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Mostrando las entradas de octubre, 2008

Curlew Sandpiper in Panama Viejo, a report by Tom Hince

This afternoon (October 27th) around 12:45 pm I found a Curlew Sandpiper near the old city ruins while heading towards Tocumen airport to return my rental car. I stopped about half way between the visitor center and the ruins area, where a road turns to the north and there is a good view of the mudflats. I had good scope views of the bird, which based upon plumage was a juvenile and likely a female based upon bill length. I watched the bird foraging with Willets, Western Sandpipers and dowitchers. Twice it made short flights and I could see the wing and rump pattern clearly. I made notes in the field and will forward those when I get home. I was about to go back to the car to get my digital camera to digiscope the bird when the whole mass of shorebirds took flight for a third time and this time they moved a great distance and I couldnt relocate the Curlew Sandpiper. I decided to move on as my spouse was walking ahead taking photos and a passerby with good English stopped and told me i

Counting Raptors at Cerro Ancón

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For the fourth year in a row, the Panama Audubon Society is holding its Raptors Ocean to Ocean count from Cerro Ancón. Last Thursday, October 23, they counted 158,766 migratory raptors, of which 106,659 were Swainson's Hawks. It so happens that October 23 seems to always be the date when we get the highest numbers, so mark your calendars for 2009. The results of previous counts are available on the Publications section of the Panama Audubon Society website.

Northern Wheatear, a New Species for Panama

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On the morning of October 23, visiting birder Tom Hince found a female Northern Wheatear near the Las Olas resort in Playa La Barqueta, near David Chiriquí. When you leave Los Olas resort heading north on the paved road you go about 2 km and the paved road makes an abrupt right turn in a small hamlet. Instead of following the paved road, turn north (which is straight ahead if leaving Los Olas and heading north). This road is gravel. After leaving the small hamlet and continuing north on the gravel road you come into an area of grassland. The bird was on the left side of the road about a half a km north on the gravel. It was on the fenceline but dropped into the field out of sight. This is the first record of Northern Wheatear, a bird that breeds in the rocky tundra of extreme north Canada and Alaska and winters in Africa. There are records from Yucatán and the Caribbean, but this is the first record this far south in the Americas, and the first for the Pacific slope of the continent

More migratory passerines at Cerro Ancón

Migratory raptor counters Jacobo Ortega and Euclides Campos had Veery and a female Cerulean Warbler at Cerro Ancón today.

A serpentophagous antshrike

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Last Thursday near the Pipeline Road gate, Jacobo Ortega discovered this female Fasciated Antshrike in flagrante delicto , impersonating a Secretary Bird. Then this morning on their way to the Cerro Ancón raptor count site with Ramiro Duque, Celeste Paiva, Lorena Garcia, Enrique Sánchez and Laura Reyes he photographed this juvenile Black-billed Cuckoo and, more interestingly, a Wilson's Warbler: a common winter resident in the western highlands but a very rare vagrant in central Panama. This is possibly the first record from the lowlands, as the three records in Ridgely are from foothills. The bird was an adult male that spent all morning in the bushes on the canal side of the mirador and was seen by all present.

Ornate Hawk-Eagle, et cetera at Altos del María

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Altos del María resident Alfred Raab photographed this Ornate Hawk Eagle this morning, at 1100 m elevation. Also seen in the same area were 2 or more Black Guans and a male Purple-throated Mountain-Gem, both at 1050 m elevation [both at the eastern limit of their ranges.] Earlier in the morning he had a Black-billed Cuckoo at elevation 700 m.

Cerulean Warbler at Cerro Ancón

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Bill Adsett photographed this female Cerulean Warbler at his Cerro Azul house on September 6.