I continue to photograph leaves that give me a moment of awe. Here’s five shots from 3 plants in December that awed me . . .
In Awe of Leaves
December Flower Shots
Almost every day of every month (when at home) I walk through my garden with camera in hand looking for birds, butterflies or other wildlife. When none are seen, I usually snap a photo of a flower or an interesting leaf. And recently I have been presenting some of those photos at the end of the month or in the next month. So here are last month’s flower shots not already shown. I do occasionally have a post on one of my flowers, like the Desert Rose for my Christmas Card in December! And I won’t repeat those images. 🙂 Below this introductory photo is a gallery of 7 flower shots from December.
Pompeius Skipper
This little brown skipper with a historic-sounding name was at Punta Leona Nature Resort as he sometimes is in my garden. See my gallery Pompeius Skipper – Pompeius pompeius for more photos of this “brown is beautiful” little butterfly. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
My 2025 Punta Leona GALLERY is now finished!
The “Trail of Giants”
“Sendero de Gigantes” is the unofficial nickname for the main forest trail at Punta Leona Nature Resort because of some really large trees on the trail. It took me two tries (2 days) to get the 100+ meters uphill from my room to the trail entrance on the main entrance road and then I didn’t even hike it because after a rain it was a muddy, slippery mountainous trail with lots of steep climbs and I tend to fall on wet surfaces, especially on wet steep inclines like this trail had. In fact I nearly fell going downhill into the trail entrance, so I decided not to hike it for my own safety. The occasional disappointments of being old! 🙂
After this introductory photo, there is a gallery of 4 more shots at the entrance. For younger people who love forest trails, this would be a good one! Especially for the big trees! And maybe some wildlife! 🙂
Crested Guan
One of the good things about Punta Leona is that there are many species of bird and I got only 11 this trip compared to 21 species on my 2019 visit there. Of course the big turkey-sized Crested Guan (my gallery link) is a favorite of many of the foreign tourists. Not good lighting for this shot, but you can see better photos in the above linked gallery from all over Costa Rica.
¡Pura Vida!
Banded Peacock
One of the most seen butterflies all over Costa Rica is this Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link) photographed here along one of the roads/streets in Punta Leona Resort, Puntarenas, Costa Rica.
¡Pura Vida!
Black Pondhawk Dragonfly
This is my second sighting of a Black Pondhawk, Erythemis atala (my gallery link) with the other one not far from Punta Leona at the old Hotel Villa Lapas in Tarcoles which today (January 1) reopens as a more expensive Marriott, Santa Lucia Jungle Hacienda (their website link). Hope they still have the abundance of wildlife on their property next door to Carara National Park! I may try it out one time, we’ll see. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
¡Feliz Año Nuevo 2026!
“Blue Morpho”
At least that is what everyone calls them in English! 🙂 While the “official” common name in English is “Common Morpho!” And in Spanish everyone is covered with “Mariposa Morfo Azul Común” or “Common Blue Morpho Butterfly!” 🙂 And “Common” is good because there are other species with blue tops! 🙂 See my photos from many different locations of this, the National Butterfly of Costa Rica, Common Morpho, Morpho helenor gallery. Four shots I liked from Punta Leona after this first introductory photo . . .
Toucan Eating Banana Flowers
My one photo today through the very slow internet here is probably my favorite from the 6:15 am birding hike today.
The bird was eating banana plant flowers and interestingly at breakfast this morning a monkey got in and stole a banana of a man’s plate. 🙂
Tomorrow I will share one butterfly shot from the 9:30 am butterfly hike, during which I was not feeling great and will definitely slow down the rest of my time here! By 10 it is almost unbearably hot & humid and I was exhausted, coming back to the room for a nap and then this afternoon another nap. 🙂 I guess I’m an older man than I want to admit. 🙂
Tonight will be the hotel’s “special” Christmas Dinner. Tomorrow I will focus on the beach on Christmas Day with shore birds early morning, maybe a tidepool effort at low tide, and maybe a sunset reflection on the ocean, since the sun sets here now behind the land with the coast at an angle. 🙂 The better sunset place here is at Villa Coleta up the hills from Punta Leona.
Merry Christmas to all the faithful readers!
¡Pura Vida!
Favorite Green Life Photos 2025
To live in a green world, absorbing both the oxygen and the green spirit is one of the greatest blessings of living in Costa Rica. I randomly picked these photos as representative of this spirit, though many others could have represented it just as well . . .
