Category: Trees

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Goose Egg Falls

Hmmm! What is this? Well, you see, my trip planner, Walter, works very hard to please his customers with little “extras” and knew about an unnamed waterfall along our return highway near San Ramon or in that Canton (county), just 20 meters off the highway! So we stopped and parked in the edge of the mud by the highway and walked through the mud down a rocky little decline (that I almost fell on) to a stream to be where we could see this waterfall with minimal water right now in dry season. Well, it was rocky as you can see in one photo and the bottom of my shoes were muddy. I put my weight down on one, possibly wet, rock and slipped falling backwards on the rocks, banging my head on one of those big round ones. It hurt bad for about a minute or 2 only. Then I felt a growing bump on my head.

I thought I was dead or seriously injured and so did Walter who was concerned about me for days. But I’m fine now, just immediately after the fall I had a big “Goose Egg” which is what we called a “bump on the head” as a child in South Arkansas! 🙂 The goose egg on my head lasted until the next morning and was gone. no more pain after the fall and I was already crazy, so you can’t tell if it affected me that way! 🙂 And I got to add one more waterfall to my collection from this one day trip. (45 sounds better than 44 in my gallery) 🙂 And I will try to work it into the photo book if I can.

When we drove over the bridge over that stream a sign said: “Rio Catarata” which in English would be simply “Waterfall River.” Thus my own name for the falls works for me! 🙂 Pura vida from Goose Egg Falls!

Unnamed Waterfall in San Ramon Canton, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
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Rio Celeste Waterfall

The Rio Celeste Waterfall (a tour company site link) is in the Tenorio Volcano National Park (NP website link) and is one of the more popular waterfalls for tourists because of the unique turquoise water in the river due to minerals from the volcano. It was fun to go to the point in the park where two clear rivers come together and watch the new mixture of water turn blue or turquoise in color. See my 2017 Tenorio NP Visit for photos of the turquoise water which had more color than we had yesterday because it had rained all day the day before, making the water a little muddy. I did not get to see the waterfall in 2017 because the hurricane that came across northern CR destroyed the stairs and trail down to the falls. Note also that the National Park does not allow swimming in this plunge pool, making if better for photographers and nature lovers! 🙂 It is in the Cloud Forest so it gets rain year around.

For the email recipients, please click the MORE button after this photo for not only more waterfall photos but also a pix of my guide and driver plus one of me at these falls.

Rio Celeste Waterfall, Tenorio Volcano National Park, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
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Llanos de Cortés Waterfall

My waterfalls trip finally happened yesterday and here is the first of three we visited plus some other interesting sites that I will be sharing about in the coming days. Yesterday was a wonderful day in many ways and typical of my frequent adventures as a retiree in Costa Rica.

The Llanos de Cortés Waterfall (link to their commercial Facebook Page) which of course is Catarata Llanos de Cortés in Spanish! 🙂 And yes, it is spelled correctly for them and the adjacent community. The other spelling with a “z” instead of the “s” is simply a different family name. 🙂 I’m familiar with having a “different” family name. I’m Doggett not Daggett! 🙂

Llanos de Cortés Waterfall, Bagaces, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.
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Summer Tanager Female

This migrant is appropriately named for Costa Rica since they are always here during our Summer or September to May. The males are uniformly red all over while the females vary from light yellow to a dirty yellow or gold with sometimes brown on the head and wings. Read about the Summer Tanager on eBird or see my Summer Tanager Gallery with photos from other areas of Costa Rica. They breed in North America during the North American Summer then spend Sept-May south from Mexico to northern South America, our summer! 🙂 Thus the name fits both regions during the times there.

Summer Tanager female, Atenas, Costa Rica
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Tropical Kingbird

This morning at breakfast a Tropical Kingbird sat in my Cecropia Tree for a minute or so and here’s a couple of shots:

Tropical Kingbird, Atenas, Costa Rica

You can read about the Tropical Kingbird on eBird, a bird found all over Central & South America. Or see my photos from all over Costa Rica in my CR Tropical Kingbird Gallery. And here’s one more photo from this morning:

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Tiny Update on Park Renovation

I think the 4 maintenance men for the Country Park Department are doing the new construction and that means it will be very slow with other duties. It seems like only another wall built in the last month.

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Nest Surviving Strong Winds

We’ve had strong winds today meaning the Dove nest I introduced the other day is being tested. She has not left the nest for at least 2 days now, implying that she has laid her egg(s). In the wide photo you can tell that the nest, circled in red, is in a palm frond that is partly held secure by the fork of the Cecropia Tree (did the Doves figure that out?) and behind that frond is a row of bamboo palms blocking some of the wind. So the nest might make it, especially if she doesn’t leave it or leave it much when the wind is blowing. I don’t know if the male will bring her food; I haven’t seen him around. I will be pleasantly surprised if this nest continues to survive and we see baby doves! 🙂 Remember that earlier an Inca Dove nest did not survive a palm frond location, but it was more in the open with no shelter or support like this Cecropia Tree fork of limbs. Time will tell.

Nest (circled in red) is on a Palm braced by Cecropia limbs and shielded by ornamental palms. It may survive the winds!
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On the Nest

The nest that was being built yesterday now has the mother sitting on the nest and I don’t know if there are eggs there yet, but she never left it the whole time I was out there watching at breakfast and afterwards. Thus I assume that it is the male still bringing sticks/twigs to the nest in the third photo below. I think it is unfortunate that she chose to build the nest inside the palm frond with the possibilities of high winds through February, but nothing I can do about it. In an earlier year an Inca Dove built a nest in a smaller tree’s palm frond and she lost her eggs, but this one is more protected, so maybe safe. See the linked blog post at bottom, “Mother Dove Abandons Nest in Wind.” You can see it all in nature!

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Nest-building Dove

White-winged Dove, Atenas, Costa Rica

The books say that the male chooses the neighborhood and the female chooses the tree and does most of the building with sticks, so I’m guessing this is the female (they look alike). This one is building in the crotch of a small ornamental palm tree which I hope will be secure during the Jan-Feb winds. Below are 4 photos of this most common and widespread dove in Costa Rica, found from the southern half of the states down through Panama. This one is building a nest in my garden in Roca Verde, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

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