Not a spectacular sunrise this morning, but lots of activity! 🙂
Here’s activity shots of 3 birds and 3 people . . .
Sunrise Activity
Tropical Buckeye
I photographed many butterflies today and still haven’t processed all the photos, so I decided to feature just this one colorful and ragged fellow. You can read about them on Butterflies and Moths and see a map there of where they have been seen or look at my collection in the gallery: Tropical Buckeye. Here’s three photos from today’s walk.
My 2 Favorite Birds Today
I’m seeing a lot more birds here than at home these days and I got photos of only one butterfly today here at the hotel. 🙂 The butterfly garden I was to visit has closed – not enough tourists! Much of tourism has been similarly hurt by the two-year pandemic. So I explored more around here and pleased with all my several bird shots, but especially these two, one of which is a “lifer” or first-time seen bird for me, the Brown Noddy, a rare seabird on the hotel beach. And though I’ve seen lots of Common Black Hawks, I’m particularly pleased with this shot and some other similar shots before he flew off. They don’t always pose for you like this! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I now have a new Brown Noddy Gallery with some more shots in it! 🙂
And my Common Black Hawk Gallery is growing! 🙂
Good Morning!
¡Pura Vida!
Giant Swallowtail
This was one of the butterflies in my garden this morning that I haven’t seen here for awhile. He is similar to te Broad-banded Swallowtail and a little bit like the Thoas & the Ornythion Swallowtails, so you have to examine the details in the photos for a good ID. 🙂
You can read about the Giant Swallowtail, Papilio cresphontes on either of these websites: butterfliesandmoths.org or the butterfliesofamerica.com, the first of which is where I will eventually post one or more of these photos, when I get caught up, and the second sight is another one I use for identification along with my favorite butterfly book, A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America. The gallery below includes 2 top views, 2 bottom wing views and 2 side views or folded wings views of this beautiful big butterfly.
Continue reading “Giant Swallowtail”Yesterday’s Parade
Yesterday, 15 September, was Costa Rica’s Independence Day Celebration nation-wide including here in Atenas. I worked into the night processing my many photos and selecting choice ones for my photo gallery titled in Spanish this time :
2022 Desfile del Día de la Independencia, Atenas
Here’s my favorite portrait of one of the two UTN Cowboys on horses followed by just 2 photos from each of the 8 sub-galleries in the above gallery (including one with the above guy’s horse) . . .
Xandari Trip Gallery
I do an online photo gallery (or galleries with the sub-galleries) and the gallery for my recent little two-night stay at a favorite place is now up at https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2022-Aug-31-Sept-2-Xandari-Resort-Alajuela
Or you can just click this first page image and get there!
The highlight of this little trip was the large number of butterflies seen and photographed with 29 species having useable photos for the gallery. And I am still trying to catch up with posting all my butterfly species on butterfliesandmoths.org! 🙂 Butterflies rule! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Leaves & Nature Things
There is nothing in nature that I won’t photograph, though after birds, butterflies, flowers and trees it may be the leaves of plants that attract me the most. Here’s my collection from last week’s Xandari trip as another sub-gallery in that eventual trip gallery. 🙂
Xandari Flowers – Works of Art
Over the years here my favorite flower gardens have been the ones at Xandari because of (1) the large variety of species, (2) their placement in forest settings with architecture that is colorful and complimentary to flowers and (3) the additional wild flowers you can find on the forest trails. Earlier this year I found their match on variety of flowers at Guayabo Lodge near Turrialba, Cartago, though not arranged or laid out in as beautiful a surroundings as Xandari. And for some reason, this year Xandari seemed to have fewer flowers, especially in that front garden trail along the entry road, but certainly enough for me to make a lot of “flower art!” 🙂
One photo for the email announcement and then a gallery of some of my favorites from this short two-night stay at Xandari Costa Rica. Enjoy . . .
Irritating Noise = Back to Normal!
With the fading of Covid and mask-wearing in Atenas comes the welcome sounds of the old “life as normal” with concerts and fiestas in the park and our first parade in more than 2 years scheduled for next week, 14 & 15 September, to celebrate Independence Day which is 15 September. Usually there is the parade of lanterns made by elementary school children on the night of 14th and then the big parade with all the bands + mid-day on the 15th. We will see, but you know something will happen because from the side of my hill I can hear three different schools practicing their drumming daily, which they always do a couple of weeks before a parade! 🙂 I’m still searching for a schedule of events and may have to go by the city hall for that. 🙂 Here’s some photos of previous years bands drumming before Covid . . . a single shot, then a gallery . . .
