Afternoon walk

This is just an excuse to post some photos that I got during a short walk across the savannas south of the town of Penonome (Coclé province, central Panamá) last weekend (the same day we found the avocet in Aguadulce).  I took the road to El Gago through rice fields, secundary growths and typical savanna habitat in company of Gloriela and Gabrielle.  By the first part we saw a HUGE flock of migrant swallows, most of them Barn Swallows, flying low over the rice field.  Many were perched on barbed wires along the fence of the field, but I only managed to capture a marginal photo of an immature bird.

We also saw in the same flock both Bank and Cliff Swallows.  I got the rare opportunity to photograph a perched Cliff Swallow at eye level... you usually found them flying, or very high if perched.  This species is very attractive if you see it well!

Warning: the next photo have the worst background ever published in the web.  OK, I'm exaggerating a little bit, the true is that this road also conduct to the municipal dump... and the vultures and caracaras have taken advantage of this, as you can see, this Crested Caracara is trying to get an easy meal in the garbage.

We also found a nice American Kestrel by the road, almost in complete darkness.  Notice the lack of dots or marks in the underparts of this male.  The kestrels are now quite common around Penonome, and are found year round.  Probably they belong to one of the south american subspecies colonizing Panama... a very nice addition to the already impressive Panama's avifauna.

Well, that's all for now folks!