Jeffrey A. Gordon

The exit (or entrance) to the Panamá Canal, looking from Gatún Locks toward the Caribbean Sea

It’s time–finally–for me to finish with a few last images from mid-October’s press tour with the Panama La Verde group. When I left off, we had just had a whirlwind day in the Albrook-Gamboa area. We only had two more days, one to bird the Caribbean slope near Achiote and San Lorenzo and another on the slopes of Cerro Azul.

I apologize for the length of this post, but there are a goodly number of places and things I want to show you and yet I also feel it’s time to wind up the Panama posts for now. So, make sure your scrolling finger is properly stretched and limber, and let’s go!

We departed the Albrook Inn, which served as our Panama City headquarters for 3 nights (our arrival night and 2 more in mid-trip) well before light. It took close to 2 hours to reach Achiote Road, where we entered the forest on the Trogon Trail. We saw more in the way of trogons along the road shoulder, actually, but the trail proved good for finding antbirds, especially Chestnut-backed and Spotted, which many of us saw well. It also produced Spot-crowned Barbets, 2 caciques, and a handful of others.

My favorite moments from that walk involved two non-bird critters. One was a poison dart frog. The only photo I got of it isn’t even worth sharing, but still, seeing that little glossy black and neon green creature, which I was fortunate enough to be the first to spot, was a highlight. It was especially nice that many of my buddies in the group had never seen a dart frog of any species before-doing so is certainly one of the quintessential experiences of neotropical natural history and it was great to share it with them.

The other standout animal was a helicopter damselfly, pictured below.

Though the photo is OK, it most certainly does not convey the true impact of this marvelous insect. They’re huge, to begin with, bigger than most dragonflies. But their most spectacular trait is the odd flight style for which they are named. Watching one of these fairies float through the forest understory is truly enchanting. Someday–mark my words–I’ll get a video clip that will show some of their magic.

Our next stop was at San Lorenzo, an old Spanish fort at the mouth of the Chagres River. Much of the Chagres has been transmogrified into the Panama Canal.

The natural mouth of the Chagres no longer has much strategic value–the canal has usurped that position–but the forest and coastline all around it is vitally important for wildlife, environmental quality, and for tourism. Fortunately, it is in the process of official designation as a national park.

We ate our box lunches near the fort, sharing a good percentage with the friendly but excruciatingly skinny dogs that belonged to the caretakers. Then we buckled down for a long ride back into and around Panama City, reaching the cool heights of Cerro Azul in time for dinner.

We spent our final two nights in Panama there, birding the intervening day at a private reserve called Birder’s View and using the Hostal Casa de Campo as our base. Casa de Campo featured lovely grounds and good food–it also got lots of rain while we were there, a reminder that we were still in the thick of the green season.

But the rain always cleared quickly, allowing us to enjoy a selection of lovely tanagers right outside the dining room window.

Palm Tanagers (above, right) aren’t as colorful as we tend to think tanagers ought to be. Blue-gray Tanagers (above, left & below) are more spectacular.

In fact, the estimable Bill of the Birds has declared the Blue-gray to be his favorite tanager of all. He definitely has a case–but I suspect many of our group preferred the bolder Crimson-backed Tanager, below.

The habitat at Birder’s View was a bit more extensive, leading off into Chagres National Park, which is the watershed for the river whose mouth we were looking into just a few photos ago.

There was a lot to look at here, including a second chance at Spot-crowned Barbets, a bird I hadn’t gotten my fill of at Achiote. There were also tons of hummingbirds, including the Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer below. Don’t miss its cute little pink feet.

And the more subtle but lovely Green Hermit:

Are you starting to get a sense of how overwhelming, and how addictive, birding the tropics is? Can you see why I’m ready to go back, tomorrow, if possible? I hope so. I’m already working on planning a tour to Panama for 2010–watch the blog for more info as those plans crystallize.

In the meantime, I want to thank Yenia Mendoza at Recontour, S.A. and all the Panama La Verde members for bringing me back to Panama. I loved the trip and I look forward to seeing all of you again soon.

If you’re still in the mood for more Panama, check out the blogs of Bill Thompson III, John Riutta, and Mike Freiberg, all of whom were on the trip with me. Or, you can look back over my complete Panama 2008 series.

Thanks for reading and looking…may you all have the chance to bird Panama soon!

Tags: achiote, albrook, cerroazul, damselflies, hummingbirds, panama, panamalaverde, tanagers

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