The day for all of us to count birds where we are to help science better determine the stability of our fragile planet. Today, 9 May 2020 is GLOBAL BIG DAY of counting birds.
Help create a better picture of the total health of our globe by counting bird species in your yard or neighborhood THIS SATURDAY, 9 MAY 2020. Simply count the birds you see any time that day and report them to eBird. To learn more or get a free eBird account, go to:
Hogar de Vida (Home of Life), a Christian children’s home for abused and orphaned young children here in Atenas gains much of its budget each year from the visit of “mission teams” who pay to come work with and for the children year around with most coming during the northern summer months (now). The Coronavirus has stopped all team visits this year through at least August with the borders closed and groups afraid to travel, thus there is a financial emergency at both the home here in Atenas, Costa Rica and the similar home in Guatemala. Go to this link and consider giving online to help the children here in Costa Rica or the ones in Guatemala if you choose:
My gardeners made a special trip over today with three new plants to freshen up three pots, two outside and one inside. I may show them later, but after completing the job they gifted me with a bunch of bananas (probably from one of the yards they service) and I had just bought some yesterday! So – extra bananas!
I keep them in the frig because earlier I had bats eating my bananas in a fruit bowl on the counter, so they will keep – but I still need to eat them more frequently this week. Thus I had a banana split after my spaghetti dinner tonight! Small dips of different kinds of ice cream: Fig, Rum-Raisin, and Chocolate Mint with chocolate syrup and two cherries on top! Betcha you never had that combination! Pretty good! 🙂
Yeah, in Central American Banana Republics we eat a lot of those! 🙂
Thanks to my friend Larry for catching this fine AP News Article: Bird-watching soars amid COVID-19 as Americans head outdoorsRead the article linked to see what people all over the U.S. are doing more of now, then head over to eBird or just use your phone to download the free app Merlin to identify birds and start your “bird collection” online or in a photo gallery. My world-wide (10 countries) ebird count is over 530 now! 🙂 Thank you Larry for this great way to relieve one’s boredom from quarantine! And feel free to peruse my BIRDS photo collection that include 76+ species I photographed in the States before moving to Costa Rica.
Now, this quote from the article:
“The birds don’t know that there’s a pandemic. They’re migrating, building nests and laying eggs, just like they always have,” ~Michael Kopack Jr.
One week from today, May 9, is GLOBAL BIG DAY for bird counting all around the globe. Click that link to see how you can participate from your home while in quarantine. It is easy to get a free eBird account then record the number and species of birds you see or it can be done through the Audubon Society.
If you have trouble identifying birds in your yard and don’t have a field guide to help (or even with it) download the free phone app called Merlin that will help you identify your bird. It is fun and free and can be done from anywhere in the world, even from inside your house looking out a window. Try participating in GLOBAL BIG DAY of bird counting wherever you are next Saturday, May 9. Get ready now.
On this cloudy morning I walk up the hill above my house and back at less than an hour with these colorful photos even without sunshine. Nature is everywhere and my favorite way to celebrate “May Day” or May 1.
May, more than any other month of the year, wants us to feel most alive.
~Fennel Hudson
May Day Birds
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May Day Flowers
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May Day Vistas
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I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.
Okay, yesterday I compared waterfalls so today as I finished my last gallery in the Pre-Costa Rica TENNESSEE Photos gallery, I must do the same with wildflowers. The last gallery for the state of Tennessee is simply Tennessee WILDFLOWERS and again I tried to pick just one photo from each of about 150 species of wildflowers for this gallery with more variety or multiple images in the location galleries where they first appear. The wildflowers were another of the many elements of nature that I enjoyed during my 37 years in Tennessee with an amazing variety!
Tennessee Coneflower — Growing across from my Nashville row house in the Bicentennial Capital Mall State Park where I spent many hours with nature.
And the featured photo at top is on a huge Magnolia tree in the same park near my house. The beauty of nature is everywhere!
-o-
Similarly I have enjoyed the beautiful tropical wildflowers (most of my garden is wildflowers). See my Costa Rica through regional flower galleries in my big gallery of flowers I call FLORA & FOREST Costa Rica. Click and enjoy! I’ve only been here 5 and a half years, but spend most of my time with nature now! Just one of the many reasons I love being Retired in Costa Rica!
Growing in a ditch along my street uphill from my house. Pura vida!
“Do you know why wildflowers are the most beautiful blossoms of all, my son?”
Dain shook his little head.
Soft waxen curls blew forward in the breeze as she lifted her storm-gray eyes to gaze out over the sea of petals. “Wildflowers are the loveliest of all because they grow in uncultivated soil, in those hard, rugged places where no one expects them to flourish. They are resilient in ways a garden bloom could never be. People are the same, son—the most exquisite souls are those who survive where others cannot. They root themselves, along with their companions, wherever they are, and they thrive.”
One of my nature loves in both Tennessee and Costa Rica is waterfalls (somewhere just after birds and butterflies!) 🙂 And as I have been updating my photo galleries with a new “Pre-Costa Rica TENNESSEE Photos” gallery I have loaded my photos of all 54 Tennessee state parks plus state natural areas and a few separate independent waterfalls with multiple shots of each waterfall. To bring them all together I created a Tennessee WATERFALLS gallery with just one shot of each of 36 waterfalls I photographed in that state with more shots of each falls in the place galleries.
Nauyaca Falls, Costa Rica
And you may already be aware of my Costa Rica WATERFALLS gallery with shots of 38 waterfalls I’ve photographed here over the first five+ years. In some ways tropical waterfalls are different but in even more ways they are similar, being in the mountains with usually uphill trails to the falls and then downhill trails to the plunge pools. I guess the type of plants and animals around the falls are the biggest differences. I love waterfalls everywhere and when back to traveling again, Walter is going to take me north of Atenas to some places where I can photograph about 5 more waterfalls. So the gallery will continue to grow! Enjoy! ¡Disfruta!
And oh yes, the featured image is Greeter Falls in the South Cumberland State Park, Tennessee.
Costa Rica will begin easing some coronavirus measures starting May 1, President Carlos Alvarado and Health Minister Daniel Salas announced Monday afternoon. Theaters, gyms and athletic centers — which have been closed since March 18 — will be permitted to reopen during the week. But some of the country’s most impactful restrictions, including a ban on arriving tourists, will continue.
~Tico Times
Read these linked articles in English on the Tico Times website:
