More sunset birds

This is a kind of second part for my previous post about birding the savannas to the south of the town of Penonome (Cocle province, central Panama), along the road to El Gago.  I have to accept that I still have some problems for setting the camera for those light conditions... I hope this will improve soon.  This time I went earlier, so the the light was pretty good when I photographed this Killdeer.

This bird (part of a pair) was very quiet... I never heard the characteristic call this time.  This species is an uncommon migrant to Panama, and once a nesting attempt was documented in this part of the country.  In the other hand, the Eastern Meadowlark is an abundant resident of these savannas.

For some reason, I've always had the impression that these birds await you're near them to start singing!  However, were other singers who caught my attention.  When these birds vocalize, I noticed that they weren't the usual Groove-billed Anis I expected.

In fact, they were a pair of Smooth-billed Anis.  I'm not used to see this species in that road, so now I must be more careful to identify these birds if they are not vocalizing.  Other bird with which I am very careful to identify is the Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture.

In spite of the unmistakable multicolored head, they can be pretty tricky to separate from the Turkey Vulture; although, the Yellow-headed's low flight is characteristic.  Another species that characteristically flies low is the Northern Harrier.

This is also an uncommon migrant to Panama... but seems pretty regular in these fields.  This female was far away, so the above photo is cropped.  Notice the angled wings, long tail and white rump.  By the end of the day, I found the pair of resident Aplomado Falcons perched exactly in the same bare tree.

I swear these photos are different from my previous post.  The size difference indicates these are male and female (the female is the bigger one).  Along the road I saw another pair flying together, but there is no way to know if they were different birds.

After all, that was a nice sunset birding!

Raptors at sunset

During a short visit to Penonome (Cocle province, central Panama) last weekend, I took advantage of the last rays of light at sunset and drove the road to El Gago, hoping to see some typical savanna birds.  The warm light is nice for birding... but for this amateur photographer is not exactly the best condition.  Soon I was trying to change the camera settings... but most of my photos were too dark or to overexposed... I had to edit all the photos in this post.

Like the above shot of a pair of Aplomado Falcons enjoying the sunset.  This species is very attractive and always nice to watch... and only frequently encountered in this part of Panama.  Shortly after this, a young Common Black-Hawk landed in a field after flying in front of the car.

Formerly known as the "Mangrove" Black-Hawk and restricted to the Pacific slope, now it is clear that this form belongs to the broad Common Black-Hawk... both forms are almost indistinguishable, specially the immatures.  After a while, I found a Crested Caracara by the road.

This powerful bird landed right in the middle of the road.  I was able to approach it with the car, and noticed that the bird caught a huge grasshopper and was devouring it!

However, it was so distracted, that never noticed the smaller Yellow-headed Caracara that swooped over it.  In matter of seconds, the Yellow-headed ran the Crested and took the grasshopper... I guess that the Crested Caracara was puzzled!

By the end of the day, my last bird was a gorgeous Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture perched atop a pole. It was VERY dark, but somehow I managed some photos.

For just a short trip to the savannas, it was a nice set of raptors!

Back in Panamá!

After a productive trip to Córdoba, Argentina, I'm back in Panamá... and still on vacations.  The true is that I'm spending most of the time in home with my baby girl Gabrielle... occasionally seeing some birds from the balcony.  That's why, when we traveled this last weekend to Penonomé (central Panamá), I took advantage to visit some places that, usually, are great for birding.

It has been a while since my last visit to the road to El Gago... and many things have changed.  I went with Gloriela and Gabrielle last saturday's afternoon and were impressed by the sight of the tall windmills in the savanna.  These are part of an important government project to produce green energy.  It was a little bit late as you can see in the photos... so we only saw some very common savanna birds, like many Eastern Meadowlarks, singing from exposed perches.

Or this Roadside Hawk inspecting us curiously.

The next day, I convinced the same crew to accompany me to the Aguadulce Salinas (saltponds), 30 minutes to the west.  It was around noon and hot, but I only wanted to have a quick look at the saltponds, searching for passage migrants.  The first thing we noticed were the big flocks of terns and skimmers over the place.  Check for example the next photo showing many Gull-billed Terns resting with several Elegant Terns.

Or this flock of Black Skimmers in the distance... more than 100 birds were resting in that pond.

