Rainy, Hot, Humid and Rest

Day 8 of Nine

Having already conceded we won’t reach the goal of 100 (see yesterday’s post), the pressure is gone.  Today was a day to relax.  Even more so because of the downpour this morning (something we never had in the morning in Boquete) and the stifling heat and humidity this afternoon.  Once the sun came out after the rain, it remained really hot until the sun went down.  That was exactly when we ran into one of our language school friends that we met weeks ago in Boquete.  She has been living here for about a month already.  “Oh, today was really cool,” she said.  “It’s usually much hotter,” she said.  Yikes!

No new birds today.  We still have 46 for the week.  Tomorrow we’ll take a little boat trip to see Red-billed Tropicbird, so we should get at least one on the 9^th and last day of the week.

Since we didn’t get any birds today, I thought I’d share a photo of this little beauty we saw earlier this week, a tarantula.

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.

A Lesser Setback

Day 6.5 of Nine

Oops.  I counted as a new species one that we had already seen before.  But I guess one can be forgiven for overlooking a bird with such a humble name as Lesser Greenlet.

Subtract one new species from Day 5.  Back down to 30 for the week and 70 more to go.  

Why Birds This Week?

Day 6 of Nine

Today, Thursday, we are preparing to move from the mountains of Boquete to the beaches of Bocas del Toro, Panama.  So no new birds today.  Just a day of rest before our big transcontinental push tomorrow.  We’ll be up and out of the house early in the morning, birding the whole way to Bocas.

So why is this week devoted to birding?  We’ve survived, even succeeded in the last 6 weeks of Spanish school.  Four hours a day, five days a week, plus homework.  The homework was easy the first 3 weeks, but it ramped up steeply in Survivor II, the second 3 weeks.  We were introduced to 3 new verb tenses in the last week, and we both felt like we were losing more than we were gaining.  In short, we were tired and feeling a bit burned out. 

All along we had been planning this 1 week vacation between the first 6 weeks in Boquete and 2 more weeks in Bocas del Toro.  Now it looks like great planning, because it couldn’t have come at a better time. 

We feel good about how much we have learned, but still find it extremely difficult to put our lessons to use in actual conversation.  But in time, that too will come, as long as we keep at it.   

So the birding this week is a little breather to refresh us before the final 2 weeks.  More studying ahead.  Life is not just about birding.  But you already knew that.

Got A Few Today

Day 5 of Nine

Despite our guides’ lament—“This is horrible.  Last time I was here we stayed 2 hours and couldn’t leave for all the birds. Today, nothing”—we did see some birds today.  Like I thought, we found different bird life in the lower elevations.  It was at times slow birding, but still we got a few new ones today in and near the village of Caldera.

Add these to the list:

White-winged Becard
Southern Beardless Tyrannulet
Gray-headed Chachalaca
Rough-legged Tyrannulet (aka White-fronted Tyrannulet)
Thick-billed Seed-Finch
Squirrel Cuckoo
Blue-headed Parrot
Lesser Greenlet
Lance-tailed Manakin

Unfortunately for me, Peggy saw that Lance-tailed Manakin, but I didn’t.  So I guess it counts toward the 100 for the week, right?  That means today 9 new ones, and for the week 31.  Only 69 to go!

Falling Behind

Day 4 of Nine

Now I am discouraged.  About meeting my goal of seeing 100 new bird species this week, I mean.  We had a very fine morning of birding in a remarkably verdant forest in a private farm/reserve above Boquete town.  But most of the birds were not willing to be seen today.  We saw more bird-tails-behind-leaves and rear-ends-flying-away today than we saw birds in clear profile.  There were a lot of birds around.  Peggy and the guide, Terry, told me they could hear lots of them—but mostly I cannot hear the high-pitched birds any more.

Fortunately for me, I can still hear some of the lower-pitched songs, and because of that I got one of the lifers we “saw” today.  As soon as we got out of the car this morning we heard a bird calling frequently from deep within the forest—impossible to see or get to it.  But with Terry’s help we learned it was the Three-wattled Bellbird.  Which is an odd name, because it sounds nothing like a bell, but very much like a croaking frog.  So we memorized the “song” to compare it later to the wonderful collection of bird songs at www.xeno-canto.org.  It was easy to confirm that the croaking we heard was the same as the recordings of the Three-wattled Bellbird recorded nearby.  It’s a shame we didn’t see it, because the male is rather ugly in a beautiful kind of way with those 3 pendulous wattles hanging from its bill. Maybe someday soon.

And here is the very short new bird list of the day.

Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner (aka Spectacled Foliage-gleaner)
Three-wattled Bellbird

So instead of the 6 or 8  or more new species I had hoped for, we got 2 new species for the day, totaling 22 species in 4 days.  That’s less than half of the daily average needed to make 100.  I’m way behind.  Now reaching my goal seems very doubtful.

There is still good birding ahead, however.  Tomorrow we plan to go down to lower elevations where we have spent very little time.  Elevation makes a tremendous difference to the birds here in the tropics, so as we go to low country I have high hopes for some new finds tomorrow.   Thursday will be an off-day as we prepare to move to the Caribbean beach-front town of Bocas del Toro, so I expect zero new birds that day.  Friday will be a big day as we cross the continental divide and for the very first time bird the Atlantic slope of Panama.  Just like the change in elevation, changing from one side of the mountains to the other has a great effect on the bird life.  That day will be the biggest birding day of the week.  But could we get 50 or more in one day?  Right now it doesn’t feel possible.  Then Saturday and Sunday, the 8^th and 9^th days of the week we will be settling into our new digs in Bocas del Toro and exploring the island.  We’ll see more new birds there.  Will it be enough for 100 in the  or week?

Today I doubt I’ll make it, so I am discouraged about the goal.  But I am not the least bit discouraged about the adventure of it.  We are having a grand time exploring this little part of God’s creation, seeing, and sometimes hearing, the colorful, loud and strange spectacle of bird life that God put here.  We experience it as though a gift God meant for us to enjoy.

When a Week Is Nine Days

4 June 2012.  My goal is 100 new birds in a week, right?  Well, in my week I’m giving myself both weekends.  So that makes it a 9 day week.  I need 11.111 birds per day, on average.  But do you think I’m counting?  I sure am.  Some of my faithful readers (well, maybe one or two) have asked why I don't write more about birds.  You asked for it, you got it!  This week is devoted to the birds.  All 9 days of it.

 

Day 1 of Nine.  Saturday we left Boquete in a rental car and birded our way to Cerro Punta on the other side of our volcano Volcan Baru.  Our first stop of the morning came with an exclamation—“Wow! What was that?”  It was not one, but 6 Fiery-billed Aracaris.  Their long bills and wild coloration could put the Fruit Loops toucan to shame.  They were stunning, but not new.  We did see a 3 new ones at this stop along the road, and 6 more at the next stop, which was actually planned.  Finally, we added 2 new hummingbirds at the feeders at Cielito Sur B&B.

Eleven for the day!  A pretty good start.

Golden-hooded Tanager
Green Honeycreeper
Scaled Pigeon
Bananaquit
Bran-colored Flycatcher
Black-and-white Owl
Yellow Tyrannulet
Yellow-crowned Euphonia
Olivaceous Piculet
Green Violet-ear
Stripe-tailed Hummingbird

Nope, I’m not making up these names.  I’m not that creative.

Day 2 of Nine.  We started birding today in Volcan Baru National Park.  It was slow at first, but then we encountered a mixed flock in the cloud forest that got us off and running.  We got up as high as the start of Los Queztales Trail—famous for Resplendant Queztals, but we have already seen several of them—and then we headed back down.  Five lifers here.  After a short drive to the other side of the valley we entered La Amistad International Park.  There we got 1 lifer while eating lunch and 3 more out on the trail.  That is 9 for the day and 20 in 2 days.  I’m really pleased.

Collared Redstart
Flame-throated Warbler
Ruddy Treerunner
Black-billed Nightingale-thrush
Mountain Thrush
Long-tailed Silky-flycatcher
Yellowish Flycatcher
Black-cheeked Warbler
Spot-crowned Woodcreeper

We also saw a Scintillant Hummingbird at the B&B.  It wasn’t new this week, but worth mentioning just for the name.

Day 3 of Nine.  We birded the grounds of the B&B after breakfast (delicious!), and then loaded the car to bird our way back to our home stay in Boquete.  We got kind of a late start, and the morning was sunny and hot.  Birding was slow at first, and then got slower.  We stopped at a couple of recommended stops.  Nada.  We looked especially for the White-crested Coquette, but nada.  We ended up back at the home stay with nothing new to show for the day.

That’s zero for today and 20 new species in 3 days.  My pace is now 13.333 species behind the average of 11.111 per day.  I’m disappointed with the day, but not yet discouraged.  The best is yet to come.  The next 2 days we go out with a local guide, and Friday we’ll be going with her again to cross the isthmus to the Atlantic side where there are many birds that don’t appear here on the Pacific side of the mountains.   It can still be done.