Diablos Rojos' Art

Who can not recognize a Diablo Rojo (Red Devil)? In Panama City, our public transport consists mainly of these imported school buses painted in red, agressively driven by madmen (hence the name). I have to admit that not all of them deserve this reputation, but the name is so popular that hardly any driver will be upset if you call his "ship" a Diablo Rojo. Despite its roughness, its noisy engines, the loud music and some security issues, they are also known by the colourful designs that exhibit in many parts of its body. These artistic designs are not randomly painted in the bus' body... each part is designated to a specific motive. For example, the sides are reserved for the bus name along with a painting of a landscape or a fight or fantastic scene, the fuel lid is designed allusive to food or feeding; the back (or emergency) door usually shows a portrait of a relative, a politician, a Hollywood star (yes, like Angelina) or a rap/reggae singer; a landscape always fills the front part above the windshield; both bumpers are scripted with hilarious or religious messages and the battery lid must shows something allusive to power or to 12 Volts! But one of the parts that exhibit the greatest diversity of themes is definitively the motor lid. We usually don't see it because is too high, but from my apartment (at a fourth floor), it became very apparent. Here is only a TINY sample of all the motives that I photographed in about 30 minutes. I grouped them into themes: first, the "religious" theme (or "kind of religious" theme sometimes).One of my favorites, the "mystical" theme... usually showing wizards, sorceresses, monsters and/or legendary creatures.Also, the "eagles & flags" theme is quite common.Some exhibit cartoons characters, mostly Looney Tunes, but also comic heroes.Others exhibit TV characters, like The Undertaker or Jason.Finally, the women could not be absent (of course, I'm showing only the "decent" ones, usually warlike ladies).This is art in its most popular expression!

P.D.: the end is near for Panama City's Diablos Rojos due to a new transport system that is about to be implemented, so "enjoy" them while you can!

More than shorebirds in Costa del Este

When I mention Costa del Este (Panama City), I'm pretty sure that, at this point, most of you think on shorebirds. Yes, Costa del Este is an excellent site for shorebirds, but you can find other interesting species as well. Yesterday, I found two hard-to-find species within the city limits, considering that both are pretty common just to the east and to the west. The first one was a young (but beautiful) Savanna Hawk in the middle of a grassland. It stayed for a while and then flew to a streetlight post, where an American Kestrel started to attack him (I included it in my "raptors on streetlights" collection).The other species was a Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture. It was eating something in the ground, but I did not figure out what it was.Later, I moved to the Matías Hernández river, which was full of Neotropic Cormorants. I found several Yellow-crowned Night-Herons (I included a photo at my "waders and more waders" post), but also Mangrove (Yellow) Warblers, Eastern Wood-Pewees, an Amazon Kingfisher and a subadult Black-crowned Night-Heron perched in a mangrove tree.It is always nice to find all these birds in the city!

At the nearest beach

If Costa del Este and Panama Viejo are close to our apartment, then thePanama City's Coastal Beltway is at our backyard! I almost forgot that there is a tiny sandy beach in its eastern end (by the mouth of the Matasnillo river, in Paitilla), so I decided to check it this morning during high tide. It proved to be a good idea, since I found an amusing flock of twelve Sanderlings running from one side to another, never getting its feet wet! They were not alone... with them were at least six Semipalmated Plovers (three of them in the picture) and four Ruddy Turnstones (two of them still wearing most of its colourful alternate plumage). Notice how the Sanderling and the basic-plumaged turnstone are well-adapted to its wintering grounds, looking similar to the sand, the coloured pieces of shells and the pebbles of the beach.In the list of species represented by only one individual I got a Black-bellied Plover, a Willet, a Whimbrel and a Spotted Sandpiper still wearing some spots.Not bad for the nearest beach to home!

Waders and more waders

How many different herons species can you find in a morning. If you visit specific sites at the Upper Bay of Panama, then the answer is MAAANY! Yesterday, I went with Osvaldo Quintero to the Juan Díaz mangroves, Costa del Este and the Panama Viejo mudflats in a quick succession, twitching the recently reported American Avocet (which we did not find by the way). So, from east to west we got: Great and Snowy Egrets, Tricolored, Little Blue and Green Herons and Wood Stork (not a heron, but a wader too) in Juan Díaz.Cattle Egrets (same birds seen before) and Yellow-crowned Night-Heron in Costa del Este and Cocoi Heron, a Little Blue Heron molting into adult plumage and a Black-crowned Night-Heron (yes, the flying-away bird with the black back) at Panama Viejo (behind the new Visitors Center).Nine species in just two hours. Now, consider that three other species can be expected (Capped, Great Blue and Striated Herons) and you get herons' heaven.

Bonus Long-billed Curlew at the Panama Viejo's Visitors Center, a life bird for Osvaldo (which was a nice surprise for me!).

Bird-addict?

You are a bird-addict if after an intense birding-weekend, with 11 hours-long trips to the deep Pacific ocean or to remote, almost inaccessible, mountain ranges you want more birds; and guess what? Rafael Luck, Euclidos "Kilo" Campos, and your blogger host wanted MORE!! So, after a quick lunch in Santiago city, we headed to the Aguadulce Salinas (saltponds) in coastal Cocle province (central Panama). Not happy with that, we had enough energies not only for birdwatch from the road, but also to actively search the birds, walking INTO the saltponds! We had a nice afternoon at the saltponds, finding many of the now-usual species. However, something new for me there were the Wilson's Phalaropes. At least four individuals of this delicate shorebird were scattered in the different ponds that we checked out. Other Wilson's bird, the Wilson's Plover, was trying to hide itself, but we got nice shots of it. Of course, the most common peeps were present too (Western, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers), among both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Willets, Whimbrels, and Short-billed Dowitcher all around. The plovers were also well-represented, with Black-bellied, Semipalmated, Wilson's (as I mentioned) and Collared Plovers all over the place. Our intensive search with Kilo's scope produced several Stilt Sandpipers. These birds are only passage migrants, so this is the time to enjoy them in Panama. They were easily picked up among the birds present by their bigger size. We tried to reach the distant mangroves that were full in egrets and pelicans, but each time, the shorebirds stopped us... who can resist to appreciate cooperative shorebirds feeding only some meters from your feet? Anyway, we inspected the mangroves with the scope, finding several Wood Storks and Roseate Spoonbills, plus a flock of migrants Blue-winged Teals that took off as soon as they detected us. There were also several terns species, including Gull-billed and Royal terns patrolling the area, and a group of at least twelve Least Terns in winter plumage (like the one pictured here), but also some with part of its breeding plumage, with mostly yellow bills. As usual, the noisy Black-necked Stilts were everywhere. Later, we also found hundreds of Black Skimmers resting in one of the ponds in the way to the beach, which was crowded in people thanks to the sunny day and the high tide. We stayed until it was too dark for photographing, so we left very happy after satisfying our addiction.