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I’m the #1 observer of this species in Costa Rica’s iNaturalist and earlier I had it lumped with the North American Cloudless Sulphur, but someone decided that we are a different subspecies down here and added the “South American” identifier to the common name in both English & Spanish. Today I had 51 photos in my South American Cloudless Sulphur Gallery. (linked) Phoebis sennae.
¡Pura Vida!
When I first planted the Tropical Milkweed I was hoping they would attract the Monarch Butterfly which is not as common here as in the States, but none yet. Then the other day I found 3 caterpillars on one of the Milkweed plants and with the iNaturalist AI have identified them as caterpillars of the Queen – Danaus gilippus butterfly (Linked to my gallery) which is related to the Monarch. Maybe in the near future I will have some fresh Queens birthed in my garden! 🙂 So far, the only two Queens I’ve seen have been elsewhere.
I’m hoping that their eating all the leaves off my best Milkweed plant will not kill it! 🙂 They were first planted between two tall flowers and thus only get sunshine midday which is really not enough sun for milkweed. I just a few days ago planted 3 more Milkweeds in a different part of the garden where they get both morning and midday sun, so hopefully they will do better! I’m on the side of a hill with lots of trees, so plants like this that need lots of sunshine will always struggle on my little lot.
¡Pura Vida!
I have not focused on caterpillars, but do have a little gallery with what caterpillars I’ve photographed in Costa Rica at CATERPILLARS (linked) with most in the “Unidentified” folder for a total of 15 species, assuming no overlap or duplication.
This is becoming my new favorite bird in my garden, mainly because of that deep blue tail! See more of my photos in the gallery: Blue-vented Hummingbird.
¡Pura Vida!
The question mark is because this strange, edible, vine-growing vegetable has a long list of “Common Names” around the world with “Pepino Cimarrón” the most used one here in Costa Rica says iNaturalist, though they refer people to Wikipedia for more information on the scientific name of Momordica charantia (linked to Wikipedia article). And somewhere you will hear about “Balsam Apple as similar (that’s what Google-Lens called it), but that is a different species in the same family, which by the way, includes cucumbers! 🙂
I photographed this less than a half-block from the front gate of Residencial Roca Verde on my Sunday morning walk to El Fogon for breakfast. It was on a vine growing on a barbed wire fence of a vacant lot in Barrio Boquerón. They originate from Asia and Africa and were brought here in the 1800’s where they grew well in the tropical climate. Some are farmed, but this one was growing wild. They are eaten as a vegetable and used as natural medicines, especially the leaves of the vine. And only God could design a bright orange vegetable with bright red seeds! 🙂 Read more on Wikipedia.
And the next morning I saw something a little different at the same location . . .
Continue reading “Bitter Melon?”
A cool little reddish-brown skipper that I’ve seen in my garden before. See other photos in the gallery: Brazilian Skipper.
¡Pura Vida!
Tomorrow is the day to which I moved my little 2-night visit to Xandari Nature Resort in Alajuela (because I was sick on the original date in May) and tomorrow morning I will repost or link to the May post about Xandari, a favorite nature place with a large variety of butterflies! Probably my 3rd best location for butterflies. 🙂 And . . .
That little online class is completed with that above link going to my report on the last class. In the next week or so I will write my personal evaluation of the whole course and say whether I recommend it. 🙂 If interested in Photography & Mindfulness, read all my notes there.
And get ready for my next Nature Adventure at Xandari this week!
¡Pura Vida!
Many species of butterflies can have greatly different looks and yet be the same species and in this case (I think) even the same individual can look quite different because of the light or shadows, the angle of the shot or even the background which I think is the case for these two photos taken within a few seconds of each other on different color backgrounds. I vaguely remember the same individual flying from the blue Plumbago flower to the green leaf of a Heliconia flower.
See more of this regular in my garden in the gallery: Laverna Metalmark.
¡Pura Vida!
On the 29th & 30th of May two unusual moths showed up at my house, one inside and one outside in the garden. The featured photo is one I’ve had before in my garden and seen on a trip to a South Pacific Rainforest. Once called “Giant Butterfly Moth,” it is now called the disgusting name of “Screwworm” – Telchin atymnius (linked to my gallery). It is more beautiful when the wings are open with more white and a big orange patch (see the above linked gallery for that).
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And the other one, seen inside my house on the kitchen floor, was comparatively tiny, identified on iNaturalist as a Packard’s Eusarca Moth – Eusarca packardaria, linked to Wikipedia which says it is in North America, but being in the middle of North & South America, we often get species from both sides. Though I am the first to report one on iNaturalist Costa Rica, so it might get re-labeled as something else, though this was the ID of iNaturalist AI and I think a good match.
¡Pura Vida!
This is my other “non-Rufous-tailed” hummingbird from the one shared yesterday and actually the first species of hummingbird that I photographed just 3 days after moving into this house back in 2015. (Bad photo but good memory!) 🙂 As today’s featured photo shows, it has a rich, deep blue tail that helps it to stand out among other birds. See more of my photos of this special hummingbird in the gallery: Blue-vented Hummingbird. And almost all have been photographed in my garden, though maybe my favorite of this species was photographed at Xandari in 2018! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
That is how many views my blog & website got during the month of May according to the Jetpack program on my site. That is a lot! THANK YOU for reading my blog/website and the related and linked Gallery! It makes my retirement activities seem more important to have that many people looking at my photos! 🙂
This Canivet’s Emerald (my gallery link) is one of the 3 hummingbirds in my garden, with Blue-vented being the other one secondary to the Rufous-tailed who thinks he owns the garden and when I fill the feeders, hogs them and chases off other hummingbirds (the Canivet’s & Blue-vented), but these other two have easier access to my large number of Porter Weeds, officially called Blue Porterweed, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (Wikipedia link). They are in the verbena family and are the most popular flower here for both hummingbirds and butterflies. And they are not all blue! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
A wet, young, Tropical Kingbird (gallery link) and lots of wet leaves (gallery link) from my terrace Wednesday afternoon. I still haven’t been able to catch the rain falling unless a real hard downpour, but wet birds and leaves seem to show it okay. 🙂
