Xenornis

On Friday 8th of January Michaela Schmidt, Christian Gernez and myself (Venicio Wilson) found a Hudsonian Godwit at Playa Veracruz. The bird was the only shorebird in the beach. It was standing alone in the shallow water directly in front of the restaurants at the beginning of the beach. My first guess when I saw it with my binoculars was of a “larger” Willet. I had my scope with me and when I saw it with the scope I noticed two things: the mask in the face of the bird and the pinkish-bone color of the base of the bill. I knew I had something different but the humidity and the heat of the beach convinced us three of not staying too long. The bird was standing still in the shallow water. It seemed a bit nervous or alert. I described the bird to myself as been larger than a Willet, bluish-gray, white underneath, upturn bill with pink-bone color at base, contrasting mask. As we drove back to Panama City, I reached my copy of the Sibley Guide to Birds and checked the shorebirds when I n...

While in Coclé, Rosabel and Karl Kaufmann and Delicia and Darién Montañez decided to swing by Aguadulce Salinas to try for the Yellow-billed Tern seen there on September 20. Even though the tide was very high, there weren't many shorebirds anywhere, but we did find a flock of terns by the restaurant at the end of the road (Mar Nathy; great pescado frito): at least 18 Black Terns , about the same number Gull-billeds, a few Sandwiches and fewer Royals. No Least Terns nor Yellow-billed Terns were seen.

The Panama Audubon fieldtrip to Islas Frailes of Saturday, March 14 2009 was slow, as usual, but productive, also as usual. We spent about 6 hours on two boats, most of the time about 15 miles offshore. Most notable were the absent species: not a single Brown Noddy was around, and we usually see many hundreds of these. Also, both Frailes and Monjas were almost completely devoid of birds, a first in the 8–10 times I’ve been there. No Sooty or Bridled Terns were seen in either island; a couple boobies was all there was. We also didn’t see any Storm-Petrels, but we’re blaming this on bad chumming on our part. The bird of the day was a mystery bicolored shearwater, larger than Galapagos Shearwater, of which we saw a pair rather close to the boats and then a more distant single bird. Originally called out as Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, a species neither myself nor Jan Axel Cubilla on the other boat has had experience with, but which at least seem to be in season in Costa Rica. Back to land w...

A first winter Herring Gull was seen at dusk (high tide) at a newly discovered roost at Costa del Este by Rafael Cortez, Jan Cubilla and three fourths of the Montañez family. The gull was noticeably larger than the Laughing (and Franklin's) Gulls it was flying with. Its breast was mottled brown and it had pink legs and a pale bill base. The back was brownish-black as were the wings, with a darker trailing edge in the secondaries. The rump was white with some dark splotches that formed a dark tail band. The Herring Gull was in a small flock of gulls, most (at least 85 of them) were Franklin's in both adult and first winter plumage. Also seen were large numbers of Black Terns and a pair of Glossy Ibis. The new roost is in a flooded grassy field located to the left of the Corredor Sur, just beyond Snipe Field.