Around 700 species of birds have been identified in Costa Rica, which puts the country right up there next to heaven for birders. And you don’t have to go to Corcovado National Park (although it is only less than 3 hours from centrally located Grecia) to enjoy a large variety of birds in your own backyard. Just a few of the Central Valley species that have been spotted in Grecia include the blue-crowned mot mot; yiguirro (the national bird, a rather drab colored robin with a call that sounds incredibly like,…. ‘yiguirro’);  oropendula (a large black bird with bright gold tail feathers, this bird makes a distinctive call while it does a sommersault on the branch it is sitting on – really!); and colibri, lots of colibri, which is the official name for a species of hummingbird native to Costa Rica, and the subject of Today’s Miracle.

In fact, there are over 50 species of hummingbirds in Costa Rica alone. Hummers are the smallest species of bird in the world and much is still not known about them. Biomechanic specialists study their flight for aerodynamic perspectives: the Giant Hummingbird’s wings beat at 8 to 10 beats per second, the wings of medium-sized hummingbirds beat about 20 to 25 beats per second and the smallest can reach 100 beats per second during courtship displays. Hummingbirds are also the only birds that can fly backwards.

They feed on nectar from flowers, which is easy to do with their specialized long beak that developed just for this purpose, but they also eat insects and spiders for protein. Although we usually see hummers zooming thru the landscape like Tie-fighters from StarWars, they do not spend all day flying, as the energy necessary would be prohibitive. The majority of their activity consists simply of sitting or perching. Hummingbirds feed in many small meals, consuming many small invertebrates and up to twelve times their own body weight in nectar each day. They spend an average of 10–15% of their time feeding and 75–80% sitting and digesting.

Recently, a colibri decided to make her nest outside on my deck in a gardenia bush. The bush is in a big planter, just under the patio eaves.

I discovered the nest in the last week of September. Mama had already made the nest, there was one egg laid and then a second one showed up a day later. The nest is tiny, shaped like a little cup and measures around 5cm (2”) tall and as wide. Sitting in a gardenia bush, you could easily mistake it for an old, spent flower.

Mama Colibri sat on the nest for about 3 weeks (hummingbird egg incubation is 14-23 days, depending), and then one day I discovered that the eggs had hatched and she was now feeding two little babies. At one to two days old they look like little worms – it’s almost hard to tell that they’re even birds! I brought some friends over to show them off, something Mama didn’t like too much as witnessed by her continual dive-bombing of us (colibri are known for being territorial).

With abundant flowers always in bloom here in Grecia, even in winter, there is no need to put out additional hummingbird feeders. I see them feeding off flowers even in the rain!

Day by day as the babies grow, I can watch the action from my desk while I work, and think about the miracle of diversity, the 50+ species of hummers that thrive here, and the little mother that decided to share the timeless cycle of life with me.

The little babies are preciosos (precious) and I am going to miss them when they take flight!

Some of these photos were taken by a friend using a Nikon digital SLR camera on a tripod with a timer.  The rest I took myself.  Be sure to bring your camera so that you, too, can enjoy yet another reason to live in Grecia, Costa Rica, and ponder all the wonderful miracles that happen here every day!

Not exactly wishing to date myself, but I will tell you that I have had a BBS (Bulletin Board System) and personally developed and monitored this baby on my ever-so-speedy and newly minted 56K baud modem whilst most of the world was still chunking around going from their 12K’s to their 24K’s.

Time marched on, thank God, and I thought the world was very cool as speeds increased and we transformed ourselves to the Internet forums, as they seemed to be the best method of drawing contributions of knowledge from the largest numbers of users. There are still many forums in use that cover a spectrum of topics heretofore unimaginable and while most are monitored and managed to a useful level of information gathering, there are many that invite disagreement, intolerance, and the abuse of participants either because there is some statistical rule that in any group of an infinite number of people there will be a jerk or two. Another probability is the sensitivity of so many topics either touching or bordering politics or religion. Our parents, or mine for sure, tried to teach me to stay away from both of those topics and I am sorry to say that they failed in their endeavors as I invariably wander into these topics with my friends who are always of differing religious or political persuasion. And certainly online these “wanderings” could cause more inflamed feelings to more people, so decorum is a constant requirement in the forum world. These are only a few of the topics that can lead a forum’s “threads” into the world of bickering and even name calling. And I have seen many a moderator whose power goes awry, and gentlemanly behavior and civil discourse go out the door.

Evolution carries on, as it always does, and the blog evolves from the online diary, where writers would keep an account of their lives day-to-day with the experiences that were learned as a result of those happenings. In the beginning, those writers were called “diarists” or journalists and in 1994 we began using the formal web word of “blog”. I was professionally advised not to have a forum to avoid the need for constant monitoring and administering of manners to the obvious end result of hurt feelings and also advised against a blog because of the time investment in disseminating this much information. Ah, but this is exactly what I was looking for, which I think has the most value to the readership and the least amount of aimless content wanderings or snippets of information without the full answers.

In the year prior to our move to Costa Rica, I had a friend with whom I exchanged emails on at least a daily basis about his experiences here in Costa Rica and I was asking him every question one could have about real estate, home construction, goods, and services available here and on and on. He was quite verbose, but the content of that year of emails prepared me indescribably for requirements of the move, residency, mail options, construction, architecture, restaurants, doctors, lawyers, banking, haircuts, telephones, television, high speed (low speed at that time) and as you can see, topics far too numerous to list. And now I have this valuable information that I want to have available to those like us who need that information and a place to find it. This does not mean that I will not shamelessly lead you to our real estate site, CostaRicaLandToday, from time to time or loudly proclaim a gem of a deal that I just discovered, but the real purpose of this blog is for you to have that friend that I had where you can learn the information you need to make a more informed decision to move or not to move (does that need to be footnoted?), seek the information that will undoubtedly help you in your transition, or give you advance notice of what to do prior to coming here to prevent the “I wish I woulda done……….” before we came down.

And this is certainly not to say that this is a monologue of only our experiences, but I am hopeful of engaging all of you in Costa Rica cyberland to contribute your experiences to the blog in a bloggish sort of way. “A real estate blog about everything Costa Rica” was created to gather and disseminate real information, real experiences, and true stories that will be interesting and helpful to those of us who live here and valuable information to those of us who are not here—yet. And if you are not here yet, then there is a reason for the shameless plugs to the CostaRicaLandToday website as it also has a fair amount of very useful transition information, and if you are getting close to “that” time whether here or there, you can also choose or shop for land, lots, homes, farms, investment property, and estates in the Central Valley. Those who are here might want to list their land, home, or lot and purchase something different. If nothing else, you can use the site and blog for due diligence in gathering of information. For those of us already here, we owe it to those up north to describe our paradise and its flaws so that they too know that there is another place outside the States, Canada, and Great Britain that is a beautiful tropical country with smiling faces and a perfect climate. And please, if you have a particular topic of information you would like to have covered, all you have to do is send me an email and I shall do my very best to get you your information.

That which I derive the most pleasure from is giving information about Costa Rica to those who want or need it. And secondly, I love to talk about El Cajon de Grecia, as we are as happy as we could be with our choice and would like others to see the opportunity as well. I feel like I have a secret and it shouldn’t be kept a secret. So my challenge to you is to ask yourself if you live in the very best place you could ever want to be and if you do not, please visit CostaRicaLandToday and see if we can help you achieve that.