The 'easy' birds...

You here them everywhere...in the towns, on the beach, in the jungle but...

not all birds are easy to capture in pictures.

I have been taking photos of 'easy' birds for many years.

The hummingbirds who will allow you to be within a few feet of them,

water fowl when you have food, and some birds with a zoom lens but I'm

concluding that I need a much more powerful telephoto lens to capture

the more elusive birds in trees.

Of the many photos I tried to get of some birds in Nicaragua all

but a few turned out. 

These were the 'easy birds...

Seems like the Nicaraguan Grackle is everywhere...

Tom and I were calling it the 'alarm clock bird' since it was always the first one

up in the morning making all kinds of interesting sounds.

I think I counted at least 5 different calls and songs from this 

gorgeous jet black bird...

the female is a taupe brown colour but with the same striking eyes...

On a boat trip on Lake Nicaragua one day, we witnessed a not so easy bird to capture pictures of but 

it's nests were very easy to spot...

These are colonies of Montezuma Orpendolas...that's one with the bright yellow tail in the photo above. They also make some crazy sounds.

They nest in these grassy 2 foot long sock looking nests and there

 were probably a hundred in one tree.

Kind of like bird condos!

this is a short video of the call...pretty impressive when you here about 30 of them calling!

The white egrets were numerous too....along the shore line mostly...

 and near this cattle trough...

This little kiskadee was hanging out there as well...

I was lucky one morning while on a rocky shore on the beach to have this handsome fella

allow me to take some nice shots...

The one bird I could watch for hours are the brown pelicans.

Gliding in formation like an aviary air force, tipping their wings on the waves...

Diving like arrows at the last minute.

 Again a not so easy thing to capture without the right equipment.

They love to hang around the fishing boats too...

But the easiest birds to photograph on my trip were this pair of ducks that

lived at one of the hotels we stayed at...

 The male was super friendly and let you pick him up but the female was a bit more cautious...

So a nod to the ones who aren't so shy!!

morning commute...

One sunny morning, (because there is no other kind in Nicaragua!)

we took a stroll down by the lakeside in Granada.

Seemingly idyllic we wandered towards the sparkling water,

spotting a cowboy during morning chores herding cows.

The cows here (vaca in Spanish) are a breed known as Nelore.

They are derived from an ancient cow from India.

As we got closer to the waters edge we started to notice the garbage.

Plastic bags and bottles everywhere mixed in with the cows...

 A ever growing problem in our world, especially in places of poverty where funding

for recycling is little to none...Plastic; perhaps our most ingenious and most devastating invention of our times....but that's another chapter to discuss...

Quite sad to see such beautiful waters in such a state...the little river running into the lake was much the same as the few stray horses made their way down stream...

Anyway, it seemed a much nicer life than the mass factory feed lots

in which many cows are subjected to live in...

Down on the pacific coast a week later we encountered a whole different picture.

The cows living by the eco lodge we stayed in had a cleaner more serene commute...

 "good morning ladies!"

Wandering through the open woods...

Once in a while we spotted a loner quietly making her way up into the hills...

...perhaps taking in the views towards the ocean and the beach we were staying on...

Those mountains in the background are Costa Rica...

...no doubt the cows taking care not to get too close to these massive thorny acacia trees...

A safe haven for a birds nest though!

The cows here are lovely, velvety things with

loppy ears hanging over big soft eyes...

 I was able to run my fingers briefly across her fur and it was like suede...

The water trough was a welcome hangout for an egret on this beautiful morning...

Love this old school wind mill that was powering the farm...

So goes the morning rush  hush hour in Nicaragua.