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I consider these “Trip Galleries” the best of all my photo galleries where I put only the best photos from that experience. Then I link some of these photos to subject galleries such as a bird species gallery, etc. The trip galleries can also be of help if you plan a trip to one of these wonderful places I visit here in Costa Rica! 🙂
¡Pura Vida!
Though I’m slowing down and getting fewer photos of birds and everything else now, I also continue to be surprised with new species, like the Whitened Eyed-Metalmark butterfly in another post and that weird insect, Trychopeplus laciniatus, in still another blog post yesterday. All 4 were new species for me on my 3rd visit to this particular lodge and rainforest! 🙂 Just one reason I like Esquinas! 🙂
Now for the two new bird species this time . . .
That is one shot of the male. See more photos of both male & female in my Blue-black Grosbeak Gallery. The several types of Grosbeaks are all sort of like large Seedeaters.
And speaking of larger seedeater-type birds, the other first sighting for me was this Yellow-bellied Seedeater. (my gallery link) And sorry that I couldn’t get better photos! Two shots in the gallery.
And though not a lifer, I also got a couple of weak photos of a somewhat rare bird, indigenous to this Golfo Dulce area. “Indigenous” means it is found only in this Osa Peninsula/South Pacific area of Costa Rica and nowhere else in the world! 🙂 . . .
Continue reading “2 Lifer Birds at Esquinas”
On one of the trails at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge at Piedras Blancas National Park, I found this mossy root-like or vine-like “thing” walking around under a leaf (must have sticky feet). 🙂 I just posted it on iNaturalist, where the A I said it was pretty confident to put it in the Genus Trychopeplus, a genus of insects. I searched around more on iNat and decided that the closest match for a species is Trychopeplus laciniatus (linked to that page in iNaturalistCR. There is very little info online and no “common name” in Spanish or English, but mine matches most of the photos found of that species.
On land it would be kind of like a mossy “Walking Stick Insect” or to me almost looks more like the underwater “Sea Dragon” creatures found in the oceans somewhere, but I know nothing about those and didn’t try to research. 🙂
It is just one of the many fun things I keep finding here in Costa Rica and will continue to share on this blog. For other interesting insects I’ve photographed in Costa Rica, go the the More Insects Gallery. 🙂
2 more photos . . .
Continue reading “Weird Insect! Trychopeplus laciniatus”
There are oh so many more lizards in the rainforest, but they were never my target for photos, but here’s a Whiptail and adult & juvenile shots of a Common Basilisk. In earlier years I looked for lizards more and you can check out my LIZARDS Gallery for more than 25 species.
2 more images . . .
Continue reading “Rainforest Lizards”
There are a lot of dragonflies around all the different water locations and because we have the dragonfly specialist active in iNaturalist Costa Rica, I wait until after I post the photos there for him to confirm or give the species or even say if I have them in the right family! 🙂 I’m more confident about that amber wing identification, but not the others. And I’m including two reds here, because I think they are two different species.
3 more dragonflies below . . .
Continue reading “Rainforest Dragonflies”
. . . 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.
And a gallery of 5 shots . . . (click an image to enlarge)
Continue reading “Most visible Bird . . .”
. . . is one thing I photographed at Esquinas Rainforest Lodge last week and they are all 7 together in a gallery below this email photo . . .
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! 🙂
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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.