Finally I have all my photos for the 5 nights in April 2023 at Maquenque Eco Lodge and Reserve including the sub-galleries I’ve already shared. This was another great photo trip to one of my favorite places in Costa Rica with photos of 62 bird species (6 lifers!), 10 butterflies and more than 30 species of other animals! Plus my usual “Nature as Art” photos of everything from flowers to weird leaves and beautiful landscapes. Just this one trip gallery will show you why I am so excited about being “Retired in Costa Rica!”the name of my blog and website. Enjoy the photos! Just click this image:
CLICK this image of this first page of the gallery to go to it.
I have finally finished sorting and processing all my bird photos from the April 9-14 trip to Maquenque Ecolodge on San Carlos River at Boca Tapada. You can see the 62 species of birds I photographed this trip including 6 Lifers! (That’s 6 birds seen for the first time in my life!) Go to this address or just click the gallery image below and that link will take you there:
Maquenque 2023 BIRDS Gallery — CLICK image to open.
Note that only the birds gallery and one other is done in what will eventually be a larger “Trip Gallery” with other sub-galleries not completed yet. As usual, it was another “photo-rich” trip! 🙂
Because I found 2 more “lifers” since the earlier lifers post, I will include photos of all 6 lifers below. None are spectacular but they represent 6 more in my Costa Rica Birds GALLERY of 365 total species of birds photographed here so far!
Here’s either 4 or 5 species of Tanagers I photographed at Maquenque Ecolodge and the reason for the uncertainty is that one photo is of a baby or young juvenile and one can’t be certain of the species unless with its mom. 🙂 Many different baby Tanagers will look like this . . .
Here’s the baby first and I would guess either Blue-gray or Palm Tanager which adults outnumbered the other Tanagers. But face is similar to the Yellow-winged, so not certain! 🙂
It is possible to photograph more than 4 there, but this is not bad for one lodge and two are pretty good photos, if I do say so myself. 🙂 The other two aren’t high quality, but then birds aren’t required to pose and the Crimson-fronted did everything in that tree except pose! 🙂 And until there are more grown, fruiting Almond Trees, those Green Macaws are going to keep flying over! 🙂 But anyway, here’s my record of seeing 4 different kinds of parrots at Maquenque recently . . .
Orange-chinned Parakeet, Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica
I’ve seen the Masked Tityra in 8 places all over Costa Rica but not the Black-crowned Tityra, just 2 locations, Maquenque and here in Atenas. 🙂 Maquenque Ecolodge has both of them! (As we do in Atenas!) 🙂 Here’s one pix each and a link to my two Tityra galleries for more photos if you like. 🙂
Black-crowned Tityra male, Maquenque Ecolodge & Reserve, Boca Tapada, Costa RicaMasked Tityra male, Maquenque Ecolodge & Reserve, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica – With an insect he just caught!
Note that both species nest in the hollow of a dead tree, usually in a former Woodpecker hole! 🙂
See more photos of both types of Tityra in my GALLERIES:
My 4th time at Maquenque Ecolodge, but first time to go on this particular float trip (their web description link) though I’ve canoed their lake and been on the bigger river, San Carlos, in a larger boat. The only reason I’ve missed this one is that they require a minimum of 2 paying customers and I travel solo! 🙂 This was the first time there were other guests interested in this same float trip to make up the minimum with me. They were a lovely couple from Europe, he Italian and she Swiss! We had a great time together and I got a lot of photos which is right now the only part of my Maquenque Trip Gallery that is completed. So you can see more photos at Rio Tres Amigos Safari GALLERY. 🙂
And note that the only wildlife (The cow doesn’t count!) that I show in this post is one bird, but it’s a rare photo of a female Sunbittern sitting on her nest! In earlier blog posts I’ve shown you 3 animals from this safari: Crested Caracara, Green Iguana and Mantled Howler Monkey, yet there are still many more in the above gallery including 12 species of birds! 🙂 And here are 6 shots to give you an idea of what just one morning at Maquenque can be like! 🙂 Still my favorite lodge!
A fresh fruit & water break along the Rio Tres Amigos, Costa Rica.
I photographed this beautiful bird along the road on our way to Rio Tres Amigos for our floating safari. The guides and drivers are all so good about stopping when a significant bird is seen. I would not have photographed this bird had we not stopped the van. The map on eBird shows this falcon type bird throughout the Americas, but more so in Central and South america.
Crested Caracara, near Rio Tres Amigos, San Carlos Canton, Alajuela, Costa Rica.Crested Caracara, near Rio Tres Amigos, San Carlos Canton, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
I was originally planning to do my post on Rio Tres Amigos today, but simply have too many photo of too many things to have them ready by today, plus this is a very full week with two medical appointments and tourist friends from the states stopping by! 🙂 So I may stick to individual birds, etc. for most of this week. But that Rio Tres Amigos was a great half-day trip that is going to make a super gallery when finished!
WARNING! The photos in this post are graphic and could be considered gross, especially if you are a lizard or have close friends who are lizards! 🙂
I was waiting for my driver from Atenas to arrive at Maquenque for lunch and our return trip home when one of the lodge staff come running in, excitedly telling me that there was a Toucan in a tree in front of the restaurant eating a lizard. Of course I grabbed my camera and ran out for some photos which were difficult because of the poor light in the tree at almost 12 noon! But here’s 5 shots of the Yellow-throated Toucan with his captured lizard and the final shot of another toucan either stealing lizard meat from him or having it shared. I could not tell which. 🙂
Yellow-throated Toucan eating a lizard for lunch at Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica.
. . . at drastically different stages of development! 🙂 And so I guess all the eggs don’t hatch at the same time?! Four of us humans walked up to the nest where the mother was sitting and she just flew off! Hopefully to get food for that gaping mouth! 🙂
This is the nest of a Scarlet-rumped Tanager at Maquenque Ecolodge the other day. This is a nesting & hatching time for some near the end of the Dry Season These babies will grow up in the Rainy Season!
Baby Scarlet-rumped Tanager & Sibling still in the shell, Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica.
The only way we are going to save the earth for future generation is by “rewilding” or creating “new” old growth forests of about 50% of the globe by planting more trees. Yesterday I did one tiny part of that by planting an Almond Tree here at Maquenque, where they hope to reintroduce the endangered Green Macaws that eat mostly almonds! And soon they will add nesting boxes to replace the big old trees with nesting holes, one of several reasons they are endangered. It will be a few years before my little baby Almond Tree will feed Macaws, but we have to plan for the future! And that is symbolized by Vicky’s (lodge manager’s) children standing with me in the second photo.
Plus Maquenque does have a few grown Almond Trees here already, “los almendros.” But very few macaws on the ground now, mostly flying overhead as in the third photo below. Plus, since they are located north-central, close to the continental divide, they can have both Green Macaws (Caribbean Slope which they are on) and some Scarlet Macaws (from the Pacific Slope). The Scarlets evidently fly over the Continental Divide which is not high mountains here in the lowlands. Scarlet Macaws are not as endangered as the green but are near-endangered because of habitat loss.
Charlie Doggett with the baby Almond Tree he helped plant at Maquenque Ecolodge & Reserve, Boca Tapada, Costa Rica, April 13, 2023.
