Last December my wife and I spent an amazing two weeks out in Costa Rica. It was our first trip out of Europe, and we had an incredible time getting to know the local wildlife, countryside and culture of the Guanacaste province. Butterflies were of course my main interest, and I posted a report on here showing many of the species that we encountered.
I spent several weeks earlier this year trying to persuade my wife that we should make a return trip this year, and eventually she agreed that we could afford to return, but realistically we could only afford to go for one week. We booked a week in mid November, several weeks earlier than last year, at the end of the rainy season, as this was the cheapest week to stay.
Was it worth the tedium of an eleven hour flight for just one week out there? Would the end of the rainy season be any good for butterflies? And as we were staying in exactly the same location as previously, would we actually see anything different?
The answers to these questions would reveal themselves over the next seven days...
We arrived at our hotel at sunset on Monday 18th November, and awoke early the next morning, eager to explore the local habitat. Our hotel was surrounded by tropical forest, and our first walk around the local forest tracks found us re-acquainting ourselves with familiar old friends from last year's visit.
The first butterfly that we saw was the lovely Elf. These were very common this year, much more so than during our December visit last year, and this was true of many of the other species flying in the immediate area.
Theona Checkerspots were once again also a familiar sight, as was the Pale-banded Crescent.
Tropical Buckeyes were out in excellent numbers, and some of them were immaculately fresh. I was happy to get the following photographs!
The stunning Malachite was another species that was much commoner than last year, and one or two posed close enough to be photographed.
The Black Patch was frequently encountered, not just along the forest tracks, but also often in the hotel grounds.
The Ceraunus Blues and Carolina Satyrs appeared to be just emerging; low in numbers but very fresh.
Amongst the many skippers, we soon saw two familiar ones.
The Cracker butterflies were about in good numbers, and again, many of them were very fresh, like this Guatamalan Cracker below:
And finally, to end Part One of this report, a huge personal favourite of mine. This is a tiny butterfly, no larger than a small blue. It is one of the metalmarks, the Bright Scintillant, and I find the colour and patterning to be just sublime.I was very happy to see this species again, and to get a rather better photo than I managed last year.
This was a great start! We were to spend the first three full days of our week staying local, and over the course of these three days, several new species appeared on the wing which we hadn't seen last year. Details to follow in part 2.
