More sunset birds

This is a kind of second part for my previous post about birding the savannas to the south of the town of Penonome (Cocle province, central Panama), along the road to El Gago.  I have to accept that I still have some problems for setting the camera for those light conditions... I hope this will improve soon.  This time I went earlier, so the the light was pretty good when I photographed this Killdeer.

This bird (part of a pair) was very quiet... I never heard the characteristic call this time.  This species is an uncommon migrant to Panama, and once a nesting attempt was documented in this part of the country.  In the other hand, the Eastern Meadowlark is an abundant resident of these savannas.

For some reason, I've always had the impression that these birds await you're near them to start singing!  However, were other singers who caught my attention.  When these birds vocalize, I noticed that they weren't the usual Groove-billed Anis I expected.

In fact, they were a pair of Smooth-billed Anis.  I'm not used to see this species in that road, so now I must be more careful to identify these birds if they are not vocalizing.  Other bird with which I am very careful to identify is the Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture.

In spite of the unmistakable multicolored head, they can be pretty tricky to separate from the Turkey Vulture; although, the Yellow-headed's low flight is characteristic.  Another species that characteristically flies low is the Northern Harrier.

This is also an uncommon migrant to Panama... but seems pretty regular in these fields.  This female was far away, so the above photo is cropped.  Notice the angled wings, long tail and white rump.  By the end of the day, I found the pair of resident Aplomado Falcons perched exactly in the same bare tree.

I swear these photos are different from my previous post.  The size difference indicates these are male and female (the female is the bigger one).  Along the road I saw another pair flying together, but there is no way to know if they were different birds.

After all, that was a nice sunset birding!

Harrier's festival in Coclé!

Of the three harriers species (Circus sp.) found in the Americas, two had been recorded so far in Panama.  The Northern Harrier, which is an uncommon migrant from North America, and the Long-winged Harrier, considered as a vagrant from South America and recorded, as expected, in the eastern part of the country... until now!  Along with Rafael Luck, Osvaldo Quintero and Venicio "Beny" Wilson, I went last saturday, october 13th, to Juan Hombrón, in the Coclé province of central Panamá.  We passed the rice fields, birded for a while (the story in another post) and continue our route... but it was at the rice fields in the way back when Beny saw it!

Juan Hombrón rice fields

He separated of the group for unknown reasons and while we all were seeing in the opposite direction, he saw a big black bird flying low passing in front of him... he immediately started to call us because he soon realized that was seeing something rare and new for him!  The bird crossed the road from one rice field to another, allowing some photos (watch Rafael's photos of this and other birds in Xenornis).

After litte discussion, we all agreed that the bird was a Long-winged Harrier due to its very dark (almost black) general color, pale primaries panels (both from above and below), and large size.  The pale streaks of the underparts make this bird a dark phase immature.

After seeing Rafael photos in Xenornis, I realized that this bird also showed the rufous vent characteristic of this species... only my next photo shows that feature (OK, with a little bit of imagination... you may need to enlarge the image to see it).

The bird also showed little white in the rump... essentially a white rump band... very different to the conspicuous white rump patch of the Northern Harrier.

After a while, we relocated the bird, allowing more photos... but the bird was chased away by a group of Southern Lapwings that were not as excited as we were with this raptor.  Notice the long-winged profile of the bird while soaring high in a thermal current.

Compare the last photo with my own Long-winged Harrier photo from eastern Panama province, taken last june... same profile.

Long-winged Harrier.  Eastern Panama province, june 30th, 2012.

For some reason we were quite lucky to have the rare opportunity to watch the other species of harrier, the Northern Harrier, also flying over a rice field farther west, in the road to El Gago, south of Penonome (Coclé province too).  In comparison, they (two birds) were smaller, browner, with a different wing pattern and conspicuous white rumps.

I know the last photo is simply not good... but this is the third year in a row that I see this species in the same area, and I have other photos published here (also, you can see Rafael's photos in Xenornis).

This, if accepted, is the ninth or tenth report for this species in Panamá; and certainly, the western/northernmost of them... what a crazy find!!!

