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The Peruvian Shield Mantis – Choeradodis rhombicollis (Wikipedia link) is found mostly in Central & South American tropics. I photographed this one last week at Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort. And yes, he is related to the Praying Mantis, also found here. In my gallery I have him with other Hooded Mantises, Genus Choeradodis. But both iNaturalist & Google Lens were specific with a species name on this one. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
The Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens (my gallery link) is seldom seen and usually in the mouth of a river as it was here in the mouth of Rio Tarcoles. Though I did see one upriver at Rancho Humo, Palo Verde NP, Rio Tempisque, a pale morph. This time it is a dark morph. It is rare and mainly seen on the Pacific Coast when seen. Only my second sighting and a different morph this time.
Eating a tiny fish on Rio Tarcoles last week. See more of my photos of this species in the gallery: Amazon Kingfisher (linked).
The other Kingfisher we saw was a Green Kingfisher which I will share later as one of the many birds seen on the Tarcoles!
¡Pura Vida!
I haven’t found a species match yet, but sure that it is in this super family: Stink Bugs, Shield Bugs, and Allies Superfamily Pentatomoidea (linked to an iNaturalist page on this family).
¡Pura Vida!
And for more bugs, my gallery: More Costa Rica Insects which is separate from my Butterfly & dragonfly galleries. 🙂
Hiding in a piece of vegetation in the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve two days ago. See more from several other locations in my gallery Masked Tree Frog, Similisca phaeota.
¡Pura Vida!
Here’s one shot each of a male & female Collared Trogon, Trogon collaris (my gallery link). They were the first two birds we saw in the Los Angeles Cloud Forest Reserve or Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort yesterday. Just waiting on us as we arrived! 🙂 This particular trogon is found only in Central America and the northern portions of South America. And as you can tell from my collection of photos (above linked gallery), is found only in the higher elevations like where we were yesterday, inside a cloud. 🙂
On all my past trips I’ve seen and photographed this Yellow-headed Caracara -Daptrius chimachima (my gallery link) but always in the past he was on a log, tree limb or the ground and once flying low near the ground. But this one of him flying high with that great wingspan showing is new for me. Not a good photo of a moving bird, 100 meter up, shot from a moving boat, but I at least I sort of captured that wide & colorful wingspan. Just one of many, many birds you can see on Rio Tarcoles! 🙂
And today is the day we leave early (5am) for a 6:30 birding hike at Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Hotel, north of San Ramon. Not as many birds but they will all be different than seen at Tarcoles and Carara Park and followed by a really good “Farm to Table” Breakfast and a visit to their gardens. I was there in 2017, my only time before today. On top of a mountain! This particular cloud forest reserve was the specific request of one of my Canadian birding friends. Walter is our transportation. And photos from there will be shared along with the Tuesday trip photos over the next few weeks. Every day is an adventure in Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
One of the coolest things we saw at Carara National Park yesterday was a Perro Zompopo · Helmeted Iguana – Corytophanes cristatus also known as the Smooth Helmeted Iguana, Helmeted Basilisk, Helmeted Lizard and a few other common names. With that Perro Zompopo being the official Spanish common name on iNaturalist and of course that 3rd Latin name is the scientific name. He was in a lot of shade behind trees, limbs and vines in the thick transitional forest of Carara, thus difficult to photograph. The above shot with a greenish hue was on my Canon Camera while my cell phone shot through the spotting scope had a duller, brownish hue. 🙂 And my identification has not yet been approved by a specialist on iNaturalist, but I’m sort of confident of this.
We got scads of bird photos on Rio Tarcoles but it may take awhile to work through all of them, while the complicated online way of now entering national parks meant we didn’t get on trail to after 11 which is too late for birds, but our excellent guide, Andrys, found lots of other nature to experience and photograph. Both experiences were really good, though too much for one day for our age group. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This tiny little bee on the Spadix of an Anthurium (not a large pistil) was, I first thought, a Green Orchid Bee, but the AI of iNaturalist says no, it is one of many different species of sweat bees and once I post it on iNaturalist, it may or may not be given a species name, just the Tribe Augochlorini. He will go in my general Bees Gallery with only this tribal name for now. 🙂 He is less than half the size of yesterday’s orchid bee.
¡Pura Vida!
Early this morning Walter will take me and a group of 4 Canadian friends to breakfast at El Jardin on our way to a birding boat trip on Rio Tarcoles to its mouth on the coast followed by a birding hike in nearby Carara National Park, then lunch somewhere on our way back to Atenas. This is the second time I’ve arranged this always productive birding trip for this group.
Then on Thursday we go, at their request, to a mountain Cloud Forest Reserve north of San Ramon. There will not be as many birds there but all will be different from what was seen on the coast. Plus that 6:30am guided hike will be followed by a great “farm to table” breakfast at the Villa Blanca Cloud Forest Resort. I spent a couple of nights there during my earlier years in Costa Rica (2017) and it is nice, but I photographed only 9 species of birds that one time there. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
I live in a tropical country, 13° above the equator, with lots of rainforests and cloud forests an hour or so from where I live. Though this Central Valley location is not as humid as a rainforest (except in the rainy season), it is still humid and I’ve learned that humidity does many negative things to my cameras and the lenses .
I recently spent over $300 at the authorized Canon Repair Shop for minor repairs and mainly cleaning of 2 cameras and 2 lenses which had various kinds of mold or other humidity-related problems affecting the electrical connections, the glass and other details.
The repair man was kind enough to reduce some of his future business by recommending that I store my cameras and lenses in a “Dry Box,” which is a metal box containing an electrical device that keeps the humidity down to the level recommended for cameras (40-50%) and at a recommended temperature of 25-29°C. And it costs a fraction of what continued cleaning and repair would cost! (just $150) So a no brainer! 🙂 When you walk in my office now, it looks like I have a little dorm fridge sitting on top of my file cabinet, full of cameras & lenses. 🙂 Anywhere one lives, there are some adaptations that can be made to live with the extremes that might be there. And this will particularly be good when I return from one of my trips to either coast or any rainforest or cloud forest where there’s always more humidity. Humidity damage is now stopped and I expect my cameras to work better! 🙂
Under the ABOUT Menu of my website there is a PHOTOGRAPHER page with a sub-page on My Photography Equipment where I have now added this handy little device to protect my cameras and lenses. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
This post was made about 2 weeks ago which is about how far ahead I am on creating most of my Blog Posts now since the Christmas trip to Punta Leona.