Panama 6th December 2012

A two part day -

AM - Discovery Tower just off Pipeline Road

PM - Chagres area pt 2

A great day all in all - Discovery Tower with Tinamou, hummers, gray headed kite and all the rest!

bicolored ant-wren

tinamou

washing line hummingbirds

white whiskered puffbird

We came upon an ant swarm and had great close ups of a few birds

5th December 2012

A two part day - the morning was fairly tough along the second section of the Pipeline Road with not that many birds, although, what we did see was high in quality.
On this section we saw our first chestnut mandibled toucan, great tinamou crossing the path, brown hooded parrot, smooth billed ani, slaty tailed trogon, cinnamon becard and a fair bit more.

Pied Puffbird

Anole

Keel Billed toucan

Golden Hooded Tanager

Mantled Howler monkey

Pauraque

Hoffman's Two-Toed Sloth

The afternoon was tremendous - many birds in the area surrounding the romantically named Ammo Dump ponds-  we saw our first snail kite of the trip, the added bonus of a black throated mango (rare round here), cinnamon becard, blue crowned manakin, yellow bellied & ruddy breasted seedeater, yellow tailed oriole, and yellow crowned euphonia.

Not satisfied with that haul we opted to pay the additional for a night drive - unfortunately no owls called in and none so far but we saw common potoo in flight, boat billed heron, and a pauraque. Two great mammals in the shape of the Jimmy Saville looking - Hoffmans two-toed sloth and an Allen's Olingo.

Yet another fantastic day - plenty of bites to prove it!

Panama 4th Dec 2012

Its been yet another great day, more new species and a break in the middle of the day. Undoubted highlight was the beautiful male blue cotinga but many more besides.
We started at 6am which is a long lie here...dawn broke around 615 so coffee on the tower top started the day off well. It improved even more when we saw a green-shrike vireo and our first collared aracari which is a smaller toucan

Collared Aracari

Baltimore Oriole

 One of my longed for mammal species was seen today - tent making bat. These guys were under a palm leaf at the Botanical Gardens and probably the cutest looking bat you will see.

Tent Making Bat

Tropical Kingbird

Monday 3rd December

Would anybody be surprised if we reported it was another great day?

OK..to be fair it was misty but...atmospheric

In the mist fuelled morning we headed towards Panama City and the Metropolitan Park...not before seeing three-toed sloth at the tower.
The drive took longer than the reported time...no surprise due to traffic but we got there reasonably early and quickly saw a common potoo..what a great bird.

Common Potoo

Many highlights followed although not always easy...

This one for the birders - a Southern Bentbill

The afternoon provided a different suite of birds and weather (we were soaked in back of open top van) however at Gamboa / Chagres we had some great birds including Wattled Jacana, Yellow Crested Caracara, Prothonotary Warbler (at last!), Nighthawk, Peregrine, Lesser and Greater Kiskadee, Amazon Kingfisher, Fork tailed Flycatcher etc etc. the mammals, however, stole the show!

Agouti

Capybara - the worlds biggest rodent!

Fork Tailed Flycatcher

Three Toed Sloth

Sunday 2nd December

We saw 15 species of hummingbird today and much more besides..say it quickly it amounts to nothing but the memories will never leave us..truly fantastic.
 A second and third wind was needed as we left Canopy Tower at 5.30am for a 1 hr 45 drive to the mountains above Tocumen, because of time will post a few pics and hopefully this will give a flavour of what we experienced!

Shining Honeycreeper (female)

Centenary Bridge after Sunset

Red Legged Honeycreeper (male)

Saturday 1st December

Our first full day - a fitful sleep unsurprisingly. We learned late in the day that we would be visiting Pipeline Road today which although can be brilliant for birds was not the gentle introduction we'd hoped for based purely on the number of new species we would probably see.

Before that, went up to the rooftop at Canopy Tower and watched the sunrise...truly wonderful.

Our hoose for the next week - the unique Canopy Tower!

Sunrise View from Canopy Tower

Another sunrise

Will try and avoid boring witha long list of birds but our time at the rooftop was short this morning as we had to set off for the Pipeline Road at 7am.

Time is beating me as I write this as it is 9.08 pm in Panama and the alarm is set for 4.30am - this is a holiday?! So just to give a flavour - here are some of the birds seen today...will list names tomorrow OK?

Saturday 1st December 2012

Its 536 am and it's raining hard at the Canopy Tower, Panama.
Neotropical rainforests certainly deliver! We touched down about 1630 Panama time and didnt reach the Tower till 1900 in darkness, we now have an unofficial record of seeing the most road accidents in a short time and it easily beats Bulgaria on that front.
A public bus regularly hopped lights, cut up lots of pissed off drivers, drove over a small green field and had no lights on so it certainly added to the experience.
Still dark as I write but the day promises much - Pipeline Road. Maybe would have been nicer to strart of with an easier trip but hey, gotta go for it.
Hopefully some pics later on if the rain stops a bit.