A Visit to Finca Los Lagos (aka Ibis-Land)

The news spread like fire!  A Bare-faced Ibis returned to the same area where it was seen for the first time in Panama last year.  As you heard it, the Bare-faced Ibis found in Darien province (eastern Panama) by Pepe Castiblanco and Erasmo De Leon was the last addition to our national list of birds, but after the first few sightings, it disappeared... until now.  It reappeared in the same general area last month, and since then, several twitchers have found it with the help of Erasmo.

Finca Los Lagos, Darien

So, last Sunday I decided to try for it.  Erasmo's nephew, Jean, showed me the way through pasture land and dry riverbeds until we reached Finca Los Lagos, property of Erasmo's parents, at first light.  It was evident why it attracted so many birds... the surroundings were extremely dry due to the harsh dry season, but the place holds a lake with marshy vegetation and other wetlands that attracts tons of life.  Also, the property borders an extensive forest too... a nice combination.  We did the first try before breakfast... and I'm going to kill the suspense right away because the very first ibis we saw mere 100 meters from the house was THE ibis!

Bare-faced Ibis with Blue-winged Teals and a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

The ibis was not a lifer for me to be honest... but it was the first time ever I see one in Panama!  With its growing number in South America, I wonder why this species have not yet "invaded" our country. It was quite shy and I only managed distant shots... but hey, I got my target and I was just starting!  With the ibis in the bag, we decided to bird along the forest border in direction to a nearby wetland.  As you can imagine, we found several other species... but as suggested by the title, I was impressed with the diversity of ibises species.  In quick succession we saw Glossy, Green and White Ibises feeding on the wetlands!

Glossy Ibis

Green Ibises

White Ibises (immatures)

I don't recall any other site in Panama where you can see four different species of ibises at the same time (the Panama list of birds have seven species of ibises, with the other three extremely rare, just as the Bare-faced), indicating the quality of the habitat at the site.  The ibises were not the only one attracted to these wetlands, the ducks were well represented with large numbers of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks and Blue-winged Teals, plus at least 150 Muscovy Ducks, which are hunted in other sites.  Even a beautiful drake American Wigeon posed for photos!

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks

Muscovy Ducks

American Wigeon with Blue-winged Teals

We saw hundred of herons, egrets, jacanas and other aquatic birds... but there were other specialties too.  The flycatchers were well represented with several species, including Cattle Tyrant (in spite of its preferred habitat, it is still scarce and erratic in Panama), Pied Water-Tyrant, Rusty-margined Flycatcher, Great and Lesser Kiskadees, Tropical and Gray Kingbirds, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tyrant, and many more!  A female Golden-green Woodpecker also showed well, specially considering how difficult to find usually they are, and by the river, the nominate subspecies of Boat-billed Heron (with white-ish- breast and face) was resting in the open.

Cattle Tyrant

Long-tailed Tyrant

Golden-green Woodpecker (female)

Boat-billed Heron

In the way back, Jean took me to a little marsh where he thought the Bare-faced Ibis liked to wander.  Using some bushes as hides, we managed to approach very close to the marsh.  Effectively, the ibis was there... and this time I managed some great shots and even tape-recorded it guttural vocalization, which you can heard from this eBird checklist.

Bare-faced Ibis

What a great way to end a twitch!  My four-and-a-half-hours drive back to Panama City was definitely more bearable with the feeling of mission accomplished!  I greatly recommend contact Erasmo for a visit to this private property in eastern Panama... write him at ecotourdarien@gmail.com or through his page at EcoTourDarien.  Happy Birding!

Panama's Dry Arc

The coastal area of Panama's central Pacific slope is the driest in the country, receiving less than 1500 mm of annual rainfall.  The area around the Parita gulf is particularly dry, and is the middle point of an area known as the "Dry Arc" due to this condition, its xerofitic vegetation and "deserts", and the prolonged dry season (lasting up to seven months).

Last weekend, I went to this part of the country, accompanied with my pals Osvaldo and Rafael (no last names needed for these two).  After a quick breakfast in the town of Chitre, we headed to our first destination: Sarigua National Park.  This area, known locally as the Sarigua desert, is certainly the driest center of the arc.

Of course, this is not a true "desert", but a man-made one, after the indiscriminate exploitation of the natural resources since pre-Columbian times leaving only barren terrain and scattered bushes.  However, this vegetation is the perfect niche for the most localized ground-dove in Panama: the Common Ground-Dove.  This is the only reliable site to found this species in Panama, the closest population of its congeners is in central and northwestern Costa Rica!

This was one of our main target... but not the MAIN target of our trip to Sarigua.  In fact, we were looking for a rare migrant reported there last year.  We checked the very exact place where it was reported: the water tank behind the rangers' station, where a leak in the tank made a green oasis in the middle of the desert, attracting many common birds.  While waiting, I heard another specialty of the dry arc: White-winged Dove (file photo).

As the ground-dove, the closest population is in Costa Rica, but there is a record from western Panama, probably a vagrant migrant.  Then, I saw a green finch with pale bill... a female Painted Bunting, our main target!  We were not able to photograph it, but we saw it again two more times in the general area and again one more time in the road to the Parita river, certainly a different individual. The rangers advised us to look for the male in the flowering trees along the river.  We didn't find a male bunting, but this Spotted Sandpiper in breeding plumage entertained us (and yes, I took this photo in the "desert").

Other highlights were Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and a Common Nighthawk flying high above.  I only got marginal photos of these two... they are barely recognizable.

We left Sarigua and headed to Las Macanas marsh.  In the dry arc, the water is a precious resource... and any permanent water source is a magnet for wildlife.  This marsh is just that... a protected oasis used by men and animals with multiple purposes (as the sign suggests).

