Nicaragua, Day 2. More new beauties…

As promised, Anne and Deb did indeed go to Spanish class this morning, but we had breakfast before they went, and even before that we had a solid hour to look for wildlife from the rooftop patio of our hotel as the sun came up over Granada.

There was plenty to see, but the best new sighting from that stretch was this Hoffmann’s woodpecker (Melanerpes hoffmannii), who posed beautifully on this post in front of a bright red wall, and whose range is limited to just Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

There was also a swallow that we kept seeing overhead and that we couldn’t get a good enough look at to identify. But when I set out after breakfast, look who was waiting for me on a wire over the sidewalk just outside our hotel. It turns out not to be a swallow at all but is a martin instead, and a gray-breasted martin (Progne chalybea), to be exact. They have a much larger range than the woodpecker, and it extends from Mexico all the way to Argentina.

From that sidewalk, I hiked down to the shore of Lake Nicaragua, and I followed the shore until I hit a small river that empties into the lake. On the river is where I found only my second ever least grebe.

As I scoured the river for other sights, look who parked right on the grass behind me: the first southern lapwing I’ve seen since Anne and I visited Brazil a couple of years ago.

Finally, back in the river, I came across a small flock of eight black-necked stilts, which we last saw in the Horicon marsh just last summer. They are spotted from Alberta to southern Chili, but most of Nicaragua appears to be a non-breeding part of their range.

I saw plenty more, but it’s getting late, and those are the highlights. Our plan for tomorrow is about the same as today’s, which is great because I’ve found it usually takes me a few days to find all the wildlife lurking in a place like this. I’ll keep you posted.