Our plan is to have breakfast in Orotina, which is not far from Tarcoles where we will check in at 8am for the birding river boat trip on the Tarcoles River. I usually get a lot of birds on that trip with my prefered “Jungle Crocodile Safari” boat. They generally do a lot better job finding birds than their several competitor boats who focus mostly on the crocodiles. 🙂
After two hours on the river we will go to the nearby coast and beaches of Punta Leona which is a private development and hotel, but the government requires all beaches to be public and Walter knows how to get in free. At these beaches he has seen sloths and monkeys in the past plus the usual seabirds. We will then eat lunch somewhere and travel the hour or so back to Atenas. That is the plan.
Hope you have a happy day too! 🙂
Leaves! My Final Dec Pix
These photos are from my kind of “catch all” category that I call “Leaves and Nature Things.” In this case, all leaves with one whole tree on the hill above my house. Tomorrow will start January pix and tomorrow is when I’m taking some Canadian friends birding on the Tarcoles River early, then looking for monkeys on Punta Leona Beaches with Walter. A full day, so those pix won’t be until at least the next day or later but coming! 🙂 Then Wednesday I go see the doctor in San Jose who is monitoring the possible spread of my facial cancer. And another morning will be given to visiting Dan Sheaks’ bird feeders where he gets a lot of toucans! So a busy week again! 🙂
More leaves in the gallery . . .
Continue reading “Leaves! My Final Dec Pix”