My final post of our 2 trips to Costa Rica is from Chayote Lodge, positioned above the central valley looking over San Jose. Wildlife at the hotel is quite poor and the grounds are full of very sterile blue hydrangeas but their guide, Jose Alfaro Vargas, more than made up for that. #birds #costarica

A golden-hooded tanager at Arenal Observatory Lodge, Costa Rica. (Trying to bite the bum of an Emerald tanager) Can you get any more multi-coloured than this? #Birds #BirdOfTheDay

Costa Rica again... whilst staying at the fabulous Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, we opted for a trip to the Rio Coto mangroves, about 20km south east of the hotel. No one else wanted to go (bloody WHAT!), so we had the boat and guides to ourselves. A fabulous trip out and a heronfest. #birds #costarica

Esquinas No3... The Piedras Blancas National Park is so much nicer than Corcovado. You won't see anyone, let alone have to queue on trail. Access to Piedras Blancas isn't easy and you're probably best off staying at one of the hotels within it, that have extensive grounds. #birds #costarica

Esquinas No2 ...The hotel is owned by an elderly Austrian who, essentially, created the Piedras Blancas National Park by buying up forest and unused farmland, which he eventually gifted to the Costa Rican govt. The hotel is currently up for sale for $2.5 million.

Esquinas No1... Costa Rica again. It's 2024 and the hotel is Esquinas Rainforest Lodge; certainly our favoiurite hotel in Costa Rica but possibly anywhere. Set in Primary rainforest, wildlife just wanders in and out at will. The variety is simply stunning and the guides superb. #birds #costarica

Costa Rica 2024. We ended that trip as we did our 2026 trip, with a little bit of luxury, this time a Kunken Lodge, at the northern end of Golfo Dulce. The hotel is sited within a strip of forest that joins Corcovado NP to Piedras Blancas NP.

We ended our 2026 Costa Rica adventure, as we did with our 2024 trip, with a little bit of luxury. We stayed at El Remanso on the southern tip of the Osa Peninsular. The hotel is set among secondary rain forest a couple of hundred feet above the Pacific.... #birds #costarica #elremanso

Continuing on my pics of our 2 trips to Costs Rica. This time I concentrate on the Hacienda Baru hotel, about midway between San Jose and Osa. It was perfect for us, with easy but varied trails, a beach and a pool and the place crawled with wildlife. #birds #costarica

In the garden today... Again on the pollinator magnet that is Marjoram (all the varieties). Holly blue butterfly; for once sitting still at my height, rather than flitting around the tops of the shrubs and never coming to rest. Love his stripey socks! #Butterflies #Dorset

I will never get a better shot of any dragonfly but being a stubborn old git, I persist in trying! Pure luck that he decided to hover over a patch of water that had no detail, so the autofocus had nothing else to look for. Migrant hawker, Radipole Lake RSPB, Weymouth. #dragonflies #Radipole

Surely no bird has a more piercing eye than a Sparrowhawk? Eyes that say, "Don't cross me, I'm in a bad mood!" On more than one occaision we've had sprawks visit the garden in the rain... which always seems to piss them off all the more? Taken in October 2024 #BirdOfTheDay #EyeOfTheWild #birds

Continuing our visits to Costa Rica, the next 3 posts are pics taken at Arenal Observatory Lodge in January 2026. Certainly the easiest birding I've ever experienced. #birds #costarica

Today, in my Dorchester, Dorset garden. A Patchwork leafcutter bee (on Helenium)... the little critters responsible for those circles cut out of your rose leaves. It doesn't have pollen baskets on its legs like bumblebees but carries it in a "pollen comb" under its abdomen. Very handome chap. #bees

Today in my Dorchester, Dorset garden. This bee; just 5mm long is dwarfed by the flower it's on... Rudbeckia "Goldsturm". It's a furrow bee but I can't be sure of the species, although it's likely to be a chalk furrow bee (Lasioglossum fulvicorne), given the time of year and this location. #bees

Today in my Dorchester, Dorset garden. Of the 270 odd hoverflies in the UK, this one, Myanthropa florea (on marjoram), has to be the easiest to identify; so easy in fact that it's been given an (unofficial?) common name of the "Batman Hoverfly" because it has the "Bat Logo" emblazened on its thorax

In our Dorchester, Dorset garden today... a Common carder bee (Bombus pascuorum) on Agastache "Black Adder". Our most common bee at this time of year. Canon 90D and Canon 100mm IS USM Macro, hand held. ISO 4000 at f8

3rd and last post from Pirate Cove, Drake Bay. My next post will be from Arenal Observatory Lodge, in January 2026. #birds #costarica

2nd Pirate Cove Hotel, Drake Bay post. #birds #CostaRica

Continuing a theme on Costa Rica; our 2 trips there. These are from The Pirate Cove Hotel, in Drake Bay. A really friendly place with small lodges overlooking the beach and a small river. Loads of bird movement up and down the coast with macaws, frigate birds and lots of raptors. #birds #Costa Rica

#3 Bougainvillia Hotel, San Jose, Costa Rica The next post will be on The Pirate Cove Hotel Drake bay.

#2 from Bougainvillia Hotel grounds, San Jose, Costa Rica. sorry but I've generally only identified the birds as my knowledge isn't good enough on bugs.

Some pics from our 2 Costa Rica holidays. I've organised them by hotel. Each trip we started at Bougainvillia Hotel on the outskirts of San Jose for a single night after arrival and a single night before departure. It's a very commercial hotel but it has 10 acres of grounds, full of trees and birds

In the garden with the macro lens. hopefully correct identifications with the pics...

When I left my main career 12yrs ago, I used about £4k of my lump sum to buy cameras and lenses. The cameras are dead and the lenses replaced... except one; the Canon EF 100mm ISUSM Macro. It's still a fabulous lens and I love taking pics of flowers and bugs with it, usually coupled to a Canon 90D

Despite being crazy (about wildlife) and taking thousands of pics when we go away, these three, non-wildlife pics are certainly among my favourites... all people (with permission) and from Nepal and India.

Some more tanagers...

The highlight, for me, of our Costa Rica trip in January, was the hummingbirds. I just stood in awe at the colours, their agility and tiny size. In the background though was another family of birds; the tanagers. Some just as bright but without the agility. A post for them...

Nearly got a lovely shot of a hoverfly (no idea of species), Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris), Hornet mimic hoverfly (Voucella zonaria) AND a hummingbird hawk moth on the same globe thistle (Echinops ritro). I was way too slow at getting my camera, by which time the moth had discovered the phlox.

...and some more...