Whale watching trip to the Pearl Islands

Last weekend, I went with my family on a private tour to the Pearl Islands, the heavenly archipelago within an hour and a half from busy Panama City.  My friend Mario Ocaña organized the trip and was a terrific host, and my whole family is impressed by his professionalism and camaraderie.  Our objective was to watch whales... but it was an open itinerary, and we included some time to enjoy the beaches (as in plural!), to have lunch in Contadora island and to visit some seabirds colonies.

Ready for adventure!

In fact, the first attraction was close to the dock.  Few minutes after leaving the marina, we were admiring hundreds of Blue-footed Boobies and other seabirds resting at the Peñón de San José, a rocky islet to the south of Flamenco Island.  However, the main attraction there were the three Peruvian Boobies resting on the rocks among the Blue-footed Boobies.  They are irregular visitors to Panama (only under abnormal conditions, like El Niño).

Peruvian and Blue-footed Boobies

Blue-footed Boobies

Brown Booby

As you can see, I'm including also a photo of a Brown Booby seen later and another pic of the Blue-footed Booby, both from Pachequilla island, the first of the Pearl Islands that we visited that day.  The sight of several hundreds of seabirds on the rocks made us feel like in a Nat Geo documentary!  A little bit after leaving Pachequilla, we encountered our first pair of whales: mother and calf Humpback Whales!

Mother and calf Humpback Whales

These warm and shallow waters are perfect for the whales to raise their young.  Soon these beasts will engage on an epic transequatorial journey to their feeding grounds around Antarctica.  The second whale appeared shortly after the above pair close to Contadora island... as Mario says, the harder whale to find is the first one!

Humpback Whale (Contadora island in the background)

With the whales in the bag, we decided to enjoy the white-sanded beaches of both Mogo Mogo and Chapera islands... the Survivor: Pearl Islands sets.  We had the whole beaches for us, and the little ones enjoyed it most (specially Gabrielle, after her slight disappointment after realizing that whales were not purple, as her toy whale).

 

In our way to Contadora island, we saw some Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels.  For most of the participants, they were little dark bat-like birds flying swiftly and in zig-zag among the waves... this photo shows that they are delicately patterned in brown and buffy, with contrasting white uppertail coverts.

Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel

And of course we saw more Humpback Whales!  Several more, including pairs of mother and calf, solitary adults and even a distant group of adults flapping their flippers and jumping out the water!  The show was amazing and soon we were joined by several other boats admiring the whales as well.

Noisy blow

The ride back to Panama City was a bumpy one, but we were more than happy after enjoying these nature marvels so close to the big, busy city.  While we were having a sunny day at the islands, a huge storm system was whipping Panama City... but we made it without experiencing any rainstorm at all!  I want to thanks Mario for the excellent trip, and hope to repeat it soon my friend!

The Pearl Islands experience! Part II

The second day of our trip to the Pearl Islands (Gulf of Panama), Joris, Francis and your blogger host hired a boat to visit some nearby islands to Contadora; however, Joris and I decided to watch birds in the island interior during the first hours of light.  It was too early for most of the migrants... instead, we found many resident birds around the pond.  This Panama Flycatcher was particularly cooperative:

Panama Flycatcher

At the pond, several pairs of Least Grebes were quite active making display calls and exhibitions and building floating nests.  We managed some close views and photos of these birds.

Least Grebe

It was time to aboard our boat, the captain was waiting for us at Galeon beach and soon we were heading to Pacheca Island, just to the north of Contadora.  This private owned island holds one of the most important breeding colony of Magnificent Frigatebirds in the Panamanian Pacific... a fact that quickly became obvious... hundreds of frigatebirds flying and resting at the trees of the island... impressive!

Immature Magnificent Frigatebirds

However, both Pacheca and Pachequilla islands were covered in Blue-footed Boobies... hundreds of them!  Pachequilla was literally covered with them.  These amazing numbers of Blue-footed Boobies are not usual... they are easily seen from shore at the continent in several beaches, and hundreds of them rest in islets close to Panama City as well.

Blue-footed Boobies

Blue-footed Boobies

In the other hand, the Brown Boobies were not more than 10... and all of them at Pachequilla island.  In fact, we saw some more in the open sea during the ferry trip from Panama City.  I have to mention that this seems to be a recent shift in the boobies population in these nesting sites.  According to Angehr & Kushlan (Waterbirds 2007; 30: 335-57), the "Brown Boobies nested in similar sites as Blue-footed Boobies but were more widely distributed", and that "although commonly seen roosting in the outer islands of the Pearls, Blue-footed Boobies are relatively rare, scattered, and perhaps irregular as breeders".

Brown Boobies

However, the biggest surprise was a small group of Peruvian Boobies resting at Pachequilla island!  They were easily identified due to their contrasting white head and necks, smaller size and checkered upperparts (and, of course, none of these had blue feet).

Peruvian (and three Blue-footed) Boobies in Pachequilla island 

Peruvian and Blue-footed Boobies in Pachequilla island

We are experiencing an invasion of Peruvian Boobies in Panamanian waters, probably displaced by warmer conditions in their usual range in South America.  Until that day, they were only reported from Panama City and a nearby islet.  We were quite excited about this... but know that these are not exactly good news for the birds.  The last birds we saw while circumnavigating Pacheca island were these two American Oystercatchers... always a nice sight!

American Oystercatchers

We really had fun and enjoyed every second of this flash trip to the Pearl Islands.  Hope you enjoyed it as well!

Isleta island