Category: Travel

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White-winged Dove

The most commonly seen dove or pigeon in my garden in Atenas is also one of those seen & liked on my first trip to Costa Rica in 2009. That photo is included below along with today’s photo. It was the first bird I ever photographed in Costa Rica, right after taking a taxi to Hotel Aeropuerto near SJO Airport in Alajuela. As the sun was setting in the hotel garden, I went out just before dinner and this was the first bird I found! 🙂 Our birding tour group had dinner together and the next morning we flew to Puerto Jimenez where I photographed that Tropical Kingbird I shared a couple of days ago. Good memories! 🙂 See more and better photos in my GALLERY: White-winged Dove, Zenaida asiatica.

At Hotel Aeropuerto, SJO Airport, Alajuela, Costa Rica, 1-31-09, my first night in Costa Rica.
White-winged Dove, photographed a week ago in my garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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Esquinas 2025 GALLERY Completed!

CLICK above image of the gallery 1st page to visit it or use the address below.

Or if you prefer, use this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2025-July-1-6-Esquinas-Rainforest-Lodge

I consider these “Trip Galleries” the best of all my photo galleries where I put only the best photos from that experience. Then I link some of these photos to subject galleries such as a bird species gallery, etc. The trip galleries can also be of help if you plan a trip to one of these wonderful places I visit here in Costa Rica! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

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2 Lifer Birds at Esquinas

Though I’m slowing down and getting fewer photos of birds and everything else now, I also continue to be surprised with new species, like the Whitened Eyed-Metalmark butterfly in another post and that weird insect, Trychopeplus laciniatus, in still another blog post yesterday. All 4 were new species for me on my 3rd visit to this particular lodge and rainforest! 🙂 Just one reason I like Esquinas! 🙂

Now for the two new bird species this time . . .

Blue-black Grosbeak, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Golfito, Costa Rica

That is one shot of the male. See more photos of both male & female in my Blue-black Grosbeak Gallery. The several types of Grosbeaks are all sort of like large Seedeaters.

And speaking of larger seedeater-type birds, the other first sighting for me was this Yellow-bellied Seedeater. (my gallery link) And sorry that I couldn’t get better photos! Two shots in the gallery.

Yellow-bellied Seedeater, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Golfito, Costa Rica

And though not a lifer, I also got a couple of weak photos of a somewhat rare bird, indigenous to this Golfo Dulce area. “Indigenous” means it is found only in this Osa Peninsula/South Pacific area of Costa Rica and nowhere else in the world! 🙂 . . .

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Weird Insect! Trychopeplus laciniatus

On one of the trails at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge at Piedras Blancas National Park, I found this mossy root-like or vine-like “thing” walking around under a leaf (must have sticky feet). 🙂 I just posted it on iNaturalist, where the A I said it was pretty confident to put it in the Genus Trychopeplus, a genus of insects. I searched around more on iNat and decided that the closest match for a species is Trychopeplus laciniatus (linked to that page in iNaturalistCR. There is very little info online and no “common name” in Spanish or English, but mine matches most of the photos found of that species.

On land it would be kind of like a mossy “Walking Stick Insect” or to me almost looks more like the underwater “Sea Dragon” creatures found in the oceans somewhere, but I know nothing about those and didn’t try to research. 🙂

It is just one of the many fun things I keep finding here in Costa Rica and will continue to share on this blog. For other interesting insects I’ve photographed in Costa Rica, go the the More Insects Gallery. 🙂

Trychopeplus laciniatus species of insect at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Golfito, Costa Rica

2 more photos . . .

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Rainforest Lizards

There are oh so many more lizards in the rainforest, but they were never my target for photos, but here’s a Whiptail and adult & juvenile shots of a Common Basilisk. In earlier years I looked for lizards more and you can check out my LIZARDS Gallery for more than 25 species.

Juvenile Common Basilisk, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas NP, Golfito, Costa Rica

2 more images . . .

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Rainforest Dragonflies

There are a lot of dragonflies around all the different water locations and because we have the dragonfly specialist active in iNaturalist Costa Rica, I wait until after I post the photos there for him to confirm or give the species or even say if I have them in the right family! 🙂 I’m more confident about that amber wing identification, but not the others. And I’m including two reds here, because I think they are two different species.

One of theTropical Dashers – Genus Micrathyria, Dragonflies at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito, Costa Rica

3 more dragonflies below . . .

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Tayra

The tropical mammal called Tayra (Eira barbara) (linked to Wikipedia) is called in Costa Rica Spanish a Tolomuco or Tayra and is found throughout Central America and the northern 2/3 of South America. A couple of years ago Tico Times had an article titled Meet the Tayra which includes a camera trap video of one. And of course I have a Tayra Gallery of my photos from two different visits to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, the only place I’ve seen one in the wild. Here’s three shots from this year’s Esquinas trip . . .

Tayra avoiding the Caiman (alligator) in foreground at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Costa Rica.
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Hiking Companion One Morning . . .

. . . was a Buff-rumped Warbler, Myiothlypis fulvicauda (eBird link) who literally followed along with me on the trail through the forest, sometimes leading the way. 🙂 He was always in the shadows, thus no good photos, but I do have better photos from other locations in my Buff-rumped Warbler Gallery. He is found only in Central America and northwestern South America.

Buff-rumped Warbler, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito, Costa Rica
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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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