Nature Photos

The end of the dry season has brought out a lot of wildlife around here, and we've been finding all sorts of interesting things.

This gray-headed tananger has been laying 3 eggs at a time, sitting on them, and hatching them for the past 6 weeks or so. This is her third clutch as far as we know. The nest is in a bush right off our porch, so it's easy for us to watch her. One evening when there were babies about ready to fledge in the nest, it started to rain. She brought a leaf big enough to cover the nest and the babies to protect them from the rain - a sort of a tent/blanket for the wee ones.

We found this bug on the rail of our dining room palapa. I thought it was a dead leaf and was about to brush it off when I realized it had legs. It's hard to tell from this picture, but it looks sort of like a praying mantis disguised as a leaf.

Julio found this red-eyed treefrog and brought him into the dining room for a photo shoot. This is only the second one I've seen here, even though they appear in all sorts of logos for resorts and businesses around here. I realized as I was talking to our guests about this little guy that I've now seen as many red-eyed treefrogs here as I have pumas in the wild - 2 of each.