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Today I received a phone call from the wonderful family that runs Maquenque Eco Lodge just checking on me and how my health is doing. They are so nice to me in every way and I count them among my best friends in Costa Rica. Then they sent me this photo of the table in their lodge lobby covered with my photo books that they continually thank me for and tell me how much their other guests enjoy them! 🙂 Just one more reason that I enjoy my retirement life photographing nature! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Finally I have all my photos for the 5 nights in April 2023 at Maquenque Eco Lodge and Reserve including the sub-galleries I’ve already shared. This was another great photo trip to one of my favorite places in Costa Rica with photos of 62 bird species (6 lifers!), 10 butterflies and more than 30 species of other animals! Plus my usual “Nature as Art” photos of everything from flowers to weird leaves and beautiful landscapes. Just this one trip gallery will show you why I am so excited about being “Retired in Costa Rica!” the name of my blog and website. Enjoy the photos! Just click this image:
Or use this address: https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-April-9-14-Maquenque-Ecolodge
¡Pura Vida!
I have finally finished sorting and processing all my bird photos from the April 9-14 trip to Maquenque Ecolodge on San Carlos River at Boca Tapada. You can see the 62 species of birds I photographed this trip including 6 Lifers! (That’s 6 birds seen for the first time in my life!) Go to this address or just click the gallery image below and that link will take you there:
https://charliedoggett.smugmug.com/TRIPS/2023-April-9-14-Maquenque-Ecolodge/BIRDS
Note that only the birds gallery and one other is done in what will eventually be a larger “Trip Gallery” with other sub-galleries not completed yet. As usual, it was another “photo-rich” trip! 🙂
Because I found 2 more “lifers” since the earlier lifers post, I will include photos of all 6 lifers below. None are spectacular but they represent 6 more in my Costa Rica Birds GALLERY of 365 total species of birds photographed here so far!
Here’s 3 different species of dragonflies I got at Maquenque Ecolodge, Boca Tapada, San Carlos Canton, Alajuela, Costa Rica. IDs are based on the book Dragonflies and Damselflies of Costa Rica by Paulson & Haber.
A break in my sharing of the many birds at Maquenque to share two photos of two different Agoutis I photographed there. Officially they are the Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) or in Costa Rica either Guatusa or Agutí centroamericana. There are different subspecies in Mexico and in the northern half of South America but all in the Dasyprocta family which is a rodent related to Guinea Pigs.
Read about them on Wikipedia or see my photos from all over Costa Rica in my Central American Agouti GALLERY.
Notice the color difference of the above two. They can be various shades of brown to reddish-orange to grayish or yellow & gray to blackish. They are more difficult to photograph than Coatis because they are more shy of humans and stay in the grasses and shrubs of the forest.
¡Pura Vida!
It is possible to photograph more than 4 there, but this is not bad for one lodge and two are pretty good photos, if I do say so myself. 🙂 The other two aren’t high quality, but then birds aren’t required to pose and the Crimson-fronted did everything in that tree except pose! 🙂 And until there are more grown, fruiting Almond Trees, those Green Macaws are going to keep flying over! 🙂 But anyway, here’s my record of seeing 4 different kinds of parrots at Maquenque recently . . .
I’ve seen the Masked Tityra in 8 places all over Costa Rica but not the Black-crowned Tityra, just 2 locations, Maquenque and here in Atenas. 🙂 Maquenque Ecolodge has both of them! (As we do in Atenas!) 🙂 Here’s one pix each and a link to my two Tityra galleries for more photos if you like. 🙂
Note that both species nest in the hollow of a dead tree, usually in a former Woodpecker hole! 🙂
See more photos of both types of Tityra in my GALLERIES:
¡Pura Vida!
🙂 I say that because they are not always green as anyone who visits the tropics has noticed. I especially enjoy the males in mating season when they turn bright orange (not this time, though you can see them in my gallery). This time they were green to brown or greenish brown with some blue-gray and one black. And yes, I know that there is one called a “Black Spiny-tailed Iguana” or the “Common Spiny-tailed Iguana” (Ctenosaura similis), but it’s features are different and it lives only along the Pacific Coast and thus would not be at Maquenque Lodge which is on the Caribbean Slope where only the “Green Iguana” (Iguana iguana) lives. And it is interesting to note that the babies of both species are bright green. 🙂
Below are 4 more photos (in different colors) from this trip and then a link to my photo galleries of both species of Iguanas . . .
I photographed 9 or 10 different species of butterflies at Maquenque and hope to soon have the trip gallery up including all of them. Here’s just one, the White Peacock Butterfly.
See my White Peacock Gallery.
¡Pura Vida!
Called a “Congo” by Costa Ricans, the Mantled Howler Monkey is the largest and loudest of the four species of monkeys in Costa Rica and the only one I got photos of this trip, from alongside Rio Tres Amigos on float trip last Wednesday near Maquenque Ecolodge. I heard them at the lodge but never was close enough for photos and the same for the Spider Monkeys. I’ve been photographing Howler Monkeys since my first weeks in Costa Rica and have an okay GALLERY: Mantled Howler Monkey of Costa Rica.
¡Pura Vida!