Panama Trip - Day 9

November 25, 2007

The El Valle area is an extinct volcanic caldera surrounded by several peaks. One of those peaks, Cerro Gaital, has been set aside as a natural area. After breakfast, we got into the van and went up to the La Mesa area where we were seeing some open country birds, like this Ruddy Ground-Dove.

At the Cerro Gaital trailhead, the birding was quite good and we took a long time to even get started walking! We saw Blue-throated Toucanet, Orange-bellied Trogon, White-throated Spadebill, Scale-crested Pygmy-Tyrant, Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch, Gray-breasted Wood-Wren, and many others.

On the ground, right in the open near where we parked, there was a common roadside orchid (Epidendrum radicans) that I had seen quite frequently in Costa Rica.

Many of the birds were seen well, but in fairly dense vegetation, and many of them were moving around a lot, like the fast-moving flock of Tawny-crested Tanagers. We walked about the first 1/4 mile of the trail, which was fairly easy walking though entirely up hill.

This female Orange-bellied Trogon was one of few birds this morning that cooperated for photos.

Interesting insects were in evidence, as they were most days. We got better views of a couple butterflies that we'd seen before. This clearwing (probably Ithomia diasa) was the same one we had seen at Cerro Azul on our first day.

And this Togama Stripestreak (Arawacus togarna) gave us better views than the one on the Pipeline Road.

Another butterfly that we'd been seeing, but which hadn't yet cooperated for the camera, was the Forest Giant Owl (Caligo eurilochus) below, named for its large eye spots on the hindwings. These butterflies were huge, with a 6-inch wingspan. We most often encountered them at dawn and dusk as they are more active at those times.

At the other end of the size scale, this leafhopper (Family: Homoptera) was surprisingly cooperative on a blade of grass. Many tropical species are called Sharpshooters.

A splash of color is always a pleasant surprise, and when it is on a small (1/2 inch) grasshopper it is even more unexpected. I have seen similar colorful grasshoppers in the tropics before, but have never been able to identify any of them. In Costa Rica, there is a similar species that some (on-line) have been calling the "Tutti-Frutti Grasshopper".

We returned to the Canopy Lodge for lunch. One of the testaments to how well Raul has designed this place is the bathroom he built right off the main lounge/dining area, which allows birders to use the facilities one last time before departing on a field trip without having to go back to their rooms. And I must say, I have to compliment his choice of plumbing fixtures too! If there had been one of these in the souvenir shop, I would have bought one for sure.

After lunch, I spent a little time chasing the local (and rather tame) Rufous Motmot around, trying to get a photo of him NOT on the feeder. But he liked the shadows, making photography difficult.

And I managed a few photos of one of the other common local hummingbirds, the Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, which seemed to prefer the Vervain flowers instead of the feeders.

When the sun peeked out for a moment, this large dragonfly made an appearance, allowing me only a couple photos from the rear before it darted off to parts unknown.

With the brief moment of sun for encouragement, and a couple hours to kill before our afternoon field trip departed, four of us decided to get a ride down into El Valle to the famous Sunday market. The other three of us decided to walk back up the hill to Chorro el Macho to look for an owl that could sometimes be found on a day roost. We all should have known better, as the now dependable early afternoon rain came with a vengeance. Those who went to the market could stay dry under shelters. Those of us who walked got completely soaked and nearly got washed down the road in the torrential rain.

Our afternoon field trip departed late, as the rain continued later. With the rain letting up, we arrived at the Cara Iguana Trail just outside the town of El Valle. The birding here was slow, as the rain hadn't completely let up yet and the forest was dimly lit. But, sharp-eyed Stella saw one of our target birds, without the aid of a tape. She quietly asked, what is this bird on the ground with an orange breast, black back, and white eyeline? Rosy Thrush-Tanager! A male and female! These very, very shy terrestrial birds cooperated nicely for us by sitting a few feet up in a shrub allowing scope views for all. Another skulker was found along this trail, and Tino managed to coax one of the two Gray-necked Wood-Rails into running across the road in front of us. These great experiences will be etched in our memory, as they didn't get recorded in photos. All I managed was a photo of yet another toad, this one may possibly be a Southern Rough-gland Toad (Bufo coccifer). I'm open to corrections of any identifications here...

When we were at the Canopy Tower, a couple other guests who had come from the Canopy Lodge told us that bats could be seen at night at the hummingbird feeders. For some reason, since our arrival, they had been taking the feeders down at night, so I asked Raul if they could leave them up, which they did. It was an interesting spectacle during dinner to watch the bats come in and quickly take a drink from the feeder. After dinner, I set up my camera and tried to get a flash photo of the bats feeding. Raul has told me that these are Long-tongued Bats, and two species are possible here, Glossophaga commissiari and Glossophaga soricina. Based on information in books and on-line, G. commissiari would seem more likely in the denser forest surrounding the Canopy Lodge, but this is just a guess. I took about 50 photos, hoping to just get a bat in view during the fraction of a second that they came in. Their behavior was very similar to what is observed at hummingbird feeders in the daytime, with bats coming in on a schedule, and with disputes and chases. Below is the one useable photo I managed to obtain.

Panama Trip - Day 8

November 24, 2007

We spent a fairly leisurely morning on top of the Canopy Tower, well into late morning, allowing us to finally see Blue Cotinga (two distant males in the scope). We noted a Snowy-bellied Hummingbird sleeping in the canopy.

And a Violet-bellied Hummingbird perched up fairly high as well.

