Dear Non Birding Bill

Dear Non Birding Bill, We've given this whole marriage thing one heck of a try.  I'm a birder, you're not and hilarity ensues, we've put in a good eleven years and are closing in on 12--we've given it the old college try. However, after spending some time in Panama, I regret to inform you that I most likely will not be returning home.

First of all, the feeder birds are off the hook--here we have a green honeycreeper (creeping up on some bananas) that I got with the Wingscapes camera coming in to Canopy Lodge.  What can I say, I'm in love with this crazy green fella.  The temperatures at the lodge are surprisingly cool, although humid, but I think I can live with that for the sake of such colorful birds.

You might think that I'm bluffing since I love the brown birds so much, but never fear there are brown birds here too.  Above we have a couple of broad-bill euphonia next to a very brown clay-colored robin (with blue-gray tanagers in the back).  And look at the mashed banana stuck on the bottom mandible of the euphonia--such lovely bird shenanigans.

At the moment, I'm at Canopy Tower and this is the view from the top--look at those mountains covered in green.  I love snow, but living in Minnesota, I've experienced my share.  I think all this green will suit me.

And in the morning, there are toucans to serenade me.  They have yet to use their noses to direct me to sugary rings of cereal or to any dark Irish stout, but they are pleasant to see lurking about the canopy.  And life here is leisurely! We start with an early breakfast, do some birding, come back for lunch, have a siesta, do a tiny bit more of birding, have dinner, maybe a drink and then off to bed to begin the day anew.  I love this birding with breaks--it's so relaxing, no more of this go and go and go and go all day for me--I'm all for this imposed afternoon napping system.

I'm typing this to you from the comfort and security of my hammock, where my digiscoping equipment is at the perfect angle to catch whatever may fly by the open window...

...or swing by as did this howler monkey who is working its way in the trees around the tower.  So we are clear, it's not that I'm leaving you for Raúl Arias de Para ( the man who owns Canopy Tower and Canopy Lodge and turned them into a birder's version of Disney Land) he has a lovely wife.  I'm not even leaving you for my guide Carlos (even though he did give me a great poptoo yesterday).

Think of this as me joining a birding order along the lines of a strange nunnery where all I do is go out into the rainforest, find birds and taking photos of them like this above linneated woodpecker (and in the case of the tinamou, take video).  It's been fun and I appreciate all the times you tried to enjoy birds. Go out and find yourself a nice girl who isn't covered in chigger bites.

Love, Birdchick

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.

Crowmageddon (feat. Shaz)

Hello all, NBB here. WCCO did a story about the crow roost in Loring park, featuring a brief exchange with our own Birdchick (via Skype in Panama). You can watch the story here.

I'd just like to point out that it was me who told le Shaz that the crows were roosting in Loring.

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.

Interviewed Via Skype In Panama

So, I just filmed an interview with WCCO while in Panama via Skype.  It's for the "Good Question" series and will air tonight at 10pm.  I love it.  Thanks to the wonders of technology, I sat in the bathroom at Canopy Lodge and answered crow questions over the intertubes.  Thanks WCCO for making me feel so international! Speaking of Canopy Lodge--I am having too much fun with my Wingscapes Camera.  It's surprisingly packable and I'm able to get some cool photos:

Like another tight shot of this chestnut-headed oropendula!  Is that a banana on his beak or is he just happy to see me?  I can also get video too:

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

Here we have another crimson-backed tanager, blue-gray tanagers and looks like a euphonia back there too.  It's almost like you're in Panama with me.

My First Morning At Canopy Lodge

Good morning!  I have some internets while down in Central America!  I'm currently staying in Canopy Lodge, owned by the same man who owns Canopy Tower--I have died and gone to birder heaven.  This man has completely designed this place with birders and digiscopers (or photographers for that matter) in mind. Since I left Minnesota when it was 4 degrees Fahrenheit, my body had a fitful night adjusting to the all humidity all the time but now, I think the sweat has finally slowed to a trickle. Today, I am ambling about getting acquainted with the local birds.  Here are some of my breakfast companions:

Isn't that a dyNOmite lookin' bird??  For the non birders of this blog, this is not some crazy ass brown-headed cowbird, this is a chestnut-headed oropendola--yeah, I can't pronounce it either.

And for those who always thought the scarlet tanager was the bees knees, check out the tanagers coming to the banana feeder:

Here we have a crimson-backed tanager and a yellow-rumped tanager sharing some banana!

This place is fantastic--everything is open air.  My room has screens so at night I'm serenaded by frogs, insects and a whole host of creatures I can't begin to identify.  Of course, I try to figure them out which leads to a hard time getting to sleep.  I think I'm going to love having this as my office for the next week or so.