¡Pura Vida!
¡Feliz Navidad! Merry Christmas!
This Year’s Christmas Color
Blue-gray Tanager
Here’s just two of the shots I made in November of this frequently seen tropical bird, the Blue-gray Tanager, Thraupis episcopus (eBird link) is found only in tropical Central & South America and is one of the more frequently seen birds for me in Costa Rica as my Gallery: Blue-gray Tanager will show.
The feature photo at top is what most of this species looks like and I am guessing that the more rotund one below is a pregnant female, with several eggs to lay. 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
A Sulphur that’s White, Green & Yellow
For the White Angled-Sulphur, it depends on which side and angle you are viewing it, with the top of open wings (didn’t get this time) it is bright white with two bright yellow patches and four brown spots, but the folded wings views can be either green, as one of these shots sort of is, or a more yellow look as two of these three photos appear and one shows a sliver of the bright white top. See all of the many looks in my White Angled-Sulphur, Anteos clorinde GALLERY.
Hoffmann’s Woodpecker
Possibly the most seen woodpecker in my garden is this Hoffmann’s Woodpecker, Melanerpes hoffmannii (eBird link), distinctive with it’s gold nape and for the male (this photo) a bright red crown! It is exclusively in Costa Rica and Nicaragua with a few strays into El Salvador and Honduras. See some more of my photos in my Hoffmann’s Woodpecker Gallery made over the years literally all over Costa Rica. Here’s three shots from my garden recently that I’m adding to that gallery collection . . .
The Eaton’s In Atenas
I had surgery Tuesday morning to remove another skin cancer, this one from my nose! 🙂 So the Eaton’s hung out at their hotel until about 10 when I took them on a walk through Central Atenas but I was not motivated to make many photos for some reason, so I got only the spreading tree in the courtyard of Mercado Central and the vista from Casita del Café the next morning (where with a clear sky you see the Pacific, but not that morning), with all the other Atenas photos in gallery linked from earlier photos I’ve made. Sorry. We ate out for lunch in Crema y Nata Tuesday and other Atenas restaurants the next two nights.
Wednesday we had breakfast on the mountain top and I took a taxi home while Walter took them to a Punta Leona beach to photograph monkeys and other nature and I rested. Click the above link for an idea of what they saw in Atenas. Just the first two photos I made on those two days here. The feature photo at top of post is of the vista from Casita del Café during breakfast there Wednesday morning and the tree photo is from Mercado Central de Atenas on our Tuesday walk.
¡Pura Vida!
Juvenile Black Spiny-tailed Iguana
It is tempting to call this a Green Iguana, but those do not live in my garden and these do! 🙂 The babies and juveniles of both species are very much alike, so location determines this ID. I see them in my garden a lot! And their parents & big brothers & sisters walk around on my roof and climb the trees! 🙂
See more of my many photos of this species in my GALLERY: Black Spiny-tailed Iguana. And oh yeah, the scientific name is: Ctenosaura similis.
¡Pura Vida!
Giant Butterfly Moth
I’ve seen this large daytime moth several times in my garden & house and the only other place was at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge near Golfito on the Pacific Coast. The other day I saw two, one on my Cecropia Tree and another injured one hiding among plants in my garden. When not wanting to be seen, they are this plain beigey brown color with off-white spots and bars. But when they fly or lift their forward wings, the hindwings are a bright orange and white. You can see this from earlier sightings in my GALLERY: Giant Butterfly Moth, Castniomera atymnius (linked to the gallery). Just two shots here from this November sighting.
¡Pura Vida!
Gray-headed Chachalaca
Regular noisy visitors all around my house that I haven’t been trying to photograph much recently. Interesting chicken-sized “chatterboxes.” 🙂 The Gray-headed Chachalaca, Ortalis cinereiceps (linked to my gallery). Here he is in my slowly dying Cecropia Tree that I will replace in another year or so.
¡Pura Vida!
Large Orange Sulphur
Another new species for me in my gardens during October was the Large Orange Sulphur, Phoebis agarithe. My collection is growing with over 300 species now!
¡Pura Vida!
A Day with Friends Starting the Caravan Tour of CR
Gary & Kenna Eatons, friends from my Nashville days, began their tour of Costa Rica with Caravan Tours yesterday coming a day early for a tour of two great museums Sunday in San Jose led my me and my driver/guide Walter, who took his selfie here with our group in front of the National Museum (the yellow building). The other couple, the Huskey’s, are friends of the Eaton’s, also from Nashville. And I took a few other cell phone photos in a gallery: Two Museums Tour.
When their tour ends next Sunday morning, Walter & I will take them on an art museum tour before taking the Huskey’s to the airport and bringing the Eaton’s to Atenas for an extended visit of Costa Rica with me and Walter. 🙂
The Little Zinnia Patch
My landlord “K” has really brightened his other properties with Zinnia flower beds and thus hundreds of butterflies for his tenants, especially in his two AirBNB short-term rentals where tourists and short-term visitors will be thrilled with the butterflies. Then he recently had his gardener plant a little patch along our driveway next to my upper garden of Porterweeds. So now I have two different major attractions for butterflies. Here’s just one shot with a slide show online including some shots with butterflies on them! 🙂 And one with a ladybug! 🙂
