When I woke up it was raining a torrent. Hmmm...this did pose a problem for the adventurer who hates rain down her neck.
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So as soon as it was light enough (6:30ish) I was tackling the pile of treasures I'd collected on the beach the day before, including some odd little horned things that look like bullhorn acacia seedpods. Anybody know anything about these in Costa Rica? I've seen something similar in Kenya, but I didn't know they
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As I sat sketching in the dim morning light, the flock of Great Curassows flitted by again. These big birds (turkey size) move very fast, and this was the best picture I could get ~ all the others were blurred. The males are solid black with a yellow beak decorations, but the females are this wonderful cinnamon red with barred tails and
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Later that morning, during a lull in the rain, I decided that I was going hiking anyway. The uppermost trail, Passiflora, beckoned, and I took off with my sketching bag encased in a plastic bag to protect my sketchbook and watercolor pencils from a possible shower. Here's the Passiflora Trail at right looking a bit mysterious.
There were lots of things to see, including lichen-striped trees, termite nests attached to
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A
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The wet earth and bark gave off a spicy, earthy scent, and as the rain shower trailed off to mist I resumed my hike, soon coming across these pretty woody flowers, which I sketched later under drier circumstances.
But
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But to cheer me up, Mother Nature sent along another adventure. Adri saw me sketching heliconias along a path and asked
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"No!" I exclaimed, and she grinned, saying "Then come see!" and led me to a tall shrub near the swimming pool where, right at eye level, a small boa constrictor was engulfing a Great Crested Flycatcher (Gera had identified the bird ~ it was way too far down the snake's gullet for me to tell).
The boa had apparently been waiting, hidden by leaves, when the bird landed on the branch next to it. The bird
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The snake had anchored its body to the branch with a couple of tail loops, and hung down below, coiled twice around the bird.
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Standing only inches away, I sketched and photographed the process. There was only time to get the outline in the fading light, so I took photos to help me finish it later. The whole process took several hours. Having gotten there late, it was dark by the time I finished sketching. By by the light of my flashlight I could see the yellow breast feathers and rufous wing feathers through the stretched-tight skin of the snake's belly. The whole adventure was, in a word, awesome.
By the way, the last picture of the boa's dinner, at
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Tomorrow I'll write about leaving Costa Rica and arriving in amazing Iquitos, Peru (not Quito, Ecuador ~ that's a different place).
'Til then!
6 comments:
Your adventures in Costa Rica sound wonderful! Lovely sketches.
Thank you, Elizabeth. I'm having loads of fun reliving/writing about them on this cold, rainy Oregon day!
This is a wonderful post. But the snake gave me the creeps a little. And they don't usually bother me.
Such things aren't for everyone! There were several guests at the lodge who were a bit leery of it, too.
I've had lots of exposure to such things and my main reaction is intense curiosity.
I guess I've pretty much come to terms with the old phrase "Nature, red in tooth and claw" (I think that's from Tennyson), although I can get as sentimental as anyone else.....
Those "bull horns" are really a thornes from an acacia. It is called "cornizuelo" (horned) or Acacia CornĂgera.
Those holes are made by ants, that live inside the cornizuelo and keep parasites away.
It is a common plant in Costa Rica.
Here a link for the description of the plant:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_cornigera
Thank you, Edgardo. I appreciate the information, and the link is very good, too. I live in Belize, now, and we have the cornizuelo here, as well -- and those ants bite HARD! They protect the plant well.
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