Global Big Day 2019! What a day!

And the Global Big Day started!  Last May 4th, thousands of birders around the world joined efforts to record the largest number of birds species in 24 hours.  Of course, new records were set and hundreds of birding histories were told.  You can read the global summary at the eBird page... and my own history here (just keep reading).

Ramiro Duque, Rolando Jordan, Jan Axel Cubilla and Carla Black

Like last year, my intention was to do some pelagic birding... and again, my destination was Bahía Piñas and fabulous Tropic Star Lodge in eastern Darien.   Last year, getting to Bahía Piñas was a complete adventure... this year, well, there were some inconvenients as well.  First of all, I was not able to take the commercial flight to Bahía Piñas... all the seats were booked due to the Presidential Elections that would be held the next day.  However, the NGO ADOPTA Panama Rainforest managed the support of the government (through MiAmbiente) who contributed with transport and logistics for several teams to remote counting areas, including the ADOPTA Team to Puerto Obaldia, in extreme eastern Guna Yala.  Guido Berguido (ADOPTA's executive director and a friend of mine) included a stop in Piñas in the flight plan, so I joined them in the ride.  After some mechanical setbacks, we were finally in the air heading to Piñas.... but due to some logistical problems, the ADOPTA team had to stay in Piñas, so we improvised a little bit.  Rolando came with me on the boat while the rest of the team birded around the town and the airstrip.

Bahia Piñas airstrip and town

After an early breakfast on May 4th, I was ready for the pelagic trip.  Rolando was already waiting for me at the dock, as well as the crew of our fishing boat.  The day was dark and soon it started to rain... a lot!  Anyway, we headed directly to deep waters.  The Continental Shelf break is very close to the coast in this part of Panama, meaning that quite soon we were enjoying pelagic birds around us.  These waters are incredibly rich, the avifauna is abundant and easy to approach, paralleling the other wildlife for what these waters are famous: pelagic fishes, specially billfishes!

We were not there to fish, that was for sure... we were quite busy counting and identifying the birds around, specially the storm-petrels.  Three different species (Least, Wedge-rumped and Black Storm-Petrels) swarmed around the boat in huge numbers!  Check one of the flocks that we crossed containing all three species.

Storm-Petrels off Piñas

We scanned these flocks looking for rarer or unreported species for Panama, and I tried to took as many photos I could... sometimes you detect rarities on land, reviewing the photos, but not this time.  Apart of the storm-petrels, we saw both Galapagos and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, several terns and boobies species, including obliging Nazca Boobies!  We essentially followed a route along the shelf, stopping at usual fishing hotspots and whenever we find activity, both of birds and other animals like dolphins and tuna.  In fact, a huge school of tuna was followed by more than 100 Short-beaked Common Dolphins!  What a sight!

Pair of Nazca Boobies on floating debris

Short-beaked Common Dolphin

Time flies when you are having fun, and soon it was time to head back to the lodge.  Closer to the coastline we find different species, like Brown Pelicans and Blue-footed Boobies, adding them to the growing list.  It was not an exceptionally long list, but certainly one with quality birds.  In fact, we were sure that we got that day several unique species for the country, since we were the only team birding the seas.

Blue-footed Booby

Back at dock, I said good bye to Rolando, who went back to Piñas town to bird with the rest of the group.  After few minutes of rest, I also started to scan the surroundings.  The lodge is surrounded by lush forest, and some good species wander around.  Unfortunately, I was not able to relocate the Viridian Dacnis I saw the day before, but anyway, I kept birding.  The highlight was a flock of swifts including Spot-fronted Swifts and a lonely Chapman's Swift!  Creepy photos of both them at this eBird checklist https://ebird.org/camerica/view/checklist/S55817569.  At night, I ended my participation recording Gray-cowled Wood-Rail and Mottled Owl... but a Crab-eating Fox just in front of my cabin stole the show!

Crab-eating Fox

I ended up submitting 72 species for the day, a modest number compared to other teams... but for second year in a row I manage the greatest number of unique species to the national total, only matched by Isaac Pizarro (who birded all the down from Pirre range to the lowlands around El Real): both recorded 11 unique species.  These numbers reflect that we need more participation... another team doing pelagic or more teams covering Darien National Park; but also, they indicate how important each participant is.  As they says, every bird counts!  Panama numbers, as in general, were good.  We didn't break our previous year record of 750 birds species since we got 731!  Still an awesome effort that positioned us as first for the Central American region and 8th worldwide!  I wish to thanks all the participants who kindly donated their time and effort in making this possible, and to ADOPTA a Guido Berguido for coordinating the logistics and transportation provided by the government.  Next year I hope more participation and official support to keep making Panama number ONE in Central America in terms of avian diversity!