I already had seen this numbers in Aguadulce this year.  But other species were new for the year, like the Stilt Sandpipers and Wilson Phalarope.  These are passage migrants (don't winter in Panamá), and this is the only time to see them in Panamá... so mission accomplished!

I saw Red-necked Phalarope in my previous visit, making this year a two-phalaropes year for the site.  We had to return to Panamá City, so we only spend 45 minutes in the pond.  In the way back, I just made a quick stop at a flooded field in Río Grande where a flock of several species of herons were feeding in the mud.  It looked like a great place for migrant shorebirds.

I only saw two Solitary Sandpipers and a Black-necked Stilt among the Cattle, Great and Snowy Egrets, the Southern Lapwings and the lonely White Ibis... but I'm sure this place deserve more visits.

Two hours to the west

As you probably know, we spent most of our weekends at our second hometown: Penonomé, in central Panamá.  Penonomé lies in the geographical center of the country, two hours to the west of Panama City, in the middle of dry savannas with a distinct avifauna.  That is so, that the common species around Penonomé would be rarities in the wetter Panamá City, were we live.  A short ride south of town last sunday, to what is now a regular site for us (I was with Gloriela and Gabrielle), the road to El Gago, produced a nice collection of these birds, including Crested Bobwhites.  There, they are frequently seen and heard, but usually don't stay that long for good shots, so we were lucky.

The last record of bobwhites close to Panama City was in the 19th century... just to put it in perspective.  And the last time someone recorded a Mourning Dove in Panama City (some years ago, a day previous to a CBC), it was considered a vagrant.  In that road south of Penonomé is a common sight... and what a sight!  These doves are beautiful.

The situation is a little bit different with the Brown-throated Parakeets.  They are uncommon in the outskirts of Panama City, and have been recorded right in the middle of the city (for example in Parque Omar)... but in those savannas are simply abundant.  In fact, we crossed MANY flocks that day feeding in pink flowers by the road.

Other species are so widely distributed that are quite common in both regions... but you have to work a little harder to find a White-tailed Kite in the big city.  There, we saw two or three individuals, and even one perched on a fence pole, showing its black shoulders and fiery character.

Well, this was a typical day at the savannas!

Rice fields and savannas!

Birding in the tropics is not only about rain and cloud forests... any type of habitat is good if you are looking for birds!  The group of intrepid birders, composed by Osvaldo Quintero, Rafael Luck, Venicio "Beny" Wilson and myself, headed last saturday to the -mostly- agricultural lands of Juan Hombrón, in Coclé province (central Panamá).  We were looking for migrants buntings; however, we found many other goodies (but no buntings).  Our first stop were the rice fields on route to Juan Hombrón.  Most of the fields were essentially pool of mud waiting to be sowed... but it turned out that was the perfect habitat for a bunch of migrant waders!

As you can see, we saw many shorebirds, especially Southern Lapwings and Least Sandpipers, but also small numbers of Pectoral Sandpipers, Willets, both Wilson's and Semipalmated Plovers, Greater Yellowlegs, Black-necked Stilts and Solitary Sandpipers.  We were inspecting carefully every shorebird looking for rare vagrants when Beny called us to see through his scope: an American Golden-Plover still with part of its breeding plumage.  Not exactly a vagrant, but a rare migrant through Panamá.

Not the best photo, it was too far away.  We continued our way, finding many typical inhabitants of these fields, like Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures, Savanna Hawks and the omnipresent Cattle Egrets.

One mile before reaching the coast, we stopped at a tiny gallery dry "forest", finding Veraguan Mango, Sapphire-throated Hummingbird, Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, both Common and Slate-headed Tody-Flycatchers and many more... but only this Acadian Flycatcher allowed photos.

By the time we reached the coastal marsh, it was raining so hard that we decided to go back, stopping again at the rice fields were we saw the bird of the trip.  After a while, we went to Penonome, where we had lunch at a new hotel in the outskirts of the town.  Then, we headed south of town, taking the road to El Gago, finding more raptors typical of the coclesian savannas, like White-tailed Kite, Roadside Hawk and both Yellow-headed and Crested Caracaras.

For the first time, we actually reached El Gago, a tiny river pier at the end of the 16 km-long road!  That was a life site for me!

