Twitching Avocets!

Just a quick note.  I don't know how, but I roamed furiously through Panama City's traffic jam in peak hour, reaching Panama Viejo around 4:30 pm, just with enough sunlight to capture some images.  My intention: to see the vagrant American Avocet, re-located in this site two days ago (again, notified by my friend José Tejada).  I say re-located because another friend of mine, Carlos Bethancourt, told me about this species in early October.  This time, two birds were seen... and some astonishing photographs were posted in the social networks.  As soon as I got there, I saw my friend Alexis Guevara searching the mudflats with his lovely family.  They just saw the avocet, and his little daughter, Querula, described the elegant bird in detail... a lifer for her.  Soon, he showed me the bird... a single American Avocet was feeding actively in the surf... pretty far away.  I manage some -VERY- distant shots.

American Avocet and Black-necked Stilts

American Avocet and Brown Pelicans

In spite of the distance, this bird is unmistakable!  The bird flew close to a flock of Black-necked Stilts and then started to walk towards us... still quite distant, but we got some terrific scoped views anyway.  I tried to digiscope it with my phone camera; however, my digiscoping skills are close to zero, so I will not hurt your eyesight showing those pictures here... instead, more cropped (and highly edited) pictures.

American Avocet

American Avocet

There are only a handful of records for American Avocets in Panama, including a group that spend some months in nearby Costa del Este (less than 1 mile away) back in 2012 (my own experience here) and a single individual in Juan Díaz (also nearby), back in september 2010 (report here).  If you still need this beautiful vagrant for your Panama List (or Life List), go to Panama Viejo's Visitor Center, walk across the parking lot towards the sea and then check the little creek to the right... don't miss this opportunity!