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!

Gabrielle's first Christmas Bird Count

Today we participated in the Atlantic Christmas Bird Count organized by the Panama Audubon's Society (PAS)... and "we" includes my wife Gloriela and my two years-old Gabrielle.  We woke up very early in the morning and took the highway all the way to Galeta Point, in the Galeta Island Protected Area.  There, we met with a group of biology students and their professors who volunteered to participate with us.

After organizing the group, we went to the coastal habitats looking for shorebirds and seabirds.  The activity was pretty low in that matter, probably this American Crocodile had something to do with the lack of shorebirds?

The truth is that I really like Galeta.  Is quiet and scenic, with nice Caribbean beaches and a northwest breeze that keeps everything fresh.  The only shorebirds in the area were the Black-bellied Plovers resting at the breakwater.

However, after a persistent search at every corner of that coast, we found a lonely Ruddy Turnstone resting nervously.

We decided to sit and wait.  Gabrielle seemed to be enjoying the trip a lot!

While Gabrielle was playing with the pebbles at the beach, a small tern appeared over the sea accompanying a pair of larger Sandwich Terns.  The red feet, dark carpal bar and dark wedge to the upperwings confirm the ID: a Common Tern, a rarity for the count.

My distant shot is only for documenting the sighting... at least in this one the red feet are obvious.  By the end of the day, we counted 82 species... not bad at all, including this cooperative Broad-winged Hawk in the way out.

Nice day in the Caribbean coast!

Impressive migration over Panama City!

When I went to my workplace this morning, all my unit in the hospital was closed.  The reason?  Our president decreed a day off due to XXIII Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government... so I went back to my apartment to rest a little.  After a while, I started to noted some movements in the sky... all over, huge kettles of raptors were flying above Panama City, in their annual migration to South America.

The massive amount of birds darkened the sky... not kidding!  Soon, I started to receive text messages and facebook notifications of friends experiencing the same spectacle from different points of the city... this wonder of nature did not go unnoticed, since many of my non-birder friends also texted me!

The above photo only shows a tiny fraction of the Broad-winged Hawks and Turkey Vultures that passed today... there are at least 170 hawks... and this is a cropped picture!  The next picture shows better these two species that, above my apartment, were by far the most abundant.

In other parts (for example, above the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal), the predominant species was the Swainson's Hawk.  I only counted some 200 Swainson's Hawks in 55 minutes... compared to some 5000 Broad-winged Hawks and 10,000 Turkey Vultures!

When I see these huge kettles, I always look for other raptors mixed within these flocks.  That's how I picked up these Mississippi Kites.

Or this Osprey.  The long wings, slightly angled in the wrist, are characteristic.  None of these birds breed in Panama, nonetheless they are pretty common in this season.

I also saw four Peregrine Falcons.  They flew VERY high, so there was no way to see if any carry a transmitter or something (yeap, I'm talking about Island Girl).

Don't stop looking at the sky, since the season is not over yet!

Raptors high above

A curious thing about our last trip to the Chiriqui highlands in western Panamá last month was the great number of raptors that we saw up there, most of them migrating.  Starting at the foothills with Barred Forest-Falcons, Yellow-headed Caracaras and Roadside Hawks, the variety was quite good.  Can you id the raptor in the next photo?

Once in the highest part, at El Respingo, above 2550 meters above sea level, we witnessed a spectacle: hundreds of migrant Swainson's and Broad-winged Hawks flying back to North America above our heads.  By far the highest number of Buteos I had ever seen in the highlands.

That's because, usually, the only Buteo we see in the Chiriqui's highlands is the resident race of Red-tailed Hawk.  This bird in particular was far away... so we weren't able to check all the field marks... but considering that migratory races of this species are rare in Panamá, we assume that this one belonged to our residents.

