Showing posts with label wildlife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wildlife. Show all posts
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Only in Canada EH! Pity!
The past few days I have been struck by the things that are so Costa Rican - I am sure many of them exist elsewhere in the world, but they are 'unique' to our experience here.
Lunch watching the water crash on the rocks
Offroading in the jungle
Sunset over the Pacific Ocean
Beets the size of softballs
The weekly market
Watching a rainstorm over the Pacific Ocean
Watching a 7' Iguana climb the fence while you are sipping your wine
Having morning coffee with your pet hummingbird and pet lizard (did you know hummingbirds chirp? this one does a lot - we call him squeaky)
Tropical floral arrangements from your own garden
Interesting birds who just stop by - this is an Oropendula
Monday, December 23, 2013
Change of Season
There are seasons everywhere - outside the tropics there is spring, summer, autumn and winter - in Toronto there is construction and everything else.
In Costa Rica there is the rainy season (Green Season as the Tourist Board calls it) and the dry season (Summer). We are just entering the dry season that will last mid-December to the end of April.
With the change is a bunch of other changes - most noticeable are the plants.
The giant trees in the jungle behind the house are dropping leaves. New growth is visible on others. The Bougainvillea are in full bloom - vibrant red, pink and purple.
The purple hedge at the front of the property is full of tiny white blossoms - it almost looks like snow
The bamboo orchids are in full bloom
Most spectacular is a native tree called Gallinazo. It has sparse foliage and stands tall in the jungle. In the open areas, it is a favourite resting spot for the toucans and parrots. The leaves are sort of like the honey locust we have in Toronto (sort of fern-like). The whole tree looks very airy.
Well, right now it is in bloom - brilliant yellow flowers - tiny but in groups with whispy tendrils. They are just amazing - and suddenly the mountainside is dotted with flashes of yellow.
I love it when nature shows off!
In Costa Rica there is the rainy season (Green Season as the Tourist Board calls it) and the dry season (Summer). We are just entering the dry season that will last mid-December to the end of April.
With the change is a bunch of other changes - most noticeable are the plants.
The giant trees in the jungle behind the house are dropping leaves. New growth is visible on others. The Bougainvillea are in full bloom - vibrant red, pink and purple.
The purple hedge at the front of the property is full of tiny white blossoms - it almost looks like snow
The bamboo orchids are in full bloom
Most spectacular is a native tree called Gallinazo. It has sparse foliage and stands tall in the jungle. In the open areas, it is a favourite resting spot for the toucans and parrots. The leaves are sort of like the honey locust we have in Toronto (sort of fern-like). The whole tree looks very airy.
Well, right now it is in bloom - brilliant yellow flowers - tiny but in groups with whispy tendrils. They are just amazing - and suddenly the mountainside is dotted with flashes of yellow.
Yikes!!!!!
OK - so every once is a while, things happen to remind you that you are in the jungle. Monkeys and birds are pleasant reminders - this one not so much.
Last evening the Lisle noticed the lamp on the front desk was off - the timer was out of sync or something. So, he unplugged it and discovered.
Fortunately it was dead - seems to have stuck its head in the grounding socket
While I would love to be corrected, I am pretty certain it is a coral snake - no idea how it got in, but appeared to be coming out from behind the extension plugs - no idea how long it had been there, but was pretty dried out.
Yes I was wearing work gloves to do this even though it was pretty obviously dead - - No I am not brave!
Last evening the Lisle noticed the lamp on the front desk was off - the timer was out of sync or something. So, he unplugged it and discovered.
Yes I was wearing work gloves to do this even though it was pretty obviously dead - - No I am not brave!
Friday, August 2, 2013
Monkey Day at the Orchid House
The Male Howler has been waking us each morning for the past week - sometimes right outside the window, sometimes a bit deeper in the jungle. This morning was no different - just past 5 am he started, but was brief with his welcome to the day.
About 7:30, he started again - very very close!
Outside and follow the sound - there he is in the tree right outside the kitchen window.
After 30 minutes he decided to stop hanging around and sit quietly a little bit away. It was only then that we saw the rest of the family - 2 females and a baby - in the adjacent tree.
Nice way to start the day!
About 7:30, he started again - very very close!
Outside and follow the sound - there he is in the tree right outside the kitchen window.
After 30 minutes he decided to stop hanging around and sit quietly a little bit away. It was only then that we saw the rest of the family - 2 females and a baby - in the adjacent tree.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Seriously!!!
