Cartagena: Wildlife and Nature

As I mentioned in a previous post, Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) was the center of the Gastroenterology and Digestive System Endoscopy of the Americas last month, gathering health professionals, professors and Nobel Prize winners as well.  Despite the intense academic schedule, I was able to escape for a couple of hours to enjoy the nature and wildlife offered by the Colombian Caribbean coast.

I hired a taxi and went to the Guillermo Piñeres Botanical Garden, less than a hour to the south of the city, in Turbaco.  The nine hectares property protect part of the native vegetation and wildlife of the region.  I did some search in advance because, as you know, I was interested in birds, and the site didn't disappoint... I saw and/or heard 45 different species, including three lifers (Glaucous Tanager, Stripe-backed Wren and the endemic Chestnut-winged Chachalaca.

Stripe-backed Wren

Chestnut-winged Chachalaca (Endemic to Colombia)

I published more photos in my eBird checklist and invite you to check them.  Besides the birds, the place was really good for herps.  I know nothing about reptiles, but at least some common ones are easy to ID.  The place was moist enough to sustain a healthy population of iguanas, frogs and other reptiles.

Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)

Common Basilisk (Basiliscus basiliscus 

Rainbow Whiptail (Cnemidophorus lemniscatus)

Yellow-striped Poison Frog (Dendrobates truncatus)

The mammals were well represented too, with agoutis and Northern Amazon Red Squirrels as common sights in the forest, but more impressive, I was fortunate enough to cross a troop of Red Howler Monkeys that were quite curious.

Northern Amazon Red Squirrel (Sciurus igniventris)

Red Howler Monkey (Alouatta seniculus)

The taxonomy of the Red Howler Monkey is vexed.  Some authorities split the different populations into different species and call this form the Colombian (or Venezuelan) Red Howler Monkey (ssp. seniculus).  Full species or not, it was nice to find this peaceful inhabitant of the forest and to have a little taste of the rich wildlife and biodiversity that Colombia has to offer!

Visiting Isla Iguana

It is summer time in Panamá, time to enjoy the sun and the beaches along our coasts... as we did last weekend.  The Cubilla family, along with a bunch of great friends, visited the coast of southern Azuero peninsula, specifically around the town of Pedasí and beyond!

We then headed to the Isla Iguana Wildlife Refuge, 7 km off the coast from El Arenal beach where we took the boats (seeing both Royal and Elegant Tern in the beach).  The island emerged from the sea thousands of years ago, first as two islands with a coral reef between them that eventually formed the central part of the island (it looks like an "8"), with coral white sand beaches and crystal-clear waters, a must for every beach lover!

The island is well-known by the scuba divers, but also for its wildlife, including birds, as you can see in this interpretative sign at the Visitors' center (and eventually, I saw ALL these species that day).

As you arrive, it is immediately obvious that this is an important nesting site for the Magnificent Frigatebirds... hundreds can be seen resting or flying over the island... each season, more than 5000 birds engage in mating activities.

The iguanas are also an important element of the island's wildlife (as you can guess by its name).  I found MANY Black Iguanas (Ctenosaur sp.) close to the beach, but only one Green Iguana behind the Visitor's center on an introduced exotic tree.

Of course, I spend more time enjoying the warm waters, but I took a couple of minutes to walk the short trail to the lighthouse where I found several individual of Yellow "Mangrove" Warblers, of the endemic subspecies iguanae, found only in this tiny island.  Then, I returned to the beach to see my two girls enjoying the trip: PRICELESS.

After a couple of hours, it was time to leave.  Reluctantly, we boarded our boats and started the return journey.  At the estuary of the Pedasí river, we where able to see a flock of resting Laughing Gulls accompanied by two American Oystercatchers that even my non-birders friends appreciated as really beautiful birds.

That was an excellent end for a great day at a paradisiac island, but we continue our trip southward, searching new beaches to enjoy, so stay tuned!

