More Panama Birding

Wow, what a great Monday--we might hit 40 degrees (do I dare take out my bike), I'm going to learn how to ice fish today and I just came off a fun weekend.  I have to put in a plug for my Twin Cities readers: Non Birding Bill's birthday was the day I flew to Panama. To make up for it, I scheduled a party with Virginia Corbett who taught us how to do couple's dancing like the cha cha, foxtrot, and hustle.  It was fun and easy going and you have to love a woman who can teach you to fox trot to Jonathan Coulton.  I think even our friends who were horrified at the idea of learning to dance had a good time.  If course, the Lambic and cupcakes helped.

And speaking of Panama, I am SO not finished blogging about it.  What fertile blogging ground that place is.  And I am planning a ten day tour there next year.  Carlos was going to get me the itinerary late last week but his computer died.  But it is on in mid to late February and it will happen at both Canopy Lodge and Canopy Tower.  Start calculating your frequent flyer miles and saving your pennies now.  This will be an unforgettable winter getaway in 2011.

One of the fun things about birding in another country is that the vehicles they use to transport you are a bit more exciting than what would be allowed in the US.  Here we have a truck and the bed is fitted with padded benches that allow us to watch for birds and mammals unfettered by a roof and seat belts.  If we were traveling and saw something worth stopping for, all you had to do was pound on the roof of the cab and the guide would stop the vehicle.  Fun!  Some of our best birding was the road to and from Canopy Tower called Semaphore Hill.  One morning we walked it, but often when we were tootling down to hit the highway and on to birding adventures elsewhere, we would have the driver stop for monkeys or motmots.

Coatis were frequently seen along the road and when the drivers stopped the vehicle so we could get photos, I noticed the familiar smirk.  It's the same one I would give if I were leading a US tour and we stopped for a raccoon.  But the guides are smart and they know that people love an animal with a nose that appears to swivel around of its own accord.  Oh, coati, how can you be so cute munching your palm fruit and not allow me to scratch your belly?

I did get to see a celebrity bird.  Does this species look familiar to you?  It's actual name is the red-capped manakin but I would wager that millions have seen this bird and not know its name, but they do know it as the Moonwalk Bird--here's a collection of videos I've found on the web. There's actually a second male in this photos but he is obscured by the branch.  I did get to see a hint of the display but did not get to see the manakin in his full Moonwalking glory.  Writer Laura Kammermeier has an article a fun video of the manakin mating dance.  Her video also includes a bit more graphic bit that tends to be left off of the nature programs and her color commentary that goes along with it is hilarious.  I never grew tired of seeing these cute little birds, I had to resist asking for an autograph.

All kinds of birds lurked in the lower canopy like this dusky antbird and as much I love a gray bird, the female of this species appeals to my love of brown birds:

All kinds of cool birds hid in the lower foliage. One bird I was really looking forward to was the tinamou--it was also a requested bird when I asked what people wanted me to try and photograph.  We heard them quite a bit and one day when we were driving up to the Tower, we saw a couple on the side of the road.

But tinamous like this great tinamou above like to lurk and hide in dark places--probably because this chicken like bird also known as the mountain hen has a body built for food.  Being cagey and secretive is their key to survival.  I brought along a video camera because some of those dark areas are not good for digiscoping and here is a video of the great tinamou:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL0RVl9ewko[/youtube]

You can hear Carlos doing the great tinamou wavering whistle and another tinamou answering back from deeper in the forest.

Outside the tower itself were a few hummingbird feeders.  Above is a photo I got of a white-necked jacobin (a type of hummingbird) with the Wingscapes BirdCam. They can't have banana feeders here like at Canopy Lodge because the coatis.  They raid the feeders and will try to get into the tower and as cute as they are, the last thing I want in my room (apart from a fer de lance or bushmaster) would be a coati.  But the hummingbird feeders are enough to entertain.

Canopy Tower

As much as I enjoyed my time at Canopy Lodge in Panama, I was really looking forward to Canopy Tower. I have heard so much about this place from other birders and from one of the guides--Carlos. It has always stuck in my mind as a place I need to go.  It did not disappoint.

