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...

First, for context, a colored bathymetric map of Panama. Zooming in, a simplified diagram showing the 200, 1000, 2000 and 3000 meter isobaths. Zooming in further, the Google Earth image showing two notable points of our September 11 deep water pelagic trip : our stops that produced Tahiti Petrel and Wedge-tailed Shearwater . These stops were not serendipitous, but were carefully planned atop seamounts, underwater mountains. The most productive one, 45 km east-southeast of Punta Mala, has its summit at 91 meters deep, but is surrounded by 1000-meter depths. The Wilson's and Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels were seen about halfway to that spot, maybe at 300 m depths. We suspect the other mound, with a 37-meter deep summit was not in deep enough waters (around 500 m). There is a third seamount, about 45 km west-southwest of Punta Mala, also at the 1000 m isobath, that remains unexplored. Heading in that direction would allow us to swing by Islas Frailes, as a bonus. Finally, some eye cand...

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...

Venicio Wilson forwards this photo of a Storm-Petrel photographed by Christian Gernez on the Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic's Sea Voyager, apparently near Punta Mala, apparently a few days ago. Additional photos are apparently on their way, but in the meantime let's start speculating, shall we? We would strongly lean for Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel, probably the commonest Oceanodroma in Panama waters, and not just because we like erring on the side of caution: there's just a lot of white on this rump, and the rump is shaped like a wedge! Also, if you squint you can almost imagine the white extending down the sides, a tell-tale tail. Shape and lenght of the tail itself is not particularly clear, but again if you squint you can almost see it as slightly notched, but not deeply forked. ¿Any dissenting opinions?

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 ...