Brushing the mudflats

I visited the coast of Panama City, specifically around Panama Viejo, some days ago following some interesting reports including very rare shorebirds and gulls in the area. Essentially, I birded around the Visitors Center because you get there a piece of every type of habitat present in the place, like both rocky and sandy shores, grassland, mudflats, an estuary and mangroves... all within a short walk and under the security

of the Center facilities. The extensive mudflats were covered in shorebirds, specially Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers, Willets and tons of Black-bellied Plovers. However, it was a group of waders that caught my attention: no less than ten Wood Storks were standing in the mud, resting and preening. They reminded me my last experience with storks during the Pacific CBC and, considering the fact that these birds are good fliers, one should consider that they could be

the same beach-loving individuals we saw during the count! Closer to the mangroves, six herons species were wading, looking something to eat, except an elegant Cocoi Heron which was simply

preening in the sand, very close to several Great Blue Herons, a very similar species. Walking to the rocky part of the shore, looking for the Wandering Tattler reported elsewhere, I crossed the grassy section next to the parking lot of the Visitors Center, finding a young Green

Iguana having a sun bath. A close relative, a Spiny Iguana (Ctenosauria sp.) was inspecting me from the rocks. At the rocks, the closest bird to a Tattler that I found was a Spotted Sandpiper dressing its winter suit, which is not spotted at all!

By far, it is the most widely distributed sandpiper in Panama, easily identified by its stiff wing beats and the constant movement of its rear part... it should be named Bobbing Sandpiper! Among the hundreds of Laughing Gulls and dozens of Franklin's Gulls, I

found the Lesser Black-backed Gull that have been reported in Xenornis; however, when I was about to photograph it, the all flock left the place desperately. I turned my head and realized that the reason of the mess was a young Peregrine Falcon hunting low and actually grapping a Laughing Gull in front of my eyes! It was a kind of weird because I'm used to see the Peregrine Falcons hunting small peeps instead of gulls of almost its same size!

But it was not over... just seconds after the initial attack, a second Peregrine Falcon (an adult this time) appeared, and started to attack the first individual, which never gave up its prey. The attacks were marked with lot of noise by both birds, and it reminded me an attack that I witnessed almost exactly one year ago!

After a while, the adult Peregrine left the young one with its prey. The young Peregrine began to eat but after a while it left the place too. May be I didn't get my life tattler, but that was a show often seen in the wild, so I'm happy anyway!

Beach and Motmots

During a familiar weekend at an all-inclusive resort in the coclesian Pacific coast (central Panama), I had the opportunity to have a close look at the resident motmot species: the Blue-crowned Motmot. A single individual (with no tail racquets) was eating the fruits of a palm tree. Of course, the motmot was not the only bird species detected in the gardens of the resort, we also saw many common residents like Boat-billed Flycatchers and the similar-looking Great Kiskadees, Palm and Blue-gray Tanagers and the very vocal Rufous-browed Peppershrike; but by far, the most colourful bird was the motmot. And it was not only beautiful, it is also intriguing. The Cocle province in central Panama is the extreme western end of the range for the conexus subspecies, part of what is described as Momotus subrufescens, or Whooping Motmot by the South America Checklist Committee (SACC), a change not recognized by the AOU nor by the Panama Audubon Society (you can see a distribution map here). The bird did not vocalize, which is the main field mark to separate this form from the lessoni group, the so called Blue-diademed Motmot of western Panama (and Central America). According to Stiles in his original paper, lessoni can be diagnosticable in the field based in 14 plumage characteristics. This bird showed characteristics consistent with conexus, the expected form in this part of Panama (not big contrast between chest and belly, bright green throat, contrasting thighs -as in the last photo-, lots of violet color in the posterior part of the diadem, etc...), except for the black border around the posterior diadem which was broad and conspicuous, as expected for lessoni. Considering that Cocle province could be a potential intergrade zone for the lessoni and conexus forms of this complex, I will try in the months to come to listen for these birds near my home in Penonome in order to address properly this issue about which form occurs in Cocle... so stay tunned!

Bonus, a young Green Iguana at the resort's gardens (abundant!).

This post was submitted to Bird Photography Weekly # 150, check it out!