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One of my favorite tiny butterfly designs is on this Rounded Metalmark, Caliphelis perditalis. And it is rare to see any butterfly on a Plumbago flower because they are sticky and could trap some small butterflies like this one. But notice the intricate design on his wings! Another “Nature as Art!” 🙂 See my Rounded Metalmark GALLERY.
¡Pura Vida!
This only my second time to see this species of butterfly, Red-studded Skipper, Noctuana stator (linked to my Gallery) with the other sighting being at Hotel Banana Azul, Puerto Viejo, Limón, Costa Rica – that’s on the Caribbean side where I will be in September. 🙂 This time I saw it here in Atenas on one of my walks to town in that Zinnia Garden at 8th & 3rd where I’ve seen a lot of butterflies.
This one has been common in my garden in the past but not this year reminding me that I need some different flowers. This quick cell phone shot was made on a walk to town along Avenida 8 in that Zinna bed so popular with butterflies. I must add zinnas if I can find them! Not a common flower here and I’ve never seen them in any Vivero.
And that GALLERY: Tanna Longtail
¡Pura Vida!
A ground-level shot of the cow pasture across the street from my house where the grass stays taller and VERY GREEN during our rainy season, May to November.
See my photo gallery Cow Pasture Across the Street.
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And read in yesterday’s Tico Times English Language Paper the cool article on: Eco-Friendly Lifeguard Stations Coming to Costa Rica’s Beaches. In brief they are picking up the millions of plastic bottles left by idiots on our beaches, converting them into a wood substitute and forming substitute lumber with which they will build these cool Lifeguard stations for beaches all over Costa Rica! This is a great solution for both increased pollution and decreased forests! 🙂
Or check out this COSTA RICA CAMERA TRAP OCELOT:
¡Pura Vida!
I can’t find this in any of my tropical plants books or online, so I think is a foreign introduced plant and will try to get my gardner’s ID next time he is here. Most of of the time it is a dark green plant with white or cream bordered long leaves. Then occasionally it sprouts these long thin stems with tiny little yellow buds that finally open into a tiny white flower with a tinge of blue or purple and yellow stamens. These 5 photos are in order to tell the story of 1-green plant, 2-sprouting long stems with tiny flower and photos 3-5 gradually zooming in on the flowers.
. . . which is not an exact match to any of the online baby iguanas or baby basilisks, thus I’m not positive it is the correct ID. During a morning garden walk he was crawling through the ground cover plants, partly hidden. I’m always frustrated when I can’t make an exact identification, but that is the way nature is! 🙂 Here’s two shots and you decide . . .
This Carolina Satyr was in my bedroom the other night, acting lethargic or sleepy and though light was not good enough for good photos, here’s my effort. It is one of the most common butterflies here but with much fewer this year for whatever reason. See My Carolina Satyr GALLERY.
Another one of those “former” birds that seem to be returning to my garden these days. I think the rainy season helps and there may be other factors. This one is not as common here as the Social Flycatcher and Great Kiskadee, but is fairly common. Here’s two shots from my garden:
See also my Gray-capped Flycatcher GALLERY and note that the Tropical Kingbird is similar but larger than this bird with slightly different coloring.
¡Pura Vida!
My WordPress host, DreamHost, and a service company, Jetpack, just released the July stats for my blog “Retired in Costa Rica” and its related website, charliedoggett.net. And I say “THANK YOU” to the 501 subscribers of the blog, 650 FaceBook Friends who receive a link and hopefully follow it, 🙂 the 2 thousand views of my website/blog in July, the 95 comments on blog posts and the 158 “Likes” in July, which can only be made by other WP Bloggers, making those likes special! 🙂 I am fulfilling my dream of retirement with nature in Costa Rica that began with the adventurous move here in 2014 and the start of this blog. Thanks for coming along! 🙂
I’m an old man of 83 years, retired from a publishing business in the U.S. who left the states in 2014 to live out retirement with the beautiful natural worlds of Costa Rica and its loving people, reporting in this blog. Even after a year-long battle with cancer, I’m having the best times of my life, my final years immersed in nature! I hope you will continue following my stories and photos! Your presence delights me! 🙂
That’s me planting an Almond Tree for the Great Green Macaws in the Maquenque Reserve, Boca Tapada, San Carlos in 2023.
¡Pura Vida!
This Heliconia Leaf seems to me to be gracefully bowing its head as the first signs of deterioration begin it’s final days with only a little touch of brown now and the folding of the once tall and straight green leaf. Nature as Art continues to inspire me as I find my own life slowing down and less capable than before. May I conclude my life as gracefully as this Heliconia Leaf! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
See another Heliconia Leaf in a further stage of death that I used on the cover of a recent photo book titled Designed by Nature which you can preview for free online. Nature is truly graceful!