This was the view out of my bedroom (I had the Collared Forest-Falcon for those who have gone to the Tower before) I'm glad I started at Canopy Lodge, its cooler temperatures gave my body time to go from the extreme cold and dry air of Minnesota to the humidity and hot temperatures of Panama.  The tower is not air conditioned but is well ventilated. I found it easy to feel comfortable in my room, in the dining area and especially on the deck.  I pitted out totally on the field trips, but they were divided up throughout the day so I didn't get exhausted.

The tower was built in 1965 by the US Air Force for a RADAR to monitor traffic along the Panama Canal. You can read it's full history here but after it was closed in 1995 it was turned into an ecolodge to give people a unique change to enjoy the flora and fauna of Panama from up high.  It's not glamorous, but adventurous. You must ascend stairs (no elevator) to your room and the dining area is on the top floor. Above that you take a steep set of stairs (practically a ladder) to get to the deck where you are literally in the tree canopy and can look down at tamarins or be eye level with the passing bat falcon.

This is sunrise from the Canopy Tower. The deck goes around 360 degrees and you can have a view of the forested mountains, the Panama Canal or of Panama City in the distance. I preferred the forested view. You could go up any time of day and while I was there a breeze or shade always kept you cool.  I enjoyed sunrise the most, listening to the keel-billed toucans sing their creaky song while sipping coffee.

In the evening, tiny bat falcons cruised around the tower grabbing and eating insects on the wing.  As if bat falcons buzzing your head wasn't cool enough, you could hear crazy and mysterious sounds coming from the darkening rain forest below, like the eerie great tinamou (and I insist that you follow that link and listen to that call) or a lone collared forest-falcon.

I couldn't help but notice the ear plug dispenser right outside my room. There were reminders all over about how easily sound travels in the tower--it was built for the military not for luxury.  Birders take note--as cool and awesome as this place is (and will especially seem after a few more blog posts) this would not be the ideal spot for a bird watching honeymoon (wink wink, know what I mean). But human noise is not the only reason for the ear plugs.  It's also quite noisy at night and I don't mean just the crickets, frogs and owls.

I'm talking about this dude specifically--the howler monkey. The above howler is male...if you couldn't tell already.  Good grief, how do they swing around from branches so deftly without hurting themselves?

Unlike the red-bellied woodpecker, this mammal is aptly named. They say the sound of the howler monkey can be heard for three miles. They generally sing during the day, using their loud booming call to alert other groups of howler monkeys where their group is. However, the howler monkey day can start before dawn. One morning, I was fortunate enough to have them right outside my window. It worked out well, this was a morning when I needed to get up early and little did I know the night before that it was not necessary to set my alarm...the howlers were alarm enough.  Here's a video of what they sounded like in the morning followed by some footage of one that was noshing on some leaves outside the tower during one of our lunches (do at least listen to that terrifying sound).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDAkdHlg5m4[/youtube]

I wonder what early explorers thought when they came to Central America and they heard those crazy howler monkeys? How could you not think that Armageddon is about to descend upon you?

So, that is a taste of the Canopy Tower...more soon!

Baby Three-toed Sloth Scratching Its Face

I have no patience.  I had this idea that I would go through my Panama trip chronologically using my words, photos and even some edited HD video.  But I'm too excited about this baby sloth! I blogged way too early about sloth in Panama.  I didn't think my look at a sloth was going to get much better than the one I saw my first full day there, but sloth ended up being a daily occurrence.  So, here is a snippet of a sloth video that I'm working on.  It's a female three-toed sloth with a baby crawling over her belly and trying to scratch its face that we got on one of our field trips with Canopy Tower.

Warning: may cause your head to implode with its utter cuteness. This may rival my Baby Porcupine Eating a Banana with Hiccups video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rOWot9pTuE[/youtube]

If you're wondering about the sound in the background--a cicada that sounds like a buzz saw.

