Tag: Atenas

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Ruddy Daggerwing

This is only my second time to see one of these interesting butterflies, and the whole time he was in my garden, he stayed partially hidden behind leaves. The other time was just a half block outside the Roca Verde gate in Boquerón Barrio on 8th Avenue. You can see both sightings in my Ruddy Daggerwing Gallery. This one of several daggerwings is unique because he is orange on top like many other daggerwings, but his underside is “ruddy” (see my feature photo) or sometimes much like a dead leaf and the point of the upper wing is very falcate (hooked) like no other daggerwing. He is found from Brazil north through Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies to southern Florida. Here’s 3 of my several photos . . .

Ruddy Daggerwing, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Tropical Milkweed for Butterflies

Yes, there are at least two types of Milkweed, the one in the U.S. that most everyone knows as necessary for the survival of Monarchs, simply called Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca (Wikipedia link) or often called “Common Milkweed.” It must go dormant in the winter months. While the Tropical Milkweed, Asclepias curassavica (Wikipedia link) lives year around in tropical climates where there is always sunshine and above freezing temperatures. It is sometimes also called “Bloodflower” or “Mexican butterfly weed.” In Costa Rican Spanish, Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) is most commonly known as “algodoncillo tropical”. It can also be referred to as “viborana” in some areas. See many more photos on iNaturalist Costa Rica.

I’ve added some to my garden this year to see which butterflies will choose it over the most popular Porter Weed (“rabo de toro” in CR Spanish which is “bull’s tail” OR “cola de alcarán” in the Caribe which is “scorpion’s tail”). Or maybe I will compare to my other two big attractors: Zinnias (“mal de ojo”) and Lantanas (“cinco negritos” or “soterrey”). Here’s five photos of my newly planted “babies” which have already attracted a tiny Metalmark . . . 🙂

Tropical Milkweed, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Hummingbird Shadow

When trying to photograph that tiny little butterfly on the left of that rock in my garden I discovered later that I instead got a silhoutte shadow of a hummingbird flying above the butterfly. 🙂 Not great, but an interesting surprise when going through the photos. 🙂

Hummingbird Shadow on rock near a tiny butterfly in my garden, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Just a little serendipity! 🙂

¡Pura Vida!

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi 

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Final Birds in May & About May Photos

And now I will try to focus on nature in June, right here in my garden! 🙂 I started May still processing photos from April and I finished May with blog posts scheduled through this one today, June 10. Yes, I’ve been staying ahead about a week and a half or 10 days on writing the blog posts while coordinating the useable photos for not only the blog, but I post the useable ones in . . .

  • My photo gallery: Charlie Doggett’s COSTA RICA+
  • I now post all my nature photos for future research on iNaturalist (linked to my posts with a map of where photographed in CR.
  • I am still putting butterfly photos also on butterfliesandmoths.org (linked to the Costa Rica Region where I’m the primary contributor).
  • And I still post bird photos on eBird of course! You may have to add my name to see my postings there: charliedoggett.

And though it may seem like I shared a lot of butterfly photos in May, there were a lot more photographed! I got 45 species of butterflies in my garden in May! At least two species were new ones for me. And I’m having trouble keeping up with them all! 🙂 It is like I don’t need to travel to get photos, but I look forward to some different animals in my July rainforest trip when I celebrate my 85th birthday.

Now, here’s those last two birds in May . . .

Tropical Kingbird, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Asilidae or “Robber Fly”

is here in my garden eating one of the brilliant Green Orchid Bees. Asilidae is the Family of robber flies or assassin flies with many different species, especially here in the tropics, so I’m not likely to find the species name, but will hope someone on iNaturalist knows! 🙂 You can read about them in the Asilidae article on Wikipedia. Another fun little insect here in Costa Rica! 🙂 And Robber Flies pretty much all over the Americas! And you can see other photos on iNaturalist Costa Rica with a map of where the many photos there have come from.

Robber Fly or Assassin Fly (eating an Orchid Bee) , Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica

See some of my other interesting CR insect photos in that gallery link.

¡Pura Vida!

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One of the Cicadas

In running these two photos through the iNaturalist, this insect is definitely in the Fidicina Genus (with about 30 species of Cicadas in CR) and though not an exact match, the closest species I could find was Fidicina toulgoeti which iNaturalist says has never been observed in Costa Rica (only Ecuador & Brazil), soooo, I will submit it to iNat just as the genus and see if one of the “bug experts” can identify it. If they agree with my suggested species, then mine will be the first observation of it in Costa Rica! 🙂

It was seen on the Cecropia Tree in my garden . . .

One of 30 species of Cicadas in Costa Rica, observed in Atenas, Alajuela.
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Yojoa Scrub-Hairstreak

If nothing else, it has a cool name! 🙂 The Yojoa Scrub-Hairstreak – Strymon yojoa (my gallery link) is another of those many Central American butterflies. Here’s a couple of shots and go to the gallery for more.

Yojoa Scrub-Hairstreak, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Canivet’s Emerald

is now one of my three regular hummingbirds along with the Rufous-tailed and the Blue-vented that surf my Porterweed flowers all day along with an occasional other flower and my feeders when filled (not often). Their second favorite flower seems to be the Torch Ginger or Bastón de Emperador. Both of these shots are of a female (white chest and white eyebrow) while the male has no white and thus I could be confusing him with the blue-vented which are very much alike.

Canivet’s Emerald, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
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Large Orange Sulphur

This species usually has lots of brown spots and lines on the folded wings much like the Apricot Sulphur, but these in my garden the other day were solid yellow, or to fit their name, a bright orange! 🙂 I am pretty sure of the identification, though never certain. Here’s 3 pix from that recent sighting and for more photos, see my Orange Sulphur Gallery.

Large Orange Sulphur, Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.
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