Damas Island Estuary, Quepos
This morning I got to go on a boat trip through the mangroves and thus saw lots of birds! Though mostly water birds, I did get one new species there that is not a water bird, it is the Common Pauraque (a type of Nightjar bird) which is pictured above. Here’s all the ones I got photos of:
BIRDS at Damas Island Estuary
River Scenes
Lizards
A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Birds at Hotel & Park
That’s a Fiery-billed Aracari in above feature photo which is the rarest bird yet for me here, shot from the deck of my room. I’m doing this as a separate birds post from what I will see tomorrow on:
Damas Island Estuary Boat Trip
Discover the complex estuary system of Damas Island. From your covered boat, you’ll wind you way through coastal mangroves for up-close looks at the abundant wildlife, including a variety of sea birds and tropical birds, reptiles, and monkeys. ~from the hotel website Tours descriptions
Note, that even with their own “Wildlife Refuge” at this hotel, I have seen fewer birds here than most of the lodges I visit and in this national park the only bird photo I got was of the stationary Hermit Hummingbird nest. I did see a Kingfisher and Woodrail on the hotel night hike but no photos. I expect my most bird photos tomorrow in the mangroves.
Si Como No Birds:
Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.
~Douglas Coupland
I have started my TRIP Gallery for this 2018 December Si Como No trip.
Christmas Morning Visitor
Before going to breakfast, I step out on my deck and catch this toucan in a nearby tree.
A Costa Rica Merry Christmas! or ¡Feliz Navidad!
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Good Night from a Seaside Rainforest
The sunsets from my room are worth every penny of the trip here! Every night is absolutely beautiful!
“Harry looked down and saw deep green mountains and lakes, coppery in the sunset.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Yes, just a cellphone camera, as with all of my sunset shots.
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
Website/Gallery Adds
For anyone interested in improved details, that is what I have been doing for a couple of weeks and for my stay-home day today:
BIRD GALLERIES
In all of the BIRD galleries (1 for each country) I have now arranged the birds by families in the order found in that country’s field guide, which is a big improvement for serious birders! In the case of a couple of countries that I had no good guidebook for, I used the “official” list for that country on Wikipedia which is arranged by families like the field guides.- Folder with multiple galleries — And in Costa Rica and eventually in other countries with a lot of birds, that gallery becomes a “folder” with a sub-gallery for each bird, giving you multiple photos or different views of that species, male & female, front & back, and often with activity like eating, flying. This is particularly important for my Costa Rica birds now that I have 294 species which is too many photos for one gallery! Yet I see the need for multiple shots of many birds.
- And I realize that most people don’t really care about this, but a few might and it is more helpful to me. 🙂
TRAVEL PAGES & GALLERIES – MEXICO ADDED
I announced earlier that I was starting my website TRAVEL pages with AFRICA as the first section and thus a new Pre-Costa Rica TRAVELS Photo Gallery inside my big gallery as I start to move all my old photos from Pbase.com to this new gallery on Smugmug.com. All of my photos from multiple trips to 4 African countries are in the gallery and I will soon be adding more stories beyond the one already online about Gambia. The beginning pages (with links to photo galleries):
- For some reason I chose MEXICO to be second and I now have all my photos from 6 different trips to Mexico in the Pre-Costa Rica TRAVELS Photo Gallery. Like my Costa Rica TRIPS gallery they are arranged chronologically with most recent trips on top. That means that Africa & Mexico trips and soon many others will be mixed together as they are arranged by dates. But to focus on one country, go to my TRAVEL Page and in this case the MEXICO sub-page where eventually there will be links to lots of stories along with the links to photos. Or to go to the photos of a specific Mexico trip now, click below:
This is just the beginning of how I will share photos and stories about my exciting life BEFORE COSTA RICA! More is coming – It’s a Wonderful Life! 🙂 And as I finish writing I hear from across my little valley a children’s choir singing beautiful Christmas music in Spanish. What a delight! 🙂
Merry Christmas!
¡Feliz Navidad!
