Happy Thankful Thursday!!

Happy Thursday! 

How is everyone, hanging in there I hope.  The vaccine is coming soon, be safe and stay safe. 

 Happy Birthday to my dear hubby!

I am continuing with some of my archived photos from a trip to Costa Rica in 2010.  I am so thankful I have a lot of my old trip photos archived on my external hard drive, they are easy to find. 

1.  I am sharing more images from  Tortuguero, Fortuna, Guanacaste, the Arenal Volcano, the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

 Tortuguero, Caribbean sunrise

 

2. Views of the Lake Arenal, Arenal Volcano and wind turbines.

 

3. Various Costa Rica Birds:

 First row on a utility pole at our Tortuguero resort the Collared Aracari Toucan, Black-cheeked woodpeckers on the same pole later, unknown hummingbird possibly a female Lucifer Hummingbird, Great Kiskadee, Anhinga, Blue-Gray Tanager, two Crested Caracara in flight, Snowy Egret and the Red-lored Parakeet.

 

4. Guanacaste, Pacific Ocean and a Brown Pelican. I love watching the Pelicans, they look so peaceful when they fly by. 

 

 

5. Guanacaste sunset on the Pacific Ocean.

 

 

6.   I am thankful for beach time,  a walk on the beach in the warm sunshine.  Give thanks for a little, you will find a lot.

 Brown Pelican on the rocks, Magnificent Frigatebird, shells and beach, Whimbrel and Black-bellied Plover. 

 

7. Another look at the sunset. 

 

Hubby and I are looking forward to traveling again, maybe a trip in early May.  we are undecided it could be a fly-drive or a road trip.  Part of the fun of traveling for me is researching the place we are visiting. I look for the places to stay, parks, scenic views and drives.  

 

I am thankful we continue to stay safe and healthy. 

I hope everyone is careful, healthy and safe. 

Go outside and breathe deeply.  Enjoy every moment. 

Live simple and be happy!  😊 Keep smiling!

Thank you to Jutta for hosting Nature Thursday

Thank you Michelle for hosting Thankful Thursday. 
 

Thank you to Yogi the host of   Skywatch Friday
 

Thank you for visiting and for your nice comments on my previous post. Have a happy day!!  😊

Our World, My World

 Happy Monday!

 Dec 7th, it is my son's birthday. He is 28 today, Happy Birthday to Brian!   Hubby's birthday coming soon, on Dec 10th.  We have lots to celebrate in December, I just turned 64. I am looking forward to when things are back to normal in our country, when hubby and I can feel safe to travel.  Today I am sharing photos from my archives and March 2010 and a trip to one of my favorite places Costa Rica. On my next critter post I am sharing a lot of the Costa Rica wildlife, check it out.

I am linking up with Lydia of Where the Wild Things Were and the Favorite Fotos linky. Thank you Lydia for hosting the party.

1. A rainbow seen on the first morning of our 9 day tour. 

Click on photos for better views.

 

2.  During our tour we stopped at a craft market, the ox carts were on display.  The carts are unique with colorful painted designs.

 

3.  Tortuguero, we stayed at a park lodge which was just a walk away from the Caribbean Sea. The park is only reached by airplane or a boat ride. Our tour to the lodge included the boat ride. The lodge is located between a lagoon  on one side and the other side was the Caribbean Sea. The Howler Monkeys were constantly heard while staying at Tortoguero, the resort was nice with wildlife everywhere.

 

 

4. The nature boat rides were fun, the wildlife in Costa Rica is awesome. We saw various species of monkeys, lizards, a sloth and birds.

 

5.  Fortuna, Costa Rica..our hotel had a view of the volcano, we had a tour set up to visit the Baldi Hot Springs and we also hiked on the Hanging Bridges trail at the Arenal Volcano National Park.

 

 

 

6. Guanacaste on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.  We stayed a nice resort on the beach. I think we were so busy during the day, I did not get in the pools at any of the hotels, all the pools looked beautiful.

 

7. A walk on the beach at Guanacaste Costa Rica. During our time here, we saw more monkeys and various bird species. 

 

 

8. Sunset at Guanacaste, Pacific Ocean

 

It is also Pearl Harbor Day, a day to honor the 2,403 service members and civilians who were killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. From the beginning of the tracking on Feb 15th through today,  282,829 Americans have died from the Coronavirus, more people have died from the virus than all the wars put together. 

 There is so much talk about the vaccine coming out. It almost time to make new memories and visit new places, hubby and I will be happy when we are able to travel again.  Mean time we  are happy and healthy, I hope everyone is doing well too.

 

 

Wear your mask and keep your distance!  Be safe, stay safe!

 

What's happening in your corner of the world? Please check out and visit the following memes and links. I hope to see you there.

 
Thanks to Angie the host of  Mosaic Monday

Thanks to LadyFi  the host of Our World Tuesday!

Thanks for visiting and commenting, have a happy day and a great new 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.

Costa Rica bird Part 5....Montezuma Oropendola

Montezuma Oropendola  is a very strange name for a cool looking bird I saw in Costa Rica. It is a resident breeder in the Caribbean lowland from Mexico to Panama. The males are mainly chestnut with a blackish head and a bright yellow tail.  The male song is heard during a bowing display and consist of  bubbling followed by loud gurgles. Sounds weird right?  I found these sounds to be funny and we heard them often at the Laguna Lodge in Tortuguero.

The Montezuma Oropendola's nest. I didn't count the nest but there were a lot of them hanging from the palm trees.

The Montezuma Oropendola is consider a common bird in parts of its range. It is seen in small or larger flocks foraging in the trees for insects, fruits including bananas. There are a lot of banana trees in Costa Rica.

The Montezuma Oropendola is a colonial breeder and builds it hanging woven nest of fibers and vines and hangs high in a tree.

For two days we were able to watch these birds flying around with there bright yellow tails making their crazy sounds and then land on the trees that held their nest.

Each colony has a dominant male which mates with most of the females following a elaborate bowing display. The female will lay two eggs which hatches in 15 days and they will fledge in 30 days. There are typically about 30 nest in colony.

I loved all the birds I saw in Costa Rica but I found the Montezuma Oropendola to be one of the more interesting birds.

You can also visit Michelle's Nature Notes and thanks to Michelle for hosting this great meme.

To see more critters you can visit Misty Dawn's Camera Critters Thanks to Misty Dawn for hosting. 

To see more wonderful birds and critter please visit the Friday Ark

As always thanks for visiting my blog and have a great weekend.