Across the Great Divide

Day 7 of Nine

Friday, 8 June.  A continental divide could hardly be in a place more narrow than Panama.  But then I guess that’s why the Panama Canal is here.  Despite the narrow continent, the birding really is different on this, the Caribbean/Atlantic side of the isthmus. 

Except for the dense fog at ground level right on the contintental divide, the weather was good the whole trip.  We had a good day birding.  So good, in fact, that even our guide got a new life bird. 

Here are the new ones we got.

Muscovy Duck
Northern Jacana
Azure-headed Jay
Passerini’s Tanager
Montezuma’s Oropendola
Keel-billed Toucan (this is the Fruit Loops bird)
Black-crowned Tityra
Scarlet-rumped Cacique
Black-cheeked Woodpecker
Plain-colored Tanager
Long-tailed Tyrant
Cinnamon Becard
Purple-crowned Fairy
Crimson-collared Tanager
Collared Aracari
Pale-vented Pigeon

That makes 16 for the day, and 46 for the week.  A good day, but since it is certainly the best day of the week, it is now clear we won’t get to 100.  We might not even make it to 50.  But I have a new goal in mind.  Actually, it’s the same goal—100—but I am just extending the end date to 30 June, the day we leave Panama.  After 2 weeks here in Bocas del Toro, we’ll spend 5 days in Panama City and the former Canal Zone.  The birds are quite different there, too, so I’m counting on that week to really boost the total at the end.