Although we had seen many of them on the trip so far, the White-shouldered Tanagers only allowed photos this morning from the observation deck, an adult male and an immature male.

A Summer Tanager, probably an immature male based on the amount of orangish on his crown, had been a daily fixture from the observation deck.

He came over and landed on the railing, as if to say goodbye to us. But in reality, I'm sure the rail just provided a good perch for him to watch for the flying insects that he was catching, sometimes in mid-air like a flycatcher.

As if to prove this was a good perch, and nothing more, a Palm Tanager came in close as well.

A large butterfly in the canopy, which we had seen on previous mornings as well, was this swallowtail which has variaously been called Thoas Swallowtail and King Swallowtail, but the scientific name is stable; Papilio thoas. It is very similar to the Giant Swallowtail we have in Michigan, but it doesn't occur this far south, and there are minor differences in wing markings as well.

We then went down to ground level and spent a few final moments with the hummingbirds at the feeders down there. Of course, vying for our attention as always were the Blue-chested Hummingbirds.

Another low observation deck, which is apparently used for barbeques (rained out for us), provided better opportunities for photographing hummingbirds as there was more natural surroundings (the painted turquoise walls of the building are in the background of most of my hummingbird photos from here). Hummingbird feeders should be hung around the perimeter of this lower deck as well, as it gives a much more pleasing background and different lighting, as with this Blue-chested Hummingbird.

Just before we departed, a male Fasciated Antshrike made an appearance. And, contrary to its normal shy behavior, it wasn't well up in the trees but on the ground right below us! The reason soon became apparent as it was attacking a very large grasshopper, which is visible below its tail in the first photo, and near its head in the second and third photos. The grasshopper has a wing pattern that is similar to the antshrikes finely barred upperparts. The antshrike is about 7-inches long, which would make the grasshopper nearly 3-inches long. What a way to end our stay at the Canopy Tower!

Our bus arrived and we made the two-hour drive through mainly agricultural areas and human settlements west toward El Valle, and the Canopy Lodge, arriving just before lunchtime.

The Canopy Lodge is in a beautiful setting, at a slightly higher elevation than the Canopy Tower, and adjacent to a wonderful mountain stream. It was not as hot here, but every bit as humid.

On the steps leading down into the gardens, this large (12-inches) Common Amieva (Amieva amieva) lizard was reluctant to give up his sunning spot.

And an even larger (2-foot) male Common Basilisk (Basiliscus basiliscus) was sunning on a rock on the edge of the stream. This is one of the species of lizard that escapes by running along the surface of the water, though the really big ones like this tend to sink and start swimming after a few feet.

Before lunch, we watched the banana feeders for a while. This Dusky-faced Tanager made a welcome appearance. We had seen a group of this species along the Achiote Road, but they didn't show themselves very well.

And the beautiful Thick-billed Euphonias were frequent visitors to the feeders as well.

By far the most common bird at the feeders were the Clay-colored Robins, but there were several less frequent visitors including both Crimson-backed and Flame-rumped Tanagers, White-lined Tanagers, Bananaquits, Tennessee Warblers, Black-striped Sparrow, and even Rufous Motmot among others.

We became acquainted with the new hummingbirds in this area, though it was more difficult to see and photograph them here as the feeders were spread out around the grounds, and many species seemed to prefer the flowers (mainly vervain). The first new hummingbird was the small Garden Emerald. It gave good views early, allowing me to quickly get the photo below, and although we hoped this would be a regular occurrence, it was not to be and not everyone got to see this bird (a male Violet-headed Hummingbird took over this perch for most of our stay).

One of our favorite birds of the trip, seen daily at the Canopy Tower, was the Violet-bellied Hummingbird. Although we weren't going to see them at the Canopy Lodge, another green and purple hummingbird was a good replacement here. The Violet-crowned Woodnymph seems poorly named, but if you look carefully you can see a purplish-tinge on his forehead.

After lunch, and the now expected brief rainshower, most of us took a short walk up the road to the Chorro el Macho area. There was a waterfall here, which required an entry fee of $3 per person and which also gave access to the zip line adventure. Stella took advantage of the zip line on her own the next day, while the rest of us went birding.

The trail crossed the stream on a wobbly rope bridge and entered a nice forest with trees covered with epiphytes. This Social Flycatcher is perches on a branch between two species of orchid, the smaller one in bloom and the larger one recently finished blooming.

There were plenty of flowers for hummingbirds, especially hermits, including this member of the Acanthidae family (Razisea spicata).

Sloths were becoming routine, but this female Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth had a baby in tow. If you look carefully, you can see part of the baby sticking out below her left arm.

One objective of walking this trail was to find the shy Tody Motmot. Our guide, Tino Sanchez, put a lot of effort into trying to whistle one out for us. At one point, we had up to four of them calling back all around us, but none of those was interested enough to approach closer. Then, one individual at another nearby location responded well, and we all got good views of this diminutive motmot. A great way to end the day.

Panama Trip - Day 7

November 23, 2007

The Canopy Tower prepared a 4:30 a.m. breakfast for us so that we could depart at 5:00 for our destination for the day, the Caribbean slope of the Panama Canal near Colon, Achiote, and Fort San Lorenzo. The Caribbean slope gets more rain than the Pacific slope (the Canopy Tower is just over the Continental Divide on the Pacific slope), and when we arrived in Colon around 7 a.m. we weren't surprised that it was raining. North of Colon, we had to wait at the Gatun Locks for a large ship to pass through.

