Category: Travel

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The Other 2 White Birds

Three days ago, March 2,  I published a blog post on the Snowy Egret, an all-white bird, and here are the other 2 all-white birds at Tortuguero: the Great Egret and the Cattle Egret.

You can tell the Snowy Egret and Great Egret apart by the opposite colors of their beaks and feet: Snowy has black beak and yellow feet, while Great has yellow beak and black feet.  🙂 The Cattle Egret is much smaller with shorter neck and beak and often with pale salmon coloring on head and chest. After this introductory photo, there is a 3-pix gallery for each of these two new all-white birds . . .

Great Egret, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica

Continue reading “The Other 2 White Birds”

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Tortuguero Photo Book published

It’s the same photos I’ve reported with on this blog and are in my trip gallery, but it is another creative opportunity for me that I find fun and will enjoy having a copy of the book and sharing a couple of copies with the lodge which they will share with other guests, so a nice creative use of my photography from a trip like this and the first trip book I’ve done in a year or two.

You can click the book cover below and see an electronic preview of the whole book for free without having to buy it!  🙂 Or you can go directly to this web address to see it:    https://www.blurb.com/b/11499801-wowlife-tortuguero

CLICK this cover image to go to book in bookstore.

¡Pura Vida!

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Spotted Sandpiper

The only bird I photographed that is usually associated more with the ocean than the wetlands is this Spotted Sandpiper, without spots of course, which is usually the case, though you can see photos of some with spots in my CR Spotted Sandpiper GALLERY.  🙂

Spotted Sandpiper, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica
Spotted Sandpiper, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica

Read about this bird found throughout the Americas on eBird.

¡Pura Vida!

And the Tortuguero 2023 Trip Gallery is ready!

 

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Snowy Egret

Waiting for a fish to catch from the pier at Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica. The Snowy Egret is found around the world everywhere there is water and warm weather.  🙂

Snowy Egret, Pier, Tortuga Lodge & Gardens, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica.

Read more about Snowy Egrets on eBird. 

More photos in my Snowy Egret GALLERY. 

¡Pura Vida!

And the Tortuguero 2023 Trip Gallery is ready!

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Tortuguero 2023 GALLERY

I have finally cleaned up my many photos and organized them into a “trip gallery” for this year’s trip to Tortuguero (my 4th) to a new lodge that I will evaluate in another blog post later. To see the gallery, click the linked image of the first page below or use this linked web address:  https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-February-12-16-Tortuga-Lodge-Tortuguero-NP

First page of Tortuguero 2023 Trip Gallery by Charlie — CLICK image to go there!

¡Pura Vida!

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Amazon Kingfisher – Speed-fisher!

It’s a joy to watch these amazing birds dive lightening fast into the water from a tree branch to catch a small fish. Usually successfully! This Amazon Kingfisher is the biggest of these 4 Kingfishers that can be seen in Tortuguero waters (with links to my gallery of each):

  1. Amazon Kingfisher
  2. Ringed Kingfisher
  3. Green Kingfisher
  4. American Pygmy Kingfisher

Note that there are two other species of Kingfishers in Costa Rica, the Belted Kingfisher I’ve seen in other areas and the Green and Rufous Kingfisher which I am yet to see but the book says is on this Caribbean side of the country. Here’s photos from this trip of 1 male and 1 female Amazon Kingfisher which if you are still in the email notice you can see larger and better on the blog website, by clicking the blog title above.

Amazon Kingfisher male, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica
Amazon Kingfisher female, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

And for more info and a location map of where found in only tropical Central and South America, see the eBird page.

BONUS READ

“Love thy neighbor (no exceptions)” article in the Friends Journal on simply following the example of Jesus.  🙂

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Bird with an Attitude

The Great-tailed Grackle (eBird link) is a lanky blackbird with a ridiculously long tail and what seems to me a rather haughty attitude!  🙂

They are seen from the western U.S. throughout all of Central American and I have seen in almost every area of Costa Rica. Though a land bird, I seem to see more near water or marshy areas like Tortuguero. Here’s just 4 of my photos from Tortuguero and I’m particularly proud of this portrait of a female (always brown while males are black with blue/purple sheen). And I think both shots of males below demonstrate the attitude I spoke of above.  🙂

 

Female Great-tailed Grackle, Tortuguero NP, Limón, Costa Rica

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Tortuguero Butterflies

The only place I saw and photographed butterflies this trip was in the lodge gardens, totally on their Porter Weed flowers. I managed to capture 9 different species I think, but have only identified the 6 that are included in this post. See them in their own gallery below this anchor shot . . .

Julia Heliconian, Tortuguero National Park, Limón, Costa Rica

Continue reading “Tortuguero Butterflies”

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Meet Costa Rica’s Gray Fox

Read this Tico Times online article in English about a really different kind of fox that actually climbs trees! Plus the author has camera trap videos put together with several different individuals of this beautiful tropical fox. Unfortunately this is not my photo but one by the article’s author, Vincent Losasso. Simply gorgeous!

Gray Fox, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!