Category: National Parks & Wildlife Reserves

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Most visible Bird . . .

. . . at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge is surprisingly also one of the largest! (a little larger than toucans.) And maybe size does help with visibility, 🙂 plus the fact that the ones living there are used to people (all nature-lovers) and thus don’t run at the site of a dangerous human! 🙂

The Great Curassow, Crax rubra (eBird link) is a tropical pheasant-like bird found from eastern Mexico throughout Central America to the northwestern edges of Columbia and Ecuador. I see them in most of the protected forests and national parks I visit in Costa Rica. See some of my other photos in the Great Curassow Gallery. Just another of the many nature joys in Costa Rica! 🙂 And yes, they are similar to the Crested Guan (my gallery link) also here and about the same size, but with a bright red waddle. I heard guans on this trip but neither saw nor got photos. Both of these birds remind North Americans of Wild Turkeys, which we do not have here.

Great Curassow male & female, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Parque Nacional Piedras Blancas, Golfito, Costa Rica, on a stream bank behind the dining hall.

And a gallery of 5 shots . . . (click an image to enlarge)

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7 Species of Hummingbirds . . .

. . . is one thing I photographed at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge last week and they are all 7 together in a gallery below this email photo . . .

Scaly-breasted Hummingbird, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito, Costa Rica (most frequently seen there)
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Rainforest Caiman & My Birthday Cake

There are two ponds here at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, and both can have Caiman in them, with a total of 3 Caiman living here, a smaller version of the American Alligator. They are a native wild animal in this area, seen in most forests and farms. The 2 shots on land were at the central pond and the water shot at the Caiman Pond along the entrance road. Below these 3 Caiman photos are three of me and my birthday cake last night when the younger staff members sang “Happy Birthday” to me – in English! The first time since I moved to CR 10+ years ago! I had gotten use to “Feliz Cumpleaños.” 😊

See more of my photos of Caiman in my Caiman Gallery.

Caiman at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica
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Tropical flowers are my Fireworks!

I love all of the tropical flowers, and among my favorites are the 35+ species of Heliconia flowers native to Costa Rica, and yes, they do grow in the wild, especially in rainforests or along rivers and other bodies of water. My cabin this week is surrounded by at least a dozen different species of Heliconia flowers. Below the one photo for the email version you will find a gallery of fourteen heliconia blooms from around my cabin. Happy Fourth of July! And yes, I’m having a great 85th birthday! And the rain is never a problem! That helps make all these beautiful flowers! 🙂

Heliconia Flower at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Costa Rica.
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La Gamba Tropenstation

This morning after breakfast I walked the maybe half mile down the road to La Gamba Rainforest Research Station sponsored mainly by the University of Vienna, Austria, hoping to see more butterflies! But only got one there plus one on the road near Esquinas Lodge which I will share later as part of Esquinas. 🙂

At the research station, I simply walked the garden trails, looking for nature to photograph and got quite a few photos in less than an hour. Here is a sampling of the photos in a gallery below the email photo with not everything identified yet. I have to go to the dining room for internet connection, but prepare these posts and the photos on my cabin porch during the afternoon rain, though it didn’t rain this afternoon, but will tonight! 🙂

Brown Basilisk, La Gamba Rainforest Research Station
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Toucan Rendezvous

For maybe an hour this morning, two Yellow-throated Toucans called out to each other from two different trees behind my cabin. Finally, they got together in one tree, though my last pix indicates that one is shy, hiding behind an air plant with her back to the other. Always fun to observe nature in action! 🙂 This was one of 11 bird species I photographed today, here at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge. A nice day! And though cloudy most of the day, no rain. Below this photo for the email is a photo of the two together or almost together! 🙂

Yellow-throated Toucan, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica
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Agouti!

Good evening from the rainforest! We had a good hour & a half rain this afternoon that was cooling, though of course it is quite humid here all the time. Reminds me of growing up in South Arkansas just a few miles from the Louisiana line and it was quite humid there too, at least in the summer!  🙂

My cabin is surround by maybe up to 10 or more species of Heliconia flowers and I started out to do a post on the Heliconia, but just too many photos to process in a limited time! Maybe for another night this week!

Thus, because of time, I chose to share just one photo of a favorite tropical animal for tourist down here, the Central American Agouti. This one was foraging for fallen nuts streamside behind my cabin. I’m sure I’ll see more of him this week!

Central American Agouti, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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Poas Volcano on Red Alert!

Many of my U.S. friends who have visited here have included a visit to Poas Volcano NP, which is (“as the crow flies”) just 53.5 km or 33.2 miles from me, though a 2 hour drive through the mountains. 🙂 It has been erupting daily now for a few weeks and increasing in intensity. Today …

The Costa Rican National Emergency Commission (CNE) has declared a red alert for Poás Volcano National Park due to increased volcanic activity, with ash plumes reaching up to 4,500 meters. The park is currently closed indefinitely, and authorities recommend that visitors stay away from the area. Adjacent areas, including Grecia, Sarchí, Alajuela, Poás, Naranjo, Río Cuarto, and Zarcero, are under orange or yellow alerts due to ashfall and gas exposure.

Poas Volcano erupting this week. Photo from Tico Times online English newspaper.

It has always been my favorite volcano to visit in Costa Rica, not only because the closest, but the only one you could look down in the crater and see the bubbling stuff, plus it has a second, older crater with a beautiful turquoise-colored lake. who knows what it will be like after these major eruptions?

Because I live south of Poas and most of our winds are East-West, I don’t get a lot of the ash fall, but some. Before breakfast on my terrace each morning, I wipe the glass-top table off with a Lysol Wipe and then a paper towel. They are black from the small amount of ash we do get. 🙂 Yet farmers near active volcanoes say the ash is excellent for growing vegetables! 🙂

Facebook Video of one day’s eruption: (it would not embed)

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2160888447696509&t=18

Poas Volcano erupting April 23-25, UNC photo frame from video.

And if the FB link above doesn’t work, try the Tico Times article where I first saw it: https://ticotimes.net/2025/04/23/video-poas-volcano-erupts-with-3-5-km-ash-plume-ovsicori-reports

¡Pura Vida!

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New Book for a Favorite Lodge

For my birthday in July, I’m going back to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge to celebrate my 85th birthday at the same place I celebrated my 83rd! But I did not do a photo book for that trip, so this is a delayed report as a gift to the lodge this July. It is paperback and only 22 pages, but shows the variety of nature you can experience there. For a free preview of all pages, go to this book in my bookstore at https://www.blurb.com/b/12361792-a-walk-in-the-rainforest

CLICK cover image to see a free preview.

¡Pura Vida!

Note that in my bookstore there is a separate edition of this book listed with a different cover. That is because I like to offer both the softcover and the hardcover image wrap editions, but now the crazy programmers at Blurb are requiring each edition to be created and uploaded separately. I don’t like technology that makes things more complicated like this! 🙂