Long weekend. Part II

As I said before, I spend this last weekend with my family in Penonomé (Coclé province, central Panamá).  After a first day of birding, we spend the sunday visiting relatives and catching up with friends, but in the afternoon we went to the beach... specifically to Santa Clara beach, farther east, but still in Coclé province.

Did I mention that it was the first time of Gabrielle in the beach?  And she enjoyed the whole experience!

Besides taking pictures of my two girls, and enjoying the warm waters of the Pacific ocean, I also took some pics of the gulls at the beach... finding at least four Franklin's Gulls among the numerous Laughing Gulls.

Notice the darker hood with more prominent eye crescents, stockier shape, shorter legs and beak, and incomplete dark tail band (sparing the outermost feathers in the flying shot).

A sunny summer day with your family having fun and some gulls to shot... what else do you need? 

Ring-billed Gull in Santa Clara beach

After visiting Penonome (central Panama) during april's last weekend, Gloriela and I decided to stop by the Santa Clara beach before returning to the city. For my surprise, we found a Ring-billed Gull among the dozens or more Laughing Gulls. Probably for most of you, the Ring-billed Gull is an abundant, boring gull found everywhere... but for us, in Panama, it is a very scarce migrant, present mostly on the Pacific coast of central Panama, specially around Panama City (more birdwatchers there?). It has been a while since my last sighting of a Ring-billed Gull in Panama... surely due to my few visits to regular sites like Costa del Este and Panama Viejo. The presence of this gull is expected in this part of the country according to Panama's new field guide (Angehr & Dean 2010), but for me was a nice surprise. It was not a mature adult, as you can see by the brown flight feathers; but I'm not an expert aging sea gulls. It was with a flock of Laughing Gulls, begging for food close to a group of visitors. Compared to the the Laughings, the Ring-billed was bigger, paler, heavier, with a distinctive pale iris and a different flight pattern, which both of us saw several times. I followed the flock for a while, trying to capture some close pictures, and I think I did it well. After a while, the whole group flew away (surely a group a playing kids with their canine pets had something to do with that)... so we left in the place enjoying the breeze, the sand and the cold waters of Santa Clara beach!

Happy Birthday PANAMA!!!

Today, all the panamanians celebrate our separation of Colombia, 107 years ago! This is the first of many important days during this month, including our flag's day (tomorrow) and the independence day (november 28th). Like many panamanians, we spent the day at the crowded beach of Santa Clara (central Panama), where we enjoyed the breeze, the sand and the sun with our friends... and I even saw some birds like Laughing Gulls, Neotropic Cormorants, Magnificent Frigatebirds and Royal Terns, a lonely Sanderling, and even a new year-bird for me: Common Tern. Now, I'm at 599 species for this year!

Sand and terns at Santa Clara beach

A clear day in Santa Clara beach (central Panama pacific coast) is something hard to forget. Green waters, white sand and the cool marine breeze. Even the food at the beach is excellent too! But most important, a flock of Sandwich and Royal Terns plus Laughing Gulls at the sand allowing close pics is simply great!