Turkey Vulture Crash & Golden Eagle Attacks Deer

I'm catching up on emails and blogs since I came home--have you seen Julie Zickefoose's new blog redesign? It's fabu! In the world of Holy Crap links, my buddy Amber told me about a helicopter pilot that was supposed to some filming during the Super Bowl and had a turkey vulture crash through his window and land in his lap. The pilot landed safely (and surprisingly didn't get barfed on) and the vulture flew away before animal control could take it to be checked by vet!

And on an Illinois listserv is a a photo series and story of a golden eagle attacking a white-tailed deer! Golden eagles eat dead here in winter and we've had some reports of young eagle especially attacking young deer. There's no way a golden is going to fly off with a deer but attacking and following a weak deer is not out of the realm of possibility. That would be food for a few days.

Also, I put out a request for birds before I left on my blog and on my Facebook page. People gave me a list of birds or mammals they wanted me to try and document while I was in Central America. I got quite a few, but not all. You can check it out here

Canopy Lodge Field Trips

I look out my apartment window this morning at the new snow cover taking note of the new parking restrictions in my neighborhood (no parking on the even side of the streets until April 1 or some significant snow melt happens). Sigh, not so long ago, I was in Panama, starting my morning with fresh bananas, papaya and watermelon (there was also fresh pineapple but I can't eat that). A little bacon, some eggs, a weird banana bran muffin and a tangy little picante sauce.

The breakfast area at Canopy Lodge was in a buffet style and tables were set up in various sizes to accommodate the various travelers. Some were traveling solo like myself but there was also a birding tour group there too from Field Guides led by John Rowlette. During siesta and after dinner, John and I would find ourselves sitting together taking advantage of the wireless in the library. One night as John and I arrived with our MacBooks in hand someone said, "Watch out, here come the computer nerds!"

"Nerd, eh," I said, "that's big talk coming from a birder."

And while you ate breakfast outdoors, you could watch the feeders--I have a TON of photos from the feeders between using the Wingscapes Camera or my digiscoping like the above photo of clay-colored robins and a female crimson-backed tanager grabbing onto a blue-gray tanager. You'll be seeing a lot of feeder photos.

I found a group of people who I naturally gravitated to at mealtimes and on field trips. One was a man my age named John, a non birder who was on a month long journey of several stops in Panama. The other was a couple from Amsterdam named Ellen and Emile who were general birders like myself. After initial conversation and birding pleasantries, we revealed our occupations. The man my age turned out to be a writer and film critic and the couple from Amsterdam owned a publishing house. We laughed that 2 writers managed to find the one table in a foreign country with a publisher.

After breakfast, we'd head out on field trips. If you were in the foothills, the atmosphere was sunny and you could get great photos and watch the clouds play at the tops of the mountains.

Or your field trips were in the tops of the mountains and you were birding among the clouds. It may not have made for the best photos, but it was almost as though you were birding in a dream with mist momentarily revealing birds with bright colors and then shrouding them suddenly in cloudy mystery. Though overall it was very humid, the temperatures were quite comfortable and I was surprised that I wasn't sweating like crazy.

My first time out with Tino the Human iPod we walked a road in the foothills near the lodge in bright sun. That's where we got our first sloth of the trip (and certainly not the last) and I saw some familiar birds like the above red-legged honeycreeper. A bird seen throughout Central America but who cares, it's cool, it's blue, it's always a pleasure to see.

Hummingbirds were all over the place and I had an easier time of getting photos of them perched in trees than at feeders. This hummingbird is called a garden emerald and I think the describes it perfectly--it looks like an emerald and can be found in a garden.

We got an Amazon kingfisher right away and I chuckled a bit to myself. Right before I left town, an Amazon kingfisher showed up in Laredo, Texas and many of my birding friends were hightailing it out there to get the bird on their US list. I got one, not on my US list, but that's okay. No matter how you slice it, the bird is a huge green kingfisher--what's not to love?

This was one of my favorite birds we saw--a lineated woodpecker. These are about the size of a pileated woodpecker (the bird that got me into birding). We saw quite a few of these and I was excited to get a photo.

