Nicaragua: Chasing Birds, Butterflies & Howler Monkeys through the Coffee Fields & Mountains of Selva Negra
“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” - Vincent Van Gogh
I took an adventure to mountain jungles of Nicaragua, spending a week birdwatching with my buddy Jim on a coffee plantation called Selva Negra. One of our friends had been commissioned to complete a bird survey of the property to assess if they could turn it into an ecological park and Jim had been invited to assist in the survey and provide his feedback. He invited me to tag along to check it.
[Note: Selva Negra has since become a destination for eco-tourism and your can see on overview of the property we stayed at on their YouTube video. I can tell you, it’s come a long way since we were there. So happy for the owners!] https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=TLGG9_FRUiBeTyYyNTAyMjAyMQ&v=phAlkwV72xk&feature=youtu.be
Jim and I had spent our entire year dedicated to birdwatching. On almost every Sunday we would head out to some location in Massachusetts, typically before sunrise and birdwatch. Many times, right up to sunset or beyond if we did owling. With Jim’s connection to the birding community, we would get invited to participate in official bird counts and Audubon bird-a-thons. We visited 100’s of different locations across the state in 52 weeks… and probably the same amount of Dunkin’ Donuts. We joked that for as many Dunkin’ Donuts we stopped at, they should have been our official sponsors! I think we stopped 2 - 3 times every Sunday… close to 150 visits… lots of iced coffee and corn muffins!
And, when we weren’t birding in Massachusetts, we would take these 4- 5 day adventures up and down the East Coast; whether it was to Maine during the first days of spring migration (when it was literally still snowing), or again, later in the summer, Spring & Fall migrations at Cape May and literally, every little pond, sanctuary and tree stand in-between. We literally saw 100’s of different species and tens of thousands of birds. If I estimate the time I spent birdwatching that year, it would be at least 600 hours… That’s an average of 12 hours a week… birdwatching. I used to joke with Jim sometimes that we were having an informal “big year.”
So, what is a big year? The easiest way to describe it, is to reference the movie The Big Year, starring Steve Martin, Jack and Owen Wilson. It was about three birding rivals who, tired of being ruled by obligations and responsibilities, dedicate a year of their lives to follow their dreams to track & photograph as many different bird species as they possibly can within the borders of the United States. Their big year takes them on a cross-country journey of wild and life-changing adventures. You can check out the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCBAP2wId5M
The movie is a comedy, but is based on a real-life story and as someone who has spent a year dedicated to birdwatching. The best quote I could find that defines what it’s truly like to be that into it is Noah Strycker’s comment in his 7/26/16 Audubon article entitled, Two Guys Just Broke the North American Big Year Record – But How?
In the grandest sense, the Big Year is more than just a game. Though few mortals will ever tackle the endeavor, most of us can appreciate the decision to follow a passion to its outer limits. Dedicating a whole year to birds is an exhausting, exhilarating, occasionally demoralizing, and addictive pursuit, and anyone crazy enough to go the distance is in for a wild ride.”
That’s exactly how I felt when I would describe my own birdwatching passion to other people that year. It’s sounded crazy, getting up before sunrise, on a Sunday, to go search out a field sparrow or warbler. People definitely think you’re a bit odd when you tell them what you do for fun, but they're also fascinated. For me, it was definitely a wild & incredible ride. And so many of the places were so beautiful.
I have seen so many beautiful things in nature because of my birdwatching. So many incredibly, life-changing experiences. So many moments when I realized that the universe is so much bigger than me… as I have said to close friends, “in these moments, staring out over fields or vistas or into the skies looking for birds, I have witnessed God, I have seen God in action, and I have even talked to God in those moments… in nature, so dialed in, part of nature’s fabric; to be able to have those kind of life-changing, transformational moments is such a blessing…
My interest in nature and birds has taken me around the world and that is how I found myself on a flight to Managua…
Excerpts from my Nicaragua journal adventure:
11/1 – Saturday 9:00 PM EST
Landing in Managua in the next 35 minutes! Excitement! Anticipation. The adventure truly begins! I am curious to read what I will be saying about my adventure in a week. One observation/comment, I think we are the only people on this flight who are not part of a mission group. Everyone has been singing church songs and talking about “saving” the people “down here.” Interesting to listen to the conversations. I have been intrigued by not only what they’re saying, but the way they are saying it. Human beings are interesting people. We are all crazy in one way or the other. I am sure we all think that our perspective is the right one… I know a few of the people I spoke to on the plane could not get their head around the idea of going into the jungle to birdwatch. ‘Won’t it be dangerous?'‘ ‘And you’re doing this all alone?’ I guess I never really thought about some of those concerns…”
11/1 – Saturday 10:30 PM MST (essentially two hours behind home)
“So we’ve successfully arrived in Selva Negra, Nicaragua and we’ve already had quite the adventure. Bizarre, interesting, surreal, these are words I would use to describe the adventure so far. Highlights, as I am getting very sleepy after 12 hours of traveling and will need to shut off the light VERY SOON.
Managua airport reminded me of other Central American airports… or the Puerto Rico airport. Lots of people, a sea of humanity actually, crammed up against every glass window space, looking into the baggage claim area for their loved ones… and in they’re in large family groups, on average, 10+ people or more, per group. The scene is surreal. Inside the terminal, almost eerily quiet. Tired travelers wait impatiently for their bags in silence, the elevator music plays softly over the speakers. But every time the sliding door open… the white noise of the crowds and chaos storms the building.
