January to March is very windy here and maybe that is one reason for fewer butterflies, but one of the larger and more colorful ones that keeps hang on around my gardens is the Banded Peacock, Anartia fatima (my gallery link). While several Yellows fly around high in the trees and never seem to land for a photo and a few Skippers can be seen close to the ground, it is mainly these Banded Peacocks who frequent my gardens now.
Banded Peacock, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaBanded Peacock, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Yesterday was a new species of birds for me and today a new species of butterflies for me, the Arita Skipper or Green-browed Skipper, Arita arita. No link to my gallery because this is the only photo in it now. 🙂 And no good article online, though there are 2 other photos on butterfliesandmoths.org and 5 more sightings from Costa Rica on the iNaturalistCR site. Not a spectacular butterfly, but one more species which brings my CR Butterflies Galleries up to 320 identified species now! 🙂
Green-browed or Arita Skipper, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” ~Henry David Thoreau
¡Pura Vida!
2,000 Blog/Website Visits in January! THANK YOU!
One of the services provided by my WordPress blog/website host is a monthly report of page visits on my site and it has been typical for the last few years to have around 2,000 page views of my blog/website at charliedoggett.net each month!
And though my photo gallery is a menu item on the website, it is actually separate and hosted by a different business, SmugMug.com, and they started in February 2022 counting my gallery visitors with several galleries now having had over 1,000 visitors in 2 years! And the shocker for me, as I typed this (yesterday) is that I’ve had 1,957 views of the gallery “My Home Gardens.” 🙂 Flowers are more popular than birds?! So I express my THANKS to all of you who read the blog (with more pictures than words)! 🙂 And then go on to look at my photos in the gallery! 🙂 Maybe “A picture is worth a thousand words” is a true statement after all! 🙂
Moving to Costa Rica 10 years ago and immersing myself in the incredible nature here was definitely one of the best decisions I every made! And I’m thankful for the many people who have joined me in my adventures vicariously by reading the blog posts and looking at the photos! ¡Pura Vida!
Our January 7 day trip with 6 Canadian friends from British Columbia to Rio Tarcoles & Punta Leona Beach was a fun trip with lots of nature photo ops! And I now have the “Trip Gallery” finished! Click that link or the image of the first page below or this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-January-7-Rio-Tarcoles-Punta-Leona In many ways, these trip galleries are my “base galleries” from which I glean photos for subject galleries like Birds! While photos made in my home garden go directly into the subject galleries if they even make a gallery. 🙂 But I love these trip galleries because I always make more photos on a trip!
CLICK this image of the first page to go to this gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
My needle biopsy went well yesterday and now I just wait for their report that I will receive in my February 12 appointment. And my sister Bonnie learned that her “colon cancer” was primarily an ovarian cancer that spread to her colon, and now they are about to begin chemotherapy after one more procedure. Our mother and brother both died of cancer and now it looks like the rest of us may go the same way. Only Dad never had cancer. The doctors said he died when his heart just stopped, not a heart attack. And Bonnie and I will both look for the positive while we fight our different types of cancers. Thanks for your prayers!
Yesterday I shared photos of the Yellow-crowned Night Heron and today the other 4 herons I photographed last week on Rio Tarcoles. A very good birding river! 🙂
These photos are from my kind of “catch all” category that I call “Leaves and Nature Things.” In this case, all leaves with one whole tree on the hill above my house. Tomorrow will start January pix and tomorrow is when I’m taking some Canadian friends birding on the Tarcoles River early, then looking for monkeys on Punta Leona Beaches with Walter. A full day, so those pix won’t be until at least the next day or later but coming! 🙂 Then Wednesday I go see the doctor in San Jose who is monitoring the possible spread of my facial cancer. And another morning will be given to visiting Dan Sheaks’ bird feeders where he gets a lot of toucans! So a busy week again! 🙂
And this featured photo is of a Natal Lily or Bush Lily – Clivia miniata that I have seen at only one other lodge, Playa Cativo in Puntarenas Province. Xandari has different flowers blooming every month, so you can expect different ones if you go at different times of the year. For this December trip my Xandari ’24 FLOWERS Gallery has photos of more than 30 species! Enjoy! And it is the first sub-gallery I have completed for this latest “Trip Gallery” that I will announce when finished. The Butterflies’ identifications are slowing me down this time! 🙂
Natal Lily or Bush Lily – Clivia miniata , Xandari Resort, Tacacori, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
And if you like flowers, check out all mine in the Flora & Forest Galleries. where there is a big gallery for just Xandari!
Flash News!
I finished the entire “Christmas at Xandari” GALLERY last night, so all my photos from this little 2-day retreat are ready to view! Click that link!
CLICK this image of first page to go to the gallery.
CLICK this image of first page to go to the gallery.
Yes, Xandari is expensive, but it is worth it for me as I think the photos tell. Enjoy my “Nature as Art” photos that are different each time I visit there.