Here's a yellow-crowned euphonia which were different than the ones coming to the lodge's feeders. I couldn't believe my luck at getting photos of birds this time in Central America--it was very challenging for photos on my first trip to Central America last year with the shade and the birds hiding in the leaves, this time it was much easier. I've been with all sorts of bird guides and I lead trips myself. I know that when I go out of the US that guiding practices may be different depending on how young the tourism industry is in that country. The guides with Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge were some of the most professional, accommodating and helpful (while still being respectful of the birds) that I ever birded with. They whistled in birds, sometimes used iPods and even laster pointers to help everyone see the birds. There were also little differences too:

One of the target and prized birds to see is the very secretive tody motmot. Tino came to a spot where he had seen them before, had all of us bunch up next to him and watch a particular thicket. He whistled the motmot's song and then whispered, "There it is." I didn't even see it fly in and I was watching hard but Tino pointed it out. We trained our binoculars on it. As I was getting my good look of this secret and small motmot, Tino set up his scope and my scope on the bird so everyone could get a look and I could get the above photo. I didn't ask Tino to set up my scope, but more than once he would do it unasked. Even more impressive, my scope was different from his. You could tell that he's accustomed to training all sorts of scopes on good birds. It was the look of a lifetime at a very cool bird. I mentioned earlier that Tino played the guitar as well as being a musical wiz with bird calls, but he appears to be a true Rennaisance Man. He's quite the artist, he has quite the sketchbook of art work and his tody motmot illustration is framed at the lodge. He is definitely one of the highlights of the country.

Birding Around Canopy Lodge In Panama

When I arrived in Panama, it was dark.  I couldn't see Panama City when I landed or any of the terrain as the driver took me to Canopy Lodge. Had I not been so exhausted from travel, the sound of running water, frogs and wind would have forced my brain awake, so much of the surrounding terrain was hidden from me and I couldn't wait to see it. Then I woke up the next morning. The wind was really howling, I felt that I had arrived in a strange and mysterious land. I couldn't help but enjoy the nighttime chorus. In Minnesota, February nights are mostly silent (apart from the occasional owl), there no leaves rustling in wind, no running water, no frogs and crickets singing.

The next morning I was roused awake by a very loud and squeaky hummingbird outside my window, I looked out to the above view.  The lodge is tucked in the forest surrounded by mountains. It was humid and it took some time for my body to adjust, but because of the elevation, the temperatures were not overwhelmingly hot. Everything smells warm and wet. The schedule at Canopy Lodge is a dream: breakfast, field trip, lunch, siesta, field trip, and dinner followed by some conversation--a very relaxing pace.

Everything at the lodge is built for luxurious comfort in the open air. The library and dining area is on a large porch area, you can watch birds and wildlife any time that you want. Since I arrived so late at night, the owner--Raúl Arias de Para let me sleep in my first day. Breakfast was waiting for me when I stepped out and right away, foraging on the ground next to the library was a rufous motmot to greet me. The bird perched there most of the time. Alas, it was too dark for a photo, but I was able to get some video of the cool looking bird:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqva3TgeYx4[/youtube]

I thought about my Guatemala trip last year and how hard it was to see a motmot--mine were pretty much all by ear or dim glimpses. This bird seemed a silent sentry of the lodge.

After breakfast I was free to watch the birds at the feeder which worked out well for me.  When I'm in a new place, it's overwhelming, new birds everywhere! I have to check every single one to make sure I'm not missing anything.  The very active bird feeders satiated that need. I sat in a deck chair and watched the "common" birds like broad-billed euphonia (the little blue and yellow guys) and blue-gray tanagers swarm into the feeder. The feeders were simply filled with bananas and the staff kept a close eye out and replaced them regularly.

