Shorebirds all around!

When Osvaldo Quintero and I arrived to days ago to the entrance gate of Finca Bayano, to the east of Panama City, the picture was not good... storm clouds were covering the entire place and the overcast day was cold and windy.  It didn't take long before we had to shelter inside the car and wait for the rain to stop.  By that time we only had seen some herons and Wattled Jacanas, but not a single shorebird... and we were after a special one, the Buff-breasted Sandpipers reported twice at the site earlier this season.

Finca Bayano

Eventually, the rain stopped enough to start to watch birds.  The place was flooded and wet... but it was just perfect for shorebirds... they started to appear all over the place: on the road, at the fields, flying overhead... everywhere!  The most common were the peeps, with Least and Western Sandpipers as the most conspicuous, but also with some Semipalmated Sandpipers as well.

Least and Western Sandpipers

While watching them, we started to notice larger shorebirds mixed in.  Most of them were Pectoral Sandpipers but, eventually, we noticed one bird with yellow-buffy tones and yellow legs... it only stayed enough for a couple of shots, but it proved to be the only Buff-breasted Sandpiper of the day!

Pectoral Sandpipers

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

The Buff-breasted Sandpiper is a rare passage migrant in Panama, with only few reports each fall (almost none in spring).  This was just the second time I see this species, and was a life bird for Osvaldo!  However, it was not the main highlight of the day.  Soon we realized that it was about to be a unique trip... other rare passage migrants showed up as well: several Stilt and White-rumped Sandpipers were around allowing photos.

Stilt Sandpipers

White-rumped and Semipalmated Sandpiper

Other not-so-rare-but-pretty-uncommon species showed up well too, including a pair of confident American Golden-Plovers and, as a photographic highlight, I have to mention the Wilson's Snipes.  They are common winter visitors but you not often see them so close!

American Golden-Plover

Wilson's Snipe

Nice collection of birds eh?  Oh yes, and there was also the first-record-for-Panama thing... well, YEAH!  A bird ever recorded in Panama... about the same size of the Pectoral Sandpipers, but with contrasting chestnut crown and white eye-brow... but most important, buffy breast with almost no streaks... here is the photo that I added to my eBird checklist:

SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER... WOW!  An Asian breeder way out of route!  It is still pending review, but if accepted by the local Birds Records Committee, it could be the first documented one for Central America!  Now that is what I call a terrific day!

At the mouth of the Pacora river

The upper Bay of Panama comprises 48,919 ha of sandy beaches, mudflats and mangrove forests along our central Pacific coast.  The western end of this area is under great pressure by urbanization and the expansion of Panama City and, until recently, its protected status was threatened by particular and economic interests.  Iconic sites (for shorebirds watching) included in the Upper Bay are Panama Viejo, Costa del Este and Juan Díaz (although the first two are out of the protected area); however, I just visited a new site at the mouth of the Pacora river where the Panama Audubon Society (PAS) has conducted shorebirds surveys since some years now in association with others NGOs, like the National Audubon Society and the Center for Conservation Biology, among others.

That's me in Panama Viejo.  Notice the peeps in the background (photo by Osvaldo Quintero)

Getting there ain't easy... the muddy road from the Panamerican highway is slippery and rough in some sites... and it is at least a 1-hour long drive to the beach.  However, this road crosses open habitats, shrubs, gallery forests, rice fields and some wetlands that are highly diverse in terms of avian species.  We did several stops along the way to watch some interesting species... I was driving, so I did'n take so many photos in this part of the trip.  Once in the beach, we started to work..., yes, to work.  This was not an usual birding trip.  With us was a grad student in Marine Biology of the Universidad Internacional Marítima de Panamá, Stephany Carty, some volunteers, an academic advisor from the Universidad de Panama and PAS' resident biologist, Michele Caballero.

Stephany and a volunteer sampling at the study site

Stephany is doing her thesis in these mudflats, characterizing benthic organisms associated with resting and feeding areas for resident and migratory shorebirds (benthic refers to the collection of organisms living on or in sea or lakes bottom -thanks Michele for the explanation).  This and other studies have the aim to begin a process of documentation of this critical habitat with hemispheric importance for shorebirds, and the PAS is supporting these studies while at the same time makes an important work of environmental education in communities adjacent to the protected area.

