Ten years counting migrant raptors!

Today was the closure of this season's hawk count over the Ancon Hill in Panama City.  This was a record year, including the largest number of diurnal raptors counted in one day: 2,105,060 bird in November 2nd!

Turkey Vultures

Turkey Vultures and Swainson's Hawk

For ten years now, the Panama Audubon Society (PAS) has organized these counts with the intention to monitor the migration of these species throughout the region.  Panama City is right under the path of these migrating kettles, so every year we marvel at this magnificent spectacle that nature gives us.  Many species of diurnal raptors migrate through Panama, but the most conspicuous are the Turkey Vultures and both Swainson's and Broad-winged Hawks.

Swainson's Hawk (adult, pale phase)

Swainson's Hawk (immature, dark phase)

Broad-winged Hawk

I want to thank the PAS and all the counters and volunteers who every year perform this arduous task. For them, CONGRATULATIONS!

2,990,894 raptors!

Oh Yeah!, that awesome count is the number of migrant raptors that flew over one single spot in Panama City, the Ancon Hill, during the last season... starting October 1st and ending after 49 days.

These numbers are simply mind-blowing!  In fact, this number is higher than last year season by one million of birds approximately.  The two millions mark was reached in the first 30 days of count.  Some of those "other hawks" can be seen in this post.

The results were announced by the Panama Audubon's Society (PAS) yesterday in an event that congregated members and old friends.  Two of the main hawk counters, Venicio "Beny" Wilson and Ariel Aguirre (both well recognized bird guides too) were the hosts for the night.

After presenting a nice video, filmed and edited by Xavier Lasso with testimonials and cuts of the flights (recalled me my own video published elsewhere), PAS' Executive Director Rosabel Miro showed some interesting pictures of the hawk count site in the summit of Ancon Hill and several examples of how this last season was so important.  Several newspaper articles and TV clips appeared in the media showing the migrant hawks and explaining some facts about this phenomena to the general public.  Before dinner, Karl Kaufmann explained that this amazing number was the result of favorable NW winds, clear days and less rain over Ancon Hill than in previous days, plus more interesting facts.

It is important to note that this is an underestimate.  Sometimes, the raptors flying low over Panama City were simply invisible for the hawk counters in the hill due to fog or rain... so certainly, more than THREE MILLIONS raptors flew over our heads!  Man, I love this city!    

October = Migration !!! (Part II)

In my last post, I wrote about the impressive diurnal migration of hawks and vultures over Panama City in october... but october is also the peak of the migration of many other birds, including many song birds (passerines),  and the Ancon Hill is also an excellent site to watch them as well.

Sometimes, it is not clear if you are watching a migrant or a resident bird... for example, I know that the Zone-tailed Hawks nest in Panama, but definitively I see them around more often during the migration season, like the one pictured above at the Ancon Hill.  Other times, it is obvious you are seeing resident birds... like the Keel-billed Toucan... who paints these birds anyway?

It is nice to see how our common species share their food sources with the migrants.  For example, several Scarlet Tanagers were feeding in the same bush with a group of ubiquitous Social Flycatchers.

During the migration, some species are way more easy to see than in other seasons... this Mourning Warbler was hoping around merely three feet of me! 

Sometimes, the migrant species resemble the resident ones.  Take for example this Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher.  They are transient migrants (that is, they do not winter in Panama), temporarily quite common all over Panama, where they share habitats with our resident Streaked Flycatchers... the only reliable field mark to tell apart these two is the black chin of the migrants!

Well, this is Panama in migration... I still need some migrants in my life list... so this is not my last time in Ancon Hill looking for them (and yes, I am talking about Black-billed Cuckoos)!

October = Migration !!!

If you live in Panama, or happen that you visits Panama City in october, then watch the skies... you may be missing one of the greatest spectacle this land has to offer!  The southward migration of millions of raptors passing right by the city (enlarge the photo and try to count the dots).

Each year, almost all the populations of Turkey Vultures, Broad-winged Hawks and Swainson's Hawks, fly from their breeding grounds in North America, to their wintering grounds in South America.  In their migration route, the isthmus of Panama is a kind of bottle neck where huge kettles forms, looking like an aerial highway of birds.

This is a diurnal migration, since these birds needs the ascending thermal currents to gain height.  Once at the top of the thermal, they simply glide to the base of the next current and so on.  In this way (gliding), they save a lot of energy during the travel, that can be as long as 14000 miles (22400 km) in the case of the Swainson Hawk.

