charliedoggett.net
Yesterday’s blog post was my 12 favorite photos of 2024, allowing myself only 2 pix for each of 6 categories. The Birds Category was the most difficult to narrow down, choosing a Toucan and a pair of Green Ibis. Here are the other 9 bird photos that made my next-to-last cut, presented in a static gallery below this one photo for the email notice of the post . . .
As every year on New Year’s Eve, I am trying my best to narrow down my favorite photos to just 12 – pretty much impossible! 🙂 But I always do it anyway and never by the months. This year I created 6 categories of photos and chose 2 pix in each. As usual, the birds category was the most difficult to narrow down, so tomorrow I am publishing another post with the 9 runner ups in the bird category. 🙂
The Categories this year are: 1) Birds, 2) Butterflies, 3) Other Insects, 4) Other Wildlife, 5) Flowers, 6) Landscapes. And the ones labeled from “Atenas” are all from my garden except the vista from Casita del Café.
My twelve choices for 2024 will be below this one photo for the email version. They are a slideshow in the online version, so email recipients please click “Read More” below for 12 great photos! 🙂
Click this image of the first page or go directly to this web address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2024-December-24-26-Xandari-Resort-Tacacori-Alajuela
Yes, Xandari is expensive, but it is worth it for me as I think the photos tell. Enjoy my “Nature as Art” photos that are different each time I visit there.
¡Pura Vida!
This Yellow-patched Satyr or Starred Oxeo, Oxeoschistus tauropolis (my gallery link) is not one often reported on the scientific websites, and though I’ve seen it three times now, it was always in the same place! 🙂 This one on Christmas Day 2024, again at Xandari Resort which has always been one of my better butterfly locations.
¡Pura Vida!
Yes, on Christmas Eve, in the tree by my terrace at Xandari, I photographed another new species for me! This Philadelphia Vireo, Vireo philadelphicus (linked to eBird) was identified by the Merlin app from eBird and is probably a non-breeding immigrant from Canada who passed through Philadelphia on his/her way to Costa Rica. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Other Vireos, for you birders reading, that I’ve collected in Costa Rica linked to my photo galleries of each:
The Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Amazilia tzacatl (linked to eBird) is a Central American bird overlapping only into the northern edges of South America and found literally all over Costa Rica as can be seen in my GALLERY, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird. It has long been the dominant hummingbird in my garden, often chasing off other species, though now I am seeing just as many or more of the Blue-vented Hummingbird. Here’s two shots of this species in my garden recently, the first a juvenile or immature adult (smaller) and the second a mature adult . . .
Colorful in both design and colors, this longtail skipper is anything but dull! See more in my GALLERY: Spot-banded Longtail. And here’s three shots from the other day . . .
I remember seeing this bird on my first trip to Costa Rica back in 2009, down on the southern end of Osa Peninsula near Corcovado NP at Lookout Inn, Carata. He’s a handsome bird without the extravagant colors of many tropical birds. And now he’s a regular in my garden! 🙂 See more photos in my gallery for the Tropical Kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus from literally all over Costa Rica and that first I saw is at the bottom of the gallery. 🙂
Is another one that seems mis-named with no obvious yellow, though one that I found online did have a golden yellowish hue. 🙂 It seems to be a rare or seldom-seen butterfly with only one other reported on iNaturalist CR and me being the only one on butterfliesandmoths dot org, with three sightings now. 🙂 I’m basing my identification mainly on those two sets of 3 white dots on the wings. I guess most people just see it as another one of the many brown skippers! 🙂
. . . is still my #2 hummingbird but could takeover my gardens as #1 with seemingly only one Rufous-tailed Hummingbird active now that I quit using the feeders. (I keep debating with myself over using feeders or not.)
See more of my photos of this colorful bird in my Blue-vented Hummingbird Gallery. I’ve photographed this one in only two places, here in Atenas (2 locations) and once at Xandari Resort in Alajuela.
¡Pura Vida!