There had been so much rain that they were releasing massive amounts of water so that the canal didn't overflow!

Once we crossed over to the other side of the canal, on a one-lane bridge, we saw a few Red-breasted Blackbirds in some open grassland areas. Other birds in this area included the resident Panamanian subspecies of Eastern Meadowlark, Fork-tailed Flycatchers, and even one Eastern Kingbird which is an uncommon to rare winter resident in Panama.

And along the roadsides, there were Yellow-headed Caracaras, including this immature.

We arrived at the Achiote Road at around 7:30, and the rain was letting up some. The habitat along this road is somewhat similar to that along the Pipeline Road, but the road is paved so the forest does not close over the road. There are also intermittent human settlements, creating open areas with the result that some species were more difficult to find while others were easier as they perched in the open. We had good looks at Yellow-backed and Yellow-tailed Orioles, and one of our targets the White-headed Wren. A pair of Red-lored Parrots were scoped in a bare tree as they dried their wings.

A female White-tailed Trogon sitting in the open on a wire seemed unconcerned by our approach.

Another "wire bird" was a small, and cooperative, Pied Puffbird.

Another puffbird, the near-endemic Black-breasted Puffbird cooperated nicely, though it didn't come out onto the wires.

And a Greenish Elaenia gave us good looks at the edge of an agricultural area.

As the morning progressed, the sun came out for a while and along with it the raptors began soaring, like this distant Gray-headed Kite, one of two seen.

And of course butterflies became active. One of the commonest butterflies in the tropics is this Heliconius erato here feeding on Lantana, and it is sometimes given the uncreative English name of Erato Heliconian.

Near a small wetland where we heard White-throated Crakes (again!) and saw a rare Green Ibis fly in, we also saw the first orchids of the trip in a lone tree in a cow pasture. This photo was taken through the telescope, as the orchid was perhaps 30-feet up, and unfortunately the distance will probably prevent an identification.

We then stopped in briefly at the visitors center and Jose paid our entry fee. Most of this area falls within the San Lorenzo National Park. From there, we backtracked to the short Trogon Trail where our target trogon was Black-tailed. We didn't find one there, but did have a very close encounter with both male and female Black-throated Trogons. Neither of these photos has been cropped!

Other than these cooperative birds, the trail was rather quiet and the attention of some of us turned to other critters, on the ground. This Common South American Toad (Bufo margaritiferus) showed us yet another variation in pattern. The red warts are particularly interesting.

For some reason, Jeff turned over a large leaf of a Heliconia plant that was laying on the ground, and underneath found this truly spectactular spider. It is undoubtedly some species of Wolf Spider, but the span of the legs was 3-4 inches and the body was nearly 2 inches long!

From here, we went toward Fort San Lorenzo where we had planned to eat lunch. We ended up sheltering underneath a small overhang near the contact station and eating our lunch inside the van because it had started to rain. It rained extremely hard, harder than most of us had ever seen, for more than two solid hours!

Click here to view a short video of the rain.

We guessed that 5-7 inches of rain fell in about two hours! It began to let up some, so we drove out to the fort itself, which was right on the coastline.

We walked the grounds a little bit in the light rain, and had brief looks at a new hummingbird for the trip, Sapphire-throated Hummingbird, and a small group of Chestnut-mandibled Toucans was seen. A brief history of the fort was summarized on a sign on the grounds.

From the fort there was a commanding view of the Chagres River and the Caribbean.

There were lots of Black Terns flying around in the river mouth, and when we drove a short distance to a dock at sea level we had better looks at them, as well as a group of Sandwich Terns and a single Royal Tern.

Along the road down to the dock, we saw an unfortunate female Indigo Bunting that seemed to be weakened, perhaps from the prolonged torrential rain. We also managed to find our target Trogon, the Black-tailed, which gave us a brief but memorable view. And perhaps the highlight of the afternoon, our driver Edgardo pointed out a Northern Tamandua (an anteater) in a tree right over our heads.

We then had to hurry back to Colon to catch the late afternoon train back to Panama City.

It seemed that every seat in every car was reserved for some business person traveling from Colon to Panama City, so even though we were early, we had to wait until a few minutes before departure to get seated. The cars were nice, with large windows that allowed us to get good views of parts of the Panama Canal not visible from the road. We also saw about 25 Snail Kites along the way, before the sun set about half way back to Panama City.

We got off the train and met our bus driver from the Canopy Tower, who took us back just in time for dinner. Jose and Edgardo had driven through the bad Friday afternoon traffic back to the Canopy Tower, and arrived after we did. As this was the last time we'd see Jose, we thanked him for several wonderful days of birding. Today's total of 136 species was the highest of the trip.

Panama Trip - Day 6

November 22, 2007

This morning we started early as our plan was to spend all day on the Pipeline Road. As I was getting ready to go early in the morning, for some reason I decided to take a photo of the equipment I was carrying around on the trails.

In the photo above you can see my Nikon D70s digital SLR camera with 400mm lens used mainly for birds, a fanny pack hydration system with 2-liter water bladder, compact flash unit, hat, fanny pack for my Nikon Coolpix 995 digital camera (with which this photo was taken), bright green raincoat, Swarovski binoculars, Sennheiser ME-66 shotgun microphone, Marantz PMD 660 digital recorder, supplemental speaker/amplifier and cord, and lightweight vest with additional lenses, wipe rags, plastic covers, spare memory cards, and spare batteries. On some days, I also carried my scope and tripod, but not today!

