Signs of Life in Estabrook Park

“Blinding, Fierce, and Shockingly Electric”

This morning in Estabrook Park, the air was a little colder, the wind was a little lighter, and the clouds where a whole lot thicker than yesterday. Ah well, Meat Loaf is proven right yet again. The wildlife was pretty much the same, except that I didn’t see any deer, and this magnificent creature, a red-tailed hawk, put in a somewhat-veiled appearance over the upstream island instead.

The good news is that this finally gives me the opportunity I’ve been waiting for, to tell you a fascinating story of life and death in Nicaragua. It started on Saturday morning after breakfast at our lodge on Ometepe. I’ve been calling it a hotel, but lodge really fits better. Anyway, we were walking back to our cabin when I spotted this enormous, shiny, dark-blue wasp on the ground. I would estimate its size and shape to be a good match for the first two digits of my pinkie finger, so I snapped this picture and tried to reposition myself for a better look.

By the time I had moved, so had the wasp, and I watched it latch onto a clump of something and begin to tow it. Upon closer inspection, that clump of something turned out to be a smallish tarantula! And that makes the wasp a Mexican tarantula-hawk wasp (Pepsis mexicana). Meanwhile, my sources tell me that the hapless tarantula is likely a Costa Rican blue front tarantula (Aphonopelma crinirufum).

As amazing as all that sounds, a giant wasp battling a tarantula, like some B horror movie, the story of what happens next is even grimmer. The wasp sting paralyzes the spider but does not kill it. Instead, the wasp drags it into a burrow, possibly even the spider’s own burrow, and lays an egg on it. “When the wasp larva hatches, it creates a small hole in the spider’s abdomen, then enters and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep the spider alive.” How’s that for breakfast hot and fresh?

But wait, there’s more! Out of curiosity, and not completely idle, either, I wondered how painful the sting would be of such a large wasp. Well, it “is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, and is described by Schmidt as “blinding, fierce[, and] shockingly electric”.” Fun, eh? Even funner, the warrior wasps we saw on Thursday also have “an extremely painful sting (rating at the highest level of 4 in the Schmidt sting pain index).” Sheesh! That’s two of the top three! Meat Loaf, you’ve made your point!

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Mexican Tarantula-hawk Wasp dragging a stung Costa Rican Blue Front Tarantula

Okay. Enough of that, and time for a pallet cleanser. Here’s a pretty limpkin that Deb spotted in the little marshy yard behind our cabin on Ometepe.

Here’s a young mantled howler monkey checking out the oddly hairless and pale apes on the ground below.

Finally, here’s one more gorgeous butterfly, a band-celled sister (Adelpha fessonia), from that amazing hike to see petroglyphs.

The forecast for tomorrow looks awesome, so maybe some little critters will finally show their faces.

Back to Estabrook again…

It was great to be back in Estabrook Park this morning, as always, and the gorgeous weather was just icing on my cake. The sky was clear, the winds were pretty light, and temps were in the mid-twenties: about as perfect as mid-February can get. It looks as though it was cold while we were away because the ice on the river was about as thick as I’ve ever seen it, and the open water is confined to just a few narrow and windy ribbons.

When I first saw the ice, I worried a little that it would be too much for our visiting ice birds, but I needn’t have, and here’s the drake of a goldeneye pair near the south end.

A fun surprise was encountering four deer coming south on the river path. There was one buck with antlers and three likely does without. Two of the does and the buck quickly scampered up the bluff, but the last doe hung out for a second, either out of curiosity or to see if it really had to make the climb or not. I didn’t mind giving it time to make up its mind, but I wasn’t turning around and heading the other way either, so it eventually opted to join its comrades atop the bluff. “Sorry, Sweetie.”

At the next sliver of open water, above the falls, I found our only common merganser of the morning, this wide-eyed hen. My long lens foreshortens distance a bit, but you can get an impression of just how narrow are the gaps in the ice.

Finally, at the northwest end, just downstream of the Port Washington Road bridge, there was a much wider patch of open water, and that’s where the mallards and the Canada geese had congregated, but there was another bird napping on the ice who I initially thought was another common merganser. Upon closer inspection, however, I realized that this was our very first red-breasted merganser of the winter in Estabrook. Woo hoo! Even better, spectacle-wise at least, he’s a drake, and their spiky head feathers rival those of the common merganser hens. Here’s hoping he sticks around for a bit so I can get a better picture.

The birds were oddly quiet around the pond, and I searched in vain for the Cooper’s hawk who I figured must be the cause, but I came up empty. Heck, I couldn’t even catch a woodpecker posing in front of that gorgeous blue sky. Oh well. That leaves me a little room to show you a couple more sights from Nicaragua.

