So, as many other birders in Panama, my journey started on May 4th, by boarding the smallest plane I ever had the chance to fly in. Due to a mechanical issue, we had to land on a forgotten track in the town of Garachiné (Darién), where almost two hours later, another plane (this time a little larger) picked us up and we continued our way to Bahía Piñas. I spent my time in Garachine watching birds of course, although I saw only common stuff there. At Piñas, personnel of the lodge was waiting for me and, after a quick boat ride, they were showing my room. In spite of being tucked in the middle of the jungle in the less developed province of the country, the lodge counts with all the modern facilities you need. My comfortable room with air conditioning and wi fi was facing directly to the dock, and the property is completely surrounded by forests.
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| Tropic Star Lodge dock |
The managers of the lodge welcomed me and soon I was birding the gardens before dinner by the pool. The most common species quickly became evident, but soon I got my first life bird of the journey. In the way to "The Palace", I noticed a small greenish bird working the Hibiscus along the stairs. A close look with my binocular revealed a female Viridian Dacnis! This range-restricted species is only present in eastern Darien province and adjacent Colombia, and is quite rare. Among the common birds were hordes of Palm, Blue-gray, Plain-colored, Crimson-backed and Flame-rumped -Lemon-rumped- Tanagers, nesting Chestnut-headed Oropendolas and Masked Tityras, Crowned Woodnymphs, Rufous-tailed and Blue-chested Hummingbirds (but no Sapphires) and the Darien race of
Bay Wren that was frequently heard (and often seen).
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| Bay Wren. Tropic Star Lodge, May 5th, 2018 |
At dinner, we discussed the details of my pelagic trip the next day. That night, only two other guests joined me and the managers for dinner... the resident chef simply showed off by offering us a gourmet dinner, presenting personally his exquisite creations one by one... what a dinner! That night, I barely sleep thinking on all those pelagics birds out there. The Continental Shelf ends abruptly very close to the coast in this part of Panama, so getting to depths of more than 1000 meters takes only one hour from the lodge. Less time traveling, more enjoying shearwaters, storm-petrels and petrels! The eight-hours trip would start around 6:30 am after breakfast... we planned to be back at the lodge around 3:00 pm, with time enough to record the birds of the grounds and surroundings.
After a tasty breakfast, I met my crew. The captain of "Miss Alaska", Gustavo (aka Punto com), and his mate, Levi, were a quite-experienced crew. They knew about my intentions (birding, not fishing) and as soon as we left the dock, it became evident that these guys know what they are doing. Instead of navigating directly to deep waters, Gustavo took me north along the shores, watching coastal species like
Brown Pelicans, Brown and Blue-footed Boobies, among others. Seeing the forested coast emerging from the water is simply amazing in that part of Panama. Gustvo knew that I was looking for pelagics species, but still took us along the shore for a while... but it was for a good reason... there was a rainstorm system over the ocean directly west of the lodge. He was simply surrounding the storm. Suddenly he said "enough is enough" and turned 90 degrees west towards the Continental Shelf break, a place known as "La Caída" ("The Fall Out").
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| Stunning forests and coastal in-shore species |
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| Brown Pelicans. Piñas Bay, May 5th, 2018 |
On the way to the deeper waters, we kept finding more inshore species and started to see the first flocks of migrant Red-necked Phalaropes. Even before getting to "La Caída", we started to find some tubenoses in the form of storm-petrels. The three regular species started to show up, with
Least and
Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels as the most common, and only few Black Storm-Petrels. All of them are quite difficult to photograph under normal sea conditions... so I'm very happy with these photos!
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| Least Storm-Petrel. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
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| Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
At waters 300-feet deep, interesting things started to appear. The first
Galapagos Shearwaters showed up. First a few, then some loose flocks around the boat, some times trying to land on the deck, something that Gustavo commented that was not unusual. There have even been records of couples copulating in the bow of the boats! Soon, one of the -many- highlights of the trip appeared suddenly. A dark, large procellarid with powerful flight passed by the boat... the uniform dark-coloration and dark-tipped pale bill confirmed my suspicion: a
Parkinson's Petrel! Why so excited? Well, it was a life bird for me, and the first photographic record for Panama! This species returned from the brink of extinction thanks to the efforts of environmental authorities on the few islands where it breeds in New Zealand. My record that day in Panamanian waters was the only one
Worldwide!