Little before that, we witnessed an uncommon migrant raptor, an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk, fiercely chasing a Wilson's Warbler.  I mention this because when we were trying to decide where to have lunch, I saw a raptor elevating in a thermal just in front of the hotel in Guadalupe.  At first sight, I thought it was an immature Sharp-shinned gaining height... but it was apparent that this bird was larger and bulkier.  I took a couple of shots... look at them and let me know what you think.

All the photos show the typical Accipiter shape, with long tail and relatively short wings... but all my photos show the rounded tip to the tail, a field mark for Cooper's Hawk, a vagrant to Panamá, with only some records.  Anyone agree?

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!

Jogging was my main intention

I can swear it!  I went with Gloriela, Gabrielle and Teresa (Gloriela's sister) to the Metropolitan Natural Park in order to make some exercise, jogging through the trails, burning out some calories and breathing fresh air.  However, we soon realized that we chose the wrong baby carriage for Gabrielle, because it was completely unsuitable for the gravel-covered paths.  

We walked "Los Robles" trail, connecting the administrative installations with the main trails, taking a couple of minutes to help feeding the turtles at the lagoon.  No herons at the lagoons, but what an amazing experience for Gabrielle!

At the gate of the main trails, it was clear that bearing a 20-pounds girl with you while trying to walk an up-hill trail was not a good idea, so I decided to stay with Gabrielle in the surroundings of the parking lot and the entrance of the "Mono Tití" trail, watching common birds like the pair of Orange-chinned Parakeets pictured here, Common Tody-Flycatcher, Squirrel Cuckoo, Tropical Kingbird and both Cocoa and Olivaceous Woodcreepers.

When Gloriela and Teresa came back 30 minutes later, they told me that my good friend Osvaldo Quintero was photographing birds in the highest part of the trail, in the lookout.  So, it was my turn to walk up-hill.  They leave me because it was getting hot for Gabrielle (she is only 9-months old), but that was not a problem considering that the park is right within the city and is easily accessible by taxi and other public transportation.  I crossed a birding group by the mid part of the trail.  They were in the middle of a mixed flock, with antwrens, White-winged Tanagers, a Plain Xenops, and others... but it was a migrant thrush in the edge of the trail that caught my attention.  After seeing it through the scope of the group guide, it was clear that the bird was a Veery, and uncommon migrant in central Panama, and only my second time ever with this bird!

Eventually, I reached the lookout, and Osvaldo was there in fact.  He photographed some migrant vireos and warblers, but the huge mixed flock of migrants that he was expecting never showed up, so we decided to return.  The only common migrants were the Red-eyed Vireos that were everywhere, and the Canada Warblers, in the peak of their migration.

However, a little bit down in the trail, we saw a high kettle of, mostly, Broad-winged Hawks in their annual southward migration... an amazing spectacle!  October is the month of the raptors river in Panama, a show that we are all expecting soon... so stayed tune! 

Hundreds of thousands of birds (not joking again)!

LOOK UP! Hundreds of thousands Turkey Vultures and Broad-winged Hawks are flying over Panama City right now! It all started yesterday, when the preliminary counts revealed more than 650,000 birds migrating only over the Ancon hill (counts by the Panama Audubon Society). Today was amazing... swarms of hawks and vultures all around the city... great (and I thought that thousands of birds were impressive)!!!

Other migrating birds were also present, including some Mississippi Kites (and there is one in the above photo if you enlarge it, is the lowest bird to the left), Peregrine Falcons, hordes of swallows (mostly Barn and Cliff Swallows, but few Bank Swallows too, which were new for my balcony list) and scattered flocks of my year Chimney Swift (my marginal photo shows its "jizz" -which is distinctively different from that of the Short-tailed Swift- and its pale throat... you may need to enlarge it).

Some migrants that already are residing in their wintering grounds also showed up (Osprey, Gray Kingbird), along with some year-round resident raptors, including a Short-tailed Hawk and my 52nd balcony bird, a White-tailed Kite perched atop a tree to watch the spectacle with the tolerant Gray Kingbird.

And all this from the balcony!

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.