Besides iguanas, we saw plenty of house geckos clinging to interior walls, and this one rose-bellied lizard (Sceloporus variabilis) on the grounds of our hotel on Ometepe. I thought for sure I’d seen one before even if I hadn’t shown you, but I can find no record to that effect, so I suppose this is a handsome new creature for me.

I’ve shown you plenty of doves before, but this is the first presentable picture I’ve managed to capture of a white-tipped dove (Leptotila verreauxi). It gets its name from the white tips on its tail feathers, which isn’t too surprising, but I find it a little interesting that “the eye-ring is typically red in most of its range, but blue in most of the Amazon and northern South America.” Huh.

Finally, here’s yet another butterfly from that hike we took on Sunday in search of petroglyphs. This one is a tiger longwing (Heliconius hecale), and the Wikipedia article on them lists twenty-nine (29!) subspecies. Yikes, that seems like a lot!

Lastly, I’d like to thank Anne for planning such an awesome trip for us again and my sister Deb for coming along and helping us spot such amazing sights.

Nicaragua wrap-up…

Anne and I made it home safely this afternoon after a couple of wonderfully uneventful flights, and it appears that I will have no trouble getting back into Estabrook Park tomorrow morning. In the meantime, let me show you a few more sights from Nicaragua.

The river we were kayaking up on Saturday petered out into a wide-open soggy field, and when we arrived, it was full of ducks. A couple were the Muscovy ducks I already showed you, and the rest, dozens and dozens of them, were black-bellied whistling-ducks. Long-time readers may recall that we’ve already seen birds by that name in Brazil, but they don’t quite look the same. Well, it turns out that those were probably “South American adults (subspecies autumnalis)“, and the ones in Nicaragua were probably “northern juveniles (ssp. fulgens)“.

Another bird that we’ve already seen before, just this fall in Belize, is the roadside hawk, but this one at our lodge on Ometepe was way more accommodating and let me take a very nice portrait.

As I mentioned when I showed you the purple gallinule on Saturday, there were also common gallinules, which we have seen at Horicon, and they’re not quite as flashy as their purple cousins, but they are still pretty sharp looking birds, if you ask me.

I saw plenty of jacanas on this trip, and I just showed you one this fall, but that was an adult, so here’s a youngster, which I haven’t shown you since Brazil.

Finally, here’s one more butterfly from that hike we took on Sunday in search of petroglyphs: a Dyar’s or confused swallowtail (Battus ingenuus). In my picture, it sure looks like it has a long thin spar extending from its wingtip, which got me all excited, but my sources make no mention of such a thing, so perhaps it is just a stray strand of spider silk, or something like that. We may never know.

In closing, let me just say that Nicaragua exceeded all my expectations. The people are super friendly, the wildlife was amazing, the food was delicious, the driving was easy, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking to get off the beaten path a bit.

A fine Nicaraguan sendoff!

We enjoyed one last beautiful morning on Ometepe today, and it almost seemed as if this pair of tiger-herons had come to see us off. Actually, it is far more likely that they were searching for nesting sites, but either way, they put on one heck of a show.

Then, as we sat down for our last breakfast beside Lake Nicaragua, a young black-crowned night-heron caught and, after a long struggle, swallowed a huge fish whole. My sources tell me that the fish was likely a tilapia.

Our ferry ride and drive back to Managua was mostly uneventful, and I was able to return the rental car one more time with no tickets, scratches, or dents. As we sat by the hotel pool enjoying our supper, two large and noisy parrots flew in and perched nearly above us. Best of all, they turned out to be my first yellow-naped Amazons (Amazona auropalliata) and our 95th bird species for this trip. Not bad for amateurs!

Another one of those 95 is this Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) from our kayaking adventure yesterday. I read that they are “native to the Americas, from the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and Mexico south to Argentina and Uruguay.” Furthermore, “the species was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus [the guy who cooked up the “binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms”] in his 1758 edition of Systema Naturae as Anas moschata, literally meaning “musk duck”.”

Finally, here’s another one of the beautiful butterflies from the hike yesterday, a malachite (Siproeta stelenes). I read that “it is named for the mineral malachite, which is similar in color to the bright green on the butterfly’s wings.”

Our flight is scheduled to leave at 6:45 tomorrow morning, but at least the airport is just across the street. If things go smoothly, I should be back in Estabrook Park Wednesday morning. Keep your fingers crossed!

Catch-up day on Ometepe…

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.

Ometepe pulls out all the stops!

Wow! What a day we had on Ometepe! It was a great sign when I spotted gallinules, jacanas, stilts, and egrets right from the back porch of our hotel building. If I had to choose just one highlight of the morning, it would have to be this crested caracara (Caracara plancus), the first one I’ve been able to show you, only because I’ve been trying to get a presentable picture since I first spotted one when we first arrived in Granada.

