Category: National Parks & Wildlife Reserves

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Christmas Day Very Busy!

As I celebrated living in Costa Rica for 8 years, I had a very special Christmas Eve Dinner and this morning went to the Butterfly Conservancy in El Castillo on the lake, then hiked one of the trails here at Arenal Observatory and after another great dinner of baby back ribs, I’m going on a private Night Hike, just me and the guide! It was their suggestion since with the regular night hike of a group of 10 they knew I would find it difficult to make photos. Most of “my” lodges here really take care of this old man!  🙂 Photos from the night hike will come tomorrow.

And I haven’t had time to process photos of butterflies or anything else today, so here’s photos of the great sunny weather we had today and my first view this week of the volcano! The lake shot was at about sunset time, though the sun is not seen there this time of year, it’s still more pleasant with clear skies!  🙂  Much more to share tomorrow!

Every day so far this trip the volcano has been covered in clouds until . . .
. . . beautiful blue skies all day today – the first time to see Arenal Volcano from Arenal Observatory Lodge.
Arenal Lake at about sunset time today, Arenal Observatory Lodge.

 

 

 

 

¡Pura Vida!

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Threatened Species Seen This Morning

Brilliant Forest Frog (iNaturalist link) or Warszewitsch’s frog, Rana warszewitschii, is a species of frog in the Ranidae family found in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, rivers, intermittent rivers, plantations, rural gardens, urban areas, and heavily degraded former forests. It is threatened by habitat loss.  ~iNaturalist

Brilliant Forest Frog, a threatened species at Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica

I found it this morning in the “Frog Pond” of Arenal Observatory Lodge where I usually find Red-eyed Tree Frogs on night walks here. (I’m getting a private night walk later this week for photos.) The guys at the front desk had no idea of the ID and at first I could not find it on the web, but they helped me with this ID using one of the fold-out ID charts they sell and I followed up with the above link to an iNaturalist website.  🙂

Sign at the Frog Pond, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica.

When I did a Google Search for “Brilliant Forest Frog” one of my 2019 blog posts came up on this species I saw at Macaw Lodge which has different hind legs but “Brilliant Forest Frog” is what that lodge staff told me it was. The beige top and wide black stripe down the side are the same. Maybe they are cousins?   🙂

See that other frog with this ID in my Brilliant Forest Frog GALLERY. They may or may not be the same species.  🙂

Or better yet, see my bigger Amphibians Costa Rica GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

And MERRY CHRISTMAS or ¡Feliz Navidad!

 

 

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Rusty-spotted Satyr

I’ve photographed 7 species of butterflies so far and 10 species of birds with rain coming down most of my time here (it is a rainforest!). 🙂 I’m sharing this one tonight because it is my only “lifer” or first time seen wildlife here so far this trip. For those who know the lodge, it was seen on the “River Trail. “

Rusty-spotted Satyr, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica.
Rusty-spotted Satyr, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Arenal Volcano National Park, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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Rainy Morning Determination

This little Rufous-tailed Hummingbird was determined to continue eating nectar from the nearby Porterweed Flowers when he rested for a moment on this Red Ginger Flower. As I’m posting at about 11 am the rain has finally stopped and the sun coming out, so my post-poned morning hiked will be about now! 🙂 – P.S. – Right after posting this I start to go out and the rain starts again – Awww . . . shucks! More rain photography!

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Arenal Observatory Lodge, Volcan Arenal National Park, Costa Rica.

Yes – the photo was made in the rain!

See more in my Rufous-tailed Hummingbird GALLERY.

¡Pura Vida!

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New Photo Book Published

CLICK this cover image for the bookstore and a preview of all 30 pages.

It is too late to get it for Christmas except in the states, but my reasons for publishing now is to have in January and February to share on trips. I have no ambitions to make money on my photography but operate with an almost obsessive desire to create and these little photo books provide that creative outlet more than anything other than maybe this blog! 🙂 The sharing of photos on this blog and in my gallery are two other outlets and to a lesser degree the sharing of bird photos on eBird and butterfly photos on butterfliesandmoths dot org. 🙂 Right now I’m the biggest contributor of butterfly photos from Costa Rica! 🙂

Check this book out with the free preview and let me know what you think! And I hope you are exploring the world where you live! There’s a lot to discover literally everywhere!

¡Pura Vida!

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Children’s Author at ART SHOW!

CLICK the cover image above to see book on Amazon.com.

Denise Gilien will be at this weekend’s ART SHOW with her children’s book (above) Where the Wild Sloths Roam and other work. Don’t miss this opportunity to see 21 local artists together in one room and possibly find a creative Christmas gift! At Hotel Colinas del Sol in Atenas on Avenida 8.