There are those days when you just wonder about the world around you - maybe it really is the end of days!
Yesterday about 2:00 Lisle turned on the TV - he wanted to look at the inventory of stuff on the media player - nothing happened - - "Dan, how do you turn this on!!" Apparently you don't - what was working just fine less than 24 hours earlier now doesn't turn on - not manually, not with the remote - the little red light just sits there saying "I have power and you can't use me". So, James has scanned and emailed the purchase receipt from Toronto and Sheila is following up on warranty.
At about 6:30 - just dark enough so you can't see anything - CRACK - CRACK - CRASH. Lisle, who was at the desk, asked if something on the stove boiled over - I said NO - a tree came down outside! Went to the spare room and got the giant flashlight - the one with the 6" lens that plugs in - it doesn't seem to turn on either! So out back with the little EverReady light - sure enough, branches on the ground by the pool house but no apparent damage.
Finish dinner, curl up on the couch to watch TV on the laptop - some of us will let nothing get in the way - CRACK - CRACK - CRASH - and the lights go out - everywhere! Lisle and I look at each other - of course we can see each other because the TV is still playing on the laptop with its battery - ANOTHER TREE?! The lights come back on and with the little flashlight I venture back to the yard and sure enough more tree debris. Photos from the morning after - -
We manage to make it through the night without further drama.
This morning I come down, and go to open the patio door. UMM - frogs aren't supposed to be stuck squeezing between the screen and glass door - especially not 8' off the ground!
Maybe 2013 is going to be a year of absurd things!
Yesterday about 2:00 Lisle turned on the TV - he wanted to look at the inventory of stuff on the media player - nothing happened - - "Dan, how do you turn this on!!" Apparently you don't - what was working just fine less than 24 hours earlier now doesn't turn on - not manually, not with the remote - the little red light just sits there saying "I have power and you can't use me". So, James has scanned and emailed the purchase receipt from Toronto and Sheila is following up on warranty.
At about 6:30 - just dark enough so you can't see anything - CRACK - CRACK - CRASH. Lisle, who was at the desk, asked if something on the stove boiled over - I said NO - a tree came down outside! Went to the spare room and got the giant flashlight - the one with the 6" lens that plugs in - it doesn't seem to turn on either! So out back with the little EverReady light - sure enough, branches on the ground by the pool house but no apparent damage.
Finish dinner, curl up on the couch to watch TV on the laptop - some of us will let nothing get in the way - CRACK - CRACK - CRASH - and the lights go out - everywhere! Lisle and I look at each other - of course we can see each other because the TV is still playing on the laptop with its battery - ANOTHER TREE?! The lights come back on and with the little flashlight I venture back to the yard and sure enough more tree debris. Photos from the morning after - -
We manage to make it through the night without further drama.
This morning I come down, and go to open the patio door. UMM - frogs aren't supposed to be stuck squeezing between the screen and glass door - especially not 8' off the ground!
Maybe 2013 is going to be a year of absurd things!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Stop The Bickering
They are coming - and there are a bunch of them!
RAAAK RAAAK RAAAK!
I lost track at 30 - a flock of parakeets - over the hill from the south, circled over the pool and into the tree behind the house where they sqawked and yelped and flapped and were joined by more every few minutes - for about 30 minutes before they left - always in pairs and yapping at each other like bickering spouses!
RAAAK RAAAK RAAAK!
I lost track at 30 - a flock of parakeets - over the hill from the south, circled over the pool and into the tree behind the house where they sqawked and yelped and flapped and were joined by more every few minutes - for about 30 minutes before they left - always in pairs and yapping at each other like bickering spouses!
Season of the Snake
OK, they must be playing with me know!
Yesterday I was driving out to visit Dwight and Wendy about 3:30. Going down the hill just before the turn up to Bruce and Barbs - what is that branch on the road - - OH! not a branch, it is moving right across the road in front of me - 3 feet long, the size of my wrist - brown sort of diamond pattern on the back - definitely a Fer de Lance (we at least I have convinced myself of that) only good thing - it was headed away from the house!!
Yesterday I was driving out to visit Dwight and Wendy about 3:30. Going down the hill just before the turn up to Bruce and Barbs - what is that branch on the road - - OH! not a branch, it is moving right across the road in front of me - 3 feet long, the size of my wrist - brown sort of diamond pattern on the back - definitely a Fer de Lance (we at least I have convinced myself of that) only good thing - it was headed away from the house!!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
YIKES!