The rest will have to wait for another day, because I have even more to show you from our afternoon. The island of Ometepe comprises two volcanoes connected by a low isthmus, and the isthmus is nearly split by a river that meanders through a wide wetland. After lunch, we rented a couple of kayaks and hired a guide to take us up that river. Our guide was quite good, but we had already seen just this morning most of the wildlife he was able to show us. There were a few notable exceptions, however, so here they are.

I’m thrilled to report that pacific screech-owls (Megascops cooperi) appear to be quite common here, because our guide found us a pair in a tree overhanging the lake before we even entered the river, a third one over the river, and we just heard a fourth out the window of our room back here at the hotel.

As I already mentioned, I saw gallinules first thing this morning, but they were of the “common” variety, which we get to see in Horicon Marsh nearly every time I visit. This afternoon, on the other hand, I got to see my first purple gallinule (Porphyrio martinica), which is a tad more colorful.

We’ve seen snail kites before, most recently in Belize, but I haven’t been able to get a portrait of one like this until today.

A sight to rival the owls had to be a small colony of proboscis bats (Rhynchonycteris naso) simply clinging to the underside of a leaning tree trunk. Man, did they blend in, and we had a heck of a time seeing them even when we were right under them. As my mom used to say, “if they were snakes, they would have bitten me.” Good thing they are “exclusive insectivores,” eh?

But wait, there’s more. This sleepy head is our very first common pauraque (Nyctidromus albicollis) and a relative of the common nighthawk we saw in Estabrook for the first time just last spring.

Lastly, back at our hotel, here is a western giant swallowtail (Heraclides rumiko), another first for me and only my fourth swallowtail species.

Once again, it is time for me to hit the sack, and I hope we take it a little easier tomorrow so I can catch you up a little more on all we saw today.

A fine farewell from Granada…

This is gonna be short, ’cause it’s late, and I am beat. Anne and Deb did graduate from their Spanish classes this morning, and then we did drive down the lake shore to catch a ferry to the island of Ometepe, but before that all happened, I got to visit the lake front and river in Granada one last time.

It turns out that that cute little green kingfisher I showed you Wednesday was the Mrs., as you may have noticed, and today the Mr. decided to show his gorgeous face. What a charmer, eh!

As I cross the river, I noticed a bustle in the trees across the street, and it turned out to be caused by this fascinating creature, my very first variegated squirrel (Sciurus variegatoides). If you’re saying to yourself right now, “that looks like no variegated squirrel I’ve ever seen,” well, that could be because “the several subspecies differ in appearance and there is often a considerable variation between the appearances of individuals in the same population.” Furthermore, “in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, some individuals have pale underparts and tails,” which appears to be the case here.”

Finally, the last new bird I saw in Granada just happens to be this stunner, my very first turquoise-browed motmot (Eumomota superciliosa), the national bird of Nicaragua. I realize that this picture is not quite the portrait that the Lesson’s motmot let me have, but I can just hear this cheerful-looking little bird opining, “I’m the dang national bird! Be thankful you even got a picture at all!” To which I would reply, “oh, I am! I most definitely am!”

Now, I’m gonna hit the sack so I can get up and look for wildlife tomorrow.

On the 5th day, Nicaragua rested…

We did make it to the Masaya volcano this afternoon, and we did see and smell plenty of sulfurous gas wafting out of a giant caldera, but we did not manage to see any glowing lava. Oh well. There is enough gas these days, however, that they do try to limit tourists’ time at the rim to just five minutes. After that, since we were already there, and they have a whole park surrounding the volcano, we walked around a bit to see who we could see.

The first fun sight I managed to capture on film is of this black spiny-tailed iguana crawling through the underbrush. We just saw one on Caye Caulker last fall, but I read that “coloration varies extremely among individuals,” and this one is much more colorful.

While I was busy with the lizard, Anne spotted this tiny bird flitting about in some branches over the trail. I took a couple dozen pictures, and I was relieved to find that one came out, which enables us to ID this cutie as a white-lored gnatcatcher (Polioptila albiloris). It is only my second gnatcatcher, after the blue-grays we see in Estabrook, but it is the 700th species for which I’ve uploaded pictures to ebird, and the 800th species I’ve posted on ebird, at all. “Thanks, Darlin’!”

The next most interesting sight in the park was this wasp nest hiding in plain sight on the side of a tree trunk. My sources tell me that it is the nest of northern warrior wasps (Synoeca septentrionalis). I read that they are “known for possessing an extremely painful sting,” and upon hearing the name, my sister expressed gratitude for the height at which they built this nest.

We didn’t have a ton of time to spend at the park, and those are the highlights, so let me show you a few more pictures from yesterday. Here’s a groove-billed ani beside the river, which we first saw in Belize, but this poor thing was all alone and had no one to snuggle with, and I sure hope that gets rectified soon.

