Lifer next door

When many people participate in a massive birding event, as last Global Big Day, it is inevitable that some rare or exotic species will be reported.  While reviewing the Panama numbers (620 species, so far!), I noticed three rare species reported for the Canal Area and Panama City that were potential life birds for me.  One of them was reported very close to my home, in the exposed mudflats of Panama Viejo.  So, taking advantage of my lunch time, I grab my bins and camera and headed that way.  The first thing I noticed was the huge number of migrant Short-billed Dowitchers and Black-bellied Plovers.

Short-billed Dowitchers 

Black-bellied Plovers

I was interested in the peeps that use these mudflats, but most of them were far away following the retiring tide.  Not enough with that, it started to rain and I had to seek refuge in my car several times due to the short showers that prevented me to review thoroughly the flocks.  Well, at least I found the continuing American White Pelican mixed in with the Brown Pelicans (can you find it?).

Brown and American White Pelicans

During one of those moments waiting inside the car facing the mudflats, I noticed a small flock of peeps approaching from the mangrove island.  I hurried to check them.  Initially, nothing out of the ordinary.  Then, one of the peeps caught my attention.  The flock included both Western and Semipalmated Sandpipers... but one of them looked "wrong".

A Western/Semipalmated Sandpiper and a...

The birds flew closer and I was able to relocate the bird, this time it was close enough to confirm my initial suspicion: a White-rumped Sandpiper!!!

White-rumped Sandpiper

Notice the slender profile due to its long wings and the more angled position while feeding compared to the other peeps.  I also noticed that the wing tips crossed each other after passing the end of the tail and the finely streaked breast and flanks.  I know these are awful photos... but it is a rare passage migrant in Panama, and a lifer for me (did I mention that already?).  The flock only stayed for less than 5 minutes in front of the Visitors Center before flying away.  When leaving, I managed some last shots of my lifer:

White-rumped Sandpiper

White-rumped Sandpiper

Any doubt?

Peñón de San José revisited

The finding of Peruvian Boobies at the Peñón de San José (a rocky islet in Panama Bay) was pretty exciting news for the panamanian birders (although not exactly good news for the birds); however, having to ID these birds through scopes at 1.6 km away was not that satisfactory. That's why I joined Osvaldo Quintero, Rafael Luck and Venicio "Beny" Wilson in a short boat trip to the islet yesterday's morning.  After leaving the dock, our captain took us swiftly around Flamenco Island (from where we scoped the boobies last time), seeing a colony of Brown Pelicans and many Magnificent Frigatebirds and Neotropic Cormorants passing by.  Soon, we were approaching the Peñón de San José, that was full of boobies!

Blue-footed Boobies

Blue-footed Boobies

As you can see, most of them were Blue-footed Boobies... tons of them.  We counted at least 200 birds, including many immature birds, as in the photo above.  Of course, the main objective of our trip were the Peruvian Boobies scoped from shore, but considering the huge numbers of Blue-footed Boobies in this and other islets around Panama Bay make us wonder if some of these birds are southern visitors too.  Notice the solid brown wings of the immature birds, different to the scaled pattern of the back and wings of Peruvian Boobies immatures.  After a while, we started to see Peruvian Boobies... two at first, then three more, then more and more... WOW!  we counted 38 adult Peruvian Boobies... at least!

Peruvian Boobies

Apart of the obvious differences in legs color, notice the white neck and head (with no brown streaks) and, as mentioned before, the scaled effect of the upperparts.  The Peruvian are also smaller than the Blue-footed Boobies.  Most of these birds were resting in the vertical cliffs of the southern/eastern face of the islet... in fact, the next two Peruvian Boobies were the only that we saw in the northern cliff (the one that can be seen from Flamenco Island).

Peruvian Boobies

After visiting the islet, we visit some other islets, like Changame, Tortolita and Tórtola islands.  In Tórtola, we saw many more Blue-footed Boobies and tons of Brown Pelicans... and yes, we checked the field marks.

The Brown Pelican is the only regularly seen species of pelican in Panama... but if we just saw Peruvian Boobies, why not Peruvian Pelicans?  The adult birds looked normal-sized (Peruvian are considerably larger) with uniformly dark upperwings coverts and the juvenile birds (with all brown head and white bellies) had gray gular pouches.  OK, not Peruvian Pelicans... but I'll keep searching!

Rafael, Beny, Osvaldo and me!

Beach weekend with family

In order to celebrate some birthdays in the family and to see the final of the World Cup, the extended Cubilla family decided to spent the weekend at the beach!  We chose to rent a spacious apartment in Playa Blanca, in the Pacific coast of Cocle province (central Panama).  This part of the country is blessed with year-round good weather, with sunny days most of the year, making it perfect for beach resorts.

