As I finished my quesadilla lunch today, I stepped out of the dining room to a tropical Guaba Tree where a couple of Spider Monkeys were eating both fruit & leaves for their lunch! 🙂 Here’s just one photo. You can see more photos of this wiry guy in my Central American Spider Monkey Gallery. And oh yes, only “new world monkeys” (Central & South America) have prehensile tails and can hang in a tree like this fellow with all hands and feet free! Nada in Africa and Asia! 🙂
Central American Spider Monkey, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Costa Rica
I captured some images today of this Black-cheeked Woodpecker building a new house where soon some new little woodpeckers will be raised at Maquenque Eco Lodge. 🙂
Black-cheeked Woodpecker house building, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Costa RicaBlack-cheeked Woodpecker, Maquenque Eco Lodge, Costa Rica
And I’m getting lots of other bird photos plus other wildlife here in the rainforest which I will eventually share here or in my gallery.
Maquenque Eco Lodge is in Boca Tapada and a long drive of about 3.5 hours here and my driver brought me here with his wife an daughter and treated me to lunch with birthday cake and ice cream. They are already treating me royally in the dining room as I am using the WiFi here before I eat. And though I photographed more birds this afternoon, I’m using two dragonflies for tonight’s post.
One of the Amberwings, Maqueque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica.I think this one is a Square Tail, Maqueque Eco Lodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica.
I consider my group of galleries titled Costa Rica TRIPS to be my best group of photo galleries, because they cover my trips to all my favorite nature places all over Costa Rica, now numbering 120 including day trips! Though I share some good photography from home here in Atenas, including my garden, the exciting stuff is usually from the trips! 🙂
And the newest one is from last week’s little 2-night trip to Xandari Resort on the edge of my provincial capital of Alajuela, Alajuela with their surprising private rainforest with waterfalls, all kinds of trees and wildlife, along with their gorgeous gardens near the rooms, restaurant, spa and their farm. A great little jungle island near a big city! This gallery is labeled 2024 June 11-13 — Xandari Resort, Alajuela (linked to the gallery) or you can click the image of the first page of the gallery below to get there . . .
CLICK this first page of Gallery to go there.
If you are one of my readers in Costa Rica and want to check out Xandari, which has greatly reduced prices during rainy season, go to their website at Xandari Costa Rica! (Pronounced shaun-dar-ie) It is the Costa Rica location of a chain of resorts based in India, all focused on nature and local culture and people.
Now I will start catching up on some blog posts from my garden that I made before Xandari. 🙂 And my next trip is in July to Maquenque Eco Lodge where I’ve photographed more birds than any other location! 🙂 Plus I will celebrate my 84th birthday there! 🙂 Always something to look forward too when you live “Retired in Costa Rica!”
I said yesterday I had 15 species and I just realized the plain brown top is the top of the Carolina Satyr, meaning I moved those photos in with the Carolina Satyr dropping it to 14 and one unidentified Yellow could possibly be one of the other yellows, so I got either 13 or 14 species of butterflies with I think three new species. Xandari has always been a good place for butterflies for me, both in their forest and in their gardens, my third best place after my own garden and Hotel Banana Azul in the Caribbean! 🙂 Here is one pix for the emailed version of post, followed online by a gallery of all 15 photos . . .
The rain makes everything green and when it is not raining or cloudy, it is beautiful wherever you look. But when overcast or raining you can sometime see only a few meters away as these two shots from my room at Xandari show, looking out over the city of Alajuela and the Central Valley . . .
Vista from my room at Xandari Resort in Alajuela, Alajuela, Costa RicaVista from my room at Xandari Resort in Alajuela, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Yeah, ten were all the birds I photographed there this time, but it was only a little more than one day there and during rainy season, so okay for near a big city. But by comparison, I got photos of 15 butterfly species! I will eventually share more of them. And on my first day’s post there were two more birds, a Kiskadee and a Rufous-tailed Wren. Here’s 5 more . . .
Thanks to one of the volunteers on iNaturalist, I now have a species name for that “cute smiling” flower I photographed at Arenal last month. The scientific name is Trimezia gracilis and the most used common name is Liro Caminante, with a less-used common name of Falsa Orquidea. You can see a map of where they are found around the world and read more information about them on PlantNet.org. Here’s that one photo again and I’m proud to be first to share it on iNaturalist! 🙂
Lirio Caminante, Trimezia gracilis, at Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Costa Rica.
One of my unidentified photos from Arenal just got identified by an authority with butterfliesandmoths.org and it is another one of those rare finds and mine is the first one ever submitted to butterfliesandmoths. 🙂 Wikipedia says “Athis inca is a moth of the Castniidae family. It is found from Mexico to Costa Rica.” You can see this photo of mine posted on butterfliesandmoths or in my gallery. And to learn more, the website that seemed to have the most information was GBIF (linked). And Project Noah (linked) has several nice photos, including different subspecies. I’m proud of my find and so glad that J. Wiley Rains of BAMONA identified it for me! Costa Rica is just full of “rare finds!” 🙂 And it is wonderful to be “Retired in Costa Rica,” the name of my blog! 🙂
Athis inca Moth, Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails, Costa Rica
On this same trip I also found another semi-rare moth which you can see in my gallery, the Feigeria herilia, an equally interesting and different moth! 🙂
Finally, I have processed all the photos and organized them into another fun gallery representative of Arenal Observatory Lodge & Trails inside the Arenal Volcano National Park of Costa Rica. And the blog will be back to my little creatures and fun nature from my little garden. You can click the first page of the gallery below or if preferred, this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2024-May-6-11-Arenal-Observatory-Lodge-Trails
CLICK this image of the first page of gallery to go there.
