Xenornis

Report by Jan Axel Cubilla Photographs by Rafael Luck Date: October 25th, 2014. Participants: George Angehr, Rafael Luck, Euclides Campos and Jan Axel Cubilla (plus captain Jeff Hopkins and crew member “Lito”) We departed at 6:30 am from El Arenal beach, close to the town of Pedasi aboard a 30 ft sport fishing boat and headed directly to the south. Our intention was to chum a mixture of fish oil (kindly donated by Fulo Motta and Laly Vallarino) and bait plus popcorn at two different seamounts (at N 7º 14’ 52.0’’, W -80º 1’ 0.2’’ and 7º 18’ 31.7’’, W -79º 39’ 43.1’’, this last one surrounded by 1000-meter depths). We planned a 8-hours long trip, spending at least one hour at each seamount. The top speed of the boat was 12 nm, and we reached the farthest point from land at 27 nm approximately. In total, we recorded 19 species (plus three taxa), including eight tubenoses (petrels, shearwaters and storm-petrels), five jaegers and terns, and three suliformes (frigatebirds and boobi...

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...

Here are some of the pelagic birds we saw during a National Geographic/Lindblad Expeditions trip on board of the Sea Voyager from Costa Rica to Panama. Dec 31: During while sailing from Coiba Island to the Panama Canal, some 60 nautical miles west of Punta Mariato I spotted a "rare" tern. After closer observation we realize it was a juvenile Red-billed Tropicbird. It was together with some Laughing Gulls and Black Terns. [A rare bird anywhere away from Bocas del Toro—Ed.] Later during that same afternoon, while looking for whales, dolphins and marine life, we got 2, maybe 3, Pomarine Jeagers. Several pictures where made of these birds. They floated and flied around the boat for over and hour. Jan 2: During the ducking operation at Pier 6 in Cristobal Port we got an adult Parasitic jeager chasing a laughing gull. Also they were several Ring-billed Gulls and a Herring Gull. I am not very sure of this last 2 birds so I hope the pictures and your expertise help.

José Tejada and Guido Berguido report that a flock of six Pomarine Jaegers in all sorts of different plumages and color phases spent all the morning flying around the port of Cristóbal in Colón.

Lined Seedeater and Pomarine Jaeger at Ft. Sherman (Gilles Seutin), American Pygmy-Kingfisher, Parasitic Jaeger, and Ring-billed and Herring Gulls at Galeta Island (Karla Aparicio), Blackpoll Warbler on the road to the Brazos Golf Club and Black-throated Green Warbler at Skunk Hollow (Darién Montañez), Hooded Warbler at Rancho Ramos (Jan Axel Cubilla), Agami Heron, Hook-billed Kite, Barrred Hawk, Rufous-crested Coquette and Bare-crowned Antbird at Achiote Road (José Tejada), Montezuma Oropendola and Yellow-faced Grassquit also at Achiote (Loyda Sánchez)...