Happy Monday!

Wishing everyone a great day and a happy new week!

"Each happiness of yesterday is a memory for tomorrow."

Collared Aracari seen in Belize. 

"A moment last for seconds but the memories last forever."

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

Comments off, enjoy your day!

Saturday's Critters #365

 Welcome to Saturday's Critters!

Hello and happy Saturday!

 

 If you love all God's creatures like I do and also like to blog about them and take critter photos this is where you can share your critter post. Link up your post and share your critters, join in with my critter party ! You can share any kind of critters the real ones, pretend ones, statues and paintings, a new or old post!

 

I wish all who celebrate... peace, love and happiness this Hanukah season!

 

I am running out of critters and bird photos to share. So I am sharing some of my archived photos from our 2010 trip to Costa Rica, we took a guided trip staying at various hotels starting at San Jose, Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast, Fortuna the gateway to Arenal Volcano Nat'l Park and Guanacaste on the Pacific Coast. We visited a coffee plantation, pineapple plantation, the butterfly garden, various nature river boat rides from the lodge in Tortuguero and a nature boat ride at Caño Negro, we hiked in the Poas Volcano Nat'l Park Cloud forest, on the Arenal Nat'l Park hanging bridges trail and walked on the beach in Guanacaste located on Costa Rica's Pacific coast. 


1.  The Butterfly Garden, various species of butterflies and lovely flowers and plants. 

 

 Click on photos for better viewing.

 

 

2.  Insects and reptiles and other miscellaneous wildlife. We saw Rhinoceros Beetles, Hercules Beetle, Crocodiles and Caiman, Iguana, various lizards, turtles, Beetles, Long-nosed Bats, Pit Viper,  Orb spiders and Ghost crabs.

 

 

 

 

3. The wild monkeys we saw in Costa Rica were the most common seen and heard Howler Monkey, Golden-mantled Howler Monkey, White faced Capuchin Monkey and Spider Monkeys.

 

 

4.  The flowers must taste delicious, this monkey was hanging a tree branch with just it's tail. The photos taken from the moving boat ride are not the clearest. But, I think it is cute.

 

5. Costa Rica bird lifers...These are not all the birds or lifers I was able to see on my trip. 

Ringed Kingfisher, Amazon Kingfisher, not sure if seen below we also saw the Green Kingfisher, Grey-necked wood Rail, Great Potoo, Bare-throated Tiger Heron, Slaty-tailed Trogon, Blue-Gold Macaw (not-sure if these two were escapees, seen in a tree at the Hanging Bridge Park area), Red-lored Parrots, Montezuma Oropendola, Passerini's Tanager, Palm Tanager, Blue-gray Tanager, Great Kiskadee and the Variable Seedeater.

 

 

6.  Before our breakfast or boat ride tours I walked around the grounds of the Tortuguergo Lodge. The Montezuma Oropendola had nest in a lot of the trees. 

 

7. It is a cool looking bird and they make some strange sounds. The male can be 20 inches long.  Their tale feathers are a bright yellow.

 

 

8. The nest is woven with fibers and vines, similar to an Orioles nest.

 

 

9. Costa Rica Toucan lifers...The top two toucans are the Collared Aracari, in the second row is the Chestnut-Mandibled Toucan and the last row is the Keel-billed Toucan. Seeing the Toucans in the wild was a treat for me. 

10.  Various wildlife seen in various areas around Costa Rica. Streaked Backed Oriole in Guanacaste,  Brown Pelicans, Iguana, the Coati (about the size of a house cat) crossed the trail in front of us at the Hanging Bridge park, a sloth was seen hiding in a tree above the river, a large Black Oxen, other Oxen and some horses seen along the road.

 

 

11.   The Collared Aracari was seen often by the boat dock at the Tortuguera Lodge.

Costa Rica was one of my favorite trips, the wildlife sightings are amazing. I took over a hundred photos each day we were there, I do have some previous blog post on Costa Rica.  I would love to take another trip to Costa Rica seeing parts of the country we missed. 

 

Thanks to all my visitors and for all your comments. Stop back to see any replies to your comments. I appreciate everyone who loves critters and has linked up their critter post.


Here is my linky:



 

Also visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the host Anni.

Collared Aracari

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes


For this week's Wild Bird I am featuring the Collared Aracari of the Toucan family. We watched this family of Collared Aracari's from the resort's dining room.. At times we saw 5-6 of these toucans flying or perched in the trees on the edge of the resort's property near the river.

Like the other toucans this bird has a large bill, is a dull yellow and has a black saw-tooth pattern..They also have a black head, a reddish collar and red rump.

