Monday, December 8, 2008

BIRDING PANAMA: CERRO AZUL & CERRO JEFE

Good morning, Birders,

I'm sitting on the balcony of La Estancia B & B on Ancon Hill in Panama City, watching the BLUEGRAY TANAGERS and VARIABLE SEEDEATERS come and go from the feeders, while ORANGE-CHINNED PARAKEETS call across the canopy. I've been told that the monkeys will show up any minute. It's hot, but more than that, it's humid! 

My travel companion, Don Doolittle, and I left San Francisco at midnight on December 2, arriving in Panama City about noon the next day, rented a 4 x 4, and began the search for what remains of Tocumen Wetlands. Major development is happening around the marsh, and the directions for finding it made it pretty sketchy for actually getting there. Later, we found out that we were, in fact, at the marsh. Since the roads became impassable with mud, even for a 4 x 4, we decided to head to the mountains. Best bird at the marsh was RED-BREASTED BLACKBIRD.

In the mountains of eastern Panama, we headquartered ourselves at the Hostal Casa de Campo Country Inn, (www.panamacasadecampo.com) where the very delightful proprietor, Ana Maria, made us feel quite at home. What a treat, falling asleep to the calling TROPICAL SCREECH OWL each night, and waking up to the incessant calls of a HOUSE WREN feeding its youngsters in the nest under the eaves of our balcony. It is very worthwhile to spend the nights in the mountains, rather than down in the city. 

For the next four days, we headed off in different directions, and hiked different trails each day. The first day, we birded the "petite Darien, " as the region of Bayano is known. This was a very dripping wet, pouring rain, soaking us to the skin, day! It was well worth it, as the best bird of the day was a group of about 7 RUFOUS-WINGED ANT-WRENS at Monkey River! A female RUFOUS-CRESTED COQUETTE was just out of this world! I can't even image a male!

During the following days, we hiked some steep trails that were so mud-slicked, we could have been ice-skating! Trails hiked included: Vistamares, Calle Maipo, Rio Mono, Cerro Jefe. We also visited the feeders at Birder's View (www.birdersview.com) many times. This was an extremely busy area for birds, not only at the feeders, but also coming to the vegetation near the home. Don managed to capture images of many of the birds since we had clear, unobstructed views, with beautiful sunlight on the tanagers and euphonias while they feasted on the berries of various plants. Specialties here, and on the trails included: VIOLET-CAPPED HUMMINGBIRD, YELLOW-EARED TOUCANET, STRIPE-CHEEKED WOODPECKER, BLACK-CHEEKED WOODPECKER, BLACK-and-YELLOW TANAGER, OLIVE TANAGER, WHITE-SHOULDERED TANAGER, CRIMSON-BACKED TANAGER, EMERALD TANAGER, SPECKLED TANAGER, BAY-HEADED TANAGER, GOLDEN-HOODED TANAGER, GREEN HONEYCREEPER, LONG-TAILED WOODCREEPER, PLAIN XENOPS, PIED PUFFBIRD, WHITE-NECKED JACOBIN, VIOLET-HEADED HUMMINBIRD, GREEN THORNTAIL, GARDEN EMERALD, RUFOUS-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD, BRONZE-TAILED PLUMELETEER, VIOLACEOUS TROGON, BLACK-TAILED TROGON, RUFOUS MOTMOT, and BROAD-BILLED MOTMOT. 

These mountains are a weekend home to many Panamanians who escape the heat of the city for the cooler and breezy climate just an hour from the city. It is also the home for ex-pats from the USA, England, Canada, and Germany. As we made our way from one part of the mountains to another, we would sometimes encounter a few birds in the developed area, but most of the "good" birding is within the national park, which borders the housing area. On our last day, we stopped to look at a hawk, and I noticed a driveway with bird feeders, many bird feeders! Feeling quite bold, we marched up to the front door to meet the owners, Bill & Claudia Ahrens, from the USA. They invited us to enjoy their feeders which we certainly did! Everything seems to eat bananas like crazy and Bill keeps a whole crate-full at the ready. We saw our lifer, BLACK-CHEEKED WOODPECKER here. Thank you, Bill & Claudia!

Finally, we made one more stop at Birder's View, a large house owned by the president of the Panama Audubon Society (www.panamaaudubon.org). The lovely owner told us about a trail with flowering helaconias just below the house. So, we hiked down a good trail to the "helaconia" forest—nearly 100 flowering plants— and saw several WHITE-TIPPED SICKEBILLS! These large, brown hummingbirds, with incredibly recurved bills, literally grasp on to the flowers like a bat, and hang there, feeding! What a treat!