On the other side of the river, I found another gorgeous black-headed trogon, which we last saw in Guatemala.

Finally, how could I not show you another motmot picture, especially when it let me take a portrait like this.

Tomorrow is graduation day for Anne and Deb, and then we drive down the lake shore to catch a ferry to the island of Ometepe. There is supposed to be great wildlife there, and if I get pictures of any, I’ll be sure to show them to you.

Nicaragua day 4 says “hold my beer!”

The sky was cloudy and the air was nearly still when the sun came up in Granada this morning, and I did not know that either were even possible here, so after three days of clear skies and strong winds, both were a treat.

The next treat was spotting this tiny green kingfisher at the river. Even better, after a couple of false starts, it decided to give us a nice pose. I’ve only ever been able to show you one from Belize, and it wasn’t quite as accommodating.

With the wind not howling for a change, I was even able to get my first butterfly picture of this trip, and here it is, a white-rayed metalmark (Melanis cephise).

Once Anne and Deb were done with their Spanish lessons for the day, we did indeed drive over to the Apoyo Lagoon Natural Reserve, and it is a spectacular crater lake, but I was underwhelmed with the wildlife, at first. After lunch, however, we went for a little hike, and things really started to turn around when Anne spotted this stunning common squirrel-cuckoo (Piaya cayana). Deb had actually seen one at Tikal just last fall, but I failed to get it on film at the time. Thankfully, I had better luck today!

There were also monkeys in the treetops, and these ones turned out to be mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata). We had all just seen (and heard!) howler monkeys at Tikal, but none of us even knew there was more than one type, despite those having the fancy name of Yucatán black howler monkeys. Ha!

The star of the show for today, if only because Deb had heard that it is the national bird of Nicaragua, was this astounding motmot. Actually, the national bird is the turquoise-browed motmot (Eumomota superciliosa), and this is a Lesson’s, or blue-diademed, motmot (Momotus lessonii), instead. But hey, it’s our first motmot, so give us a break!

Finally, we drove down to the water, and the parade of amazing wildlife continued unabated. We saw egrets, herons, grebes, and even frigate birds, but just as we were packing up to go back to our hotel, this gorgeous ringed kingfisher made the nicest portrait.

We made it back to Granada just before dark and returned the rental to the fire station parking once again with no tickets, scratches, or dents. Woo hoo! The plan for tomorrow, after Spanish class, is to drive to the Masaya volcano and try to see some lava. Wish us luck!

Nicaragua continues to deliver on day 3 …

It was another gorgeous morning in Granada, but Deb and I didn’t have much luck before breakfast today, so when she and Anne went to class, I went back to the river that had been so fruitful yesterday. There, I didn’t see any more species that were new to me, but I did finally get a picture of a green heron, which we get to see all summer in Estabrook Park, and which I kept chasing in vain yesterday. It looks as though it may be a youngster, and perhaps it hasn’t yet learned that it’s not supposed to let me see it.

As with the lapwing just yesterday, I needed eyes on the back of my head while I was searching the river because of the action right behind me. This time, it was an Inca dove strutting around on a basketball court, and I haven’t seen one since my first visit to Guatemala, nearly a year ago.

With no new sights there, I continued along the lake shore and discovered a whole new biome on the other side of the river with lots of tall trees creating a pretty good canopy, and it didn’t take long for this beauty to appear in it. In case you don’t recognize it, this is another Montezuma oropendola, which we first saw in Guatemala just this past fall. As I was reading a little more about it, it was fun to learn that “in total body mass, the males are 100% bigger than the females, which … makes [it] one of the most sexually-dimorphic birds in the world.“

Luckily, there were also some openings in the canopy, and one was big enough to let me catch sight of and even sneak a picture of our very first wood stork (Mycteria americana). I had hoped to see one this trip, and its plumage resembles that of the white stork we saw in South Holland, but its face looks more like that of a pale vulture with a very long beak. I read that “it is the only stork species that breeds in North America,” and maybe I’ll see one there someday, but today I’m thrilled just to see one at all.

Finally, I spotted another large bird in the canopy, and it reminded me of the brown jays we saw in Guatemala, which I somehow failed to show you, but this one turns out to be our first ever white-throated magpie-jay (Cyanocorax formosus). Sadly, I cannot find anything definitive on how they got the “magpie-jay” moniker, other than the suggestion that their heads are “jay-ish”, and their long tails are “magpie-esque”. It is a little hard to see in this picture, but its tail is about as long as its head and body together.

Tomorrow, as soon as class is done, we’re heading off to the Apoyo Lagoon Natural Reserve, which is supposed to be rife with wildlife, so if I come up empty in the morning, I might still be able to get something to show you by dinner. Keep your fingers crossed.