The three species mentioned above form the bulk of the living mass flying through Panama, but many other species of raptors migrates through Panama too.  Just check at HawkCount.org the number of species and, more important, the number of individuals counted this month only at the Ancon Hill hawkwatch site in Panama City... IMPRESSIVE! 

Sometimes, the number of birds is so high, that the domestic flights in Panama City have been suspended.  Thanks God this plane was flying much higher than the birds in that moment.

So, if you want to see a real river of raptors, come to Panama and enjoy!

No doubt these photos were taken in Panama!

At the Ancon Hill

I still don't know why I don't visit the Ancon Hill more often. It is in Panama City, VERY close to my place, and holds a good amount of wildlife, not only birds, but also mammals and insects. But, more important, it is a nice migrant trap in the right season, specially october. Several times during the first two weeks of this month, I visited the volunteers of the migrant raptors count, who have reported rare migrants like Black-billed Cuckoo and almost a definitive Painted Bunting this season at the summit of the hill. Despite I saw none of these rarities in my visits, the number of species and individuals of migrants was really amazing. Gloriela (and Gabrielle) accompanied me the last time, and even helped the counters recollecting data on temperature and wind direction for the records. Surely, the most common species (only after the abundant Sawinson's Thrushes) was the Eastern Kingbird. Flock after flock passed by, taking advantage of some fruiting trees in the vicinity of the summit. Some of them also did some flycatching while we were there, sometimes side-by-side with our local Tropical Kingbirds who simply shared the perch without hesitation. The flycatchers were well represented. Not only the Eastern Kingbirds were present, we also saw Great Crested and Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers. The latter is an uncommon transient through the isthmus. We had the opportunity to have side-by-side views of this species with the very similar, resident and much more common and noisy Streaked Flycatcher. Many field marks have been described to separate these two flycatchers, but the most reliable is the black chin and more pronounced black malar stripe of the Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers. You can notice that the chin area of the Streaked Flycatcher is completely white. The amount of yellow in the underparts can be similar for both species, the same with the color of the bill (usually, the Sulphur-bellieds have only little pink in the base of the lower mandible). Perhaps the Streaked Flycatcher is very common, but it can't be more beautiful! In the meanwhile, a single Geoffrey's Tamarin was eating the berries of a tall tree abiove our heads. We noticed it first because one of the berries struck Gloriela in the head! We were able to heard the rest of the group in the trees nearby; they sound like a flock of little birds... or were they laughing at us? We quickly forgot the incident after seeing our first group of migrant Scarlet Tanagers. Even without the breeding plumage, the males are still attractive, with their contrasting jet black wings. They outnumbered the others tanagers, a phenomenon that happens only this time a year. The only other migrant tanager (or should I say "cardinal"?) was the Summer Tanager, with one or two shyly working around the trees bordering the access road. Another representative group was the wood-warblers. Hordes of Yellow, Canada, Blackburnian, Tennessee and Black-and-white Warblers invaded the hill, giving it some color. My photo of the female Black-and-white Warbler is simply to poor to reflect the beauty of this smart, creeper-like warbler. I still need a good photo of most of these warblers, but you know, they simply can not stop... always in the move, usually high in the canopy, in backlight... in summary: a real headache for the amateur photographer (like me)! Sometimes it was hard to focus in a single bird due to the great activity all over the place, but a slim silhouette definitively caught my attention during one of the first visits. The bird in the shade turned out to be the first (of many) Yellow-billed Cuckoo having a huge worm for lunch... I was expecting the Black-billed reported by the volunteers... but you can not win everytime and, after all, it is a good reason to return next year!

Panama City from the Ancon Hill

After my visit to the Metropolitan Natural Park in the morning of november 10th, I went to Panama City's Ancon Hill in the afternoon to visit the main team of counters participating in the "Raptors Ocean to Ocean" of the Panama Audubon Society. I was a 12-years old kid the last time I visited the top of the hill (probably younger, I don't remember well), so it was like a new experience for me. The windy road to the top have just one lane, so you have to wait the signal of the guard at the entrance to go up. I will try that road on foot next time, since it is forested and seemed perfect for migrants. At the top, Ovidio Jaramillo, Juan Pablo Ríos, Euclides "Kilo" Campos and the enthusiastic Laura Reyes were counting each single raptor flying over the hill. Not only that, they were also collecting other data (on weather conditions), compiling the totals and explaining to all the visitors their task and the importance of this little piece of land for the migration of these raptors. I have to say that this is a great work, since many young student visit the hill with their teachers and all seemed astonished with the spectacle and with the explanations. Great work guys and congratulations. At the other hand, the place is very popular because you can get amazing views of the city and surrounds... and I took pictures:

Northwest view: the Centennial Bridge over the Gaillard Cut (the narrowest part of the Canal), with Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks in the foregorund (separated by the Miraflres lake).

