El Valle de Anton is a posh, weekend retreat village that offers lovely foothill scenery and cool climate just two-hour’s drive west of often-sweltering Panama City. It’s filled with lush, meticulously-groomed gardens, like the one that surrounds the Park Eden Bed & Breakfast, where we spent a very pleasant day.

Above, tour organizer Yenia (l) joins guide Luis (c) and driver Fernando (r) for an al fresco breakfast.

But eating here, at least for many of us, was not entirely relaxing. Climbing in and around the plantings (see the Datura garden below) were a nice variety of birds and other critters, quite a number of whom were happy enough to be photographed. Meals were accordingly somewhat stop-and-go affairs as we periodically jumped up from the table to snap a tanager here, a grassquit there, then returned to bowls of savory lentil soup, platters of perfectly ripe tropical fruits, and other local dishes.

There was a hedge around the property that was especially productive. The king and queen of it were a pair of Barred Antshrikes. Below, the richly brown female casts a backward glance.

Her mate briefly periscopes up into some yuccas that punctuated the hedge’s corners.

A couple of feeders brought in a male White-lined Tanager…

…and a male Variable Seedeater.

And clinging to trunk of a nearby pine was a Small Beauty. Yes, that’s really it’s common name. It is beautiful, but not so small by temperate butterfly standards.

Notice the fabulous false face it has–the real one, complete with antennae, it pointing downward–but the prominent ocellate spots make it look as if it’s facing skyward.

But it wasn’t all songbirds and butterflies here–a striking Common Black-Hawk put in an dramatic appearance and a pair of chaste White Hawks graced the nearby forest, though I wasn’t able to secure any images of these stark raptors worth sharing.

One of the day’s more endearing memories is of a tame Gray-headed Chachalaca that came running up to us as we walked the neighborhood. At first, we thought it might have been a wild bird, but its red yarn epaulet and its willingness to eat bits of granola bar from my outstretched hand quickly disabused us of that notion. Thanks to fellow blogger John Riutta for this photo.

Bill of the Birds got into the act, too, letting the surprisingly gentle bird have a nibble or two of oats and honey.

Park Eden and El Valle provided a nice interlude, halfway between the chilly cloud forest of Los Quetzales and the steaming jungle around the canal. It’s easy to see why the area is so popular with Panamanians and visitors alike.

A pleasant little scene of autumn golds, but nothing that would draw busloads of leaf peepers. However, looking down at the more open patches of marsh yields a more polychromatic vista: 

That red surrounding the green cordgrass is a marvelous little halophyte that goes by a wide variety of names: glasswort, pickleweed, and marsh samphire, or generically, as Salicornia. I don’t know which Salicornia this is, but it is a wonderful little plant. It begins the season pale green, but acquires a deep sunburn by late summer. Now, it is so red that it might be called hamburger plant.

It’s quite edible, too. It’s crunchy and juicy and delightfully, unsurprisingly salty. You can actually pickle it, though I’ve never taken the time to do so–I just nibble bits of it straight from the marsh, imagining the exotic micronutrients it surely must contain having all sorts of salubrious effects on my thyroid and so on.

My favorite common name for Salicornia is “chicken toes,” which wonderfully captures the plant’s odd shape. It also inevitably makes me think of a cartoon by B. Kliban, who is most famous for his mousy-eating cat cartoons, but also produced more bizzare material that I think surely must have been a major inspiration for Gary Larson when he created the Far Side.

Simply entitled, “Harry,” the cartoon’s single panel depicts a nattily dressed gentleman sitting at the dinner table. In front of him is a plate of chicken toes–real chicken toes, quite a number of which he has shoved up one of his nostrils. The caption is a bit of playground doggerel: “Dirty scaly chicken toes. Harry puts them up his nose.” You can see it here:  B. Kliban’s “Harry”

And if you don’t know Kliban’s work, you could start here, at a fan site that I’m sure raises all kinds of copyright issues: Davey C.’s B. Kliban Worship Page.

And no, I have never put Salicornia up my nose. Not even once.

After Monday’s 1048 raptors counted at the Cape Henlopen hawk watch, the news spread over DE-BIRD (as the news of every day does) and through an article by Molly Murray in the News-Journal (featuring an Osprey photo by yours truly). Thursday, October 2nd, a sizable crowd assembled for what looked to be the next big flight day.

Though numbers didn’t nearly reach Monday’s heights, topping out at 229, it was great to have such a nice turnout of observers. And there is still good reason to keep coming–Saturday, October 4th yielded an astonishing 95 Peregrine Falcons out the day’s total of 404 raptors and pushed the seasonal grand total over the 5000 mark.