And I do not know why some are dark brown and others are a light tan, but they are and these two were together. Maybe one color is male and one female. I don’t know! Dorantes Longtail, Urbanus dorantes.
¡Pura Vida!
Dorantes Longtails in 2 Colors
A New Graffiti
in the Atenas Public Clinic Parking Lot, painted over an older ugly one.
¡Pura Vida!
And if you like graffiti, you might want to check out my GALLERY: Public Art & Graffiti – Atenas with graffiti in other places mixed in with the trip galleries to those places.
White-winged Dove . . .
. . . in my Cecropia (Guarumo) Tree.
¡Pura Vida!
See also my White-winged Dove GALLERY.
And for those considering a move to Costa Rica or wondering why I live where I do in the Central Valley, see this short article on a realtor’s website: 7 Reasons to Relocate to Atenas, Costa Rica 🙂
Air Plant just appeared . . .
. . . in one of my Nance trees and of all things, on a dead limb! The wind probably blew the baby plant there when it broke off its mother plant in maybe another tree or higher up in this same tree. And the dead limb is no problem because it does not get its nourishment from the tree but from the air! Here’s a good short definition from the Family Handyman site with more info at that link . . .
“Air plants, or Tillandsia, grow floating in the air, where they live and thrive without soil.
familyhandyman.com
Part of the Bromeliad family, air plants are epiphytes — plants that attach themselves to other plants for support, without relying on the host to thrive.”
It feeds from the air with its arms while the roots are only used to hold on to it base, a tree limb in this case. This one is a recent or young plant only the size of a human hand, but will likely grow larger.
There are more wild air plant photos scattered throughout my Flora & Forest GALLERY. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Melodious Blackbird
This all black bird can be found on both slopes of Costa Rica and in some areas is quite common. He is the only totally black bird in Costa Rica with even his bill and eyes being black. Read about him on eBird or see more of my photos (better ones) in the Melodious Blackbird Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
Hoffmann’s Woodpecker
Though Black-cheeked Woodpecker seems to be more common around Atenas for me, this species may be the second most common woodpecker, at least in my garden. 🙂
See my Hoffmann’s Woodpecker Gallery
or read about on eBird.
¡Pura Vida!
And for Halloween see this Tico Times article with video of Spooky Creatures Inhabit Costa Rica’s Jungles.
Walk to Clinic Flowers
The other day I needed to walk to our Atenas public Clinic to pick up a “cita” or appointment to see an audiometrics doctor in the Alajuela Hospital for what will probably end up being a government-provided hearing aid for my left ear that I can hardly hear with since the big cancer surgery. They require that piece of paper for the visit but send it to our local clinic to pick up so I can avoid another trip to Alajuela. 🙂
I make that 12 block walk frequently for multiple reasons (my GP doctor, pharmacy, lab, etc.), but on this particular trip I decided to see if I could photograph some contrasting or different flowers with my cellphone and that was after I had already passed the Zinnas. 🙂 Here’s four totally different flowers in various yards over that 12 block walk:
Hummingbird in the Fog
The light fog around this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is maybe what provided a light purple background as a contrast to his bright green top – a nice compliment of colors! Nature as Art! 🙂
Raindrops keep falling . . .
The amount of rain has finally reached the norm for this portion of our “Rainy Season” after a May to September of dryer than usual. I’ve never done a good job of capturing the raindrops falling but here’s some shots of the clouds and a couple of plants with raindrops hanging on 🙂 . . .
Bringing Nature Inside
It is not often, but occasionally I like to bring a touch of my garden inside and this time added to it some budding lilies from the supermarket. A fun and cheerful spot of color inside my little casita! 🙂