Tag: Esquinas Rainforest Lodge

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Most visible Bird . . .

. . . at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge is surprisingly also one of the largest! (a little larger than toucans.) And maybe size does help with visibility, 🙂 plus the fact that the ones living there are used to people (all nature-lovers) and thus don’t run at the site of a dangerous human! 🙂

The Great Curassow, Crax rubra (eBird link) is a tropical pheasant-like bird found from eastern Mexico throughout Central America to the northwestern edges of Columbia and Ecuador. I see them in most of the protected forests and national parks I visit in Costa Rica. See some of my other photos in the Great Curassow Gallery. Just another of the many nature joys in Costa Rica! 🙂 And yes, they are similar to the Crested Guan (my gallery link) also here and about the same size, but with a bright red waddle. I heard guans on this trip but neither saw nor got photos. Both of these birds remind North Americans of Wild Turkeys, which we do not have here.

Great Curassow male & female, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Parque Nacional Piedras Blancas, Golfito, Costa Rica, on a stream bank behind the dining hall.

And a gallery of 5 shots . . . (click an image to enlarge)

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7 Species of Hummingbirds . . .

. . . is one thing I photographed at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge last week and they are all 7 together in a gallery below this email photo . . .

Scaly-breasted Hummingbird, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito, Costa Rica (most frequently seen there)
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Rainforest Caiman & My Birthday Cake

There are two ponds here at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, and both can have Caiman in them, with a total of 3 Caiman living here, a smaller version of the American Alligator. They are a native wild animal in this area, seen in most forests and farms. The 2 shots on land were at the central pond and the water shot at the Caiman Pond along the entrance road. Below these 3 Caiman photos are three of me and my birthday cake last night when the younger staff members sang “Happy Birthday” to me – in English! The first time since I moved to CR 10+ years ago! I had gotten use to “Feliz Cumpleaños.” 😊

See more of my photos of Caiman in my Caiman Gallery.

Caiman at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica
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Toucan Rendezvous

For maybe an hour this morning, two Yellow-throated Toucans called out to each other from two different trees behind my cabin. Finally, they got together in one tree, though my last pix indicates that one is shy, hiding behind an air plant with her back to the other. Always fun to observe nature in action! 🙂 This was one of 11 bird species I photographed today, here at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge. A nice day! And though cloudy most of the day, no rain. Below this photo for the email is a photo of the two together or almost together! 🙂

Yellow-throated Toucan, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica
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Agouti!

Good evening from the rainforest! We had a good hour & a half rain this afternoon that was cooling, though of course it is quite humid here all the time. Reminds me of growing up in South Arkansas just a few miles from the Louisiana line and it was quite humid there too, at least in the summer!  🙂

My cabin is surround by maybe up to 10 or more species of Heliconia flowers and I started out to do a post on the Heliconia, but just too many photos to process in a limited time! Maybe for another night this week!

Thus, because of time, I chose to share just one photo of a favorite tropical animal for tourist down here, the Central American Agouti. This one was foraging for fallen nuts streamside behind my cabin. I’m sure I’ll see more of him this week!

Central American Agouti, Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas National Park, Costa Rica.

¡Pura Vida!

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New Book for a Favorite Lodge

For my birthday in July, I’m going back to Esquinas Rainforest Lodge to celebrate my 85th birthday at the same place I celebrated my 83rd! But I did not do a photo book for that trip, so this is a delayed report as a gift to the lodge this July. It is paperback and only 22 pages, but shows the variety of nature you can experience there. For a free preview of all pages, go to this book in my bookstore at https://www.blurb.com/b/12361792-a-walk-in-the-rainforest

CLICK cover image to see a free preview.

¡Pura Vida!

Note that in my bookstore there is a separate edition of this book listed with a different cover. That is because I like to offer both the softcover and the hardcover image wrap editions, but now the crazy programmers at Blurb are requiring each edition to be created and uploaded separately. I don’t like technology that makes things more complicated like this! 🙂

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Agouti with Baby

One of the many interesting wildlife experiences at Esquinas was having a mother Central American Agouti with a baby go by near my cabin. It was my first time to see a baby agouti.

Baby Agouti following his mother at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Costa Rica.

And some better photos up close . . .

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The Birds of Esquinas

I think I’ve shown 5 favorite birds on their own individual blog posts, now here they are with all the other birds in a gallery of 18, a fraction of the 50 species I got on my last trip there, which I will blame on both climate change and the lack of a mangrove boat trip this time, though there were still fewer birds at the lodge this time, just like there are fewer birds at my house this year! Here’s one bird for the emailed version and then a gallery of 18 total birds to follow.

White-tipped Dove on a Panama Hat Flower at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Golfito.
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5 Other Butterflies at Esquinas

A few more butterflies I photographed that are not new for me, but still interesting . . . one for the emailed version, then a gallery of all . . .

Doris Longwing, Heliconius Doris (Blue version), Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, Piedras Blancas NP, Golfito, Costa Rica
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