Just one of many photos with more available in the gallery: Yellow-throated Euphonia (linked).
¡Pura Vida!
Yellow-throated Euphonia
Dragonflies & Damselflies
Here’s a little gallery of 4 of the 5 dragonflies I tried to photograph at Maquenque with the fifth one a pretty bad photo and not used here. Anywhere there is a lot of water there are a lot of different species of dragonflies & damselflies . . .
When I’m not sure of the species name, I use genus or family name as with three of these. Then hope that someone on iNaturalist will make a positive species identification. 🙂
And I have a pretty good collection of Dragonflies & Damselflies in that linked gallery of 50+ species! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Green Basilisk
One of the many common lizards in the rainforests of Costa Rica is the Green Basilisk (English common name) with the Spanish common name my preferred, Emerald Basilisk or of course actually Basilisco Esmeralda. 🙂 I have a lot of better photos in my gallery: Emerald or Green Basilisk (linked). But from this trip, just one shot of the whole lizard and then one “head & shoulder portrait.” 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Crested Guan
This large bird is one good sign that you are in a truly wild forest. I always see them at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge and also at Arenal Observatory Lodge, two of my other favorite places! See my photo collection in the gallery: Crested Guan. (linked) Just the one shot for the blog post today . . .
Pura Vida
Tigers in a Meadow of Flowers
Not only is Maquenque up to 70 Treehouse Cabins (THE TREEHOUSE LODGE IN COSTA RICA!), but they continue adding wildness and nature to various corners of their deep forest. One of the additions I discovered this time is a corner of their farm alongside one of the smaller lagoons has been turned into a meadow of flowers! Not only the natural wild flowers, but they have planted more, like Zinnias, Daisies, Cuban Buttercups, Heliconia’s, and more that I haven’t identified. 🙂 And within it I photographed 15+ species of butterflies with the dominant ones being an assortment of “Tigers” or about 4 species of Genus Mechanitis (Tigerwings) and maybe a Tiger Mimic-Queen. I’m having trouble separating and identifying all the tigers! 🙂 Here’s two shots (side view & top view) of what may or may not be the same species in the “Flower Meadow,” followed by a gallery of 4 shots of the flowers in the meadow . . .
Brown-hooded Parrot
Another colorful bird seen frequently at Maquenque is the Brown-hooded Parrot (my gallery link).
¡Pura Vida!
Immature White-collared Manakin
At first I wondered what these pudgy little brown birds were in a tree behind my cabin. Then on eBird’s Merlin I discovered that they are little White-collared Manakins with no white collar yet if male and if female that brown will turn green with a yellowish breast and the females don’t have white collars like the males. See more photos of these juveniles and my photos of mature males in the gallery White-collared Manakin (linked). I’ve seen them twice now at Maquenque and once at Selva Verde Lodge (across the river in their private forest reserve).
¡Pura Vida!
Collared Aracari
This small toucan, Collared Aracari (my gallery link) is found mostly on the Caribbean Slope of Costa Rica but it is possible to see one on the Pacific Slope occasionally where his close “cousin” the Fiery-billed Aracari (my gallery link) lives only on the Pacific Slope.
¡Pura Vida!
My Arrival Yesterday on Flooded River
I did not do a post last night because I’m way behind on processing photos. I photographed 15 bird species just while eating lunch in partial rain yesterday and more yesterday afternoon and even more this morning on a pre-breakfast birding walk with guide Ronald! We were fortunate to have no rain for that hour and a half! 🙂 It is raining off and on just a little so far today, but so far nothing like yesterday!
So Walter would have a companion for talking with on his 4 hour return trip to Atenas yesterday, he brought his cousin who has a digital radio station in Atenas and here is the video he posted on the station or its Facebook or WhatsApp page (not sure how it works). It is of them leaving me at the boat dock on the flooded Rio San Carlos with Maquenque across the river. The first speaker in black is Walter’s cousin (forgot his name) and then Walter in the bright green cap speaks. My brief appearance is just waving at the camera from the boat. 🙂 I’m hoping that a WhatsApp Video works on this blog/website. I’m not a tech kind of guy! 🙂
Nope!
Well, it did not work, saying I’ve already used my one free video and must enroll in “VideoPress,” which I’m not doing, so I will just share two of Walter’s cellphone photos of their difficult return trip in a hard rain yesterday.
All that trouble just to get me to a favorite nature place! I’ll soon start sharing photos of the immense amount of nature here! 🙂
¡PuraVida!
Mexican Fritillary
There are so many orange with black trim butterflies and most of them are distinctly different, as is this Mexican Fritillary, Euptoieta hegesia (my gallery link).
