The Sights and Sounds of Nature

Mike has been having some issues with his hernia; my foot is still sore; and this past week, we’ve both been battling some kind of “stomach flu”.  If we’re not over it later this week; we’ll head to the clinic and see if we’ve picked up a virus, or worse a parasite.

As a result of so much “down” time; we’ve spent a lot of time on our balcony over these past 6 months.  Talking, discussing our future, and enjoying the sights and sounds of nature.

Too many of us don’t ever stop to “smell the roses” and it’s amazing the show that is being put on around you, if you only stop to notice.

Here’s some of the amazing things that we’ve seen and heard off of our balcony.

Before coming to Costa Rica, I’m not sure if I really knew what a macaw was.  Well, after having them fly over us, almost daily, for the past 5 months… I do now! 

They almost always travel in pairs, squawking the whole way; and they have beautiful brilliant colours on their backs and wings.

Almost every morning, we have a squirrel who makes his way from one almond tree to the other; and it’s quite the process watching it eat.

A few weeks ago; a beetle landed on a leaf right in front of the balcony.  I grabbed the binoculars, and quickly discovered that she was in labour.  Watched her for almost 3 hours; and eventually there was a line of tiny white eggs.  She quickly gathered them up; as a group of ants were quickly moving in on her; and away she flew. 

We also had a few leaf cutter ant colonies; and it was quite amazing to watch them devour a huge leaf within a matter of hours; leaving nothing but the stem.

Most days, we have a hummingbird flying around; we’ve had 2 turtle doves land on our railing; and we seem to have a resident motmot that likes to live in the tree in front.  Yesterday, we had a group of 4 tiny brilliant green birds fly past us; we think they were either budgies or parakeets. 

We have also heard the noisiest sicadas… ever!  We thought the sicadas at home were noisy; but they ain’t got nothing on the sicadas that we’ve had here.  From dusk up to an hour; there were half a dozen of them right near our balcony; and talk about loud… Sounded like chain saws choking and sputtering, and then this high pitched screech that went on for a few seconds; before starting all over again.  Glad that they’ve moved on; now we get to listen to the frogs and crickets instead.

We have also been entertained countless times by mother nature’s fireworks.  The manmade fireworks that we enjoyed between Christmas and New Years, were nice, but nothing compared to the lightning shows that we’ve had right in front of us.

For a couple of people who love to watch a lightning show, it’s been a pretty nice place to do it.  We’ve only been chased off the balcony twice due to heavy rain, but most nights we’re able to sit out there without getting wet.

So, even though we’ve both been sick from time to time over this past winter, we picked a heck of a nice place to do it!  And got to see some things that were new to both of us.

Please click here to look at our pictures.