Pancakes at the Cathedral
I had a package to pick up at Aeropost Alajuela Saturday morning, so I went early before they opened and had pancakes and sausage with coffee at the shiny new (remodeled) McDonalds Restaurant across from Central Park Alajuela. They’ve always had an upstairs with a balcony overlooking the park, just new and nicer now! Sorry I didn’t photograph their new modern furniture and white tile floors and walls, but nice.
Yes, the photo above was shot through large hole screen wire which is necessary to keep the park’s pigeons off your table and food! And remember, with perfect weather here, we need no air conditioning or heat, thus it is an open air restaurant like almost all here. It is very pleasant to me to eat a breakfast outside (as I always do at home) and here I enjoy watching Our Lady of the Pillar Cathedral also called Alajuela Cathedral and watching people in the park. It helps make my 45 minute free bus ride to Alajuela worth the time, plus I picked up my newest travel photo book on Rancho Humo. And read the Washington Post on the bus!
I was back home before 11 and had a quiet rest-of-the-day at home adding photos of Africa to my gallery and website. I introduced those new web pages yesterday. I enjoy life here!
¡Pura Vida!
Rio Tempisque
My last full day at Rancho Humo was the only thing I have done once before here, a boat trip down the Tempisque River looking for birds. It is the 2nd largest river in Costa Rica and has a great bridge over it near the mouth where it enters the huge Gulf of Nicoya, called “Puente La Amistad de Taiwán,” (Taiwan Friendship Bridge). It was a gift from the Taiwanese government and saves hours when driving from Guanacaste to the San Jose area. We of course drove over it on our trips to and from Rancho Humo. A beautiful bridge!
Back in 2016 when my friend John from Franklin, TN came looking for investment property, we went to Flamingo Beach and the general Tamarindo area looking and he pampered me with the treat of a day trip from Flamingo Beach to Rio Tempisque for a similar float trip. See the 2016 post on that boat trip, some of the same birds then with 3 then I did not get this time, but I got more total this time with 10 not seen in 2016, including a Zone-tailed Hawk, a “Lifer” for me. 🙂 Here’s slideshows on this year’s visit, both birds & other animals:
BIRDS on Tempisque River 14 November 2018
Randomly presently
Other Animals on Tempisque River 14 November 2018
¡Pura Vida!
And note that my transportation for this trip was provided by Walter’s Taxis and Tours. Click his logo in the right column for more information. Great service!
Next Adventure Starts Saturday
Saturday morning I leave early for a 3 hour drive to the dry tropical forests of Northwest Costa Rica or the Provincia de Guanacaste. But since water is necessary for life (including birds) I’m going to a park with a grand river running through it, Rio Tempisque (Wikipedia) in Palo Verde National Park (Facebook) while staying just outside the park in Rancho Humo Estancia. In addition to the boat and jeep tours this hotel offers, I hope to also visit the Palo Verde Biological Station in the heart of the park for birds, though not staying there. And being in November, the last month of rainy season, it won’t be dry there at this time.
And my main birding goal? It is to get a photo of a Jabiru Stork, the largest stork in the world. And an island in this river is considered their main nesting spot, so maybe I will see one or more even though I just learned that they don’t nest until April, which means I may have to return in April-May? 🙂
This trip will be quite a bit different from my rainforest visit last month!
On this linked google map the Palo Verde is left center and Atenas (my home) lower right side: https://goo.gl/maps/zjweRutu3Pv
Or here is location (Red X) on a Costa Rica Relief Map:
¡Pura Vida!
I Pray for America Today
And more specifically I pray that a huge majority of you will vote in opposition to the lying, hateful, racism that is destroying what used to be a great country. Your future as a country and your place in the world is at stake tomorrow.
When you lie down among the sheepfolds, You are like the wings of a dove covered with silver, And its pinions with glistening gold. ~Psalm 68:13
WWJD
Photo is of a Homing Pigeon in Alajuela this week. Beautiful and with a better map memory than humans. It’s the closest bird photo I have to a dove with glistening silver and gold! 🙂
POST SCRIPT: Based on the response to this post by my friend Leo (below) I am going to try to leave politics out of this blog in the future and just talk about my retirement in Costa Rica, the purpose of the blog. I apologize to anyone I offended and will try to keep this blog about my retirement here in Costa Rica. I’ll save politics for Facebook, though I don’t use it as much now.