2012 first field trip

Last saturday's evening was hot and sunny, typical of a summer day in Penonome (Cocle province, central Panama), I took advantage of the beautiful day and did a scouting trip to some side roads west of town little after 3:30 PM... and it was great! Not only saw my first life bird of the year, at least three Ring-necked Ducks in a large pond, but also re-found the now-famous Grasshopper Sparrow after more than 50 years in Panama! But as I said, that was only the scouting trip. Very early the next morning, I went to the same place before dawn hoping to catch the ducks closer to the shore of the lake. The fresh air in the savanna and the immensity of the place is hard to describe... and the sunrise resembling a scene of "The Lion King" movie was simply unbelievable!

I did saw ducks closer to shore... but it was a group of Lesser Scaups, plus three Blue-winged Teals and three Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks. The three Ring-necked Ducks that I saw the day before were far away in the middle of the lake, and only the male was identified with certainty at that distance.

I began the return journey looking for open habitat specialists, finding surprisingly a Northern Harrier as the first raptor for the day. This is only the second time I see harriers around Penonome (first time here),

and it seems that they are not simply passage migrants, but winter visitors as well. Despite the blurry photo, the shape and white rump is unique among the expected raptors there. After a while, I found a tiny, very shallow pond in the middle of the fields... it was alive with birds. Big waders, in the form of several Great Egrets, a Wood Stork and a Great Blue Heron, were sharing the place with Least and Solitary Sandpipers, two Greater Yellowlegs and three Killdeers which became quite evident thanks to their sweet voices.

The nearby grasslands were full of singing Eastern Meadowlarks, plus some Red-breasted Blackbirds, some of them allowing great pictures and close approaching. They were focused in singing out loud to impress any rival or to attract a mate. It is always nice to see these two species (both called "pastoreros" in spanish) side-by-side. However, the most abundant bird in the savanna was the Fork-tailed Flycatcher. A huge flock of these elegant birds were feeding along the fences and in the ground right in the middle of the dirt road. Easily, they exceeded a hundred of birds!

In the end, I failed to relocate the sparrow, neither I found the Grassland Yellow-Finch reported last year by Ken Allaire... but the bird list for only three hours of birding the savanna was impressive and I can't wait to visit the place again next weekend!

Festivities in Cocle province. Part II

The second day of our stay in Penonome, Cocle province in central Panama (november 4th, our flag's day), Gloriela and I decided to visit the savannas and rice fields just south of town before breakfast, around the road to El Gago. It was harvest time, and the machineries in the fields were followed by hordes of herons looking for an easy meal. Yes, we did see typical species of this kind of habitat, including Plain-breasted Ground-Doves, Mourning Doves, Eastern Meadowlarks and Red-breasted Blackbirds... but the real value of birding the coclesian savannas are the birds of prey. We saw many individuals and many different species! A pair of aptly named Savanna Hawks were standing in the ground with a young bird, while several Yellow-headed Caracaras were yelling at them like saying "GET OUT OF HERE!" I almost miss a raptor perched quietly very low... Gloriela was who told me to drive back a little bit and, after grasping my camera, took some excellent shots of a young Common Black-Hawk from inside the car... it was a VERY cooperative bird, seeing us as curiously as we were seeing him! Others common raptors along the road were the Roadside Hawks (aptly named too) and some White-tailed Kites hovering in a characteristic 45º angle before dropping to the ground after a prey. Strangly, the Crested Caracaras were pretty common too, we saw at least three family groups (two adults birds and a full-grown young one following them). I really like his impressive presence, no doubt at first sight that this is a powerful bird! The caracaras belong to the falcon family despite they look so different of the typical Falco falcons, which are well represented in these savannas too... the turn that day was for an exceptionally gorgeous and uncommon one: the Aplomado Falcon. Is not the first time I see this species in that road, actually, it is one of my best spots for that scarce falcon of open habitats. However, the Aplomado was not the most scarce raptor we saw that day. While inspecting the rice fields, I detected a characteristic flight pattern of a slim raptor with long wings held over the back like a "V", swinging from one side to another, and exhibiting a conspicuous white rump... a Norther Harrier! We saw at least three or four different individuals flying over the fields, all seemed to be female-plumaged birds. It is the first time I see a harrier in these fields... a proof that you ever know what to expect while birding. I will left you with the evocative picture of a harrier over the savanna with the coclesian foothills as backgrounds.