To the depths of the Burica peninsula

Due to Panama's topography, there are few sites from where you can launch a pelagic birding trip.  The typical sites (in the Pacific) are extreme eastern Darien province and some sites in the Azuero Peninsula of central Panama.  The logistic is always complicated (and expensive) due to lack of tour operators and pelagic birders as well!  But then, there is another site where the oceanic depths are close to shore: the Burica Peninsula in extreme western Panama.  While looking for good boats to make a pelagic trip, I came upon Hooked On Panama, a fishing lodge at the southerly town of Limones, at the very tip of the peninsula.  They were more than eager to provide boat, crew and chum, plus the on-ground facilities for our pelagic trip after explaining to them the lack of scientific knowledge of the pelagic avifauna in Panama!

From left to right: Jan Axel, Dave Klauber, George Angehr and Christian Gernez

This was an scouting trip after all... June - July is probably not the best season for pelagic birding in Panama, but anyway we wanted to make that first contact and to evaluate the feasibility of doing more trips from Limones.   Three other birders joined me: Christian Gernez, Dave Klauber and George Angehr, who is the author of "The Birds of Panama,  A Field Guide" and probably one of the most experienced pelagic birder for Panamanian waters.  Taking advantage of the lodge, I travelled with my family, who enjoyed the pool and the beach while we were out under the sun looking for pelagic birds.  In fact, the excellent road conditions from David city, and the lodge amenities are points in favor.  Another point in favor: the boat!  A locally customized 33' Blackfin vessel with all the safety equipments, spacious, comfortable, designed to offer a 360º view of the surroundings and easily accommodating up to six pax!

Our crew knew exactly what we were up to!  Our captain Chaka took us immediately to deep waters south of Burica island and then to the east along the Continental Shelf break while mate Jacinto helped us with all our needs and with the chumming process (essentially fish guts and pop corn).  They have a lot of experience fishing pelagic billfishes, but this was their first time guiding a group of birders... the essentials tips seems to be the same for both activities (fishing and birding in deep waters).  But even before reaching deep waters, we started to have some nice surprises, like the completely out-of-season Elegant Terns close to the lodge (they are supposed to be breeding in Baja this time of the year) and the Humpback Whales swimming extremely close to the town beach (a little bit early, but not unexpected).  Bird and whale watching could be some activities that the lodge can offer during the low-season months of fishing, as Christian pointed out.

Royal and Elegant Terns with Brown Pelicans at the lodge

Humpback Whale at Limones

One of the things about doing a pelagic trip in Panama in June-July is weather.  We were always close to dark clouds and storm systems, but somehow we managed to avoid all of them, experiencing no rain at all (OK, Chaka had a lot to do with that).  Still with land at sight, we started to find the first pelagic birds in the form of Storm-Petrels.  With the exception of few Black Storm-Petrels, all of them were Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels.  Paying attention to this species is key to gain experience on its identification and of other species.  However, after seeing many of them and starting to feel comfortable, we realized that they often showed different flight styles (quite direct with steady wingbeats, but also more bouncing and desperate-looking), size/proportion impressions and molt-timing!  Some birds were fresh-looking while other were in active wing molt... some looked quite small and compact while others looked larger with proportionally long wings...  Were these differences age/sex related, or were they different subspecies?  Or different species?  We need more study on these guys!

Fresh-looking Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel

Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel (notice wing molt)

The storm-petrels were not the only tubenoses out there, we also find Galapagos Shearwaters and a possible Wedge-tailed Shearwater as well, but was too far away to ID with certainty.  However, the most impressive of them all were the Tahiti Petrels (YES, in plural).  We managed to see up to four different individuals at the same time, sometimes very close to the boat!  Just the fourth record for Panamanian waters, where the species surely is a regular visitor during its non-breeding season.  Thinking on these birds crossing the vast Pacific Ocean to visit our warm waters is simply overwhelming!

Tahiti Petrel.  Fourth record for Panama

Apart of the Elegant Terns seen at shore, we only saw another tern species during the trip: Brown Noddy.  Most of the terns species found in Panama are boreal migrants, so we did not expect to find them in June-July, at least not in considerable numbers.  Our resident tern species (like the noddy) are probably found close to their breeding islands during this time of the year.  Anyway, we enjoyed the sole member of the Sterninae out there... the anti-tern species by the way (dark body, pale crown, wedge tail)

Brown Noddy

Another highlight of the trip were the Sulids (boobies).  We found three different species (of five possible), including Nazca and Brown Boobies.  At some point, we approached Islas Ladrones that host one of the biggest colonies of Brown Boobies in Panama, crossing several flocks of these boobies flying back and forth from and to the islands.  The Nazcas, as usual, were always far from shore, on floating debris or in powerful flight over the waves showing no interest in the boat.

Brown Booby 

Nazca Booby

Soon it was time to go back.  A huge school of Short-beaked  Common Dolphins gave us the farewell before heading back to shore.  Calm waters meant that nobody had sea-sickness at all and the cloudy day help to avoid sunburns!  After a 6-hours trip we were back at the lodge, enjoying a couple of cold drinks and celebrating this very first pelagic experience birding the depths of the Burica Peninsula.  I can not wait to go back!  Would you join me?

Short-beaked Common Dolphins