So, I thought this bug was very attractive when it showed up on my door screen the other day.
It’s about the 3″ across. A moth? Reminds me of a pair of oak tree helicopters.
I was so surprised to find the next day that it had changed into these beautiful velvety colors.
And by the third day, I can only surmise that it’s a very short life cycle.
Summer is over here in Costa Rica – usually December through April – and it’s cooled off. Back in November, we saw for the first time an abundance of inexpensive table fans for sale and we all bought them. Expecting a summer hotter and drier than usual, which proved to be true, we out one in every room. Now the season has ended and those cheap fans are dotting the garbage piles in town to be picked up by the trucks Wed. morning and carried off to the land fill. Our own are still working fine but this climate is tough on equipment: humidity and salt air. It begs two questions, “Is cheaper better?” and “Do we have a choice anymore?”
The raging Mala Noche river received a lot of rain last night, a real good soaker. And this morning it flows for the first time since November. After the “first flush” the bay is brown with soil eroded from the river banks above. Not so this morning.
Although it’s unfortunate that a lot of soil is lost in the bay, we take it as a good sign that the ground is saturated with rain water working its way down to the watershed. In a normal year, we would have two or three flushes by the first of June but after our drought last year, we have a lot of dry earth to soak.
While on our morning walk today, we encountered a beautiful Tarantula crawling up a rock wall. Suddenly this huge and vicious insect came in and in a bare few moments TOOK HIM OUT. Wrestled him to the floor, killed him and then flew a way. Turns out he’s a Tarantula Hawk Wasp and this is his modus operandi. Sorry the photo is so bad – I guess I was a little shook up. Nobody gets a free ride, not even Tarantulas.
This gallery contains 9 photos.
Summer is here in Samara/Carrillo with the return of the shore birds. As we started our morning beach walk at the estuary, we were greeted by six birds fishing together. Then further down the beach a Hawk. At the harbor, a Brown Pelican and a gull shared a rocky overlook. None of these are …
Hoffman’s woodpecker
The Bolseros (Orioles) were late today, beaten by the Hoffman’s Woodpecker.
Social Flycatcher
Each morning a parade of birds stops by our bamboo to survey the neighborhood and make a plan for the day.
Before heading out on a bicycle ride, it’s important to always do a brief safety check.
Just started seeing the Streak-backed Orioles this week here at the beach in Costa Rica. He’s the first one each morning to stop in our bamboo, just after sunrise – hence the poor light.
But he’s getting bold enough to visit our deck railing where we recycle our dog fur from the curry comb for nest building. .
Say that three times fast and you’ll begin to know what it sounds like around the house at dusk these days.
I think the Chacalacas are mating, although I can’t explain the menage a trois.
Costa Rica is in the middle of a drought, like just about everyone else on the Pacific Coast, but there is still some good news in the natural world.
The Olive Ridley turtles appear to be getting stronger. On our morning walk on Carrillo Beach this morning, just 4 km from Casa Mango and Casa Papaya, we encountered a hatch.
Sandy-Shorts 