I continue to photograph leaves that give me a moment of awe. Here’s five shots from 3 plants in December that awed me . . .
In Awe of Leaves
December Flower Shots
Almost every day of every month (when at home) I walk through my garden with camera in hand looking for birds, butterflies or other wildlife. When none are seen, I usually snap a photo of a flower or an interesting leaf. And recently I have been presenting some of those photos at the end of the month or in the next month. So here are last month’s flower shots not already shown. I do occasionally have a post on one of my flowers, like the Desert Rose for my Christmas Card in December! And I won’t repeat those images. 🙂 Below this introductory photo is a gallery of 7 flower shots from December.
Idiarthron Genus
I know, it looks like a grasshopper and it may be, but the AI on iNaturalist would only go so for as the genus in identification, so I will wait for a bug expert to identify which grasshopper this is! 🙂 Here’s two shots, the top view with my cell phone and the side view with my telephoto lens on a Canon camera. And I do expect it to be identified eventually.
African Trees?
I like looking up the big hills on two sides of my little house on the side of a small hill. The other day I snapped photos through my zoom lens of two trees that I liked the looks of: First is an African Tulip Tree which I know the identity of, but the second one and my feature photo is labeled by Google LENS as a Ficus Thonningii Tree which is native to Africa, though the iNaturalist AI would not specify a species, it just said that is is probably one of the Ficus Trees or one of the Squirrel Trees. (First I’ve heard of squirrel trees!). 🙂 But anyway, I like both trees and I’m sharing these two by photos. And if both are from Africa, it is not that unusual here for people to plant trees and shrubs/flowers from other tropical continents.
Gray-headed Chachalaca
This large bird usually moves around my trees in groups or families and always “chattering.” 🙂 Here in a Nance Tree. See more photos in my gallery: Gray-headed Chachalaca.
A New Lizard in My Tree!
After breakfast on new year’s morning, January 1, a small lizard appeared in my Cecropia Tree (Guarumo en español). Almost immediately he flashed a bright red dewlap (the flap of skin that fans out on the neck of most anoles) as he went for an insect to eat. Later, as he moved along one limb, his dewlap changed to orange and then yellow and back to red. A new experience for me! All the other anoles I’ve seen have only displayed one color of dewlap. 🙂
And when I finally got him identified, that was a surprise too! He is the only lizard I’ve got in my photo collection of 21+ lizards that is named after a person, the Charles Myers Anole, Anolis charlesmyersi (my gallery link with more photos). Here’s a shot without the dewlap displayed, followed by three shots with 3 colors of dewlap, orange, yellow and red . . .
Northern Yellow Warbler
Another migrant from up north I think. The northern version males & females look like this while the “Resident Yellow Warbler” here has a female that is also the same while the resident male has a reddish-brown cap. In my gallery I just keep them all together in the Yellow Warbler Gallery. 🙂 And there I have only one photo of a resident male, seen on Rio Tarcoles.
¡Pura Vida!
Favorite “Other Wildlife” Photos 2025
More photos from outside Atenas in this category because I always see more wildlife at the parks, reserves and lodges than at home, which may be best. 🙂 And with less travel this year there were fewer exotic animals, but here’s a few that are pretty interesting 🙂 . . .
Favorite Butterfly Photos 2025
And in 2025 I got multiple new species, mostly in my Garden as are most of these photos! This is just a sampling with my effort to not show 2 of the same species . . .
Squirrel Cuckoo
Not your every day bird but definitely one of my favorites, the Squirrel Cuckoo, Piaya cayana (my gallery link) is one I’ve seen in multiple locations across Costa Rica, just not frequently. See all those in the above-linked gallery or for my all-time favorite, a portrait of one who posed for me in the Cecropia tree back in 2017: Cuckoo Portrait. A metal print of it hangs in my living room here. 🙂 This one last Sunday was in a tree behind my house only about 40 seconds, so I had to act quick to get these shots before he flew off to a neighbor’s tree and out of sight.
There are 7 species of cuckoos in Costa Rica and I’ve seen and photographed only three, the other two being the Mangrove Cuckoo (in two locations) and the Lesser Ground Cuckoo in one location, (both names are linked to my galleries).