  • Friday 9 December – 3-8 pm — Jack, Piet & Syl, Fire Music at 5 pm!
  • Saturday, 10 December – 10 am to 8 pm — Poison Dart Frogs Band at 5 pm!
  • Sunday, 11 December – 10 am to 4 pm

¡Pura Vida!

And be sure to stop by my Nature as Art table!

Wall Art, Greeting Cards, Books & more!

🙂

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Neighborhood Boa Constrictor

Walking back from town yesterday I saw a guy trying to catch a big snake with a broomstick out by the small apartment complex’s garbage basket (Canasta de Basura). He was obviously experienced and quickly caught the large snake and conveniently stopped for me when I pulled out my cell phone for a photo. I’m guessing that it is his pet Boa that had escaped and could have soon found a home in one of our gardens nearby. 🙂 But no worry! They are non-poisonous and live on small mammals, birds and even other reptiles which they squeeze to death and swallow whole. Hmmm.

There are several varieties of Boas and after researching online I think it is this one described by Wikipedia as: “Boa imperator or Boa constrictor imperator (in common usage) is a large, heavy-bodied, non venomous species of snake, of the boa genus, that is commonly kept in captivity.”

I have photos of several types of Boas from 6 different locations in Costa Rica, both wild and captive in my Boa Constrictor GALLERY. One shot here for the emailed blog announcement followed by 3 others from yesterday’s serendipity snake experience . . .

Boa Constrictor, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Continue reading “Neighborhood Boa Constrictor”
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My New Butterfly Photo Gallery

The general address for my Butterflies & Moths of Costa Rica stays the same, but all the sub-galleries or individual butterfly galleries will unfortunately have new web addresses. This is because I want this gallery to be scientifically accurate to match my volunteer work with butterfliesandmoths.org. Thus each of nearly 200 individual butterfly galleries will be titled with their common name and sub-titled in smaller letters with their scientific name. Then they have been placed in folders or family galleries according to their taxonomy. Thus the first level of galleries you see on the first screen image below are the families such as Hesperiidae – SKIPPERS (35+) or the largest family in my collection is Nymphalidae – BRUSHFOOTS (79+). The individual butterfly galleries are presented inside these family folders in the taxonomic order found on butterfliesandmoths.org, making my gallery a good research tool for anyone doing research on butterflies and moths in Costa Rica! 🙂 The bad part is that all my old blog posts (before yesterday’s) that have a link to an individual butterfly gallery – that link will no longer work! So sorry! But that is the cost of scientific accuracy. Before I just had them arranged alphabetically by common name – not the best way! 🙂 To check out my Costa Rica Butterfly & Moth Photo collection, click the first page image below or go to this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/Butterflies-Moths

My Photo Gallery: Butterflies & Moths of Costa Rica – CLICK IMAGE to visit.

I have one of, if not the largest collections of Costa Rica Butterfly photos online that I know of at about 200 species. Before getting involved in the butterfliesandmoths website, my primary source was and still often is the excellent book A Swift Guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America by Jeffery Glassberg.

And I could say the same things about my CR Birds Gallery which has about 360 species and has always been arranged in taxonomic order by families based on the order found in Princeton Field Guide: Birds of Central America, my preferred bird guide now, other than eBird online.

¡Pura Vida!

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South Caribe Trip Gallery & Hurricane Julia

There are so many more photos from my trip back to Banana Azul in the South Caribbean of Costa Rica that I intended to share on the blog, but other things are happening now, thus I refer you to the just-finished Trip Gallery for my 2022 Banana Azul Week, click that link or this image of the first page of the gallery for many more photos from nature . . .

Entrance Page to my 2022 Banana Azul South Caribe Trip Gallery

¡Pura Vida!

And About Hurricane Julia . . .

Yesterday (Saturday) Tropical Storm Julia strengthened into a Category 2 Hurricane over the Caribbean Sea and headed toward Nicaragua where it is expected they will receive extensive damage through today (Sunday) from coast to coast as Julia goes across Nicaragua and El Salvador and parts of southern Honduras to finally dissipate in the Pacific Ocean tomorrow. Nicaragua is on the northern border of Costa Rica but we are not expected to receive much of the wind damage, just a lot of extra rain which could mean some flooding and here that also means mud slides and rock slides in the mountain areas. Otherwise we will not be affected drastically by Hurricane Julia. It was just a mild rain last night (Saturday) as I wrote this. But hurricanes have been known to change course.