I especially loved the large chestnut-headed oropendolas that fly in to the feeders. What an amazing looking bird--that giant beak, the subtle green on the wings, the yellow on the tail, and that lovely little blue eye, they make strange almost mechanical sounds. So I took some time to just enjoy the activity.  The one thing about Canopy Lodge--it is definitely a birder's lodge.  I have a tendency to sleep out of pajamas in warm weather and lounge about that way in the morning. Not thinking, I had most of the curtains open to keep an eye out for birds...I ended up seeing quite a few birders wandering the property (who were far more interested in birds than my open windows) and wearing pajamas to bed.

And what a place to wander! There's a creek right outside the lodge (you can hear it in the background of the motmot video above).  The creek had birds flitting all over including green kingfishers and...

...this very exciting sunbittern! I only saw it in low light and this was the best photo I could get of this bird. Sunbitterns are cool looking birds that eat fish and invertebrates but they do this wild display with their wings. I've read that it is used in courtship displays and to frighten off potential predators.

In the middle of the day, you could find lizards sunning themselves on the rocks in the creek. This was a large male basiliscus we found on a rock. This lizard is also known as "the Jesus Lizard" because the young basiliscus appears to walk on water. It's more of a wild flailing of limbs and tails that makes it look like the lizard walks across the water. It's not majestic, but if you don't know they are there and they take off, it's startling--especially the larger lizards who splash through the water, rather than zip across the top.

The grounds are beautiful and as I meandered watching the various tanagers, I was surprised to find this huge and beautiful tree house. Raúl told me that he had built for his children and they would play and sometimes spend the night in the house. You can still go up in the tree house, but it is required that a member of the staff accompany you to the top for safety reasons. I imagines what a wonderful childhood it would be to have this huge tree house in the top of the rain forest to play and grow up in, oh the things you would see and the adventures you would have.  Under the tree house is a pond with ropes draped overhead to allow you to swing and cool off in the water which at least one person took advantage of during our stay.

I could not get enough of this bird. It's a crimson-back tanager. I didn't think red got much better than a scarlet tanager, but this bird demanded that I reconsider that idea. I don't think any photo can truly do the red of this bird justice. The beak is silver, the bottom mandible huge. I couldn't believe this bird would readily fly in for bananas, but it did. My favorite moment of my first day was sitting in the deck chairs with my coffee (dusted with a bit of cocoa), feeling a cool breeze across my face and staring at the many, many crimson-backed tanagers. This is a bird I saw several times in Panama, but never did I have as good of looks at the crimson-backed as I did at the Lodge. What a treat to be able to drink in the colors.  This is another one of those birds who make me wish I could paint. I would love to spend a few hours drawing this bird, getting to know every nook and cranny of every feather.

More Canopy Birding to come.

Must Listen: Yellow-rumped Caciques

Check out this short clip of yellow-rumped caciques (pronunciation here) in full display mode--you must listen to this crazy sound! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_bDMRspdlU[/youtube]

I'm in the process of editing video and photos from Panama...wow, HD video takes up a lot of space on my poor laptop, but I got some cool stuff.  Panama is a birding wonderland. I've been to several places and I have enjoyed them all, but the birding at Canopy Lodge and Canopy Tower is top tier. I love it because you get a little of everything--natural history, mammals, plants, even cultural history if you want it.

I enjoyed it so much, that I'm going to put together a tour to head there next year. I'm looking at February 2011 but if anyone already knows that they'd love to go and wants to request dates, I'm open.  I have to go back and I love the idea of doing an International Birds and Beers.  If you are remotely on the fence about going to Panama, my future blog entries will change your mind. Definitely in my top three birding places.

Sloth: The Cutest Of 7 The Deadly Sins

Because I have so many sloth photos, I have to post a bit more on them--right?  I know this is a birding blog, but c'mon--sloths are so cool, so iconic, attention must be paid!  I wonder, are they big enough to be considered charismatic megafauna?  They are bigger than many mammals and they have a lot of charisma...

We would have walked right under the sloth completely unawares by Tino our guide from Canopy Lodge.  In all the excitement, I forget what bird we had just been watching when Tino nonchalantly pointed upwards and said, "Sloth." Our small group went bonkers and rightfully so.  We jockeyed scopes and necks to get in the perfect position to view the sloth and I wanted to get photos.