Once on the street… mildly chaotic to say the least with several hundred people all milling around. The kids, (9 years and younger) descend on us like no one’s business looking for handouts and, like the guidebook warned, they are EXTREMELY persistent. I still have this image of three little kid’s faces pushed up against the window of our taxi as we drive away begging for money, yelling at us.
The drive from Managua to Selva Negra took a little more than two hours. In that time, the drive can only be described as harrowing… I don’t know if our driver was just feeling sleepy or maybe a little drunk, but he kept taking his glasses on & off and drifting all over the road… and I can tell you, the roads in the mountain are very narrow and windy at night, and with no lights, very dangerous. At one point I think we saw a dead guy who had been hit accidentally by a car and left for dead… the driving itself is crazy. People all over the road; cars, carts, people walking… in the dead of night! Lots of poverty. WILD!”
11/2 – Sunday 9:00 PM MST
“We saw a total of 63 species today! Fantastic. Great day for tropical birding. Once again, we were hardcore. Started right at 5:50 AM and literally, back at sunset. Here is the complete first day list:
[Note: LB = life bird, which means it’s the first time I have ever seen the bird]
Black vulture, turkey vulture, common moorhen(LB), rock pigeon, common ground dove(LB), white-tipped dove(LB), violet sabrewing, violet headed hummingbird, black-crested coquette(LB), rufous-tailed hummingbird(LB), green kingfisher(LB), golden-olive woodpecker(LB), strong-billed woodcreeper(LB), streak-headed woodcreeper(LB), ochre-billed flycatcher(LB), yellow-olive flycatcher(LB), dusky-capped flycatcher(LB), boat-billed flycatcher(LB), social flycatcher(LB), tropical kingbird, yellow-throated vireo, Philadelphia vireo, red-eyed vireo, brown jay(LB), bushy-crested jay(LB), band-back wren(LB), house wren, Swanson’s thrush, wood thrush, clay-colored robin(LB), Tennessee warbler, crescent-chested warbler(LB), tropical parula(LB), yellow warbler, magnolia warbler, black-throated green warbler, black-n-white warbler, northern waterthrush, Wilson’s warbler, golden-crowned warbler(LB), red-crowned ant tanager(LB), summer tanager(LB), blue-gray tanager(LB), yellow-winged tanager(LB), golden-hooded tanager(LB), yellow-faced grassquit(LB), white-eared ground sparrow(LB), buff-throated saltator(LB), rose-breasted grosbeak, great-tailed grackle, Baltimore oriole, Montezuma oropendola(LB), yellow-throated euphonia, Hoffman’s woodpecker, northern jacana(LB), and rufous-capped warbler(LB)
Highlights for me:
Golden-olive woodpecker
Montezuma oropendola
Violet sabrewing
black-crested coquette
yellow-faced grassquit
white-eared ground sparrow
red-crowned ant tanager
green kingfisher
yellow-throated euphonia
We also heard a number of parrots flying overhead and saw a few but couldn’t get a solid look at them. For animals we heard Howler Monkeys all day. The property of Selva Negra is beautiful. We drove along many of the farm roads and walked along many of them as well.
We got to take a good look at the coffee plants. This is a working coffee plantation. I took lots of pictures of different aspects of the coffee farm. The weather was gorgeous.
We had a fun dinner guest. Eddy Kuhl, the owner of the property sat with us, drank beer, and told us the history of the farm, the history of Nicaragua and his role in it! In 1979 he was one of the first people to oppose Anastasio Somoza, the Nicaraguan President, and was exiled to Costa Rica. When the government fell in 1979, Eddie went to Sweden to represent the new government and become the “unofficial” ambassador for the new regime. Later he bowed out but was always considered a loyalist and as a result, he never lost his farm to the Sandinistas. He did leave in 1980 and stayed in Houston for 9 years. Returned to the family coffee farm in 1989 and has been running it ever since. An incredible conversation with a true revolutionary…
I have yet another new title for my “Big Year” of birding. Migrating with the Warblers.
Same preface as before, some birding, some ecology, maps, bird lists, photos, hand-drawings, mostly the places and the people I’ve met this year & of course, my musings and life lessons while birding.
Why this title? I’ve been migrating with the birds all year. Cape May, Rangeley, Baxter, Cape May again, now Nicaragua… From the painted spots of color of the warblers in the snow, on the white birches in Baxter in April, to seeing the same warblers in the tropical jungles of Nicaragua… what a journey the birds have taken. We’ve both taken journeys over the same route…
11/3 – Monday 4:00 PM MST
“Another day of hiking & birding… Today we headed into the Cloud Forest. Not as many birds, but still saw some new ones:
Emerald toucanet
Blue-crowned motmot
Yellowish flycatcher
The toucanet was really, really cool! We saw four toucanets at once, all jostling around on a couple of branches. They are such a classic ‘tropical’ bird. Big. Green. Yellow beak. Red spot on its behind. A great bird. I got good glass on them too. One was sitting on a branch not 20’ away for a good two minutes. I tried to take a clear photograph, but it’s been extremely hard for me. I am not used to jungle lighting and it’s been challenging to set everything up right…
Today, the highlight by far was the troupe of Howler monkeys that literally passed right over us! 5 -6! Really close looks too! I could literally see all of their features in detail! The minor fur coloration differences… they were laying in the branches; one had its tail locked around a branch to forage for food. We must have watched them for over 20 minutes… the coolest thing! Nature is so incredible. SO INCREDIBLE!