Category: Photography

Posted on

Boat-billed Flycatcher

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. 🙂

Read about Boat-billed Flycatcher on eBird or for more of my earlier photos see my Boat-billed Flycatcher GALLERY.

Boat-billed Flycatcher, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

3 more shots . . .

Continue reading “Boat-billed Flycatcher”
Posted on

Morning Vista . . .

. . . is one I never tire of and though the same, it is slightly different every morning with changing light, sky, clouds and foliage. I am so thankful to live retired in a tranquil little farming town in what might be the most nature-centered and ecology-minded little country in the world! We use 99% renewable electricity and are slowly but steadily moving towards electric cars and buses and have more than 25% of the country’s land set aside in reserves or national parks and we still plant trees! Pura vida!

View from my terrace every morning at breakfast + birds & butterflies! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

View GALLERY: From My Roca Verde Terrace

Posted on

Summer Tanager Female

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 . . .

Summer Tanager Female, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Summer Tanager Female”
Posted on

Strange Cobwebs

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! 🙂

Continue reading “Strange Cobwebs”
Posted on

A Poan Skipper?

Again I photograph one in my garden that I cannot positively ID. The white fringe on the wings makes it a Cloud-forest Poan or Snow-fringed Skipper (Poanes niveolimbus) while the back and shoulders are more like the Inimical Poan (Poanes inimica) and the red-orange coloring overlaps with many of the Poans and other Skippers too, plus the tail on this one doesn’t match any of the above, so much to my disappointment, I may have to mark it “Can’t Identify!” Though I’m leaning toward the “Snow-fringed Skipper!” 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

Check out some of my other Skippers in my GALLERY: Hesperiidae – SKIPPERS (37+) where there are more unidentified plus many more named. And so far, the online websites have been no help to me on this one.

Posted on

Gray-headed Chachalaca Portrait

The birds seem to be coming back to my garden little by little, though this noisy little chicken-sized bird never completely left! 🙂 I usually look for interesting behavior shots with them, but when I saw this one in one of my Yellow-bell Trees I thought this might be considered a “portrait” of sorts. Read about Gray-headed Chachalaca on eBird or to see some of the many photos I’ve made over the years, check out my Gray-headed Chachalaca GALLERY.

Gray-headed Chachalaca, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Jumping Spider Eats Butterfly!

I never before thought of my garden as a place of carnage, but insects eating other insects is quite normal and helps with the balance and ecology – then I witnessed it first hand this past Tuesday morning as I focused my camera on what I hoped was a new butterfly species (it was!). This, my first Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak (Strymon istapa) was flying and landed on one of my Heliconia flowers (1st photo below) and when I snapped this photo that tiny Jumping Spider (Salticidae) down below him in the photo jumped up on the little butterfly (with attached silk thread) and grabbed the butterfly by its head, biting it with a venomous bite that instantly paralyzed and will soon kill the butterfly which the Jumping Spider will eat. I did not stay around for the full meal, but photos of three stages follow this one. 🙂

Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak above and Jumping Spider below. Yes! He jumped that far!

3 more photos below of the capture, paralyzing and preparing to eat.

Continue reading “Jumping Spider Eats Butterfly!”
Posted on

Hillside Vistas

It is looking like someone may soon buy this property and live in the big house on top of our hill as my new landlord, so I walked up to the now vacant big house the other day for some “Hillside Vistas” of what they can see from there that I can’t from lower down on our hill. Nothing spectacular and the mountains opposite us that I usually photograph were covered in clouds, so here’s some closer views that I can’t see from my house and I like what looks like hillside farm land near us that I hope will not be covered with houses anytime soon! 🙂 Que sera, sera . . .

Continue reading “Hillside Vistas”
Posted on

Christmas ART SHOW! – Plan now!

I will be one of the participating artists in this year’s “Just in Time for Christmas ART SHOW” in Atenas, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica.

Mark your calendar now! Just 1 month from today!

Costa Rica Nature Photographer Charlie doggett offering his photos this December.

Weekend of 9-11 December

Hotel Colinas del Sol, Atenas

  • Friday, 9 December, 3-8 pm — Jack, Piet & Syl Music at 5 pm!
  • Saturday, 10 December, 10 am to 8 pm — Poison Dart Frogs Band at 5 pm!
  • Sunday, 11 December, 10 am to 4 pm
One of the photo greeting cards of a flower photographed in Atenas.
Read more: Christmas ART SHOW! – Plan now!

“Nature As Art” Photo Gifts

  • FREE Photo Book “Retired in Costa Rica” to first 39 customers who purchase anything, even a greeting card! 🙂
  • FREE Gift Boxes for the first 6 books purchased!
  • Wall Art: “Float Mounted MetalPrint” to brighten any home! At below my cost!
  • Selected Photo Books at below my cost with first 6 sold receiving a free gift box!
  • Real Photo Greeting Cards (blank inside) only $3 or CRC 2,000 each! With envelopes! And they are frameable too! Send some pura vida!
  • Limited Misc. Items: 2 Photo Calendars 2023, 3 tote bags, 1 Toucan T-shirt XL, 1 Toucan Mouse Pad – FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED! 🙂
A spinner rack of photo greeting cards from nature!
Cover of a recent photo book – A Coffee Table Book! GREAT GIFT!
Several different Atenas Oxcart Wheel Photos in the Greeting Cards.
Another book that will be available along with Book 2, the Feature Photo.

Read about the other Artists at JIT for Atenas!

See you December 9-11!

¡Nos vemos del 9 al 11 de diciembre!

¡Pura Vida!

Posted on

Damselfly: Black-fronted Dancer Female

That is my best effort identification and the closest match in my book, Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica, A Field Guide by Dennis Paulson and William Haber. But for those who care about ID, note that this one is very similar to Calvert’s Dancer female and the wings just like the Cerulean Dancer female, though mine here has a darker body and tail. I’m finding Dragon and Damselfly ID pretty difficult as I haven’t learned the subtle differences in body parts yet. 🙂 This one was in my garden the other day.

Black-fronted Dancer Damselfly female, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

See also my GALLERY: Dragonflies & Damselflies