Some of us had a quick chance to enjoy another fine tropical sunrise from the observation deck before our departure.

And Cheri took down the small feeder she and Jeff had been hanging outside their room, as we hoped that leaving it along side the Pipeline Road at a place we'd be returning to would possibly attract some hummingbirds out there, as it had been doing very successfully at the Canopy Tower.

At the entrance to the Pipeline Road, we saw this Keel-billed Toucan calling loudly in a bare tree right next to a cringing (?) Turkey Vulture.

Today, we drove in to the 2-kilometer point where we had stopped walking on our previous trip here. We had a couple interesting bird sightings while riding in the back of the Rainfomobile. This male White-tailed Trogon was very cooperative.

And we had excellent views of the first, and only Great Jacamar of the trip as he perched in plain view above us, then sallied out and grabbed a large horsefly in mid-air (or was it a tiny flycatcher!).

Once we got to the bridge at 2 kilometers, we started walking. Today we'd be spending more time in primary forest, with the possibility for a few different birds. With all the rain, I'd been expecting to see quite a few mushrooms and other fungi. But that wasn't the case, with the shelf fungus we found here one of few exceptions.

The birding was good, and we had no rain all morning. Several large Purple-throated Fruitcrows were seen well.

And our luck with small flycatchers continued, as I got decent photos of one of the tiny Ruddy-tailed Flycatchers we saw this morning. Normally an uncommon species that doesn't often sit still in the open, it was surprising to see them so easily here. At about 3 1/2 inches in length, it isn't as small as some of the others we'd seen, but still a very small bird.

We had been seeing Mantled Howler Monkeys daily, at many locations, but this female with a youngster cooperated nicely for us.

And the baby was at the stage where he was just beginning to explore on his own.

The largest Army Ant swarm of the trip was, like the others, moving the colony to a new location and not hunting, so we did not see the less common species of antbird that follow them.

I also took another video of this ant swarm.

Click here to view the Army Ant video.

Jose also pointed out a line of what he called Fire Ants. They weren't red like the Fire Ants in the southern U.S., so I don't really know what they were. But, we kept our distance! They moved quite quickly and never strayed from their well-worn path. Just a warning before you view the video below, it may make you dizzy!

Click here to view the Fire Ant video.

At one point, the sun came out for a little while, and some of us notice some small lizards scurrying through the leaf litter on the side of the road. They were Four-lined Amievas (Amieva quadrilineata). Sometimes these lizards are called whiptails in the tropics, but that name is better reserved for the true whiptails in the genus Cnemidophorus.

The sun also brought out butterflies and other insects. Two species of Heliconia were nectaring at the Hot Lips plants, including this black and white Heliconius cydno.

And this more colorful Heliconius doris, a common tropical species of Heliconia. This one probably had a close encounter or two with a flycatcher judging by the bite marks in its wings.

We had another, better look at the large Helicopter Damselfly (Mecistogaster linearis).

And this small, bright beetle, probably in the Leaf Beetle family (Chrysomelidae), caught my eye with its pink thorax. I don't think I've ever seen a beetle with pink on it before.

An odd insect, very much like a leafhopper but two-inches long, caught our attention as it flew across in front of us and landed on a tree. I have no idea what this strange insect is, other than it is probably in the family Homoptera. The odd, cottony material protruding from the abdomen is apparently part of the insect (camouflage?).

But the strangest of all was spotted by Diana in the top of a plant about 10-feet tall (ginger?). It is a spider that is apparently mimicking the buds or flowers of this plant, and apparently ambushing any prey that might come by. We have similar spiders in Michigan, but not nearly as large as this one!

At the bridge 5 kilometers from the entrance, we turned around and started heading back. An apparently recent development along the Pipeline Road is that the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has requested that tour groups (and individual birders?) not enter past this bridge. The reason is that they are using the forest here as a training ground for captive bred Harpy Eagles before they are released into the wild. This is great for the eagles, as they certainly do need the help, but unfortunate for birders since some of the best forest along this road is past the 5 kilometer point.

We headed back to the 2 kilometer bridge and before we got there it started to rain, so our driver picked us up and drove us the rest of the way. Cheri picked up her hummingbird feeder, which appeared to be untouched. At the Canopy Tower, the hummingbirds were emptying it every couple of hours. We ate lunch here and soon it started to rain again. We decided to move to the newly opened visitors center just up a short side road near this bridge. The building was nice, and they had all the signage up and ready for the official opening, which was to be soon.

They also had ten hummingbird feeders strung out over a small garden, and as the rain picked up again we watched the hummers feeding and bathing from the convenience of an overhang of the building. Once the rain let up some, Jeff had a great time working these feeders, as there were at least 50 hummingbirds using them. Notice the shadow of a hummingbird on his forehead! It was now obvious why Cheri's feeder had not been used as it was hung only a couple hundred yards away from this more appealing setup.

I had a great time too, and got the only decent hummingbird flight shot of the trip (it was constantly cloudy), this nice male Blue-chested Hummingbird.

We worked our way back out to the main road, and stopped again briefly at one of the Ammo Dump Ponds near Gamboa. With the slightly better light, I was finally able to get a decent photo of a Lesser Kiskadee.

The Lesser Kiskadee is one of several medium to large sized flycatchers with black and white on the head and yellow underparts that we saw frequently, and had to keep sorting out their names as well as their ID points. We finally came up with a name for the lot of them, should any taxonomist be willing to consider lumping them all! We started calling them Marginally Social Lesser Boat-billed Kiskadees!

