First birding day in a while!

An open space with a sign that reads "Keep physical distancing"

After almost six months of confinement due to the sanitary emergency, I finally went out to have a birding day, searching for shorebirds in order to participate in the World Shorebirds Day.  The high tide was quite early, so I started with the first lights.  My plan was to visit several places along the waterfront of Panama City, following the tide.  With the water level high, I chose a rocky spot that provide resting sites for tired shorebirds when they are not foraging in the mudflats.  As expected, I found some loose flocks with some of the most common species, plus rocky shores specialists, like Ruddy Turnstones and Surfbirds.  However, they were too distant for decent photos, so I concentrated my shots in some nearby targets, like the groups of Least, Semipalmated and Spotted Sandpipers that were checking the small puddles on the rocks.

Least Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpipers

Spotted Sandpiper

After 30 minutes carrying my backpack, camera, lens and binoculars, I realized that I was exhausted!  Certainly, the sedentary routine of my confinement had something to do with that!  The air conditioner of my car was huge relief... but I had no time to waste, the tide was retiring, exposing the mudflats of my next stop: Costa del Este.  The wetlands of the Upper Bay of Panama are of hemispheric importance for the migratory shorebirds.  Millions of birds use the area during their annual paths, the reason why Panama Audubon Society has worked incessantly in protecting the site, monitoring its birds and doing environmental education in the surrounding communities... and Costa del Este is one of those communities.  From the lookout with interpretative signs depicting shorebirds, I was able to scan the extensive mudflats at the mouth of the Matía Hernández river, adding Black-necked Stilts, Black-bellied Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs, Short-billed Dowitchers and, specially, thousands of Western Sandpipers, although widely dispersed.

Greater Yellowlegs

Western Sandpipers

After my short 30-min stop at Costa del Este, I went to a nearby site for a change.  If you want to see a greater diversity of species, then you need to visit different habitats, so I went to a grassy meadow with artificial ponds, known as MetroPark.  The pond had Wattled Jacanas, Black-necked Stilts and both Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, while the grassland had Whimbrels and many Southern Lapwings.  I was not the only human being at the site, several people use the open spaces to work out and breath "fresh air"... of course, following the sanitary recommendations, as explained in the multiple signs all over the place (as you can see in the first photo).  My last stop was, again, a different habitat... the only sandy beach of the waterfront, right at the Panama City's coastal belt, by the mouth of the Matasnillo river.  As expected, it produced my only Sanderlings of the day.  Two pale birds were agitatedly feeding in the sand, going forth and back with the waves.  By that time, the tide was low enough to take a break until the next high tide, in the afternoon.

Southern Lapwing

Sanderling

For the second round, I joined my friends Rosabel Miró, Venicio "Beny" Wilson and Aitor Gonzalo, who were also participating in the World Shorebirds Day.  We were after an species that occurs near the city only at one reliable site at the West Bank of the Panama Canal.  The combination of sandy and rocky beaches with tons of bivalves and other mollusks to feed is ideal for the American Oystercatcher.  we knew a place where they breed, so we went there and were rewarded with a pair of vocalizing birds that flew right above us... what a sight!

American Oystercatchers

Pitifully, we were not able to find two plovers species that are also found at that habitat: Collared and Wilson's Plovers, which are also localized near the city.  To take advantage of the few hours of light left, we swiftly moved back to Costa del Este, where the tide cornered the birds in a section adjacent to the mangroves, where these birds spend the night.  We added Marbled Godwit to our checklists, but were impressed with the thousands of peeps present at the site, mostly Semipalmated Plovers, Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers.

Almost at night, we left the mangroves (and the mosquitoes), our final count was more than 5000 peeps in that little corner of mangroves.  At the end of the day, I managed to record 19 different species of shorebirds at, or near, Panama City.. an excellent number!  So tell me, how was your World Shorebirds Day?    

