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In some cases the berries are the buds for the flower and in other cases they seem to be separate from the flower. So I snapped these two flower plants in my garden with berries right now.
¡Pura Vida!
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And then there is my Photo Gallery Flora & Forest CR
If Coronavirus Lockdown has created a need for you to take a vacation into nature, you can visit the most popular nature vacation country in the world, Costa Rica, starting November 1. Just test negative for the virus, wear your mask, and come social distance in paradise! But first read the Entry Requirements. We’ve been working hard to keep down the number of cases in Costa Rica and you will have to help us continue that. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
And to be motivated see my photo gallery Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA!
Featured Photo is a Keel-billed Toucan on my terrace at home in Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica. See more of my Keel-billed photos in my Keel-billed Gallery.
And I continue to be frustrated by the difficulty of identifying many of the Skipper Butterflies. this one is patterned similar to 3 or 4 of the longtails but does not have a long tail! The white pattern is similar to some of the Poans, but none of them have the dark brown or black pattern. If anyone knows for sure the ID, I would love to label him! 🙂 Just click CONTACT on the menu to message me with the name. ¡Muchas gracias!
My Butterfly Gallery
¡Pura Vida!
I’m not positive that this is a Leafcutter Ant, though they are usually the ones carrying leaves like this or pieces of leaves. But they are usually a group of hundreds marching in a line like a well trained army! This guy was solo and when he go to my doormat at entrance to my terrace, he did not go around but marched right over it, moving to the left, holding the leaf in his mouth! The ant house is underground next to my terrace.
The little things in nature can keep you occupied for hours if you wanted! 🙂
“If an ant carries an object a hundred times its weight, you can carry burdens many times your size.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo
¡Pura Vida!
See my Leafcutter Ants gallery.
After breakfast on the terrace 2 juvenile Chachalacas were playing in my Guarumo Tree, so I got up and retrieved my camera, coming back to empty tree limbs – they flew away! 🙂 And that was to be today’s post, but you can see lots of them in my Chachalaca Gallery. 🙂
So then I walked through the main part of my garden looking for butterflies and the one I saw would never stop for a photo, so as happens so often, I photographed flowers. I love the tropical flowers here! And yes, all are repeats but today’s flowers were each a delight to me this morning anyway and a lot prettier than Chachalacas! 🙂
More flowers in my Flora & Forest Gallery!
¡Pura Vida!
Earlier I released a coffee table book titled Pura Vida Birds as a celebration of coming up on my 6 year anniversary of being “Retired in Costa Rica” (December 24, 2020).
Then I started thinking about my second nature love of butterflies and just couldn’t resist doing a similar book with my photo collection of butterflies and moths, even though not as big as my birds collection. So here it is! More than 120 butterflies in brilliant colors in a 10×8 in, 25×20 cm book, hardcover or paperback book. It is titled Pura Vida Butterflies from the Retired in Costa Rica Blog. Check it out and thumb through the pages electronically in the free Preview available online. Just one more incredible thing about Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
For my fellow nature-lovers in Costa Rica or ones who travel here frequently, you may want to check this out . . . Animals of Costa Rica
Thanks to the El Silencio Guide (Eco Concierge) Daniel for introducing me to a new source of identifying my wildlife photos. I haven’t used it enough to have a strong opinion yet. The one unknown butterfly I tried to find on it, I couldn’t, so like all my other ID sources, it will not be perfect or totally complete, but it is my first source to have all animals in one place and it has a lot of animal photos & detailed info already which I suspect will expand.
And for the birders, I suspect that Merlin & eBird will stay on top for birds, but I’ve had lots of ID needs on other animals here and that is where I expect it to help me the most. We will see.
It was developed by a naturalist from Austria (like one of my favorite lodges was, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito), so I have high hopes for it! 🙂 You also can use it to keep a record of the species you have seen by just clicking the eye icon when on a species page. I suspect it will continue to be expanded or updated and for now updates are free.
Go to your preferred App Store to find it available at two price levels (all animals or just one order of species like if only interested in insects):
Here’s just one of many pages as all wildlife orders are included . . .
Those who find beauty in all of nature will find themselves at one with the secrets of life itself. —L. Wolfe Gilbert
¡Pura Vida!
And my animals photo galleries are two: BIRDS and then OTHER WILDLIFE.
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.”
The El Silencio Lodge & Reserve is a very special and unique place! And I say that having spent nights in more than 45 lodges & hotels in Costa Rica. For service, food, room quality, and the natural surroundings it is definitely now in my top 3 favorite lodges and maybe even my #1 favorite! (Remember – different lodges have different priorities!) And also it is my most expensive! 🙂 But with waterfalls like La Promesa at right near your cabin, it is worth almost any price! 🙂 And of course nothing is perfect . . .
My only two complaints at checkout were that the bathroom sink drained slowly because the stopper was installed incorrectly (CR is not famous for great plumbers) and the gourmet chef who served great food served me limp, lightly cooked bacon. Bacon must be crisp in my book! 🙂 Though, in his defense, the night I asked for a well-done steak, he did that very well! 🙂 And I had not specifically asked for the bacon to be crispy! (Had I, it probably would have been! Never assume nothin’!))
I mainly walked, but they have golf carts and drivers who will pick you up anytime, day or night and take you anywhere on campus free of charge! They also have two fleets of bicycles you can use for free, with a handful actually electric! Then they have several vans to take you off-campus to outside waterfalls or other attractions like Poas Volcano, two national parks, birding trips as far as Cañon Negro included with the cost of a guide for the trip. But believe me – there’s enough to do on campus to fill a week easily and their 3 beautiful waterfalls are as good or better than the two outside ones I paid extra to see! But still glad I saw them!
With nature my focus, I don’t get a lot of hotel shots, but here are a few with a separate gallery for my room or villa shots . . .
Going to the mountains is like going home.
—John Muir
My Trip Gallery: 2020 El Silencio Lodge & Reserve
¡Pura Vida!
Some wonder what I do with a whole week at one of these very remote nature lodges I visit all over Costa Rica – well, a week is almost never enough time for me to see, experience and photograph all there is in these natural wonders! First priority at El Silencio Lodge & Reserve was waterfalls, then birds, butterflies, and on it goes through nature! Today’s collection is some of those little things like an ear-shaped lichen or a fiddlehead – the furled fronds of a young fern that were the inspiration of some of the colorful Oxcart designs used in this lodge and on the famous Oxcarts of Costa Rica. Enjoy a slide show of those and 23 other designs from nature . . .
Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. —John Lubbock
¡Pura Vida!
All of my Photo Galleries are Nature-related in Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA.
and I’m finished with the new Trip Gallery: El Silencio Lodge & Reserve or perhaps you would prefer to zero in on my Costa Rica FLORA & FOREST Gallery. ¡Buenas Dias!
¡Pura Vida!