Southwest view: the "Bridge of the Americas" over the Pacific entrance to the Canal, once the only permanent terrestrial connection between North and South America.

South view: the colonial Panama City (better known as the "Casco Antiguo"), with all its churches and old buildings.

Southeast view: the modern and cosmopolitan Panama City, with its skyscrapers and the Coastal Beltway next to the Pacific Ocean.

If you have a chance to visit this part of the city, took it!

The panamanian flag atop the Ancon Hill.

ONE MILLION BIRDS!!!

So, hundreds of thousands birds are not enough? What about ONE MILLION of them? During tonight's Panama Audubon Society (PAS) monthly meeting (and on its facebook page) it was announced that they reached today more than one million migrating raptors for this season... ONLY after 14 days and ONLY over the Ancon Hill in Panama City!!! To be more exact, they reached the amazing count of 1,062,204 birds, most of them Turkey Vultures, Broad-winged and Swainson's Hawks. This is the first time that they reached the one-million mark for a season so quickly. During the meeting, they also presented the educational material that they give for free at the counting sites to anyone interested, like this poster featuring Swainson's Hawks (in spanish, in colaboration with BirdLife International, among other organizations), describing how important is to preserve the habitat that these hawks use during the migration. Congratulations guys!!!

Raptors' highway

It was 3:06 pm when I received a cell phone call. In the other side, Osvaldo only had to tell me once "I'm seeing thousands of them" in order to look through my office's window towards Ancon hill... they were there: thousands of little dark dots in the sky that a closer look revealed to be Broad-winged and Swainson's Hawks over the city. Each october, most of the world's population of these two hawks species, plus millions of Turkey Vultures, pass through the isthmus in their annual southward migration. Literally, you can see hordes of raptors, forming what looks like aerial highways over central Panama (including Panama City). It is an event that many citizens go unnoticed... but many does not mean all of them.

The history of counting migrating raptors goes back to 1996, when Dr. George Angher organized the first simultaneous raptors counts at the narrowest part of the isthmus (you can read more in the Panama Audubon Society web site, under "Projects"). Now, it is a serious task, with many qualified and experienced persons counting in several strategic points. The time and effort invested to document this marvel is worth admiring and reminds me others more renowned places (Veracruz River of Raptors in Mexico comes to my mind). These observation places are located along the Panama Canal. Traditionally, Ancon hill has been the most important observation site throughout the years, usually counting more than one million birds per season and that, my friends, is something that only happens in few places around the globe. The hill dominates Panama City and still is covered with dry forest that host many widespread species (birds, mammals, and others). It is within the city, so accesible that even the city's Major visited the place this season to watch the huge flocks of raptors.

Why is Panama so important for these raptors? A quick glimpse to any world map will give you an idea of the answer. Panama is an obligated pass in most of the main migration routes in the Americas, and it doesn't involve flying over large stretchs of ocean. This is important because the raptors need the ascending thermal currents to gain altitude, to glide then towards the base of the next thermal current, repeating the process again and again.

At least in Panama, the Swainson's Hawks rest hidden in open fields with tall grass, while the Broad-winged Hawks rest in forested areas. Few octobers ago, birding the Escobal road towards Achiote (Colon province in the Caribbean slope) early in the morning, I saw a single Broad-winged Hawk flying from the canopy of the surrounding forest... then other, and other, and other, and so on... I counted at least 200 lazy hawks in a couple of minutes, waking up in order to continue its journey... an amazing show that I will remember forever.

As bonus, the main flocks also can bring with it some scarcer species, like Northern Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Merlin, and others, so it is always a good idea to double check those flocks each time you have the chance. In any case, the mere phenomenon of thousands of raptors flying over you deserve a look, don't you think?

If you have the opportunity to visit Panama during the migration season, or are a resident here, don't forget to look at the sky... you can be surprised! On the other hand, if you don't have the opportunity, follow this season's daily counts in one of the strategic points (Semaphore hill) here.