Western and Least Sandpipers at the beach

In the other hand, PAS' Executive Director, Rosabel Miró, and others PAS members (including me) were searching banded shorebirds.  Last season, some sandpipers were fitted with coded leg flags allowing individual identification.  Those flags assigned for Panama were gray with black characters (as you can see in the "Pluma Fina" section of this PAS' bulletin).  We saw some huge flocks of peeps, including Semipalmated, Western and Least Sandpipers as you can see in the picture above.  We scoped them, but none of these were banded.  We also saw Black-necked Stilts, Marbled Godwits, Willets, Whimbrels, Short-billed Dowitchers and my favorite shorebird: Red Knots.

Black Skimmers, Short-billed Dowitchers and Red Knots

These birds were easily identified by their pale red underparts, reminiscent of their alternate plumages.  This is an uncommon species in Panama and it seems to have declined in the last years.  In fact, this species is object of intense research because the populations wintering in South America dropped over 50% from the mid-1980s to 2003 (article in pdf here).  Not only waders, we also saw hundreds of other species, like resident Brown Pelicans and Neotropic Cormorants plus an amazing number of terns species... the most common were the Elegant Terns, but at the end we recorded six different terns species, including some uncommon Caspian Terns.

Caspian Terns

Notice the red, heavy-looking bill and the dark underside of the outer primaries in flight.  The highlight were three Common Terns seen flying first and then resting in the sand.  They are not common at all in Panama, as its name may suggest.

Common Terns, Willets and Semipalmated Plovers

In the picture above you can see the Common Terns resting close to a flock of Willets and two Semipalmated Plovers (we saw five plovers species in total).  The slender profile and black carpal bar is characteristic.  However, the most abundant (and intriguing) tern-like species was the Black Skimmer.  A huge flock of these elegant birds were resting in the beach (as you can see in the picture above with Red Knots).  But I noticed something strange when they took off... watch these photos:

Black Skimmers

Black Skimmers

Notice the gray underside of the wings (this can depend on light and angle, but compare the color with the white underparts), the thin (rather than broad) white trailing edge to the secondaries and, more important, the gray tail (instead of white).  All these marks are characteristics of the cinerascens subspecies from South America.

Black Skimmers and Marbled Godwits

The relative abundance of this subspecies with respect to the North American migrants is unknown.  Now I wonder if I have ever seen the North American subspecies niger in Panama (during my first years of birdwatching I didn't notice those details).  As you can see, you can have fun while contributing to scientific knowledge!

Shorebirding for the CBC

It is December and, as usual, I'm participating in the Panama Audubon Society's CBC (Christmas Birds Count), starting with the Pacific side of central Panama.  For a good number of years in a row now, my counting area consists of riverine habitats, coast, lagoons, open fields and patches of secondary forests around the localities of Farfan and Veracruz in the west side of the Panama Canal.  Both Osvaldo Quintero and Rafael Luck accompanied me this year.  After many years participating in the counts now, I know that most of the targets birds for my area are raptors, waterbirds and shorebirds, specially those found primarily in rocky and sandy beaches (not in mudflats, as in Panama Viejo).

At our first stop, in the dike area of Farfan, we checked all the ducks swimming in the lagoon looking for the vagrant Cinnamon Teals reported some weeks ago, but all seemed to be Blue-winged Teals due to their contrasting pattern in the flanks and small bills.  There were huge flocks of waders in the lagoon as well, mostly Black-necked Stilts and, specially, Semipalmated Plovers, but also many Least Sandpipers.  We saw again the Least Sandpipers in an unexpected habitat in Veracruz beach, in rocks.

Notice the small size and the diagnostic yellow legs.  We checked this habitat through Rafael's scope, finding our targets.  In the next picture you will see at least three Surfbirds and some Ruddy Turnstones, plus others shorebirds like Willets, a Whimbrel and even a resting Sanderling.

