“An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.”
~Martin Buber
And what do you think the following Costa Rica animals are saying with their eyes?
Continue reading “Animal Eyes”Animal Eyes
New Phone APP: Animals of Costa Rica
For my fellow nature-lovers in Costa Rica or ones who travel here frequently, you may want to check this out . . . Animals of Costa Rica
Thanks to the El Silencio Guide (Eco Concierge) Daniel for introducing me to a new source of identifying my wildlife photos. I haven’t used it enough to have a strong opinion yet. The one unknown butterfly I tried to find on it, I couldn’t, so like all my other ID sources, it will not be perfect or totally complete, but it is my first source to have all animals in one place and it has a lot of animal photos & detailed info already which I suspect will expand.
And for the birders, I suspect that Merlin & eBird will stay on top for birds, but I’ve had lots of ID needs on other animals here and that is where I expect it to help me the most. We will see.
It was developed by a naturalist from Austria (like one of my favorite lodges was, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito), so I have high hopes for it! 🙂 You also can use it to keep a record of the species you have seen by just clicking the eye icon when on a species page. I suspect it will continue to be expanded or updated and for now updates are free.
Go to your preferred App Store to find it available at two price levels (all animals or just one order of species like if only interested in insects):
Here’s just one of many pages as all wildlife orders are included . . .
Those who find beauty in all of nature will find themselves at one with the secrets of life itself. —L. Wolfe Gilbert
¡Pura Vida!
And my animals photo galleries are two: BIRDS and then OTHER WILDLIFE.
My Nashville Zoo Photos Posted
As noted earlier, one of the things I’m doing more of during the “lock-down” time is trying get all of my old photos culled through and posted in one place.
One of the biggest collections is from my 10 years of volunteer work at Nashville Zoo and my Nashville Zoo Gallery is now completed. It includes one of my biggest collections of bird photos along with so many other animals and a really large number of people photos which was what the Zoo PR Dept. wanted a lot of. It was a nice re-living of many great memories at Nashville Zoo. And as I go through other photo files I expect to find more of Nashville Zoo, like when friends and family visited, I often took them to the zoo but haven’t gotten to those photos yet! 🙂
And check out the current Nashville Zoo Website – A wonderful zoo!
¡Pura Vida!
Other Wildlife Monteverde
I go for birds and show mostly bird photos, but I love the other animals too and here is my collection from all four reserves and the lodge. Enjoy!
Other Wildlife Monteverde
It takes a true encounter to realise that real animals, wild animals, have all but passed from our lives. ~John Burnside
See also my Other Wildlife Photo Gallery
All my photos & adventures this week made possible by Monteverde Lodge & Gardens
¡Pura Vida!
Manuel Antonio National Park Tour
Yesterday, 23rd, was a full day with tour of the park and the night hike here at hotel wildlife refuge – thus I did not get photos all processed until today, the 24th, the anniversary of me living in Costa Rica four years now.
I think I have said this before in the blog, but I will repeat that Manuel Antonio National Park is the most visited of all 28 or so national parks in Costa Rica and thus generally my least favorite because it is “loved to death” with too many people (think Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the states with the Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge mess). My last time here was in 2015 with Kevin Hunter and the park tour was different in that we saw some different animals and probably had a better guide who grew up in the area. We saw squirrel monkeys then which we did not this time nor the parrot snake I photographed on that visit, but otherwise similar. And this time we went to all three beaches in the park, while only going to the one main beach last time.
And this time there are now more trails and a really nice series of bridges or elevated walkways through the mangrove swamp, handicap accessible with braille signs! Though behind the U.S. in handicap accessibility, Costa Rica is moving fast in that direction!
I go mainly for the wildlife, so that is the main slideshow below, but many people come here for the three different beaches inside the park and pay the $16 admission just to spend the day on one of the beaches, so a shot of each of the three beaches is in the second slideshow. Overall, Manuel Antonio is just too “touristy” for me and I have no desire to return here. The hotel with its own wildlife refuge is nice and I love the views from the hillside, but it too is rather “touristy” and overpriced, so I don’t see myself returning here either. But glad I’ve had all these experiences! The Costa Rica tourists see.
Manuel Antonio Wildlife
Beaches of Manuel Antonio
“Adventure is worthwhile.”
-Aesop
See this TRIP GALLERY 2018 December Si Como No.
More Corcovado Wildlife
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| Jewel bug or Metallic shield bug (Scutelleridae) Los Patos Station, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Central American Spider Monkey Los Patos Station, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Unknown Insect Los Patos Station, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Red-tailed Squirrel Los Patos Station, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Isabella Tiger Butterfly Los Patos Station, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Ant Bridge They create a bridge of ant bodies for others to walk over. Los Patos Station, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Golden Orb Spider Los Patos Station, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
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| Active Termite Nest Los Patos Station, Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica |
I have already done a post of other non-bird animals seen on the Night Hike (better photos!). And of course you can see all of them together in my TRIP Gallery: 2018 March – Danta Corcovado.
¡Pura Vida!