Impressive numbers at Boca de Pacora

The news spread through the social media... a vagrant (for Panama) Large-billed Tern appeared in the coast of the upper Bay of Panama close to the mouth of the Pacora river (Boca de Pacora) to the east of Panama City... and we were after him! Under the guidance of Karl and Rosabel Kaufmann, Stephany Carty, Rolando Jordan and your blogger host rode the intricate dirt roads through pasture lands, scrubs and patches of gallery forests in order to reach the beach.  The one-hour drive resulted in some nice birds of course, like this obliging and aptly-named Roadside Hawk.

Roadside Hawk

I took the above photo from the car... in fact, we only left the cars in order to watch a roosting Barn Owl (always nice to see an owl in daylight) and to find a calling Striped Cuckoo that turned out to be a life bird for Rolando!

Striped Cuckoo

Eventually, we reached the beach.  The surf was quite away, but the tide was raising.  The extensive mudflats were full of waders and other water birds.

Boca de Pacora beach

We checked first a sand bank where Rosabel's group saw a family of American Oystercatchers with a recently fledged young some days ago.  There are few breeding reports of this species in the upper Bay of Panama, including mine some years ago while celebrating with my wife our anniversary (check this post).  We saw at least 12 different oystercatchers at the site that day, some of them doing courtship displays.

American Oystercatchers

As the tide was rising, the birds began to gather closer to the coast.  Impressive flocks of Neotropic Cormorants, Brown Pelicans and Magnificent Frigatebirds obscured the horizon... but more important, flocks of migrants also started to appear.  It is the middle of June and these species shouldn't be in Panama... at least not in such numbers: tons of Sandwich, Gull-billed and Common Terns were quite unusual... and no less than eight Caspian Terns also add some color to the flock.

Caspian Terns

The most common species was the Black Skimmer.  Close to one hundred birds were resting at the beach.  However, these birds probably belongs to the South American subspecies cinerascens, which are larger than the North American birds, with gray wing linings and tails and thin white trailing edge to the wings.

Black Skimmers

Black Skimmers

Although we found most of the previously reported species for the area, the Large-billed Tern did not appear again.  We had to leave the place since a huge rainstorm was about to hit us, but we were happy anyway knowing that all those birds still call Panama their home!

Dark clouds over Boca de Pacora

The Pearl Islands experience! Part II

The second day of our trip to the Pearl Islands (Gulf of Panama), Joris, Francis and your blogger host hired a boat to visit some nearby islands to Contadora; however, Joris and I decided to watch birds in the island interior during the first hours of light.  It was too early for most of the migrants... instead, we found many resident birds around the pond.  This Panama Flycatcher was particularly cooperative:

Panama Flycatcher

At the pond, several pairs of Least Grebes were quite active making display calls and exhibitions and building floating nests.  We managed some close views and photos of these birds.

Least Grebe

It was time to aboard our boat, the captain was waiting for us at Galeon beach and soon we were heading to Pacheca Island, just to the north of Contadora.  This private owned island holds one of the most important breeding colony of Magnificent Frigatebirds in the Panamanian Pacific... a fact that quickly became obvious... hundreds of frigatebirds flying and resting at the trees of the island... impressive!

Immature Magnificent Frigatebirds

However, both Pacheca and Pachequilla islands were covered in Blue-footed Boobies... hundreds of them!  Pachequilla was literally covered with them.  These amazing numbers of Blue-footed Boobies are not usual... they are easily seen from shore at the continent in several beaches, and hundreds of them rest in islets close to Panama City as well.

Blue-footed Boobies

Blue-footed Boobies

In the other hand, the Brown Boobies were not more than 10... and all of them at Pachequilla island.  In fact, we saw some more in the open sea during the ferry trip from Panama City.  I have to mention that this seems to be a recent shift in the boobies population in these nesting sites.  According to Angehr & Kushlan (Waterbirds 2007; 30: 335-57), the "Brown Boobies nested in similar sites as Blue-footed Boobies but were more widely distributed", and that "although commonly seen roosting in the outer islands of the Pearls, Blue-footed Boobies are relatively rare, scattered, and perhaps irregular as breeders".