By the time we reached the marsh, it was pretty hot... and the water level low.  Thousands of herons, storks, ibises and jacanas were scattered all over the place.

One of the most numerous was the Glossy Ibis, like the one pictured below.  When I started to birdwatch some years ago, this was a very rare species in Panama.  Now, it is abundant in this part of the country.

By noon, we decided to have lunch in the Aguadulce Salinas (saltflats), 30 minutes from Las Macanas.  We were not expecting huge flocks of waders due to the horrendous heat and the low tide, but we witnessed the traditional salt harvest from the drying pools.

After a delicious fried fish (an entire corvina... our own tradition when visiting this site), we checked the pools again, finding a tiny flock with Black-necked Stilts, Least Sandpipers and both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs.

Well, a typical day in Panama's Dry Arc!

Long weekend. Part I

My family and I decided to spent this long weekend at our house in Penonomé (Coclé province, central Panamá), in order to enjoy some fresh air and to share with our relatives.  Of course, I also took advantage of these free days to do some birding... and accompanied by Osvaldo Quintero and Rafael Luck, we visited some localities along the Panamerican highway, starting at El Chirú.  Most of the former savanna habitat was turned into a corn field, but still we managed to find some common birds, like Brown-throated Parakeets and even a White-winged Dove, but perhaps the change was too much for the Grassland Yellow-Finches that we used to find there regularly.

We moved closer to the coast, to Juan Hombrón, passing first by the extensive rice fields where we saw last year a Long-winged Harrier... this time we saw plenty of egrets and herons, and a flock of more than fifty Glossy Ibises, that weren't completely unexpected... but a good sight away of Las Macanas marshes, specially in such numbers.

The secondary growths along the road produced many species typical of these dry areas, like Lance-tailed Manakins, Blue-black Grassquits, Streaked Flycatcher (the only one allowing photos), Yellow-crowned Euphonias and many more.

At the beach, we saw the usual suspects: Brown Pelican, Neotropic Cormorant and Laughing Gulls... but it was an Osprey that allowed the best views and photographic opportunities.  This is an impressive eagle and, thanks God, a common one!

We left Juan Hombrón with a huge day-list of birds... but we wanted more, so we visited Punta Chame (to the east, coming closer to Panamá City), a well-known site for waders, and many more aquatic and marine birds.  Also, we enjoyed a nice fried fish as lunch after checking the beach.  It was only after reviewing my photos of a flock of gulls and terns resting in the sand that I realized that we didn't see the two Common Terns among the numerous Sandwich and Royal Terns and the Laughing Gulls!  Can you identify them in the next pic?

But the real surprise came in the way out.  We did a routine stop to check a section of beach by the road, noticing a group of ducks in the far shore... it took me a while, but eventually I recognized the huge beaks and the unmistakable plumage of an adult male Northern Shoveler with four female-plumaged birds!  These ducks are rare in Panama... and we were seeing five of them!  They were quite distant... but you can notice the beak shape in my cropped photo (OK, I recognized it, this is an awful photo).

That was a nice way to call it a day.  Rafael and Osvaldo left me at the Panamerican highway... they were going to Panama City and I was going back to Penonomé... the weekend was just starting!

Not only ducks at Las Macanas

As I mentioned in my last post, we do not only found ducks at Las Macanas marsh (Herrera province, central Panama) this morning, we (Osvaldo, Kilo, Hector and your blogger host) also found tons of other interesting birds as well. As usual, the place was simply great for raptors, with common species like Savanna, Common Black and Roadside Hawks in the nearby fields, Ospreys and Snail Kites in the marsh. Las Macanas hold a permanent population of these kites (a male in the photo), the only one outside the Canal Area. In the way to the marsh, we also saw Peregrine, Aplomado and Bat Falcons, plus Yellow-headed and Crested Caracaras (also falconiformes). The other group well-represented are the waders... we saw ALL the egrets (except Reddish), plus Great, Little Blue and Tricolored Herons, and two Black-crowned Night-Herons feeding in the open. We also saw some Wood Storks flying, tons of Glossy Ibises and several White Ibises as well. The Glossy Ibis breed there, and, despite its commoness, I still need a good photo of it as you can see. Anyway, they are really "glossy" with the adequate light. We walked along the edge of the marsh, out of the visitors area guided by Hector, finding in the way a Mangrove Cuckoo, which seems regular in that site in the right season. We reached an area with hundreds of whistling (and others) ducks, but also some shorebirds, including Least Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Black-necked Stilts and four Killdeers (the third group I found this month... curious considering that I saw none last year). Kilo detected a group of five dowitchers that looked suspicious. In first place the habitat: a freshwater marsh away from the coast. They also exhibited dark gray breasts and, in flight, dark tails contrasting with the white patch on rump and lower back... but more interesting, they emitted a sharp and clear kick! when alarmed (after joining a bigger group of dowitchers looking essentially the same), and the same note in a quick series when they flew away... Long-billed Dowitchers! I'm pretty familiarised with the more musical call of the Short-billed Dowitchers, and these were completely different! A very rare migrant to Panama, and a lifer for two of us (Kilo saw them last year with Hector). All over the place, the Sandwich Terns were from one side to another, checking the ponds, but at this section of the marsh we also saw a flock of eight magnificent Caspian Terns. We saw them perched first, but they didn't allow us to approach them, so I only got flying shots. Anyway, its huge size and coral-red bill make them impressive birds. I'm convinced that Las Macanas is the most reliable site in Panama to find them. It was a good day. After all, for me, a day with a lifer definitively is a good one... but a day with TWO lifers is GREAT! What I'm talking about? Keep reading my next post and you will figure it out!