Tranquil Canoeing

Though I did not use the canoes on this visit to Maquenque, I snapped a couple of shots of others canoeing, which is no extra charge as a part of your stay in Maquenque. It was especially fun to hear little children gleefully trying to paddle and manipulate their canoes around the lake! Though this is the “tourist low season” (rainy season), the lodge was mostly full all five nights I was there and mostly visitors from Europe with the French outnumbering the others, then British second, Germans third. and then Canadians. I love the international experience of traveling inside Costa Rica and getting acquainted with some of the people. 🙂

Canoeing on the lake at Maquenque Eco Lodge, Costa Rica
Canoeing on the lake at Maquenque Eco Lodge, Costa Rica

¡Pura Vida!

Maquenque Eco Lodge Website

Muscovy Ducklings

Muscovy Duck & Ducklings, Chachagua Rainforest, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

On one of the small lakes or ponds at Chachagua Rainforest lived a family of Muscovy Ducks (eBird link) which are native to Central & South America plus Florida & the West Indies. For the second time I’ve been able to capture these resident ducks with babies. Everyone loves little ducklings! 🙂 See some more slightly older Muscovy Ducklings I photographed at Macaw Lodge near Carara National Park in my Muscovy Duck Gallery. Now here are 3 more photos from Chachagua Rainforest . . .

Continue reading “Muscovy Ducklings”

Living on Water!

Yes, the above water plants are floating on a lake in Chachagua and living on the nutrients they gain from the water as do the plants below call “air plants” that live on the nutrients from both the tree (or vine in this case) and the water in the very humid air of a rainforest. A gentle reminder for us to drink our 8 glasses of water a day! 🙂

Air plants living on nutrients from the tree and the water in the air.
Continue reading “Living on Water!”

Flycatchers in Nicaragua

Great Kiskadee, Lake Nicaragua

 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Lake Nicaragua

 

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Lake Nicaragua

 

Common Tody Flycatcher, Montibelli Nature Reserve, Nicaragua

 

Social Flycatcher
El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua

 

Dusky-capped Flycatcher, El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua

See my gallery of Nicaragua Birds

About Flycatchers on Cornell’s “All About Birds” that redirects you to each species page

 

Montezuma Oropendola in Nicaragua

Montezuma Oropendola 
El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua
Montezuma Oropendola 
El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua

Montezuma Oropendola 
Lake Nicaragua near Granada

Montezuma Oropendola Nests
Lake Nicaragua near Granada

About Montezuma Oropendola on Cornell’s NeotropicalBirds site where you can listen to them sing their unusual bubbly sound.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Coots and Gallinules! Nicaragua!

Some of the more interesting water birds are coots and gallinules in the same family:

Purple Gallinule
Lake Nicaragua at Granada

Common Gallinule
Lake Nicaragua at Granada
Common Gallinule
Selva Negra Mountain Resort, Nicaragua

American Coot
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

American Coot
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

About the Purple Gallinule on Cornell’s “All About Birds”

About the Common Gallinule on Cornell’s “All About Birds”

About the American Coot on Cornell’s “All About Birds”

“Maybe one day I could fly all over the world and meet other interesting birds.” 
― Jarod Kintz

More Water Birds from Nicaragua

Northern Jacana
Lake Nicaragua at Granada

Mangrove Swallow
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua
Spotted or Stilt Sandpiper
Coloring most like stilt (in book) but legs and beak seem short. Juvenile?
Or could it be a Western or Least Sandpiper? Pectoral?
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua
Tricolored Heron Flying, Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua
See another Tricolor on my Herons Post

Laughing Gull
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua
See another one on my April 1 Post, sitting on a post

Neotropic Cormorant

Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua
Neotropic Cormorant

Lake Nicaragua at Granada

Neotropic Cormorant

Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

About Northern Jacana on Cornell’s “Neotropic Birds” site

About Mangrove Swallow on Cornell’s “Neotropic Birds” site

About Sandpipers on Wikipedia

About Tricolored Herons on Cornell’s “About Birds” site

About Laughing Gull on Cornell’s “About Birds” site

About Neotropic Cormorant on Cornell’s “Neotropic Birds” site

And in my photo galleries of Costa Rica Birds:
Northern Jacana   –   Mangrove Swallow   –   Spotted Sandpiper   –   Pectoral Sandpiper   –   Neotropic Cormorant

Some More BIG BIRDS in Nicaragua

I’ve already done posts on the Peregrine Falcon, Highland Guan, Egrets & Herons, a Limpkin, and Toucans which are all kind of big too!  🙂

Osprey

Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

Gray Hawk 

El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua

Swallowtail Kite
El Jaguar Nature Reserve, Nicaragua

Turkey Vulture

Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

Black Vulture

Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

White Chinese Goose
Selva Negra Mountain Resort
White Chinese Goose
Selva Negra Mountain Resort

The Drama of a Peregrine Falcon & Blue-winged Teal

A Wildlife Encounter Story
From our boat we see a falcon with a duck.
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

The Peregrine Falcon lands with his Blue-winged Teal
We thought he would eat it there but . . .
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

Not liking us to watch I guess, he takes off again with the dead duck.
While flying over the water he drops the duck.
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

Blue-winged Teal picked up by my guide, Moises
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua
Many flocks of Blue-winged Teal on lake around us and . . .
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

Flying by us with Mombacho Volcano in background: Blue-winged Teal
Lake Apanas, Jinotega, Nicaragua

One never knows what serendipity encounter you will have with wildlife when walking or boating in the wilderness! But it seemed to happen frequently in Nicaragua, a very good trip!

“It’s a bizarre but wonderful feeling, to arrive dead center of a target you didn’t even know you were aiming for.” 
― Lois McMaster Bujold

About Peregrine Falcon on Cornell’s “All About Birds” site

About Blue-winged Teal on Cornell’s “All About Birds” site