Monday, June 5, 2017

Turtle Beach


One peaceful morning near the city of Leon, Nicaragua, we bird watched by boat in the Reserva Natural Isla Juan Venado. I didn't want to put down my camera or leave the beach. There were too many wiggly reflections, bobbing boats and wandering pigs to capture... 




I love seeing things like this in Central America. It's no joke. There are usually more cows, horses and pigs on a beautiful beach than people. 







Eventually, we slowly headed out into the mangrove. It really was a peaceful, fun ride. All of the usual avian suspects were there. We saw mangrove swallows, sizzor tails, herons, egrets and a boat- billed heron. The guide even pointed out a dove nest with an ugly little baby. 



There were rustic dug out canoes laden with locals and wood floating by. 



We also stopped at a turtle hatchery. It wasn't the right time to experience hatching turtles or do a release, but it was still interesting. I'm glad that instead of a soup pot, now,  many of the little critters are making it out to sea. With a little help. 



The stats.





Sacks full of future turtles. 



Dumbo dog!





Afterwards, I snapped a few more photos as I wandered through the shallows. 


And after that, burgers at the Lazy Turtle on Las Penitas beach. Yum!

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24 comments:

Mascha said...

Wow, what a lovely series! So peaceful... Thanks for sharing.
Greetings from Germany

Carol @Comfort Spring Station said...

I enjoyed going on your excursion. Lovely

Pat Tillett said...

One beautiful scene (and photo) after another.
Seeing all those future turtles made my heart feel good.
Great post Sharon!

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

A beautifu way to bird watch on that tranquille water in one of those boats

carol l mckenna said...

What a beautiful place ~ Your first photo is fantastic ~ so creative ~ love the others too!

Photo Cache said...

Your photos are so beautiful, especially those of the boat.

Worth a Thousand Words

NCSue said...

The photo of the pig cracked me up! And I enjoyed all the shots.
Thanks for linking up at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2017/06/my-happy-place.html

Sue (this n that) said...

So lovely to see things through your eyes Sharon. It's still funny to see those random pigs.
I love the colours of the boats on the water.
Great burgers too :D)

Lady Fi said...

Gorgeous shots!

DUTA said...

One gets relaxed just by looking at your pictures. The colors of blue and green are great "tranquilizers". So are the boats on the still water and happy critters on the sandy beach.

DJan said...

Wonderful pictures, Sharon. You take the best ones and make me just a little jealous. That strange spotted pig sure caught my eye. :-)

Judy Biggerstaff said...

Great series of pics. Thanks for sharing.

Rohrerbot said...

Looking forward to birding in your area next week! Well, I'm not sure it will be exactly in your area but we are flying into Liberia and then heading to various birdy areas. Such a beautiful country. The last time I was there was back in 96 observing the Scarlet Macaws of Corcovado National Park.

Anonymous said...

I always love visiting your place here. You are always showing me some really neat places that are off the beaten path, which is my favorite way to travel. Great post.

Lisa @ Lisa Kerner - Simply Living Photography

LV said...

Thank you for this wonderful outing with you. Only way I get to enjoy other parts of the world is through bloggers lens.

Shail said...

Thank you for sharing these lovely pictures.

Ruth said...

You do get to see the most interesting things in Central America, from dogs eating pop corn or bananas to people wearing shirts saying "Kick my (you know what)." The words were in English, so, they didn't know what they were wearing. #TPThursday

Spare Parts and Pics said...

Seems so funny to see pigs on a beach!! Dumbo dog has huge hears, like my chihuahua, but a much bigger dog.

Budget Travel Talk said...

Thanks for your gorgeous quirky beach scenes from Nicaragua. It is quite normal to see farm animals on the beach in Cambodia also. We saw a herd of about 8 cows on Otres Beach and a pig. I think I would like to visit Nicaragua.

Linda Hensley said...

It seems very blue in Nicaragua! Beautiful photos, and I'm glad they're helping the turtles. I've never seen sacks of turtle eggs like that before. Cool :)

Indah Nuria Savitri said...

I went to Nicaragua but just manage to visit Managua. Such a beautiful island..

Stewart M said...

Great set of shot. Mangroves are so important.

Like Dumbo!

Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

Jeanna said...

You are making me want to go to the beach now, even though it's almost too hot for that. I love the photo with the turtle egg and all the rest. Cheeseburger, mmmm. I only saw cows on the beach once and they'd made their way from the pasture to the river. I asked someone in the area about it and he said they do that all the time in the heat. So many birds to see and a cute pup as well. I thought the pig in the water was a dog, lol.

betty-NZ said...

Even though you didn't see little ones, I can imagine that it was fun to see what the place was all about. Great photos of the animals and love that dog!