Hiking Corcovado Rainforest Today
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| Rainforest Meets Pacific Ocean Corcovdo National Park, Costa Rica |
A big gourmet breakfast and off by 6:30 by boat to San Pedrillo Ranger Station by boat in the rain through some pretty big swells along the Pacific coast – about 30 minutes and another wet landing in the surf and knee-deep wading to shore. We hiked three trails including part of the beach above seeing an unbelievable number of tree species and other cool plants, many animals and two new birds for me. We also saw a beautiful waterfall that I will show later. Then another rough boat ride back after our sandwich lunch, but no more rain! But it is cloudy and I do expect rain tonight.
I’m already worn out and have another boat trip tomorrow to the little island nearby where we will snorkle the coral reef and maybe see some wildlife on the island. Bumped my head on a low hanging tree limb today that brought a little blood, but I have Neosporin and the salt water tormorrow might help it heal even faster.
About Corcovado National Park (Wikipedia) and About Drake Bay (Wikipedia)
And Aguila de Osa Inn
My TRIPS Photo Gallery on this Drake Bay Trip
See also my Pacific Coast Flora & Forests photo gallery
My TRIPS Photo Gallery on this Drake Bay Trip
See also my Pacific Coast Flora & Forests photo gallery
Other Animals at Sarapiquí
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| Mantled Howler Monkey male Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica |
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| White-nosed Coati Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica |
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| Variegated Squirrel Selva Verde Lodge Sarapiquí, Chilamate, Costa Rica |
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| Black River Turtle Puerto Viejo River, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica |
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| Spectacled Caiman Puerto Viejo River, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica |
See also all my non-bird wildlife photo galleries at OTHER WILDLIFE
And this will be my last post on what I saw in Sarapiquí at Selva Verde Lodge. I highly recommend this lodge and spending at least 3 or 4 nights when you go!
Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo
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| Jaguar Rescue Center is located on the south side of Puerto Viejo, not far from my hotel in Manzanillo. No Jaguars here! It got its name from the first animal the founder actually rescued, a baby Jaguar whose mother had been killed and would have died otherwise. Photo on above entrance sign is of a one-eyed monkey. |
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| Nice Little Cafe and Gift Shop at the entrance, but not as big or as developed as Zoo Ave in La Garita! And you can only visit on a schedule with a tour guide, so get times ahead! On website: Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica |
NOTE: I am not repeating the photos of a Northern Tamandua Anteater and a Red-eyed Tree Frog that were shot here but shown in earlier posts. Click links to see again.
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| Brown Pelican with a broken wing Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica |
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| Unidentified Hawk, similar to Gray and Gray Lined, but those are not in the Caribbean and our group was too large for me to constantly ask the name of animals. Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica |
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| Baby Possums whose mother was killed. They will raise and try to introduce back into the wild. Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica |
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| Groove-billed Ani Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica |
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| Keel-billed Toucan Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica |
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| Hoffman’s Two-toed Sloth Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica |
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| Red-lored Parrot Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica |
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| Spectacled Caiman Jaguar Rescue Center, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica |
To learn more about Jaguar Rescue Center, click link for their website where you can read the history, find out when there are tours and how you can volunteer. It is operated mostly by volunteers!
And for more of my Costa Rica photos, see my gallery: Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA & SCROLL DOWN
Or more specifically my BIRDS PHOTO GALLERY or
My OTHER WILDLIFE PHOTO GALLERY
¡Pura Vida!
Other Animals at Manzanillo
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| Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth Kekoldi Bribri Reserve near Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica Cool! He was at eye-level right along-side the hiking path. Closest I have ever been to one in the wild like this. |
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| Central American Spider Monkey Manzanillo, Costa Rica |
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| Mantled Howler Monkey Manzanillo, Costa Rica |
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| Central American Agouti Manzanillo, Costa Rica |
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| Northern Tamandua Anteater Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica In field outside entrance to Jaguar Rescue Center |
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| Sand Crab Manzanillo, Costa Rica These guys were all along the board walk between my tent & the beach. |
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| Black-mandibled Toucan Manzanillo, Costa Rica Flying over the Ara Project grounds Forgot him on the birds day! 🙂 |
See my galleries of birds, insects and other animals + people/places in my new galleries:
Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA & scroll down for the folders of gallery categories.
PURA VIDA!
TOMORROW I will show you my unique safari tent hotel in Manzanillo and the following day photos of the beautiful beach right outside my tent. And finally, three days of reports on the three institutions I visited while in the South Caribbean: The Ara Project (Green Macaws), Jaguar Rescue Center, and the Kekoldi Bribri Indigenous People Reserve.
I expect to explore the Caribbean every September which is the month this rainforest area of Costa Rica has the least amount of rain and thus less hiking in mud! (Interestingly September is the month the rest of Costa Rica has the most rain.) My favorite spot in the Caribe so far is in the north Caribbean coast, Tortuguero National Park. It is a favorite place to take guests from the states, so I will go there any time of the year and hope to make it there sometime when the turtles are laying their eggs, March-May for Leatherbacks and July-October for Green Turtles. So I will never run out of something to do in the Caribbean of any other part of Costa Rica with so many parks and places I am yet to visit! The adventures continue! What a retirement!