Xenornis

Michael and Christian Gernez from Sendero Panama and Venicio Wilson visited the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal to scout some birding spots. Here are the most remarkable sightings: a very tame Yellow-throated Vireo in the garden at the mechanic who fixed our flat tire in Escobal a very shy family of White-headed Wrens in El Trogon Trail, Achiote Road a Black Hawk-eagle at Gatun Dam spillway a Crested Guan in the road to Fort San Lorenzo Yellow-rumped Warbler female Ruby-throated Hummingbird feeding in the flowers at the fort a pair of Indigo Buntings The Gatun Dam spillway had 3 gates open and hundreds of gulls and terns at the spillway and at the river mouth. At both places we had a large, dark-mantled gull which I believe was a Lesser Black-backed Gull . From fort San Lorenzo we watched a tern that seemed to me like a Bridled Tern : dark gray mantle, whitish narrow collar around neck, dark crown, white forehead, black bill. Anyone going that way keep an eye in tha...

On Saturday, September 11, Björn Anderson, Ken Allaire, Jan Axel Cubilla, Gonzalo Horna, Rafael Luck and Darién Montañez spent 11 hours out on the deep waters southeast of Punta Mala. The day started on a good leg at 6:30 am when the bird that was following our wake got close enough to show its white whiskers: an Inca Tern . The bird flew with us for five or so minutes, and eventually landed on the bow of our boat, where it hitched a ride for a while, allowing for great photos. Inca Terns invaded the Bay of Panama during the 1983 El Niño, and there may have been one in El Agallito during the 1998 El Niño, but has remained unreported since. At 7:10 we saw our first storm-petrels, which turned out to be Wilson's Storm-Petrel . Minutes later we saw our first first record for Panama of the day: a Band-rumped Storm-Petrel , identified by Björn based on its pointier wings and Leach's-like flight. Every other storm-petrel seen that day, and there were many, was a Wedge-rumped Storm-P...

On Saturday, August 7, Claudia & Bill Ahrens, Rosabel & Karl Kaufmann, and Delicia & Darién Montañez braved the threatening skies over Pedasí and headed out for Islas Frailes. Frailes del Sur were covered in birds: about 500 Bridled Terns , including some in juvenile plumage, maybe 200 Brown Noddies, and 100 Sooty Terns , including some 25 in juvenile plumage that would often fly over our boat. Further out, and after deploying the chum, we started running into procellariids: one or two Galápagos Shearwater , a single Sooty Shearwater and a dozen Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels . Our persistence was rewarded when we approached a flock of noddies and ran into about 120 Galápagos Sheawaters sitting on the water, allowing for really close views. Of course, I completely forgot I had a camera on me. After this flock flew and floated away, we went out some more and found another similar flock, this time with about 80 Galápagos Shearwaters, similarly well-behaved. Our boatman estimated...

Mike Mulligan and Darién Montañez spent the morning of June 20 out beyond Islas Frailes hoping a pelagic bird or two would approach. A gorgeous, non-glary day with still waters and no wind provided excellent conditions, and allowed us to see floating shearwaters from far, far away. We must have had about 15  Galápagos Shearwater sightings, some floating obliviously about two meters away from our boat, but most flying around (we like to think attracted to our meager chumming efforts). The ones that definitely (perhaps) came in to our canned-tuna slick were the Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels, of which we had about 30 different sightings throughout the morning. We also had a Pomarine Jaeger fly by, paying no attention whatsoever to us. No other species of shearwater, storm-petrel, or jaeger were seen. Islas Frailes themselves were, as reported by our captain, full of birds. Two to three hundred Bridled Terns, about one hundred Sooty Terns, and about three hundred Brown Noddies stoo...

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...

On the morning of Saturday, September 6, eight Panama Auduboners braved the ominous, overcast skies and headed out to sea for a morning of pelagic birding on our yearly fieldtrip to Islas Frailes del Sur. We headed straight out, saving the islands for the way back. On the way out we saw the first of many Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels, which were not seen on our July scouting trip. At the end of the day we were up to 16 wedge-rumpeds, with a single, unidentifed storm-petrel with a dark rump. We stopped about 20 km offshore and drifted for a long, seasickening while, while trying to lay a good, smelly oil slick to try and lure something in. Sure enough, not an hour had passed when we had a Sooty Shearwater fly in and look around for a bit before continuing on its shearwaterly business. We then wandered about aimlessly to get some fresh air on our green faces and found an unidentified phalarope and two more wedge-rumped storm petrels sitting on the water. Eventually we approached Frailes ...

The PAS fieldtrip to Los Frailes was a success. While waiting for the boats to come pick us up, Bill Porteous spotted a group of Humpback Whales among the fishing boats around Las Monjas (a.k.a. Frailes del Norte). A few Killer Whales were also seen jumping out of the water by part of the group. Bird-wise, we also had interesting sightings. Las Monjas was full of Bridled Terns and Brown Noddies, one of which was chasing an Audubon's Shearwater which circled our boat a few times. A few juvenile Bridled Terns were flying around, and an unfledged chick seen standing near a cairn on top of the rock was probably also a Bridled. Los Frailes (a.k.a. Frailes del Sur) had Brown and Blue-footed Boobies, and was full of Sooty Terns: a flock of about a thousand birds (including a few birds in juvenile plumage) took flight at once as we were approaching the island. While watching the terns, what was probably the same Audubon's Shearwater circled our boat a few more times. We were not able t...