Gabrielle and her cousins Analia and Kevin really enjoyed the trip, as you can see in the photo.  While they played in the sand, I was watching the ocean.  Recently, some rare vagrants have been seen at our Pacific coast probably due to "El Niño" (Gray Gull, Peruvian Booby, Inca Tern).  During "El Niño" years, the water temperature rise, moving into deeper waters those typical cold-water species such as anchovies.  Many birds specialized in feeding from these species have to disperse from their usual haunts to find food, and the Peruvian Booby is a good example.  However, I only saw some common species, like Neotropic Cormorants, Royal and Sandwich Terns, Brown Pelicans, and an unusual number of Blue-footed Boobies flying very close to the beach.

Brown Pelicans

Blue-footed Booby

The white patches in the back and nape, as well as its dark head, distinguishes this species from the similar Peruvian Booby.  One Peruvian Booby was found weakened in the coast Panama City last month.  The story was published here.  Back in the apartment, I noticed that some windows had silhouettes of hawks to prevent small birds crashing them.  It is a good practice after all.

However, I think that another ornament on the roof was also preventing small birds to approach the building.  During the half-time break in the World Cup final, I noticed a characteristic silhouette approaching the roof.  A quick glimpse from the balcony showed this:

Aplomado Falcon

An Aplomado Falcon!  A second bird left the roof when I was staring at it, but this individual stayed for long time, enough to grab my camera and to took some photos.  It was curious as well!

Aplomado Falcon

These fields are close to the eastern limit of its usual range in Panama, as you can see in this eBird map; however, there are several records from eastern Panama province and even from Darien province...,  deforestation certainly have something to do with this range extension.  Nice roof ornament don't you think?  

At first light in El Ciruelo

After an exciting previous day at Isla Iguana, my family and friends stayed for the night at a friend's house in El Ciruelo, facing the ocean.  The morning of sunday, january 13th, I woke up, walked to the balcony and saw literally hundreds of pelicans, gulls, terns and other birds frenetically feeding at the beach!

I took my bins and camera and headed to the beach (5 minutes away) with Gloriela (the only one awake that early)... mostly Brown Pelicans and Laughing Gulls were in attendance.

Among the dozens Laughings, I found two (probably more) Franklin's Gulls, and Gloriela was able to compare both species side-by-side.  Shorter legs, smaller bill, more extensive black hood, more prominent eye crescents, etc...

The first tern I saw turned out to be a Royal Tern.  Notice the poor light of the early morning sun, but still enough to pick this species out of the flock, with its large size and orange bill.

But soon we realized that the other orange-billed terns in the flock were not Royals (again in poor light)...

I was listing the differences in comparison to the Royal Tern: smaller, thin bills, obviously crested with solid black crown extending to the eye (no white eyerings)... Elegant Terns!

The Elegant Tern is uncommon in Panama, so seeing four at the same time was great.  The fourth individual also exhibited anomalous red feet.

The last tern in the area was the Sandwich Tern, a lonely individual flew over the flock several times before disappearing in the sea.

Nice way to start the day, with two lifers for Gloriela and not one, or two, nor three, but four Elegant Terns allowing photos... and all before breakfast!  

Islands trip

We have just arrived after an exciting day at the ocean, specifically around the Gulf of Panama, participating in a whale-watching trip guided by my friend Venicio "Beny" Wilson.  I went with Gloriela and Gabrielle, and three other participants, leaving Panama City early in the morning and heading directly off shore, to the waters surrounding Otoque island.

With the town of Otoque Oriente in sight, our captain pointed out the first marine creature of the day, a huge Sea Turtle that made a brief appearance for our delight.  We don't know the exact species, nor which one is expected in these waters... any help?

Very close, southeast of Otoque, is the island of Boná, the first thing we noted was some old structures covered in vegetation that used to be some kind of excavation project, long ago abandoned.

However, I was more interested in the seabirds colony of the islands, mainly Magnificent Frigatebirds.  Hundreds of these masters of the air, including many young birds, were on their nests or flying around us.

There were also boobies on the cliffs... both Blue-footed and Brown Boobies nest in this island, and we saw many of these species resting at the cliffs, sometimes side-by-side!

But it was the Boná's turquoise, warm waters that we liked most, and we couldn't resist to have a bath.  Gloriela took the photo of us holding my camera with just one hand (Gabrielle was in the other arm)... she did the same when she photographed the immature Brown Booby that circled us, probably thinking that we were fishing or something.

The third island of that group, Estivá, is quite curious in having a huge cave excavated in one of its cliffs... with bats included.

