Xenornis

El viernes 13 de octubre en la mañana, regresando de de un taller en Volcán, paramos en el Parque Nacional Sarigua y encontramos un Hudsonian Godwit . Hay muchas camaroneras por el área y varias tinas vacías, con algo de agua algunas. Habían también muchos Lesser Yellowlegs , 150. No nos había tocado ver tantos. Camino a Volcán paramos en Aguadulce y allí vimos muchos Stilt Sandpipers : 79, un número grandote. En la entrada de El Rincón de Santa María estaba un tractor removiendo la tierra y detrás del tractor contamos 806 Glossy Ibises , el número más grande que hemos tenido a la fecha. Parece que a esta especie le está yendo muy bien por allá. Este White-rumped Sandpiper  también andaba por ahí...

Pearly-breasted Cuckoo Hoy fuimos a ver aves Karl, George Angehr, Ruth Pierson y yo a Río Mono en Bayano. Llegamos a Río Mono como a las 8:30 am. Allá nos encontramos con Rafael Lau y Franklin Kwai Ben y en minutos llegaron los Ahrens y los Lieurance. Rafa y Franklin estaban desde muy tempranito y cuando nos tocó llegar el cuco tenía un par de minutos de haber salido del nido. No cuco. Cuando llegaron los Ahrens con los Lieurance les pasamos la mala noticia. Nos quedamos como 45 minutos viendo aves en el puente hasta que alguien se dió cuenta que el cuco había retornado y estaba posado con una rama en el pico. Varios de nosotros pudimos tomarles fotos. Ese cuco se metió al nido, acomodó la ramita y se fue, mientras el otro cuco, que estaba muy cerca, escondido entre las ramas, se acercó y se metió en el nido. Ahí lo dejamos. Stilt Sandpiper En la ciénaga de Chepo (donde están los montones de storks), paramos para ver las aves y nos encontramos con varios playeros, entre ellos Pectora...

 El pasado sábado 28 de enero, Osvaldo Quintero, Euclides Campos y mi persona nos dirigimos hacia Las Macanas. Entre otras cosas, encontramos un Mangrove Cuckoo , al menos seis Killdeers , ocho Caspian Terns , cuatro American Coots , cuatro Fulvous Whistling-Ducks entre los cientos de Guíchichis y una pareja (macho y hembra) de American Wigeons . Sin embargo, más importante, observamos un grupo de al menos 10 Long-billed Dowitchers  identificadas por la llamada, un "kick" enfático, nada musical que fue emitido por las aves mientras descansaban (alarmadas?), y también cuando volaron (en serie). También notamos su pecho de un gris bastante sólido y oscuro y la cola principalmente oscura, muy evidente al volar.  El mismo día, alrededor del mediodía, observamos en las salinas de Aguadulce, una fase blanca de Reddish Egret ... un inmaduro a juzgar por su pico completamente negro. Se encontraba más o menos a mitad de la calle que atraviesa las salinas, cerca de la misma, ...

On the morning of Sunday, September 12, still high on the post-deep-water-pelagic endorphins, Björn Anderson, Ken Allaire, Gonzalo Horna and Darién Montañez headed for El Copé in search of umbrellabird. And find it we did. After walking Sendero Los Helechos Trail, where we got Black-crowned Antpitta and Stripe-breasted Wren, we did Sendero La Rana. While waiting for a mixed flock to approach, a Bare-necked Umbrellabird was spotted sitting quietly on a branch, terribly backlit but at pretty much eye level. This bird had a full hood and some bare skin around the neck. It was soon joined by a second bird, which looked scruffier all over and was probably a younger bird. The flock eventually approached and provided a first-year female Cerulean Warbler . Later on, when we were making our way back to the visitor center, we were trying to lure in a calling White-throated Shrike-Tanager when another pair of umbrellabird showed up, this time two adult-looking birds. Light was better this time,...

El sabado 28 de agosto del 2010, cuatro miembros/colaboradores de Audubon (Kilo Campos, Jan Axel Cubilla, Gloriela Archbold y Rafael Luck) se dirigieron en la acostumbrada 4WD FJ Cruiser hacia El Copé en búsqueda del Umbrellabird y otras aves. Aquí fotos del Bare-necked Umbrellabird y Golden-olive Woodpecker de El Copé. [ Visit Jan Axel's Blog for more details]. Posteriormente visitamos las Salinas de Aguadulce y reportamos entre otros Reddish Egret , Stilt Sandpiper y una bandada de aprox. 150 Black Skimmers .

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...

