Thousands of birds (not joking)

Yesterday's afternoon, I went to the Juan Díaz mangroves (just to the east of Panama City) with Rafael Luck, taking advantage of the quite high tide and the last sunlight of the day. Right in front of the new Santa María development, we found in a marshy area literally thousands of shorebirds resting and waiting for the night. Despite there was not a great diversity, the numbers were simply impressive. As you will see, we found mostly Western Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers, with several Collared Plovers, only two (or three) Wilson's Plovers and a little flock of Least Sandpipers (there is only one in the last photo, can you find it?).

At the opposite end of the pond was a huge flock of Short-billed Dowitchers, accompanied by Willets, Whimbrels, a single Lesser Yellowlegs, several Black-bellied Plovers and two Blue-winged Teals.

It was a great assembly of shorebirds (and teals)!

P.D. 1: we got too late to the mangroves, seeing only some Black-necked Stilts.

P.D. 2: if you think these numbers are impressive, then you MUST read my next post!