Returing to the Canopy Tower in mid-afternoon allowed us to work the hummingbird feeders there a bit more. Up to this point, the female White-necked Jacobins had not been much in evidence. Perhaps they were nesting. But, this female posed nicely for me.

Not to be outdone, this male White-necked Jacobin also cooperated nicely. Believe it or not, these are both full-frame images; no cropping.

This nice male Blue-chested Hummingbird cooperated as well, the afternoon light adding a few more colors to his usual compliment of green, bronze, and blue.

Panama Trip - Day 5

November 21, 2007

We enjoyed another wonderful, rain-free sunrise atop the Canopy Tower. But the birding was slow again and after breakfast we headed down to the base of Semaphore Hill Road to walk the Plantation Trail.

The Plantation Trail runs for several miles, often along a stream, with fairly level terrain making it an excellent birding trail.

Although we had seen them already, this trail is a good place for Blue-crowned Manakins and we had a close encounter with this female.

And although we had heard several and glimpsed a couple, we had our best views so far of the near-endemic Southern Bentbill, a tiny flycatcher with a croaky insect-like voice, an an odd downcurved bill.

Antbirds are normally skulky and difficult to see, but the Dot-winged Antwren is not only quite common in many areas of the Canal Zone of Panama, but are not very difficult to see. This male, with his tail cocked up like a wren and out of view, gave us great looks.

Other than the omnipresent ants, mainly Leafcutters with a few Army Ants, insects were not much in evidence this morning. One exception was this colorful, unidentified wasp.

The toads, however, were quite in evidence along this trail. Panama has 16 species of toad, of which 7 are in the genus Bufo which is familiar to everyone in the northern hemisphere. Among the Panamanian species there is quite a bit of individual variation and, a shortage of good identification references makes it difficult to put a name on any individual with certainty. The two species shown below may or may not be correctly identified! If anyone can identify them, I will happily correct this blog entry.

The first (Bufo haematiticus), also called "rain toad" locally, is quite similar to many North American species.

The two photos below show color variations of what I believe is the South American Common Toad (Bufo margaritifer). This species seems to show a more angular head and more pointed snout than some other toad species.

As we continued our walk, we were beginning to see so many sloths that we noticed the various strategies for clinging to their trees overnight. We had already seen one that a couple days ago that was simply cowering in a ball, and one that we called the "tree hugger". I thought the one reclining in the photo below was in the perfect position to have a TV remote control and a beer! It was definitely a sloth day, and our count was 8 which included both Two-toed and Three-toed species.

By the end of the morning, everyone agreed that it was also a Motmot day. Along this trail we saw several Rufous Motmots and even more Broad-billed Motmots. At least two pairs of Broad-billed Motmots were excavating nests in the banks alongside the trail. Note the ball of mud in the bill of the bird in the photo below.

Due to their apparent nest building activities, they allowed fairly close approach and good photo opportunities. As they dig out burrows deep in the muddy bank, the "rackets" at the end of their tail tend to get a bit worn.

This individual apparently is not involved in nest-excavation as its tail rackets are still in good condition.

And with such cooperative birds, we got a good look at why the Broad-billed Motmot deserves its name.

We got back onto the Rainfomobile and Jose drove us the one-mile back up to the Canopy Tower. We arrived literally seconds before the sky opened up in a torrential rain shower! As has been the norm on this trip, it rained all through lunch and up until our departure time of 3 p.m. The afternoon field trip was back to Gamboa, along the Chagres River. We experienced some rain and quite overcast conditions. The most interesting aspect of the birds this afternoon was what appeared to be a mixed species flock of mainly flycatchers. Such mixed species flocks are common in the Neotropics, and flycatchers are often with them, but this is the first time I've seen such a flock composed almost entirely of flycatchers.

We returned to the Canopy Tower earlier than usual so that we could have an early dinner, allowing us to go out in the evening for night birds and mammals. On the way down Semaphore Hill Road, we got a brief look at a Paca, a rarely observed mammal similar to an Agouti but larger and entirely nocturnal. Along the main road in the vicinity of the small town of Summit, we encountered only a single Pauraque and no owls. We found a single Great Potoo on a dead snag where it was waiting to sally out after large insects, and on another snag we found a Common Potoo. No owls. At one point, we heard a SPLAT! on the road in front of us, and when we got out to look, found a rather large frog sitting there.

It was a Gladiator Frog (Hyla rosenbergi) and had jumped (fallen?) out of a tree along the side of the road. This is one of the largest of the treefrogs, being nearly the size of my hand (and nearly a foot long with the legs extended). The expansive webbing between the toes, which had large round sticky tips, was impressive, especially as he splayed his webbing wide when he jumped.

As we tried to force him back off the road, he hopped up onto my leg! My guess is that the thought I was a tree.

We got him safely off the road and returned to the Canopy Tower, owl-less despite Jose's considerable efforts.

Panama Trip - Day 4

November 20, 2007

An earlier departure this morning only allowed us to enjoy the sunrise briefly from the observation deck at the Canopy Tower.

As we were waiting to get into the vehicles that would take us to our morning destination, the Pipeline Road, a small skipper (Hyalothyrus neleus) was seen feeding on the Verbena at the base of the tower.

A nice new (?) feature of the Canopy Tower, that we did not enjoy on our first trip here in 2000, is the availability of vehicles to transport birders to and from birding destinations, and to pick up birders walking down Semaphore Hill road to bring them back up. There are two vehicles, the "Birdmobile" and the "Rainfomobile"; the latter has a larger bed and can carry more people.