First, it took a while to get an angle where the face was easy to see.  Second, being sloth, they move rather slowly, it's going to take awhile for that head to move your way. My first several photos are of sloth tocks.

But for a sloth, this one was incredibly active and thanks to him for being in this position, we found out he was a male--apparently male sloth have this kind of shaven patch with a stripe and orange fur.  It almost looked like he had some sort of odd tattoo.

But as I said, he was active and so when he would and face us, he had a knack obscuring that beautiful and aimiable looking face with leaves.  Dear sloth, you are doing a terrible job of living up to your species name.

Gradually, he moved to a more open spot, this time with branches, but at least no leaves and you could see that awesome sloth face.

Then he found a spot and began a slow errand of scratching various parts of his body.  He used those long three toes (incidentally, Tino said that he was a brown-throated sloth), you could practically hear him go, "Eh, eh, eh" as he scratched.

Incidentally and yet appropriately, the BBC has a story of a sloth that was probably killed by a spectacled owl in Panama.  Harpy eagles will go for sloth, but a spectacled owl is much smaller and this is quite interesting.  Follow the link to read more.

More Canopy Lodge Feeders

Here is a video from the Wingscapes Camera I put up at Canopy Lodge of a green honeycreeper and a pair of broad-billed euphonia eating bananas--how soon will that trend start sweeping the North American bird feeder crowd? [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9SQozoBiWQ[/youtube]

Leisurely Birding At Canopy Lodge

I am in love with birding at Canopy Lodge! Right now I am blogging from the outdoor library while being serenaded by a rushing stream, frogs and something that sounds like a screech owl but I just learned is actually a type of toad, a bufo marinus (Yo, Non Birding Bill--that's a Cane Toad to you--lol).  The birding is leisurely, this is not like one of the media trips that I sometimes take and it's go go GO!  There's ciesta time between trips, there's decent internet access, there are things like a herd of blue-gray tanagers at the feeders:

I can't believe it has taken me this long to figure out to bring the Wingscapes camera on my trips.  It took over 1300 photos today and most of them are awesome--check out all those freakin' blue-gray tanagers.  There were a total of 20 in this particular flock.  It's like a tray full of bluebirds.

I think the guides here are going to spoil me rotten.  Today, our guide Tino (who is a living, breathing iPod, he can whistle just about every bird in Panama) got all of us our target birds.  As soon as he had his scope set on a bird, he'd set mine up in three seconds flat--and my scope is a different brand.  I was able to digiscope way more this trip because of him.

Like this blue-capped motmot that Tino found lurking in the canopy.  I hardly saw motmots on my trip to Guatemala (heard them like crazy, but rarely saw them).  Today, my first day, I have seen three.  I'm going to hold off on photos of the other two in the hopes that I get better ones.

The views when we can see through the canopy are outstanding, we're surrounded by mountains and humidity--good grief, my hair hasn't been this big since 1992.  That's the nice thing about humidity for me.  My hair can go either straight or wavy depending on the type of product I put in, so I usually have to decide what to do with my hair in the morning.  Here, humidity decides for me and doesn't take "no" for an answer.  Everything is so green and so noisy.  In Minnesota, all is white and silent: no leaves rustling in wind, the water is all frozen so no babbling stream--same goes for frogs and toads.  Ah, nature noise, I love it so.

And, I was going to hold off an showing this photo but I'm too excited:

I haven't been in Panama for 24 hours and I walked under a wild sloth and digiscoped the cute little bugger!  And you can that this is a three toed sloth.  Oh sloth, you look so amiable, so unlike the disapproving rabbit I come home to every night.  It moved slow, it stretched up, it half-heartedly scratched its wrist (which makes me now wonder if sloth ever get bot flies), it just did all the slothy things you would hope a sloth would do on a nature program.  I wanted to ask for his autograph.  I can't believe we got a sloth so soon.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow (and the rest of my time here holds).  Be prepared for random photos from my Wingscapes Cam.  I have lots and need to share.