I’m trying to be more patient, just sitting on the terrace long enough to see something like this hairstreak land on one of my flowers for maybe 20 seconds, meaning that one then has to be quick to snap a photo! 🙂 This one is not a stranger to my garden as you can see in the gallery: Ziba Scrub-Hairstreak, Strymon ziba. The former English common name was “Red-spotted Scrub-Hairstreak” and the Spanish common name still is. I guess some committee somewhere makes all these name changes for both birds and butterflies.
And, with it still being quite windy, I’m forced to be patient and wait for one to show up in the lulls of the wind. And the same patience is needed for an interesting bird to land in a tree too, as they eventually will, even on windy days. 🙂
Ziba Scrub-Hairstreak, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
I hate to admit that I succumbed to an advertisement on Facebook for an online class titled “Photography & Mindfulness.” But I did! 🙂 I have now gone through the first 2 of 10 classes which we do on our own time but are rationed out at 2 per week. In short, the first class left me very disappointed and sorry I paid money for it, but lesson 2 was much better and I have hope that it will get better and give me some more inspiration during this time of fewer birds and butterflies! 🙂 And even though the rainy season has started early this year, the wind is still blowing too much, though at least less than the previous 4 months. The weather is still blamed on the stronger than usual El Niño this year. Sooooo . . .
I followed their suggestion of starting a paper notebook of my notes, etc. on the class but by the second class decided I preferred typing than writing and by doing it online, I can include photos and links, thus my class notes are pages on my website under the ABOUT Page titled Photographer. The subpage there is Photography & Mindfulness under which there will eventually be 10 pages for the 10 lessons that Andaña calls “Pauses.” I was a little negative in my notes on Pause 1 as the class was not what I was expecting, but after Pause 2, I’m more positive. You can check out what you want to and I will do a post on each of the lessons, linking to the more detailed notes in the online pages.
It appears that each lesson will feature a photographer that I will link to plus so far she has included a music video with each of the lessons that I can also share on my reports. For example, Pause 2 has this video:
¡Pura Vida!
The featured photo is a Physalis or “Chinese Lantern” growing wild in a neighbor’s yard until he “cleaned up” the yard, cutting down such weeds. 🙂 Wildness sometimes has unique beauties that a cultivated garden will never have! Maybe that is “mindfulness” of wildness! 🙂 I miss that wild flower near me!
My first sighting of one of these, on my bathroom wall yesterday. There are more species of moths than butterflies, but most are nocturnal, thus I see fewer.
Leopard Moth, Hypercompe caudata, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
¡Pura Vida!
This moth is in the Erebidae Family of moths, the family from which I’ve seen my most moths. See the gallery (linked above) to see some of the others in this moth family.
Rainy Season has definitely started, with rain every afternoon now, BUT it is still windy! Meaning that there are still not as many birds or butterflies as usual. But I did find this anole on my terrace the other day, and fairly confident of the identification of Copper Anole, Anolis cupreus (my gallery link).
ThisBanded Peacock (my gallery link) was back in my garden yesterday for the first time in a while. I’ve also seen a couple of species of Sulphurs and the Yellow that flies around high up in the trees. But the only regular continues to be the Polydamas Swallowtail which seems to handle the wind easier than the other. The wind is lessening some now, but there is still wind and those gusts which are difficult for butterflies. I’m trying to be patient. 🙂 And oh yes, another big rain yesterday afternoon! So maybe the rainy season has started early this year! 🙂
Banded Peacock on a Lantana flower (Lantana camara ), Atenas, Alajuela
¡Pura Vida!
And I hope that any readers who live in Residential Roca Verde will check out my new photo book: Roca Verde Butterflies with 180 species photographed in Roca Verde. Click that link for a free preview of every page! Roca Verde seems to be a significant haven for butterflies! Including a couple of species rarely seen according to iNaturalist.
🙂
CLICK the above book cover for a free preview of all pages.
Looks over the grass (where they feed) from a neighbor’s fence. See more of this interesting bird in my Yellow-faced Grassquit Gallery. They are plentiful in the cow pasture across the street. Grass seeds are their favorite food.
Yellow-faced Grassquit, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
And that would be “cuidando las macetas” in Spanish! The motivation for this little job was the large flower pot of potted palms at the entrance of my terrace had grown so much (in maybe 10 years) that the growing roots broke the terracotta pot. I had the gardeners plant those palms along the southside palm row for a thicker screen from the street and bought a new smaller pot with smaller palms to still visually separate my outdoor dining table from the driveway to the top of the hill. And while at the Vivero (plant nursery) I got two small red anthuriums for the old white pot that has seen many different flower over about 9 years and the one in it last week had become ugly!
Next project is to paint the Frog Pot and two other terracotta pots, after sanding. Always something that needs to be done! 🙂
Entering the terrace from the driveway, the potted palms sort of shield the dining table, even this smaller bunch of palms.Continue reading “Minding the Flowerpots”
Some Americans here probably still call it “Torch Ginger,” the common English name, but I’ve always preferred the Costa Rican Spanish name of El Bastón del Emperador. And since I started walking with a Trekking Pole, most Costa Ricans call it my “Bastón!” 🙂
I noticed the other day, within sight of my terrace, 3 different stages of the ginger flower: bud, baby flower and mature flower. So here the are in that order . . .
On many days it seemed that these were the only butterflies that could manage in the wind, and many had broken or damaged wings. See more of this most frequent Swallowtail for my garden in the gallery: Polydamas Swallowtail. It now looks like it will be mid to late May before the winds slow down enough to allow for more butterflies.
Polydamas Swallowtail, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa RicaPolydamas Swallowtail, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
