It was another great day in Nicaragua, but we backed off on the pace of adventures a bit, so I’m starting to get caught up with my photo processing. Here’s one of the amazing birds from yesterday morning on the hotel grounds before we even set out for the day. It looked to be about the size of an ibis or a limpkin, but with a much shorter beak, and it has the fantastically descriptive name of double-striped thick-knee (Hesperoburhinus bistriatus).
We’ve been seeing plenty of parrots and parakeets, but they usually keep to the treetops, so the pictures tend not to be anything to write home about. This little cutie, however, perched not too high and even in front of a thick branch to give it not the worst background. Anyway, it turns out to be an orange-fronted parakeet (Eupsittula canicularis) and another first for me.
I’ve already shown you a variegated squirrel before, from Granada, but its coloration was a smidge outside the norm, so here’s one from Ometepe with the classic cinnamon underside.
This morning got off to a great start when I spotted this gorgeous banded wren (Thryophilus pleurostictus) in the bushes right outside our room.
After breakfast we went in search of petroglyphs, of which we found a few, and Capuchin monkeys, with which we had no luck. What we did have luck with, on the other hand, was this handsome brown-crested flycatcher (Myiarchus tyrannulus). It looks so much like the great crested flycatchers we see in Estabrook that I was sure I had seen one before, but ebird assures me that if I did, I didn’t record it, so I guess that makes it one more new bird for me. Woo hoo!
Finally, the trail to the petroglyphs run through some woods that were just full of butterflies, and here’s one of the most stunning: a Dirce beauty or zebra mosaic (Colobura dirce), I believe. Interestingly, at least for me, I saw at least two, and they both were perched on tree trunks facing straight down. Perhaps perching with the “eye spot” at the top is part of a defensive strategy.
Tomorrow, we start making our way home, and the first step will be catching the ferry back to the mainland and then driving back to Managua. There, we’ll stay at the Best Western across from the airport again and maybe get a chance to look for wildlife one more time on the grounds before night falls. Lastly, we all have early flights home the next morning.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 