So, we loaded up into the Rainfomobile and headed for the famous Pipeline Road, a few miles away. In Gamboa, a Collared Aracari on the sidewalk was definitely out of habitat!

More than 350 species of birds have been seen along the Pipeline Road, and we were going to walk the first two kilometers this morning, which is mainly through second growth and some open areas. Virgin forest occurs farther in and we planned to bird there later in the trip.

There were many great bird sightings this morning, and the rain held off for most of our walk in. We encountered a nice male Slaty-tailed Trogon right near the start of the road.

Some birds required more effort to see, and we occasionally had to close ranks to get views of birds skulking in the undergrowth, as in this photo where we're getting good views of a pair of Scaly-throated Leaftossers that Jose brought in with his tape. The bulldozer was here because a nice visitor's center is being built along this road, which should help educate many more people about this wonderful rainforest.

One of the highlights of the day was getting good views of Black-capped Pygmy-Tyrant. This is one of the smallest passerines in the world, if not THE smallest. It is perhaps a little bigger than a bumblebee - definitely smaller than some hummingbirds - and has almost no tail (the Short-tailed Pygmy-Tyrant's tail might be slightly shorter!). Most of the time, this tiny bird stays in the canopy, but we were able to see it only a few yards away, and singing! In addition to these photos, recordings of its cricket-like song were obtained as well.

In addition to the birds, quite a few wonderful butterflies were seen along this road, including incredible Blue Morphos, and several Heliconias, a mostly tropical subfamily of the widespread Nymphalidae known for their bright colors. We found this Heliconius vestutus nectaring on a widespread tropical plant known as "Hot Lips" (Psycotria sp.).

Another interesting butterfly in the Hairstreak family, the Togama Stripestreak (Arawacus togarna) gave us good views near the bulldozer.

And another Skipper, this one currently unidentified, had an unusual approach to feeding on nectar. In most of the United States, Skippers are dull, brown, difficult to identify butterflies, but in the tropics there are also some fairly colorful species.

At the bridge, two kilometers from the entry gate, we found this Spectacled Caiman relaxing in the mud along the shore of the small stream. Caimans are fairly harmless to humans as they rarely attack and don't get very large (this one was maybe 5-feet long). I've never seen one in the midst of a rainforest before; always in larger wetlands. We turned around at this point and headed back out. We ended up having to walk about a mile in hard, steady rain, and ride in the back of the truck in the rain all the way back to the Canopy Tower.

It rained through the lunch and siesta time again, but had mostly stopped by the time we headed back out at 3 p.m. for the nearby El Carco Trail, which was rocky, steep, and muddy. The trail was through some good forest on the way to a nice waterfall.

We got scope views of a skulking Song Wren that sat still for us, as well as nice overhead views of both male and female Black-throated Trogon.

At one point along the trail, a White-whiskered Puffbird sat and watched as our group walked past, only 8-feet away. Dim light conditions, and very poorly timed dead flash batteries, prevented better photos of this cooperative bird.

Panama Trip - Day 3

November 19, 2007

The morning from the top of the Canopy Tower was foggy to start, but was a little better for birds than yesterday. The fog burned off and we could see the Panama Canal in the distance, but there were no monkeys or sloths today.

We left after breakfast for the Old Gamboa Road and Summit Pond, only a few miles away. The weather was great, in fact it was hot and sunny all morning. The birding was great too, especially at the small ant swarm we ran into. Right at the start of the walk, we had an excellent look at a Forest Elaenia, a small flycatcher which is almost never seen well and is usually detected by voice. This one was quite low and allowed good photos to be taken.

At the Summit Pond we got good scope views of Boat-billed Herons on the far side, and another American Crocodile swimming toward the shore. A Green Kingfisher cooperated nicely for photos.

Birders in the Neotropics always search for Army Ants (Eciton burchellii) in order to see some of the more secretive bird species, especially those that habitually follow the ant swarms to feed on the insects flushed by the hunting ants. One species that is often seen at these ant swarms is the Spotted Antbird, and a female came close enough for photos, though she stayed mostly in the shadows.

Jose managed to grab one of the soldiers of the Army Ants and I was able to get a photo of its impressive jaws before the ant deciced to bite him. This ant swarm was engaged in moving the colony from one locale to another, not hunting, so there weren't a lot of birds around this swarm other than many Gray-headed Tanagers.

Other ants we encountered were the Leafcutter Ants (Atta sp.), which can defoliate a tree in a matter of days, carrying the green bits underground to their nest to use as fertilizer for the fungus that they feed on.

And we encountered some termites entering a tunnel they'd created across the road, which had been damaged by the rain allowing the termites to be seen.

The insects almost stole the show today, and one other interesting insect we saw was the Helicopter Damselfly (Mecistogaster linearis), which is the largest damselfly in the world...perhaps 4-inches long.

Just past the ant swarm, we came upon one of our targets for the day, a nice Spectacled Owl at its day roost. It soon flew a short distance and joined its mate a few yards away.

Back at the vehicles, a female Violaceous Trogon posed nicely for photos.

Back at the Canopy Tower, we took a little time for hummingbird photography before the rain started, and I got lucky with this male Violet-bellied Hummingbird.

And this female Blue-chested Hummingbird stopped chasing others away long enough to be photographed.