Brown Boobies

However, the biggest surprise was a small group of Peruvian Boobies resting at Pachequilla island!  They were easily identified due to their contrasting white head and necks, smaller size and checkered upperparts (and, of course, none of these had blue feet).

Peruvian (and three Blue-footed) Boobies in Pachequilla island 

Peruvian and Blue-footed Boobies in Pachequilla island

We are experiencing an invasion of Peruvian Boobies in Panamanian waters, probably displaced by warmer conditions in their usual range in South America.  Until that day, they were only reported from Panama City and a nearby islet.  We were quite excited about this... but know that these are not exactly good news for the birds.  The last birds we saw while circumnavigating Pacheca island were these two American Oystercatchers... always a nice sight!

American Oystercatchers

We really had fun and enjoyed every second of this flash trip to the Pearl Islands.  Hope you enjoyed it as well!

Isleta island

Bird of the Month: American Oystercatcher

The American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus) is a relatively large wader, inhabitant of coastal habitats all over the Americas, except the western coast of North America where it is replaced by the Black Oystercatcher.

It is brightly colored, with intense orange/reddish bill (laterally compressed to open bivalves) and orbital ring, pale pink legs and black hood.  In flight, notice the clean white uppertail coverts and the white base to the first three or four primaries, making this birds members of the nominate subspecies which is resident in the Pacific coast of Central America, including Panama.

This species is a year-round resident at our Pacific coast, where it prefers sandy beaches close to rocky areas.  Probably some northern migrants show up in Panama, explaining the few sightings at our Caribbean coast.  Many maps in the web doesn't show Panama as part of its breeding range.  However, breeding success has been recorded in the Azuero Peninsula, Panama Oeste province, Coiba island and the Pearl Islands (where I took the next picture showing an immature bird -notice the brown-tipped bill-).  It was considered rare and irregular in the former Canal Area.

However, a pair or two are regularly recorded in the coasts of the former Canal Area's west bank; an area that has experienced a tourism boom, with several mega hotels built recently.  As I mentioned in a previous post, my wife and I found a pair close to one of these resorts feeding a recently fledged young.

Notice the bill shape of this chick, not yet elongated.  As you can see, it was in a sand bar.  The adults flew to a nearby rocky shore exposed during the low tide.  It is interesting to see that they are doing well in these coasts.  For these, and many other reasons, is why we chose the American Oystercatcher as our Bird of the month!

Literarture consulted:

1.  Angehr G, Dean R.  The birds of Panama. A field guide. Zona Tropical 2010.

2.  Ridgely R, Gwynne J.  A guide to the birds of Panama. Princeton University Press 1989.

3. American Oystercatcher Working Group -Systematics-.  At http://amoywg.org/american-oystercatcher/systematics/

Beach walk

Celebrating our sixth anniversary, Gloriela and I decided to spend a night at a beach resort, just 15 minutes from Panama City.  We had a relaxed and happy day, and enjoyed the amenities available... including the sandy beach.

During our beach walk this morning, we took the opportunity to see birds and other wildlife.  For example, we followed the tracks of a racoon for a while, and a pair of Central American Agouties walking close to the sand, but close to cover of course.

Central American Agouti

After seeing most of the common birds expected for this habitat, we saw one specialty of these coasts.  A beautiful patterned American Oystercatcher flew very close to us, and I managed to take a couple of flight shots... of which this was the best.

American Oystercatcher

The bird landed in a sand bar very close to a patch of mangroves.  There, another oystercatcher was resting in sand.  These waders are great.  The contrasting and specially-adapted bill is quite striking in the distance... and those expressive eyes... WOW!