We searched the sandy part of the beach looking for more Sanderlings.  Instead, we found a flock of 18  Collared Plovers running from one side to another, looking so similar to the sand that they were actually hard to pick up.  These plovers are delicate and beautiful!

We dipped on two targets: Wison's Plover and American Oystercatcher.  However, we ended with a very nice list of 120 species, 1926 individual, 35 kms and 7 eBird checklists for the morning!  We found our last shorebird away of the coast, a Solitary Sandpiper nervously inspecting a rain pool by the side of a road leading to a patch of forest.

See you in the next CBC!

Long weekend. Part III

After our day at the beach, the final day of this past long weekend we decided to go to the Aguadulce Salinas (saltponds), 30 minutes to the west of Penonomé in Coclé province (central Panamá).  Of course, I went with my family, including my wife, daughter, sister-in-law and nephew.  We all were impressed with the huge flocks of sandpipers and plovers all over the place.  Only this flock, for example, had more than 200 Semipalmated Plovers!

I was a little bit more impressed with a cooperative Least Sandpiper that allowed me to approach closely.  Notice its diagnostic yellow legs.

There was a pond FULL with Black-necked Stilt, but alas, no avocets this time.  We counted more than 100 stilts.

But the star of the day was a dark-phase immature Reddish Egret that allowed great views by ALL the members of this expedition.  I was able to point out the differences, including the color of the bare parts, the slightly reddish tones to the head and neck, of course, the punk-like hair style that the bird exhibited for two seconds.

This bird is rare in Panama, and Aguadulce is the only regular, reliable site to find it... so it was indeed a great find.  We had an uneventful journey back to Panama City that afternoon, after a weekend full of birds, friends and fresh air!

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!

Tight together by the tide

Last friday 16-feet tide was high enough to push all the shorebirds of Panama Viejo to a tiny piece of beach close to the road. When I got to the place, it was raining so I started to watch them with my binoculars, waiting for the rain to stop. I noticed a plump-shaped shorebird accompanying the flock of peeps, evidently larger than them and looking quite similar to a dowitcher, except for its short bill... it also behaved different. A closer look revealed it to be a basic-plumaged Red Knot, which is not often found there. The rain stopped so I left the car and started to approach the birds. The knot did not stay, but all the others shorebirds did, including the flock of Short-billed Dowitchers. I usually don't have these close encounters with the dowitchers, so I took all the photos I could, including the molting individual that still was exhibiting some juvenal feathers at the coverts and the tail (the third photo).But definitively, the main show was protagonized by the three peeps species. I have to say that in Panama, these birds show their alternate plumage just for a brief period of time. The Least Sandpiper is, perhaps, the most easily identified, with its yellow legs, the thin bill and darker back. The size per se is not a good field mark as you can see in the next photo. Also, they usually like to wander close to the grassy coast and to the mangroves, instead at the extensive tidal flats like the other two species.In basic plumage the Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers are very difficult to distinguish. The main field marks are bill lenght and shape. Other field marks, like body shape, grade of facial contrast and vocalizations are not easy to determine under usual viewing conditions. Even with close and careful observations, many sandpipers will be left unidentified. I can id for sure the extremes... that is, long-billed females Westerns' (almost always with an evident dropped tip of the bill) and short, straight-billed males Semipalmateds'. For example, the next three photos are Western Sandpipers (the last two photos of a juvenile molting into basic-plumaged adult?).And the next ones are of a Semipalmated Sandpiper.Bear in mind that both species can show the rufous tinge to the scapulars, so it is not a good field mark in Panama. That day, it seemed that most of the peeps present were Western Sandpipers.
The peeps were all tight together in the same flock, with the dowitchers and some plovers, specially Wilson's and Semipalmated Plovers, with few basic-plumaged Black-bellied Plovers among the multitudes.

In general, the big shorebirds were apart of the peeps. The exception were the Willets... they looked immense compared to the peeps surrounding them.

But my favorites were the Marbled Godwits. That bubblegum-pink bill is unreal.

Well, a typical day at the Panama Viejo's mudflats!