The Aracari's were a treat to see and especially so many at one time.. My first sighting of these cool wild birds was in Costa Rica Collared Aracari

The Collared Aracari can lay three eggs in a nesting cavity. They roost socially, up to 6 adults and fledglings sleep in the same hole with their tail folded over their backs. 




Thanks for stopping by my post and for all the nice comments.

Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.  Thanks to our host Michelle our host Stewart.  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Back in time

Linking up with Camera Critters  and I'd-rather-b-birdin

I hope all my blogging friends up in the north are warm and  safe from the storm Nemo.

I am going back in time with these photos. Between working all week and the weather I have not been anywhere to take new photos. The blizzard has missed Maryland, only seeing some heavy wind gusts here.
So, off we go to Costa Rica to see my favorite birds and an iguana tree.
 Sorry, if you have seen these photos, I hope you do not mind seeing them again. I do not think I have shown the Iguana tree though so that might be new. They are some of the highlights we saw in Costa Rica, the wildlife sightings were just amazing.

We passed this iguana tree while touring with our group. This tree was filled with iguanas of all sizes. 

 There were so many iguanas on the tree, I could not fit them all in on one photo. It was amazing sight to see. How many iguanas can you find in the shot above. You could times that by 20 and that would be how many we saw on this tree.

Rhinceros beetle was a cool sighting in Costa Rica. It was one of the biggest beetles I have ever seen.

The Collared Aracari was seen quite a bit at our  Tortuguero resort.

The Keel Billed Toucan is one of my favorite toucan. The Toucan species are just awesome looking birds.

The Blue-gold Macaws were seen on the parking lot of the Swinging bridges. They were most likely escapees but still very cool to see the pair of them.


The wildlife of Costa Rica is awesome, if you ever have a chance of visiting Costa Rica I would say go for it. I hope you enjoyed my critters and birds.
To see more cute and wonderful critters please visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters  and more beautiful birds seen at Anni's blog I'd-rather-b-birdin
Thanks to both Misty Dawn and to Anni for hosting these fun memes. I wish everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Toucan mosaic.

While vacationing in Costa Rica I was able to see three different kinds of Toucans. I thought it would be fun to make a mosaic with their photos. They are the Collared  Aracari, Keel billed Toucan and the Chestnut Mandibled Toucan. Seeing the toucans was a real treat for me and I think they are really cool cartoonish looking birds. Below I have separate post on the Keel billed Toucan and the Collard Aracari but this is my first time for adding the Chestnut mandibled Toucan to a post. The red and yellow colors on the toucans are so bright and pretty.

Chestnut mandibled Toucan

Keel Billed Toucan

Collard Aracari

Thanks for stopping by my blog, and thanks to Mary for hosting Mosaic Monday

and

since you seen the yellow on my Toucans you can visit Mellow Yellow Monday

Costa Rica Bird...Part 4

My entry for Bird Photography Weekly #85 Please click on my link ot see more.
I was lucky to see three different toucans while in Costa Rica. This Keel Billed Toucan showed up in a tree while I was looking at a red Summer Tanager. The Keel Billed Toucan ranges in length from 17-22 inches. Their colorful bill averages 5-6 inches of its length. Wikipedia states that the bill is large and cumbersome but is actually spongy hollow bone covered in a keratin a very light and hard protein. They mainly eat fruit, but will also take insects, small eggs and reptiles. I think they are cool cartoonish looking birds.

One the photo below You can compare the Collared Aracari to the Keel Billed Toucan

The main difference between the aracaris and the toucans are the tails. The Collared Aracaris have a sharp and pointed tail. The beaks are about 4 inches long.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and to check out more bird and critters visit the Friday Ark

also

this also my entry for Camera Critters visit Misty dawn's Camera Critters for some cute critters.

Costa Rica bird...part two

The Collared Aracari a Toucan is one of my favorite birds seen in Costa Rica. These birds were seen during our stay two weeks ago in Tortuguero. One morning we watched a couple leaving a nest in a telephone pole on the grounds of our resort. It seemed to me that the nest was made and being used by a couple of  Woodpeckers. The Collared Aracari were raiding the woodpeckers nest. We watched the Collared Aracari squeezing in and out of the hole in the telephone pole.

According to wikipedia.org the Collared Aracari eats fruit but will also take insects, lizards, bird eggs and other small prey.

The Collared Aracari are cool looking birds and just one of many exotic looking birds I had the pleasure of seeing in Costa Rica

Thanks for visiting my blog and you can view more wonderful birds at Bird Photography weekly