October 21st, 2011
Friday was our last full day in the vicinity of the Tower. We drove down into Panama City to visit Metropolitan Park, their “Central Park” though it’s much more wild than either Manhattan’s or Huntington Beach’s. We got some good birds here, and lucked into a really big mixed flock toward the end.
- Gray-chested Dove
- Yellow-crowned Parrot
- Forest Elaenia
- Lance-tailed Manakin (a Panama endemic!)
- Rufous-and-white Wren
- Red-crowned Ant-Tanager
- Rufous-breasted Wren
- White-tipped Dove
- Yellow-green Tyrannulet
- Bright-rumped Attila
- Orange-billed Sparrow
We also got the best looks I’ve ever had of Mourning Warbler and Kentucky Warbler, which for some reason seemed a lot less shy here than in New York. I was hoping for Little Tinamou here, but we whiffed on that. :-(
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Posted in Birding | Comments Off on Panama Day 6: #716-726 at Metropolitan Park
October 20th, 2011
Thursday was a relatively relaxed day. We didn’t get up till around 6:00 and didn’t drive more than a few miles away all day. We didn’t leave the tower until almost 8:00 AM, and we added one more life bird on the road out, #705, Cinnamon Woodpecker.
We spent most of the morning at the Police Academy Ponds and on Old Gamboa Road. I missed Jet Antbird, but I did add eight more life birds:
- Gray-headed Chachalaca
- Lesser Kiskadee (one I both spotted and ID’d on my own!)
- Yellow Tyrannulet
- Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet
- Crimson-crested Woodpecker
- Black-striped Sparrow
- Red-throated Ant-Tanager
- Yellow-billed Cacique
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Posted in Birding | Comments Off on Panama Day 5: #705-715 Back at the Tower
October 19th, 2011
Wednesday we had another 4:00 AM wakeup call, 5:00 AM departure; this time heading north to Colon and then across the Canal at Gatun Lock; but we saw #681, a Savannah Hawk in a church field, before we even got to the Lock. Then we got stuck waiting for the drawbridge across the canal for about 45 minutes. Fortunately the area by the bridge is not yet completely built up so we tallied about 18 species awhile parked waiting for the boats to go through including 3 more lifers:
- Pale-vented Pigeon
- Ruddy Ground-Dove (probably seen on Monday as well from the truck, but this was a much better more certain look. Iooked for this bird in California once near the Salton Sea, but it’s rare there. Here it’s relatively easy to find in disturbed habitat.)
- Scrub Greenlet
Then it was across the bridge and onto the road to Achiote Road in the San Lorenzo National Park. Within a couple of minutes of exiting the van, we spotted #685 White-headed Wren , and the birds kept coming:
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Posted in Birding | Comments Off on Panama Day 4: #681-#704 East of the Canal
October 18th, 2011
On the way back from Cerro Azul, we stopped in Panama City at Costa del Este to do a bit of shorebirding. Mostly, the birds there are the species we’re accustomed to from either the east or West Coast of the United States that have headed south for the winter. However we did spot one life bird here, #680 Cocoi Heron. This is similar to our Great Blue Heron (coincidentally also present.) This was one of my target birds for the tip (i.e. one I could remember from the field guide).
I also spotted three rare for Panama Black Skimmers. What’s rare-bird-alert worthy mostly depends on where you are when you see it. :-)
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Posted in Birding | Comments Off on Panama Day 3: #680 Cocoi Heron and a Broken Camera
October 18th, 2011
Wednesday we woke up in time for a 4:30 AM breakfast, and a 5:00 AM departure to Cerro Azul, a weekend and retirement community west of Panama City and relatively high up in the mountains so it picks up different species than are found in the lowlands. We started at the home of a local Audubon member who puts out several Hummingbird feeders. In her yard alone we managed over 20 species including nine life birds of which five were hummingbirds including this Rufous-tailed Hummingbird:
- Long-billed Starthroat
- Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
- Snowy-bellied Hummingbird
- Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer
- Yellow-eared Toucanet
- Violet-headed Hummingbird
- Long-billed Gnatwren
- Black-faced Antthrush
- Scaly-breasted Wren
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Posted in Birding | Comments Off on Panama Day 3: #651 to #679 at Los Altos de Cerro Azul
October 17th, 2011
Around 11:00 AM the rain started to break, so we loaded ourselves back into the truck and drove off to the actual start of Pipeline Road. We continued to tick off new birds for the next five hours or so, mostly one at a time including:
- Great Potoo (harder to find than an owl)
- Dusky Antbird
- Double-toothed Kite
- Squirrel Cuckoo
- White-necked Puffbird
- Rufous Mourner
- Spotted Antbird
- Streak-chested Antpitta
- Black-breasted Puffbird
- Chestnut-mandibled Toucan (a subspecies of Black-mandibled Toucan according to eBird)
- Blue-black Grosbeak
- Great Tinamou (heard the day before, but this was the first time I ever saw one. They hide in the deep forest, and don’t come out to the road. But we found one while searching out some Night Monkeys.)
- Yellow-rumped Cacique
- Black-throated Trogon
- Royal Flycatcher
- Bay Wren
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Posted in Birding | Comments Off on Panama Day 2: #634-#650 on the Pipeline Road