It rained during the entire lunch/siesta time, but mostly had stopped by our departure at 3 p.m. for the nearby Summit Gardens and Zoo. The open habitats here, along with the surrounding woodlands, made for some good birding.

The facility here is part of the captive breeding program for Panama's national bird, the Harpy Eagle. There are apparently about 200 breeding pairs in Panama, some of which were raised in captivity within the country. They had two individuals on display, which were both more than 30 years old! As a bird bander, I was impressed by the size of the band on the bird's leg (note the red band on the bird's left leg). It was almost big enough to be a bracelet for me, and certainly twice as big as is used for a Golden Eagle!

Panama Trip - Day 2

November 18, 2007

Before breakfast we spent about an hour on the upper observation deck of the Canopy Tower.

It had rained pretty heavily overnight, and it was still pretty foggy in the morning so bird activity was somewhat low. The real highlights of the morning were the mammals, which included a lone male Mantled Howler Monkey very close to the tower.

I even managed to get some pretty decent video of him as he moved around through the Cecropia trees, as he fed on its fruit.

Click here to view video of Mantled Howler Monkey.

Almost at the same time, a Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth was found curled up in a ball near the top of another Cecropia tree. As the mist cleared and it got warmer, he became more active. Well, as active as a sloth can be!

As we continued to watch, he began grooming himself. Since sloths often have moss growing in their fur, and even have moths living on them, we wondered what the point of the grooming was. He began by hanging from the branch first from his two hind legs.

Then from just one hind leg!

After breakfast, we walked down the Semaphore Hill road to where it meets the main road, and the start of the Plantation Trail. On the way down, we encountered yet another mammal, a group of White-nosed Coatis that would be seen daily whenever we drove or walked down this road.

It was a good morning of birding, with only about 20-minutes of rain. We saw many interesting species, including the White-whiskered Puffbird, which is as common here as any puffbird I've seen anywhere.

The most frequently encountered trogon species was the Slaty-tailed, and this nice male posed nicely for scope views and photos.

Two species of manakin, Red-capped and Blue-crowned, were fairly easily seen as well.

During the lunch break and siesta (noon - 3 p.m.) some of us spent time back up on the observation deck, while others spent time observing and photographing the hummingbirds at the feeders on the ground level. Among the hummingbirds visiting these feeders, the most dominant is certainly the Blue-chested Hummingbird.

Not the largest hummingbird here, but very common and very aggressive, they would not hesitate to drive off larger hummingbirds like the fairly common White-necked Jacobin.

They'd even drive off the White-vented Plumeleteers despite them being twice the size of the pugnacious Blue-chested!

Another unobtrusive, and less common hummingbird here was the Snowy-bellied Hummingbird, about the same size as the Blue-chested.

And the smallest hummingbird, but the one everyone really wanted to see, was the Violet-bellied Hummingbird. The challenge with photographing this species was getting one to sit still long enough, and in just the right position, to get that bright green throat and bright purple belly. I only partly accomplished this today.

Rounding out the hummingbirds at these feeders were two species of hermit, the Long-billed Hermit that visited occasionally, and the Stripe-billed Hermit that visited rarely.

Suddenly, someone on the observation deck shouted down to us that they had another sloth. Another species of sloth! We ran all the way up to the top (breathless when we got there!) and saw a beautiful, and close, Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth.

Once we were up on the observation deck, a nice adult King Vulture was found and we alternated watching that magnificent bird with the "feeding frenzy" of this relatively active sloth.

He eventually decided to just hang out!

After lunch we headed down to the town of Gamboa. At the main road, Diana spotted a large bird sitting in a huge tree, which turned out to be a Great Potoo at its day roost!

We went to a residential neighborhood in Gamboa where they had a fruit feeder that was empty. But, our guide Jose brought a bunch of bananas to stock the feeders (some of us thought they would be a snack for us!). Within seconds of Jose walking away from the feeder, the rather quiet neighborhood was alive with the seething of many Blue-gray Tanagers and Palm Tanagers on the feeder, along with smaller numbers of Crimson-backed Tanagers, Flame-rumped Tanagers, Clay-colored Robins, and Red-legged Honeycreepers, and an occasional Plain-colored Tanager, Tropical Mockingbird, and Red-crowned Woodpecker.

Filling the niche of squirrels, several Central American Agoutis wandered around under the feeders picking up any scraps dropped by the birds.

Along the Chagres River, we saw our first American Crocodile of the trip.

And as dusk was approaching, the common Rusty-margined Flycatchers became more confiding and cooperative for the cameras.

Panama Trip - Day 1

November 17, 2007

Since nearly all the trip participants had arrived in Panama City late last night, a day of birding at some interesting local sites was planned before heading to the Canopy Tower. First on our agenda was Tocumen Marsh, very close by where we were staying at the Riande Airport Hotel. But our driver, Edwin, was concerned about how muddy the road would be for our bus since it had been raining a lot recently (and it was raining this morning too). He convinced our guide, Jose Soto, who convinced us that it might not be a good idea to go in there. Instead, we opted to go straight to our next destination, Cerro Azul and Cerro Jeffe, two peaks of the same mountain that held a number of interesting birds that we wouldn't encounter elsewhere on the trip. At the top of the "most wanted" list were two species, the Violet-capped Hummingbird and the Tacarcuna Bush-Tanager, both of which are restricted to only a few mountain tops in eastern Panama and northwestern Colombia. On Cerro Azul, about an hour's drive northeast of the airport, we headed right for the home of the president of the Panama Audubon Society where a number of feeders, including hummingbird feeders, had been set up. It was still raining so we sheltered under the roof at the back of the house where the feeders were hung, and where there was a nice view of the mountains beyond (when it wasn't raining).