In just a few minutes, we will be flying to Cana with ANCON Expeditions!

Tanagers forever,
Debra Shearwater

Monday, December 1, 2008

NOV 29, 2008: A GREAT DAY FOR SHEARWATERS

Hello, Seabirders,

Shearwater Journeys' last trip of the year took place on November 29th, departing from Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. It was a great day for shearwaters, with a constant flow of shearwaters in view throughout the entire day, except for a brief period when we went over a shallow shelf that was loaded with CASSIN'S AUKLETS and quite a few ANCIENT MURRELETS. In all, we tallied seven species of shearwaters! (The one day world record is eight species, which Shearwater Journeys holds from two different trips). Topping the list, was a GREATER SHEARWATER spotted and identified by leader Scott Terrill, simultaneously by leader Linda Terrill. The Great Shearwater was not that close to the boat, but most everyone on board managed to see it. I was in the cabin, along with leaders John Sterling and Clay Kempf. I ran out to the stern, and had brief, but great views of the shearwater as it flew away from us. It was a state and county bird for county listing czar, John Sterling. Amazingly, Brian Sullivan managed to get off some good shots with his awesome camera! This is the fifth or sixth Great Shearwater that I have seen in California. I believe that it is the first one that I've seen in November. Another surprise was a single BULLER'S SHEARWATER, somewhat late (latest date that I have seen one is December 1). A distant FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER, single SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER, plenty of PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS and many BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATERS were also found. Other early winter specialties, ANCIENT MURRELETS and BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES made a nice showing, along with BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSSES. Very few NORTHERN FULMARS were recorded. And, as is often the case, few cetaceans, save a handful of PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHINS near the end of the day, bow-riding. No phalaropes were found. 

The morning started out auspiciously for me, waking to a dream of a running mountain lion, followed by a real earthquake, and then "pink sky in the morning" on my drive to Monterey. So, it was one of those days where I just "had a feeling." We went south from Point Pinos to the Big Sur Lighthouse, staying mostly 3-4 miles offshore the entire day. I haven't been that far south in a long time. The coastline was just magnificent. There was a northeast wind in the morning of about 10 knots, which laid down completely in the afternoon. Heading south was a great idea, as it turned out.

This trip completes our 2008 year of pelagic trips in California. We would like to thank all of the birders who came from near and far to see the splendors of our special marine life off the California central coast. We hope to see you in the coming year. The leaders on the November 29 trip were: Scott Terrill, Linda Terrill, Clay Kempf, John Sterling, Jennifer Green, Brian Sullivan, and Debra Shearwater.

Start off the New Year with our January 17th pelagic trip from Monterey. Please note, Debra Shearwater will only be available by email during the month of December. 

The complete species list for NOVEMBER 29, 2008 follows:

RED-THROATED LO0N-1
PACIFIC LOON- 225
COMMON LOON- 10
EARED GREBE- 15
WESTERN GREBE- 15
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS- 21
NORTHERN FULMAR- 5
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 125
FLESH-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 1
**GREATER SHEARWATER- 1
BULLER'S SHEARWATER- 1
SOOTY SHEARWATER- 27
SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER- 1
BLACK-VENTED SHEARWATER- 1250
BROWN PELICAN- +
BRANDT'S CORMORANT- +
PELAGIC CORMORANT- 3
SURF SCOTER- 140
RED-BREASTED MERGANSER- 3
BRANT- 9
BLACK TURNSTONE- 1
POMARINE JAEGER- 9
BONAPARTE'S GULL- 1
HEERMANN'S GULL- 200
MEW GULL- 4
CALIFORNIA GULL- 150
HERRING GULL- 4
THAYER'S GULL- 2
WESTERN GULL- 200
GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL- 15
WESTERN/GLAUCOUS-WINGED- 3
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE- 26
COMMON MURRE- 20
ANCIENT MURRELET- 33
CASSIN'S AUKLET- 320
RHINOCEROS AUKLET- 145
PEREGRINE FALCON- 1, on the radio tower on Cannery Row
SEA OTTER- 8
CALIFORNIA SEA LION- 50
PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN- 30
BLUE SHARK- 1

Wishing you a joyful holiday season,

Debra

Debra Shearwater
Shearwater Journeys, Inc.
PO Box 190
Hollister, CA 95024
831.637.8527
www.shearwaterjourneys.com
*Antarctica, South Georgia, & The Falkland Islands, January 5-24, 2010* 
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