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These two different insects I managed to photograph in flight the other morning are probably two of the approximately 700 species of bees found here in Costa Rica, but I cannot specifically identify them. One has a black body and one a orange body. 🙂
I decided to just go ahead and show all 7 of these from one morning’s brief garden walk, since I’m still staying 2 weeks or more ahead on my blog posts! 🙂 And I may eventually get those last 3 identified, but for now I’ll safely say they are Skippers! 🙂
This Pompeius Skipper or Pompeius pompeius scientific name is a new butterfly sighting for me! I continue to be amazed that during this El Niño Year of radical climate change when I’ve been seeing fewer birds and butterflies that I am still seeing new species for me! It is fun! 🙂 And it demonstrates the huge number of species here in Costa Rica! 🙂
My two photos below show one to be lighter in color than the other but both the books and the websites indicate such variations plus different light does that in photos of anything. Plus these are different individuals at different times on different flowers! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
At one time in the past this was my most numerous butterfly, but not this year! So I was glad to see one in my garden the other day! Here’s three photos I made . . .
The iguanas are multiplying around my place! 🙂 This first one I snapped on the railing of my terrace which is only 5 cm or 2 inches wide and he used about half that width, to give you an idea of size. Small! Two shots, one from distance and one zoomed in. And then a couple of days later I photographed one on the asphalt driveway that is even smaller and greener. They are born green. Here’s two shots on the railing and then two of the smaller one on the driveway, both with full-body shots and close-ups of the face and upper body.
The other day I caught a few shots of this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (the dominant and thus only species in my garden) in an unusual place for me, the dark shadows of the Higueron or Strangler Fig or Ficus Tree. I had to really work at lightening the shadows in these two shots but think the second one is particularly interesting because of how his head and neck are twisted around, unlike any photo yet of one of these, while this first shot is pretty traditional! 🙂
See more in my Rufous-tailed Hummingbird GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
I’ve made so many of these panorama shots of the hills across from me and they are all very similar and yet all quite different because of angles, directions, light, weather, sky, etc. See some of my other shots in GALLERY: From My Terrace.
¡Pura Vida!
Not a jaw-dropping beauty, but another important part of ecology! The Fine-spotted Roadside Skipper, Amblyscirtes folia (link to my gallery) is one I’ve seen twice before, once in my garden and once at Xandari Resort, Alajuela.
¡Pura Vida!
This is my second time to see a Little Yellow, Eurema lisa, with the other being in the Butterfly Conservatory in El Castillo and this time in my Garden in Atenas.
¡Pura vida!
POSTSCRIPT: Today I am at El Silencio Lodge in Bajos del Toro and will return home tomorrow. Reports from this short two-night trip will be coming later. I’m staying about 2 weeks ahead on my blog posts, but if something spectacular happens here, I’ll double up and report it immediately! 🙂
You can see my photos of the two other times I saw this butterfly by going to my Great Southern White GALLERY. They were at such different locales as Tambor Bay and Rancho Naturalista near Turrialba. The scientific name is Ascia monuste. This is a first for my garden.
¡Pura Vida!