Euclides Campos sends in two interesting photos of interesting sandpipers taken at the former shrimp farms at Punta Chame. The first one shows two stilts: a Black-necked Stilt and a Stilt Sandpiper. Can you tell which is which? Notice especially the typical sloping forehead and pronounced, rounded crown. We say the sandpiper is an adult molting into basic plumage (fide the remains of barring in the underparts and the few leftover black feathers in the mantle and scapulars). Then there's this bird, seen foraging with Semipalmated Sandpipers. It was identified in the field as a White-rumped Sandpiper (and the jizz seems right for that), but the chest seems too dark even for a juvenile. What do you think, freak lighting effect or Pectoral Sandpiper? Click on the photos for full size and chip in (via the comments). [Update: consensus seems to lean strongly in favor of White-rumped Sandpiper]

The Canopy Tower's Carlos Bethancourt reports a male Hooded Warbler seen today, somewhere in Metropolitan Nature Park. This seems to be a good season for hoodeds, with males seen both on the Central christmas count (beyond the telephone tower enclosure atop "Renacer" hill) and on the Atlantic count (at the former Fort Davis.) He also reports seeing a single Long-billed Dowitcher yesterday morning, in with a flock of Short-billeds on the road out to the beach at Tocumen Marsh. The Long-billed was identified mainly based on its call. Also seen there was Stilt Sandpiper.

The PAS fieldtrip to Las Macanas and environs got a few good birds, even though we dipped on most of the local specialities. Rosabel Miró had brief looks at a probable Yellow-breasted Crake at a small marsh in the town of Correa, where Darién Montañez had even briefer looks at a probable Least Bittern. Big numbers of Glossy Ibis were seen on both sides of the marsh, and also at Correa. Six Roseate Spoonbills were at the water's edge next to the observation tower at Las Macanas, quite close to a thightly-packed group of about four roosting Fulvous Whistling-Ducks. At the same place, a single Tree Swallow was seen among the Sand Martins flying overhead. At Playa el Agallito, some 25 Stilt Sandpipers were seen at the pond on the left side of the road, next to a female Wilson's Phalarope in breeding plumage.

Bill Porteous stopped at Costa del Este this morning. Since the tide was only 12 ft, all the peeps stayed on the beach, but there were five Wilson's Phalaropes, four Stilt Sandpipers and a Buff-breasted Sandpiper by the pools at the Escuela Interamericana, and a Long-billed Curlew with the Whimbrels on the beach at the same spot.

Rosabel Miró, Bill Porteous and Darién Montañez spent the afternoon at Costa del Este hoping the 17 feet tide brought some interesting species. The pond by the Escuela Interamericana (A) had two each of Wilson's Phalarope and Stilt Sandpiper mixed in with a few hundred Dowitchers and Willets. One of the Stilt Sandpipers was still moulting into its winter plumage, as its undertail coverts had traces of black and white barring. Then we went to the other pond on the plot of land between the main road and the ditch by the mangroves (B), which was full of gulls and sandpipers. The Gray-hooded Gull was here, with its hard-to-miss red bill and legs. Its back is also lighter than that of the average Laughing Gull, turning lighter gray on the nape and off-white on the crown. All of this gives the bird a very pale appearance. The same flock had two Ring-billed Gulls and an Elegant Tern. The tern had black on the nape extending up to its crown, and just the forehead was white, and its thin cu...

The PAS fieldtrip to Costa del Este could not locate any Long-billed Curlews, but had a Lesser Black-backed Gull, most likely the same individual that was seen the previous thursday at Paitilla. Also seen were Upland and Stilt Sandpipers, Least and Caspian Terns, and small flocks of migrating Mississippi Kites.

The flock of Stilt Sandpipers at El Agallito beach was up to at least 50 individuals.The Reddish Egret was not seen.

A white phase Reddish Egret was studied carefully for half an hour at El Agallito beach, Chitré, the first report of that color phase from Panama. Also seen were a flock of Stilt Sandpipers . An adult Reddish Egret was studied carefully for half an hour at El Agallito at dusk on Saturday, march 21st by Delicia and Darién Montañez. The observations were made from very short range, and all the fieldmarks could be seen well, eliminating all other possibilities. Even though we are not aware of any previous sightings of white phase Reddish Egrets from Panama, and the fact that it is "unlikely in Panama" (Ridgely, 1989), we are convinced of the accuracy of our identification. It was about 6:00 P.M, and the tide was beginning to rise. After walking out to the water’s edge two times to watch a small flock of terns we were exhausted. We were very disappointed there were no Inca Terns, so I said I would settle for any bird new-for-Panama. I was so tired I would settle for a Reddish ...