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A favorite of mine among the many birds found only in Central & South America, the Tropical Kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus (my gallery link). One of the many wild birds that seem to like power lines for perching. And that can make it easy to photograph, depending on the sunlight of course! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This tribe level identification means it will be difficult even for the experts to identify, as that is as far down the ID latter the iNaturalist AI would go and I’m certainly unqualified to go farther. It may end up being a common species with two anomalies, that dark “plate” or whatever on his back or shoulders and the whitish tip of his tail. Neither characteristic matches any of the similar species photos I could find, so I’m leaving it at the tribe level. 🙂 Found in the cow pasture and it is the last one from that visual adventure. 🙂 This tribe is also called “branded grass skippers” which is appropriate for one found in the grasses of a cow pasture! 🙂
An added side-note on that walk along the cow pasture in my shorts is that, when I got back to the house, both legs were itching all over, possibly from some insect in the grasses or allergic reaction to some plant. A generous lathering of Allergel took care of that itching pretty quickly! 🙂 This is all from the cow pasture for now. Back to my garden! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Technology drives me crazy sometimes and it seems that the email subscription box in the right column wasn’t working for maybe a year or more, but when I realized it, I found someone who could fix it and it is working fine as of the other day. If you don’t have an email subscription, you are missing the easiest way to receive my blog posts with guaranteed security and no spam! So subscribe today! 🙂
It is not all little dull brown butterflies in the cow pasture, but some colorful ones too! 🙂 It was also interesting to note that most of them stayed close to the ground or down low in the tall grasses, only occasionally flying or landing up higher to, I guess, absorb the sun or eat from a flower. This one may be my most seen butterfly all over Costa Rica, as you can see in my gallery: Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima.
¡Pura Vida!
This interesting species was very common in my garden in past years, but not this year. Now I know where they are! In the cow pasture across the street! 🙂 Note that this is almost identical to the Carolina Satyr found only in the U.S. See my other photos in the gallery: Hermes Satyr – Hermeuptychia hermes.
Of the many Metalmark Butterflies (Riodinidae) in Costa Rica, this is the species that I personally see the most of with more photos in the gallery: Laverna Metalmark, Calephelis laverna. And here he is in a cow pasture! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Seems like an appropriate name for this plain brown Skipper photographed in a cow pasture! 🙂 The only other one I’ve given this identification is much lighter in color. See my gallery: Pasture Skipper, Vehilius stictomenes. And I’m still waiting for a confirmation by an expert on iNaturalist. Either one could have their ID changed! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
From the cow pasture near my house, an Eastern Tailed-Blue, Cupido comyntas (linked to my gallery with 2 pix showing the blue tops + 2 more shots from this sighting).
¡Pura Vida!
I don’t go to the cow pasture enough for birds, butterflies and a lot of other nature to photograph, so on a recent morning I walked down the road along the pasture fence to that only big tree on right side of pasture by the road and back to my gate from where the feature photo was made. In about 15 to 20 minutes I photographed 6 species of butterflies and the other nature items in a gallery below this one mimosa plant photo . . .
“The greatest gift of life on the mountain is time… to sit and stare at the shapes of the hills.” ~Phillip Connors:
¡Pura Vida!
On one of my walks to town I used my cell phone to snap a photo of this yellow flower along the side of the road. iNaturalist AI labeled it a Be-still Tree – Cascabela thevetia (linked to iNaturalist). “Be still” was appropriate on that day as the wind was blowing strongly and this flower would not be still for a photo! 🙂 There is another species in this genus known as Yellow Oleander (Cascabela thevetiodes) and thus some people call this one Yellow Oleander too. They are similar.
¡Pura Vida!
And for a look at other things I photograph on my walks in Atenas, see the gallery Walking in Atenas.