The rocky northern tip of the island was full of Brown Pelicans and Blue-footed Boobies as well.

We left this group of islands and head north, in our way to the Valladolid islet.  Before reaching the islet, we crossed a group of shorebird-like birds that we confirmed were Red-necked Phalaropes.  We also got closer views of both Brown and Blue-footed Boobies (on a log), and saw two different Bridled Terns; however, I was unable to focus my lens on them... my record shot is just for documentation... in spite it is flurry, you can see the characteristic profile and longish tail, as well as the upperparts color, ruling out other -more common- terns.

At the Valladolid islet, we also saw many pelicans and more boobies... but this islet in particular was dominated by Neotropic Cormorants, that flew as soon as we approached them.

We did see some cetaceans, in the form of Bottlenose Dolphins; however, the whales failed to show... still, we were very happy with the experience... surely we will repeat it!  Thanks Beny for the trip!

Abundance of fish

Since kids, we have been inculcated that the name Panama derives from an indigenous word meaning "abundance of butterflies and/or fish"... now I see why! I went to the Flamenco Marina at the Flamenco Island (the last of three islands attached to Panama City by a road constructed with material from the Panama Canal excavations) trying to photograph anything I can (including a female Crab-eating Racoon looking for food at a rocky shore and a curious Brown Pelican in alternate plumage), when I noticed an old man with his grandsons and a bag of bread, throwing small pieces towards the water. I gave a glimpse over the bard of the pier... but I was not prepared for the spectacle I was about to see: tons of multicolored fish, in many sizes and shapes trying to have a piece of bread desperately! I know exactly nothing about wild fish... so, if you have any talent identifyng fish species from distant over-the-water photos, try to help me i.d. them!

And all this while seeing the fabulous Panama City skyline in the distance!

Two rare white birds... and a nemesis

After a successful morning in Las Macanas marsh, Osvaldo Quintero, Euclides "Kilo" Campos and your blogger host headed to the Aguadulce Salinas (saltponds) around noon, trying to take advantage of the not-so-high high tide. As you can imagine, the place was hot as a boiler, and we only saw scattered shorebirds, mainly Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers plus two Collared Plovers. We also saw a Merlin chasing the shorebirds (making it a five-Falco-falcons-species day) and many herons... but one in the distance caught my attention: it was "dancing". We approached it, confirming it was an immature white morph Reddish Egret, probably the first ever reported for Aguadulce (all others had been dark morphs). We think this is only the third report of the white morph for Panama, with a previous one in El Agallito (Herrera) and the other in Pedasi (Los Santos), both in the Azuero Peninsula. We only stayed enough to take good photos and left the place, finding a big flock of Black-necked Stilts accompanied by five Stilt Sandpipers that probably stayed for the winter (usually only a transient in Panama) at the pond in front of the "Turicentro". We lunched in Penonome, and in the way back to Panama City, tried the spot in Punta Chame where Kilo reported the VERY rare (for Panama) American White Pelican. When we reached the place, we found a big flock of Brown Pelicans... but not the big whites. We stayed for a while, watching a flock of sandpipers and plover that included both Semipalmated and Wilson's Plovers (making it a six-plovers-species day) and an adult male Belted Kingfisher hovering over the water and occasionally plunge-diving. The pond was separated of the sea by a dike, so we decided to check it and the beach. When we started to walk the dike, the Brown Pelicans flew to the beach, leaving the pond. Again, no whites were seen. From the dike, we inspected the sandy beach, finding a Great Blue Heron and several American Oystercatchers. We amused ourselves watching these and many others birds, including Sandwich and Royal Terns, Black-bellied Plovers, and so on... only for insistence we checked back the pond, seeing in the distance two pelicans' silhouettes in a sand bank. Kilo aimed his scope and rapidly confirmed they were THE birds: two American White Pelicans preening and resting!!! They simply materialized there because we didn't see them approaching or flying... and they were exactly were we just checked few minutes before. A HUGE lifer, Kilo's report was only the third for Panama! I got some nice pictures despite the distance.

And what about the nemesis? A nemesis is a bird that, despite all your efforts, you can not find (and everyone ask: how is it possible that you have not found that common bird?). Well, the Striped Cuckoo was Osvaldo's nemesis. Close to Panama City, I suggested to try a spot close to the entrance to Farfan (close to the Pan American Highway). There, I played the cuckoo tape while Osvaldo was setting his camera... and after a few seconds the Striped Cuckoo appeared and perched in the telephone wire for just two seconds! Osvaldo demonstrated why we call him the fastest camera of the west by managing to take three photos of the bird... which is no longer his nemesis. Great way to end a day full of rare birds and lifers!