Birding, travel, wildlife and nature photography
Black Vultures – Okay, we’re not pretty…useful, not pretty.
White-throated Magpie Jay
American Crocodiles – Tempisque River
Orange-fronted Parakeet
Howler
Bananaquit
Rufous-naped Wrens
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Oropendola Colony
Orchid
Clay-colored Thrush
Stick Insect
Variegated Squirrel
I’m Done…
Decades ago, some friends and I planned to drive the Pan-American Highway from Vancouver BC to Tierra Del Fuego. It never happened. The 1956 VW van I’d rebuilt and camperized never made it to Costa Rica — the government of that country took the time to us well. I finally got to the, for me, fabled highway. Not as glamorous as I thought, incidentally. More important, I got to experience Costa Rica’s wonderful wildlife.
Howler Monkey
Ferruginous Pygmy Owl
Red-legged Honeycreeper
Crested Currasow
Streak-backed Oriole
Black-cowled Oriole
Jabiru
Black-headed Trogon
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Yellowish Flycatcher
White-fronted Amazon
Monteverde Waterfall
We needed our down jackets up here. After a few nights of winds strong enough to move furniture, plus intermittent rain, we finally entered Monteverde’s Cloud Forest. Noisier than we expected. Three-wattled Bellbirds are the main culprits. Although they make, we think, some of the loudest bird calls anywhere, they are devilishly difficult to track down — even when they open their big mouths and bellow. But Bellbirds aren’t the only prizes. The Resplendent Quetzal tops the list of Cloud Forest must-sees. We get lucky. Gorgeous. So many more birds in this delightful country. I recorded over eighty lifers in Costa Rica and missed a few hundred more.
Three-wattled Bellbird
Crested Guan
Resplendent Quetzal
Violetear
Turquoise-browed Motmot
Hoffman’s Woodpecker
Palm Tanager
White-eared Ground Sparrow
More images from Texas Wildlife Refuges…
White Ibis
Common Gallinule
Little Blue Heron
Couch’s Kingbird
No Swimming!
Green Heron
Long-tailed Skipper
Green Kingfisher
Javelina
Vermilion Flycatcher
Willet
Green Jay
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Nice to get back to the Rio Grande Valley for a few days to visit the wonderful wildlife refuges where so many beautiful birds and butterflies find sanctuary …
Great Kiskadee
Roseate Spoonbills
Great Blue Heron
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Long-billed Curlew
Tricolored Heron
Verdin
Clapper Rail
Queen Butterfly
Yesterday we had storms here and the rain bucketed down. Today, morning sunlight penetrates even the densest thickets. After a seriously wet day, Golden-crowned Sparrows feed as if making up for lost time. We tend to overlook common birds though many are strikingly beautiful.
Around here it’s hard not to encounter Coast Blacktail deer. Most days, I see a half dozen or more. Bucks in rut seem particularly oblivious, driven as they are by the mating urge. Today, a fine-looking fellow and at least one doe wander the shoreline within meters of passersby. He’s alert, watching and sniffing the air. What’s at stake? I took shots of two big bruisers from the neighbourhood on another October day. They’re not buddies. They’ve already had a huge battle on the roads and in gardens. Now they’re exhausted, pausing to catch their breath before they go at it again. There’s a lot at stake and they won’t stop only when one breaks off combat and leaves the field. The winner gets the does, like the chap in the bay above. The loser gets nothing. Not that a victorious buck can feel secure. There’s always a challenger.
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