Friday, December 10, 2010

Panama Audubon Society Pot-luck dinner

In a kind of Christmas season tradition, each december the Panama Audubon Society (PAS) organizes a pot-luck dinner anticipating the Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs). This year's dinner was yesterday, and it was full of surprises. As usual, each member contributed with a dish (including both of us), making the menu a very assorted one. Then, Rosabel Miró (PAS Executive Director) announced the winners of the "Bird photo of the year" competition. Congratulations to Itzel Fong who won the first place with her photo of a Green Heron at the Juan Díaz mangroves, a bird that symbolizes the efforts of the society to preserve this important habitat. She also won the third place (congratulations again), leaving me the second place for my Broad-billed Motmot photo (thanks PAS for the very nice plate). Then, PAS president Darien Montañez talked about the CBCs and encouraged all of us to participate in any of this year's counting circles along central Panama and Volcan area (and to pay the $5.00 fee by the way). But probably the most exciting part of the meeting (at least for me) came when the PAS Director for Science George Angehr announced and presented his new book: "The Birds of Panama: A Field Guide". It is a three-years long project resulting in the most updated and comprehensive work on Panama's birds, with more illustrations (by Robert Dean) than any other Panama field guide and including range maps in a easy-to-use and practical format... a great addition to any collection for any birdwatcher or nature lover. Thanks to Venicio "Beny" Wilson who kindly shared with me the next photos showing George, Rosabel and Darien during the presentation of the field guide.
I almost forget, congratulations to George not only for his new book, but also for winning the "best dish of the night" competition with his world-famous salad!

You can see more images of the meeting by Beny at his Facebook photo album here. It was a great event, and it was nice to see all you guys again! See you in the counts!

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