At El Gago, we saw both immature and adult Common Black-Hawk, this form used to be known as the Mangrove Hawk some years ago.  I think that the adult looks boring if you compare it with the colorful immature bird.

In the way out we took a couple of minutes to photograph some migrant Barn Swallows by the road.  Not only that, I also got my first Bank Swallow photo!  Can you find it?

I stayed in Penonome with my family after saying good-bye to my friends.  What a great day at the savannas, watching resident and, specially, migrant birds.  To end the day, I was able to capture the silhouette of a migrant Chimney Swift over the shrubs of the savanna... simply a nice way to call it a day!

Harrier's festival in Coclé!

Of the three harriers species (Circus sp.) found in the Americas, two had been recorded so far in Panama.  The Northern Harrier, which is an uncommon migrant from North America, and the Long-winged Harrier, considered as a vagrant from South America and recorded, as expected, in the eastern part of the country... until now!  Along with Rafael Luck, Osvaldo Quintero and Venicio "Beny" Wilson, I went last saturday, october 13th, to Juan Hombrón, in the Coclé province of central Panamá.  We passed the rice fields, birded for a while (the story in another post) and continue our route... but it was at the rice fields in the way back when Beny saw it!

Juan Hombrón rice fields

He separated of the group for unknown reasons and while we all were seeing in the opposite direction, he saw a big black bird flying low passing in front of him... he immediately started to call us because he soon realized that was seeing something rare and new for him!  The bird crossed the road from one rice field to another, allowing some photos (watch Rafael's photos of this and other birds in Xenornis).

After litte discussion, we all agreed that the bird was a Long-winged Harrier due to its very dark (almost black) general color, pale primaries panels (both from above and below), and large size.  The pale streaks of the underparts make this bird a dark phase immature.

After seeing Rafael photos in Xenornis, I realized that this bird also showed the rufous vent characteristic of this species... only my next photo shows that feature (OK, with a little bit of imagination... you may need to enlarge the image to see it).

The bird also showed little white in the rump... essentially a white rump band... very different to the conspicuous white rump patch of the Northern Harrier.

After a while, we relocated the bird, allowing more photos... but the bird was chased away by a group of Southern Lapwings that were not as excited as we were with this raptor.  Notice the long-winged profile of the bird while soaring high in a thermal current.

Compare the last photo with my own Long-winged Harrier photo from eastern Panama province, taken last june... same profile.

Long-winged Harrier.  Eastern Panama province, june 30th, 2012.

For some reason we were quite lucky to have the rare opportunity to watch the other species of harrier, the Northern Harrier, also flying over a rice field farther west, in the road to El Gago, south of Penonome (Coclé province too).  In comparison, they (two birds) were smaller, browner, with a different wing pattern and conspicuous white rumps.

I know the last photo is simply not good... but this is the third year in a row that I see this species in the same area, and I have other photos published here (also, you can see Rafael's photos in Xenornis).

This, if accepted, is the ninth or tenth report for this species in Panamá; and certainly, the western/northernmost of them... what a crazy find!!!

Afternoon walk

This is just an excuse to post some photos that I got during a short walk across the savannas south of the town of Penonome (Coclé province, central Panamá) last weekend (the same day we found the avocet in Aguadulce).  I took the road to El Gago through rice fields, secundary growths and typical savanna habitat in company of Gloriela and Gabrielle.  By the first part we saw a HUGE flock of migrant swallows, most of them Barn Swallows, flying low over the rice field.  Many were perched on barbed wires along the fence of the field, but I only managed to capture a marginal photo of an immature bird.

We also saw in the same flock both Bank and Cliff Swallows.  I got the rare opportunity to photograph a perched Cliff Swallow at eye level... you usually found them flying, or very high if perched.  This species is very attractive if you see it well!

Warning: the next photo have the worst background ever published in the web.  OK, I'm exaggerating a little bit, the true is that this road also conduct to the municipal dump... and the vultures and caracaras have taken advantage of this, as you can see, this Crested Caracara is trying to get an easy meal in the garbage.

We also found a nice American Kestrel by the road, almost in complete darkness.  Notice the lack of dots or marks in the underparts of this male.  The kestrels are now quite common around Penonome, and are found year round.  Probably they belong to one of the south american subspecies colonizing Panama... a very nice addition to the already impressive Panama's avifauna.

Well, that's all for now folks!