For some reason, the first bird seemed agitated, confronting us directly.  I assumed he was protecting its territory, or maybe had a nest nearby, so we move slowly, following our tracks.  We forget the incident and walked all the way to the end of the beach... a long beach by the way.

Then, in the way back, we saw again the oystercatcher from a different angle.  The bird was standing behind the sand bar, at the banks of a small stream bordered by mangroves.  I noticed another shorebird close to the oystercatcher.  First, I thought it was a peep, but soon realized it was a recently fledged chick!

We stayed away to not disturb the birds.  That's why my photos are quite cropped and edited.  The bird noticed our presence, of course; however, they continued their activity, with the adult feeding the small one.  Then, the second adult appeared... carrying a juicy oyster!

The bird gave the oyster to the other adult oystercatcher and left the scene towards the rocky shore, certainly looking for more yummies.  Then, the bird dropped the oyster near the chick and this began to devour it with pleasure.  We left the happy family, busy with their duties.  That was the first time we saw an oystercatcher chick... not bad at all for a short walk!

Birding the Pearl Islands: seabird colonies and huge beasts!

After a successful first day finding our main target, the White-fringed Antwren, in the Pearl Islands, the itinerary for the second day included to visit some other islands with colonies of common seabirds and, in the way, to look for whales and other cetaceans.  In that aspect I was optimistic because the previous day we saw both Pantropical Spotted and Bottlenose Dolphins from the ferry to Contadora and even a Humpback Whale very close to the first island we were suppose to visit this time, Paquecha.

Bottlenose Dolphins (file photo)

We first did a short walk in Contadora before breakfast, finding more migrants than resident species (by the way, if you know how to ID the empid pictured below, that did not vocalize, let me know).  Purple Martin and Pied-billed Grebe were nice surprises for me... and new year birds too.

At 9:00 am, we boarded the boat in Executive beach and headed to Pacheca and Pachequita Islands, passing first by Saboga Island and its 300 years-old church, the oldest in the archipelago.

Saboga

The first thing we noticed was the huge number of Magnificent Frigatebirds swarming over the two islands.  Pacheca holds the second biggest colony of this species in Panama (only Isla Iguana has a bigger colony of frigatebirds in Panama), and we saw hundreds of them, including immature birds perched in low bushes and trees.

Other species also nest on these islands, including Neotropic Cormorant, Brown and Blue-footed Boobies, Brown Pelican, and so on...  These diversity reminded me a previous trip to the islands of the Upper Bay of Panama, also with Beny as a guide.

The Virgen Del Valle protects those who ventures to these waters... and it seems that also protects these birds!

After inspecting Pacheca and Pachequita Islands, we landed in Bartolome Island to watch the colony of Brown Pelicans.  While I was trying to photograph the resident Yellow "Mangrove" Warblers, Gabrielle was having a great time enjoying the island's white sands.

Gabrielle in the sands of Bartolome Island

Then, something catched Beny's attention out in the sea passing Contadora, so we headed that way immediately.  After some minutes in the boat, what caught his attention became evident... it was... it was... well, see by yourself:

OH YES!  A huge Humpback Whale with calf!  As I said before, the Pearl Islands have become a major site for whale watching in Panama.  These whales travel all the way from the southern seas to give birth to their young in these warm waters.

And they are pretty picky with temperature selection, choosing only waters around 24.8º Celsius.  We followed them for a while from a safe distant... what an amazing experience.  I'm glad that my family could marvel at this spectacle of nature.

In the way back to Contadora, we found this American Oystercatcher resting in some rocks... always a beauty.  Curiously, this and the Spotted Sandpipers were the only waders we saw in the islands.

After all these emotions and nature marvels, we still had time to enjoy Executive beach in Contadora before heading back to Panama City in the ferry.  Thank you Beny for this great trip and to all the participants who joined us to this corner of Panama!

Gloriela and Gabrielle in Executive beach, Contadora