The feeders provided hours of entertainment, as we observed Bronze-tailed Plumeleteers. An older name, no longer in use but certainly more descriptive is Red-footed Plumeleteer, which the photo shows quite well.

Two species of hermit, more primitive hummingbirds, were seen in the area as well. The Green Hermit frequented the feeders

The Stripe-throated Hermit (formerly named Little Hermit) only occasionally visited the feeders, but instead preferred to sun itself in the shrubbery around the house.

At one point, Jose pointed out a female Violet-capped Hummingbird at the feeders, one of our target birds! It was somewhat similar to other female hummers that were visiting, including Violet-crowned Woodnymphs and Violet-headed Hummingbirds, but this one had a bronzy color visible when it spread its tail, and we noticed that it frequently cocked its tail like a wren when it was perched. No males of this hummingbird were seen, unfortunately.

In the gardens, during the brief periods when it stopped raining, other birds were noticed including another target species, the Spot-crowned Barbet which does have spots on the crown but these are rarely observed. Spot-flanked Barbet would be a better name.

A fruiting tree (Miconia sp.?) attracted a few tanagers as well as this brilliant male Green Honeycreeper.

And visiting the abundant Verbena in the gardens, but never at the feeders, was at least one male Violet-headed Hummingbird. When the rain let up a bit more some clearwing butterflies with no English name (Ithomia diasa) became active as well.

At one point, just after lunch (an excellent traditional Panamanian chicken curry salad that our driver had made), the rain stopped for about an hour and we went down a somewhat steep and muddy trail to an area where Heliconia plants were more common. Our objective was to find two hummingbirds, the White-tipped Sicklebill and the Band-tailed Barbthroat. We succeeded in finding both, though only the Sicklebill posed well enough for decent photos (and a Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer was attempting to monopolize all the flowers).

The bill of the Sicklebill is more curved than any other bird, and is specially adapted to feed on their main food plant, the Heliconias. Unlike most hummingbirds, the Sicklebills did not hover in front of the plants, but instead perched on them to access the nectar.

They are so intent on feeding that they only briefly pull their extraordinary bills out of the flowers, making it extremely difficult to obtain a photo. I was never able to succeed in this, even when one fed quite close by.

We departed this wonderful location and went upslope to Cerro Jeffe where the Tacarcuna Bush-Tanager was to be found, but not today as the place was eerily silent. The wind and rain was the likely explanation for the lack of birds. Our next destination was Parque Natural Metropolitano in Panama City, perhaps the only tropical rainforest situated in the center of a major city anywhere in the world.

The forest here was dark, as it continued to rain. Before the trip, I'd told the participants that it was the end of the rainy season and that even during the rainy season it was unusual to have an all-day rain. Well, today it rained almost all day! The abundant mushrooms and fungus attested to the dampness of the place. Jose indicated that October used to be the rainiest month of the year, but has recently shifted to November, and that all-day rain is now possible even in the middle of the dry season in February. The tour brochures apparently can't keep pace with the changes that global warming is bringing.

Despite the rain, the birding was pretty good, although photography was almost impossible. We then headed for our final destination for the day, and our home for the next seven nights, the Canopy Tower in Soberania National Park. We arrived after dark, got settled in, and had an excellent dinner. On the inside walls of the Tower an unidentified moth provided one final photographic opportunity for the day.

The eerie glow in the eyes is due to my flash, nothing sinister about this interesting moth!

Panama Birding Trip

As I've done several times in the past (Costa Rica in 1996, Ecuador in 1998, Venezuela in 2000, Ecuador in 2002), I organized a birding trip for a group of local and not-so-local friends who share an interest in birds, and in particular hummingbirds. This year's destination was Panama, centered around the Canopy Tower and the newly opened Canopy Lodge. The owners of these lodges, Raul Arias de Para (and his staff) was responsible for all our arrangements in Panama. The trip included side trips to several other birding locations as well. Participants included Sue, Diana, Stella, and me from Michigan, Jeff and Cheri from Ohio, and Mike from Maryland.

We had 346 species for the trip (I personally had 344), with all 4 vultures, 16 hawks, 10 falcons, all 8 expected parrots, 2 owls at day roosts, 2 potoos, 23 hummingbirds, all 6 expected trogons, all 4 expected motmots, all 4 expected puffbirds, all 5 expected toucans, 7 woodcreepers, 15 antbirds, all 6 expected manakins, 46 flycatchers (wowie!), all 13 expected wrens, and 30 tanagers. I personally had 10 "lifers," including two from the "longshot" category (Blue-fronted Parrotlet and Veraguas Mango). The other lifers were Violet-capped Hummingbird, Garden Emerald, Tody Momot, Black-crowned Antpitta, Speckled Mourner, Rosy Thrush-Tanager, Fulvous-vented Euphonia, and Shining Honeycreeper. We also had great views of a number of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and orchids. As I work my way through the 1000+ photos taken on this trip, I'll post daily summaries here.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! My hope is to post occasional tidbits of interest to those who share my passion for nature study and photography, especially hummingbirds. I have recently returned from a birdwatching trip to Panama where we saw many species of hummingbirds, and I will be posting some of my daily log and photos here during the winter months. Once spring arrives, I'll have more to say about our hummingbirds in Michigan as my research project with them continues (see www.amazilia.net/MIHummerNet/)