Not sure why I didn’t shoot the road! 🙂 But I guess the surrounding farmland and hills captivated me too much. Here’ a few favorite vistas:
Calle Balsilla Landscapes
Calle Balsilla Birds
I must admit that I was more focused on butterflies than birds when we walked Calle Balsilla last week, plus we were later getting there which means fewer birds, but I did get these 4 bird species along with my 11 species of butterflies! 🙂
Interesting that the above dove is the only bird I photographed that was not totally black in color! 🙂
Continue reading “Calle Balsilla Birds”Calle Balsilla Butterflies
Judith LaBelle introduced me to a new “country road” in Atenas the other day that is likely better for birding! But, because of car trouble, we got there later than planned, with not as many birds photographed (only 4) which I will share tomorrow, but I was wowed by the butterflies flitting along the side of the road when no farmer riding a horse was going by. 🙂
It’s on the other side of Ruta 27 by the Tarcoles River after the dam or after Rio Grande has become Rio Tarcoles. There is a small rural community known as Balsilla de Mora, centered around a church by that name in Atenas Canton that includes some people living over the nearby province line in San Jose Province adjacent to our Alajuela Province. Farming people don’t pay much attention to canton and province lines! 🙂
I’m featuring this neat unidentified butterfly that was our trip target and then 10 more butterflies below it for a total of 11, including 4 new species for me! 🙂 And I’m thankful to Judy who saw this same butterfly on her last trip there and took me back looking for it. There is never a guarantee of repeat sightings of birds or butterflies, but, just as we were leaving, we saw it! I still can’t find it in my books or on the internet, but will keep trying for an ID! 🙂 There’s 1,500+ butterfly species in Costa Rica!
One of the Grass Skippers
This Skipper showed up on my kitchen counter here in Atenas, Costa Rica last week and I have searched diligently both in books and the internet and cannot identify him specifically, but I am pretty sure he is in the subfamily of Skippers called “Grass Skippers” (Hesperiinae) and that’s the best I can do! There are over 1,500 species of butterflies here in Costa Rica, not to mention the over 12,000 moths! So ID is a challenge and I’m taking on that challenge the best I can. 🙂
And one more photo in slightly different light . . .
Continue reading “One of the Grass Skippers”Youth Service Project
On one of my walks to town the other day these high school aged kids did not see me snap a photo of them with my phone. They were evidently doing a service project, possibly through the school, painting this public picnic table at the City Sports Park next to the covered Basketball Court. Hopefully they are painting all of the several at this park which are always full at lunch time with a very popular empanada shop across the street in one direction and fried chicken (el pollo frito) a block the other direction. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
A Browner Swallowtail
This is another Polydamas Swallowtail like I showed before my trip, but the underside of his wings here are more obviously brown than the others which were dominated by black. It could be because I had better light, but it still seems somewhat like a different species. Polydamas Swallowtail (butterfliesandmoths.org) for descriptions, locations, etc. and you can compare all of my many photos of this species in my Polydamas Swallowtail Gallery. And it is interesting to note that all of my photos were made in my garden.
Baby Emerald Basilisk
Or maybe that should be “Juvenile” or even “Immature” as some of the words scientists use to describe young wildlife without all the characteristics of their elders, like the big dinosaur fins on their back! I struggled for some time on the ID of this guy I photographed in my garden last Saturday, thinking at first he was one of the many anoles, but after a lot of research, I’m pretty confident of this ID. 🙂
My Emerald Basilisk Gallery with more adults than babies! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Royal Firetip Butterfly
Another new butterfly for me! And in my home garden no less! 🙂 The Royal Firetip or Mysoria barcastus is found from Mexico through most of South America, and just one more of our myriad of butterflies here! Though I’m finding new butterflies on most of my trips to different forest locations, the vast majority of my Costa Rica Butterfly Collection (150+) has been photographed in my Gardens here in Atenas! And I have now become as interested in butterflies as in birds, with both being somewhat of a challenge to photograph. 🙂 Here’s 3 photos of this new species for me:
Fine-spotted Roadside Skipper
This Fine-spotted Roadside Skipper or Amblyscirtes folia is one of hundreds of “Skipper” butterflies. This one was photographed in my garden on June 20, 2022. I’ve been getting so many new butterflies this year that I’m having trouble keeping up with them all. There is very little about this species online in English with only a little in Spanish on Mexico and Ecuador sites that I won’t link here. I’m a new volunteer “coordinator” for Costa Rica on butterfliesandmoths.org and will soon get this fellow listed there, though I inherited a backlog of 450 submissions to go through and verify, so it may take a while! 🙂
See all my Costa Rica Butterflies Galleries for the amazing insect diversity here! At around 150 species, mine is the largest collection of just Costa Rica Butterflies & Moths I’ve found anywhere online. 🙂
And oh yes, this is the day I plan to be at Playa Cativo Lodge on the South Pacific coast of Costa Rica, so hopefully I make it and submit my first post from there tonight! 🙂 I just didn’t want to let this new butterfly discovery to wait around much longer! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Dusky-blue Groundstreak
Another “First Time Seen” butterfly for me, so I’m doing a second post today! 🙂 One of the “Hairstreak” butterflies, the Dusky-blue Groundstreak, Calycopis isobeon (link to butterflies & moths.org), is all over Costa Rica and another fingernail-sized butterfly! 🙂
I’m posting more butterflies than birds now partly because I haven’t had many birds in my garden and this is the time of year for more butterflies in Atenas is one reason. Another is that my interest in butterflies is going up and I have just become the “Costa Rica Coordinator” for the website butterfliesandmoths.org and since they haven’t had a CR Coordinator for 7 or more years here, I inherited a backlog of 450 submissions which will take months to go through, identify and approve while I’m anxious to submit my own 150 species photographed here. 🙂 I seem to always have plenty to keep me busy! 🙂 Enjoy this cool and different tiny butterfly and go outside and look for some where you live!