So, sitting doing some work - it wasn't exactly a quiet morning since the garden crew was present. Suddenly the one worker appears up the steps to the pump room whistling loudly for the other who is weed whacking. The machine stops - the guy comes flying past, grabs the shovel, leaps over the hedge and down the back slope.
Knowing something is happening, I slip into shoe and go down the road where they are chopping up a snake with the shovel - Serpent malo? I ask - si si si is the response - -pequeno pero malo. It was curled up under the Mani the guy was trimming along the edge of the cuneta. It was about a foot long and thin (about half the size of your baby finger) obvious triangular head and brown markings all down the back and a pale underside - - Fer de Lance? would appear so - they dug a hole and buried it before I could go back and get the camera - not that a chopped up snake is good viewing material!
Knowing something is happening, I slip into shoe and go down the road where they are chopping up a snake with the shovel - Serpent malo? I ask - si si si is the response - -pequeno pero malo. It was curled up under the Mani the guy was trimming along the edge of the cuneta. It was about a foot long and thin (about half the size of your baby finger) obvious triangular head and brown markings all down the back and a pale underside - - Fer de Lance? would appear so - they dug a hole and buried it before I could go back and get the camera - not that a chopped up snake is good viewing material!
Sunday, August 12, 2012
What's With The ...
Frogs - This morning the Poison Dart Frog is sitting in the living room next to the sofa!
Birds - Yesterday I was reading and there was this metal sound - someone hitting the railing with a stick - looked around the corner and one of the yellow breasted birds was dancing on the railing!
Birds - Yesterday I was reading and there was this metal sound - someone hitting the railing with a stick - looked around the corner and one of the yellow breasted birds was dancing on the railing!
Geckos - Did you know that they make a noise sort of like a clucking chicken! and they poop everywhere and it looks like black caulking - I've been cleaning it up for weeks thinking is was leftover mess from construction.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
I Love the Night Life - Part 2
So this night life is not so great - OMG the frogs are having orgies in the pool every night!!!!
It is great to listen to them - brraaad, quack, tink - part of the nightly jungle chorus. But lately the sounds have been far to clear and far to close. And in the morning - frog eggs in the pool - hundreds of them - masses of little black dots floating in clumps - you skim for what seems like hours and there is always MORE!
So in an effort to reduce the amount of sex in the pool, I hear them, grab the skimmer and chase the suckers around the pool! Caught they get the free ride to the jungle! Maybe they will get the point and play someplace else!
Not sure it is working though. Last night we went to sit for dinner and as I walked past the couch on the patio I noticed something - a second take and there in the middle of the seat is a frog - looking like he has settled in for the night! A nudge with the newspaper (the Tico Times is good for something!) and he hopped off into the darkness. An hour later, sitting watching TV and there is movement on the patio - a giant toad sitting under the dining table - he hopped about for a while, checked out the front patio and left. About an hour after that there is this solid noise of something hitting the house - go out front and there is this enormous rhino beetle on his back by the front door - flipped him into the garden and watched him run for cover.
(photos of all but the camera was messed up).
Finally this morning - a new visitor - I believe a poison dart frog!!
A few other creatures captured over the past week or so ...
snake (no es malo)
baby iguana in the bushes
your friendly neighborhood giant grasshopper
a big green leaf eating bug
moth
It is great to listen to them - brraaad, quack, tink - part of the nightly jungle chorus. But lately the sounds have been far to clear and far to close. And in the morning - frog eggs in the pool - hundreds of them - masses of little black dots floating in clumps - you skim for what seems like hours and there is always MORE!
So in an effort to reduce the amount of sex in the pool, I hear them, grab the skimmer and chase the suckers around the pool! Caught they get the free ride to the jungle! Maybe they will get the point and play someplace else!
Not sure it is working though. Last night we went to sit for dinner and as I walked past the couch on the patio I noticed something - a second take and there in the middle of the seat is a frog - looking like he has settled in for the night! A nudge with the newspaper (the Tico Times is good for something!) and he hopped off into the darkness. An hour later, sitting watching TV and there is movement on the patio - a giant toad sitting under the dining table - he hopped about for a while, checked out the front patio and left. About an hour after that there is this solid noise of something hitting the house - go out front and there is this enormous rhino beetle on his back by the front door - flipped him into the garden and watched him run for cover.
(photos of all but the camera was messed up).
Finally this morning - a new visitor - I believe a poison dart frog!!
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