Category: Trees

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El Camino de Costa Rica – New Info

A Hiker Guide

One of my blog readers, Patrick, who is thinking about beginning his retirement in Costa Rica (like I should have!) shared with me the just-released new hiking guide available on hiking coast to coast across Costa Rica. It’s first on his agenda here! Are you interested in such a hike?

Available on Amazon as paperback or Kindle edition: El Camino de Costa Rica Hiker Guide

There’s also a newer video of the trail than the one I showed earlier plus more new info on the website and I found a good “Make the Leap” story I’m also linking! 🙂 . . .

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Empty Nest

It could be either good news or bad news, and I hope good news! I just read that a baby Yigüirro can fly at one week of age (they were older) and are usually independent by three weeks old, thus, even if motivated a little early by the noise and lights of a rock concert Saturday night, I think they flew away and are safe somewhere.

Below is what the nest looks like mid-day Monday from Room 407 and the second photo what it looked like mid-day Friday from the same Room 407. The concert was Saturday night with the band only 30 meters away. so if the birds were still there then, the band could certainly have been their motivation to “grow up” and fly away. 🙂 I hope so! We will probably never know. But still glad I left my “nest” before the concert! Or I might have tried to fly away too. 🙂

Empty Nest Monday Mid-day
Full Nest Friday Mid-day

Other Birds at Best Western San Jose

¡Pura Vida!

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Take an Urban Walk with Me

These are some of the houses and businesses that are along my 650 meter walk every day from the hotel to Radioterapia Siglo XXI clinic for my radiation treatments. Bear in mind that in the early days this neighborhood, called Uruca, was a “suburb” of downtown San Jose, a 10+ minute drive away now.

A mostly residential walk.

As in most urban development, some residential slowly turns to business and this neighborhood is no exception. I thought some readers would enjoy seeing what urban houses in this part of Latin America look like today. As a point of comparison, note that Costa Rica tends to be more modern and less traditional than Latin countries like Guatemala and Mexico. On this walk there is only one old house that would be considered “Spanish Colonial” with the tile roof and high compound wall. I think the neighborhood is interesting, but to help you not be bored, it’s a fast-moving slide show 🙂

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Are they Growing?

My last photo this week of the baby Yigüirros and Mom. I’ll check again tomorrow when I return, but they should be growing fast since all the mother does is bring them food all day! 🙂 I’m enjoying this opportunity to watch a nest which doesn’t happen real often.

Mother & Baby Yigüirros, Best Western Hotel, San Jose, Costa Rica

See more birds in my gallery, Best Western San Jose BIRDS

¡Pura Vida!

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Blue-gray Tanager

The Blue-gray Tanager (eBird Link) is another bird I’ve seen here in San Jose, first on the other side of “the big tree” or Indian Laurel, thus not good photos with the distance and then later a little closer but with bad light. He is a common bird we see frequently all over Costa Rica and is found only in Central America and Northern South America. I have a lot of much better photos in my Blue-gray Tanager Gallery from all over Costa Rica! 🙂

Blue-gray Tanager, San Jose, Costa Rica
Blue-gray Tanager, San Jose, Costa Rica

And more photos . . .

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Crimson-fronted Parakeet

Yes, they look like parrots and are as big as some parrots, but are officially parakeets. We have this Crimson-fronted Parakeet (eBird link) and an orange-chinned one in Atenas and I have photos of them at my house and on a nearby country road, but they are usually higher up the hills and always in the tops of the trees, generally in flocks. Very difficult to photograph. See my other photos in my Crimson-fronted Parakeet Gallery.

Here they are in the top of the hotel’s big tree and even from the 4th floor they are hard to photograph as they come through just before sunset in poor light, snacking on the berries before going uphill to their night roosting tree. A colorful addition to this colorful garden!

Crimson-fronted Parakeet, San Jose, Costa Rica

And more photos . . .

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My World From Above This Week

When I checked in the hotel yesterday I was kind of hoping they would put me in the same Room 109 again because I really liked it last week. But I was assigned 407 which is 4 floors above and one room left of last week’s room. Wow! I like it better!

I like looking at the world from above and these photos show that difference, but also I am closer to the top of the big tree where more birds hang out, like parrots! And yes, the first afternoon I got some or one, but that will be another post, maybe tomorrow! And look below at how much better the mother bird and babies show up from above! ¡Pura Vida! 🙂

From my room & balcony, 407.

See the mother bird with babies from above in more photos . . .

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Woodpecker Helps ID Tree

Though I was planning to ask the gardener at the hotel Monday after I arrive, I’m satisfied that I have now identified “the big tree” at Best Western San Jose. First, my driver Walter told me that he was pretty sure it is a “Laurel de la India” tree (“Indian Laurel” in English), I decided to research it online. One of the sites had a photo of its seasonal yellow berries and I said to myself, “That is it!” I then checked my photos of a female Hoffman’s Woodpecker (eBird link) and sure enough, the same berries and leaves in both photos. Tree positively identified! 🙂

Female Hoffman’s Woodpecker in the Indian Laurel Tree

In this age of the internet, I again find that different websites have different information on this Indian Laurel Tree, also called a Ficus microcarpa on some websites, but if you look up the Spanish name, Laurel de la India, they call it a Ficus benjamina which would be Benjamin Ficus in English or a first cousin to the other Ficus, but still a little confusing. 🙂

Laurel de la India or Indian Laurel — Ficus microcarpa or Ficus benjamina.

And, if you are really into trees, see my Costa Rica Trees photo gallery.

See more birds in my gallery, Best Western San Jose BIRDS

¡Pura Vida!

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This Dove is all over the garden . . .

Just as common as the Yigüirro ( CR national bird) I showed yesterday from the San Jose Best Western Garden, is this White-winged Dove (eBird link). He/she (male/female identical) seem to be in every part of the garden and maybe fly around more than most of the other birds. And yes, he is common in my garden in Atenas also, but now I’m focusing on birds seen in San Jose! 🙂 Though posting this from Atenas over the weekend.

White-winged Dove in the big tree

And three more dove photos . . .

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Nest of Baby Yigüirros

I knew when I saw that huge tree outside my room that I would have a good chance of seeing birds even though it was windy much of this first week, but finding a nest of baby birds is always an extra treat. First I saw this Yigüirro (local Spanish name) or Clay-colored Thrush (English name) flying into the joint of a sawed-off limb on the tree. After further examination through my telephoto camera lens, and several shots of only the mother sitting on the nest, I managed to get a few shots of the babies’ open mouths and then watch the mother regularly return with food for them. Fun. I’ve asked the hotel to keep me in a room by the tree next week and beyond so I can continue to watch this little family grow. 🙂

Mother Yigüirro feeding her babies.
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