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| Galapagos Shearwater. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
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| Parkinson's Petrel. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
Few seconds after the petrel, a second all-dark, but smaller procellarid flew by the boat, with contrasting pale underwing... a Sooty Shearwater. Older literature describe this species as the most common shearwater in Panamá; however, we now know that this species is irregular at best. This is only my second Sooty Shearwater for Panamanian waters in several pelagic trips. I had some experience with it, however, in waters off Peru, where it is pretty common, and from where is supposed the individual of Central America comes (birds moving north in food-poor years at the Humboldt Current according to Howell 2012). In fact, I have seen more dark-morph
Wedge-tailed Shearwaters that are superficially similar, but general shape and underwing pattern all differs. I saw only one of those dark-morphs during this pelagic trip; the pale-morphs were more common.
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| Dark-morph Wedge-tailed Shearwater. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
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| Pale-morph Wedge-tailed Shearwater. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
The tubenoses are always the highlights of any pelagic trip, and many more Galapagos and Wedge-tailed Shearwaters accompanying us during the trip. We even saw another Parkinson's Petrel in deeper waters, but I'm not sure if it was the same individual. The only other tubenose that I managed to identify was a Pink-footed Shearwater, an species that proved to be regular in our waters. Apart of the tubenoses, the lariformes (gulls, terns and skuas) were well-represented as well. Some true pelagic species started to appear, like
Sabine's Gull, Bridled and
Sooty Terns and
Brown Noddy.
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| Sooty Tern. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
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| Brown Noddy and Sabine's Gull. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
The tactic of Gustavo was simple... he kept an eye to the tuna schools and the dolphins out there. They were always followed by flocks of birds. One of those feeding groups included Short-beaked Common Dolphins, the first time ever I see that species in Panama! Then, while checking the flock with dozens of Black and Common Terns, I focused on an elegant-flying tern with long streamers. It is not easy to separate some similar-looking species, so good photographs are needed. This particular bird was difficult to photograph, and I got only some blurry photos until the bird flew directly over us. I already had an idea of what was seeing... but the photographs confirmed the identification.
Arctic Tern!
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| Arctic Tern. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
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| Short-beak Common Dolphin. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
This bird was in alternate plumage, showing the characteristic gray body (more extensive than in Common Tern), steep forehead, all-red bill (without black tip as in Common Tern) and longer streamers than in Common Tern, but more important, the thin and well-delimited black trailing edge to the primaries, very different to the broader line exhibit by Common Terns. This is just the fifth report for Panama of Arctic Tern., with the first one being in those very same waters in 1995. Check the field marks listed above with this photo of
Common Tern taken just seconds apart of the Arctic Tern:
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| Common Tern. Off Piñas, May 5th, 2018 |
I have to admit that it was strenuous... a little more than eight hours at sea, under a bright sun (yes, Gustavo managed to avoid the rainstorm all day long), little time to rest due to bird activity, carrying my heavy camera and trying to point it to small, flying birds... but it was fun after all. But my job was not done. We arrived at the lodge short after 3:00 pm, with time and light enough to watch birds for the GBD in the gardens. To my surprise, I managed to relocate the
Viridian Dacnis in the same general area; except that, this time, it was an adult male.
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| Viridian Dacnis. Tropic Star Lodge, May 5th, 2018 |
I just managed some bad photos as you can see. It turned out that this particular guy was also the only individual reported
Worldwide of this species during the GBD! Two unique species worldwide for the Global Big Day! In fact, by the end of the day, I managed to find ten (10) species unique for Panama's Global Big Day... more than any other team or individual. Back in my room, taking advantage of the wi fi, I followed closely the results of the count, and started to submit my lists. That night I barely sleep... and only made a pause for dinner. After all, the managers had organized a 5 de Mayo party, with Mexican food and allegories, and even a piñata with a Cubera Snapper motive.
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| Working at my room |
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| Cubera Snapper Piñata |
Due to the flight schedule, I spent one and a half day more at the lodge... and to be honest, I spent most of that time reviewing my checklists and the reports send by all the other birders from all over Panama, work that I continued in Panama City with other members of the coordinating committee. After all, this was my most memorable Global Big Day! I saw 57 different species of birds that day (less than previous years), but contributed with ten unique species for Panamá and two for the WORLD!!! And you? How was your GBD?
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