We had a hot,
restless night. No air conditioning and
high humidity made it rather uncomfortable.
We were glad when morning finally arrived!
We awoke to Howler Monkeys roaring in the distance. It’s really a great sound when you’re in the jungle. Along with the monkeys, it seems that squawking parrots will be our wake-up call!
We awoke to Howler Monkeys roaring in the distance. It’s really a great sound when you’re in the jungle. Along with the monkeys, it seems that squawking parrots will be our wake-up call!
Red-lored Parrots
While Mark was getting
ready I heard a lot of crashing trees and limbs outside. I grabbed my camera and walked out on our
deck. There were Geoffroy’s Tamarin
Monkeys jumping through the banana trees right at the edge of our deck.
The jungle comes up to
the edge of our raised deck. There are
different kinds of trees and lots of banana plants. This one hangs over the corner of the deck.
We could reach up and pick a banana right off our deck!
After breakfast at
6:30 the plan for the morning was to bird around the camp. Considering we had been riding in a van for 8
hours yesterday, I thought that walking around this morning sounded like a great
idea.
I did not find any
information that indicated how many acres the Camp is on but I did find that
it’s next to the protected forest of the Filo del Tallo Hydrological Reserve
(65,000 acres).
The Camp is powered by
solar and we walked to the area of the solar panels.
Solar panels in the jungle.
We walked around the
grounds and down the road coming into the camp.
Colorful birds called Thick-billed Euphonia are common around the camp. We also saw a couple of Yellow-crowned Euphonia. Can you tell the difference?
Colorful birds called Thick-billed Euphonia are common around the camp. We also saw a couple of Yellow-crowned Euphonia. Can you tell the difference?
Thick-billed Euphonia
Yellow-crowned Euphonia
One of the "target birds" for our trip was the Spot-breasted Woodpecker. While fairly common in parts of South America, they barely make it into Central America, and only in the Darien region of Panama.
Spot-breasted Woodpecker
Spot-breasted Woodpecker
Speaking of woodpeckers, we also got great looks at Cinnamon and Lineated Woodpeckers.
Cinnamon Woodpecker
Lineated Woodpecker
Far overhead we watched a huge King Vulture soaring. Someday one will come down low enough for a decent picture. Until then, this will have to do!
King Vulture
We saw more Geoffroy’s Tamarin
Monkeys, heard Howler Monkeys, saw a Red-tailed Squirrel and a House Gecko.
Geoffroy's Tamarins on feeding table
Carlos was working
hard to find the birds.
Our guide, Carlos.
Even the trees were
interesting!
We even found a hornet nest attached to an Azteca Ant nest...
Today's bird list will be at the end of Part 3.
Next time: Hop, fly and shimmy. The dance kings of the Panama rainforest.
Teri
On the Euphonia question, I can't tell the difference. I assumed the names would help with the distinction, but they still looked the same to me. One had a white tail feather, but a leaf hide the tail feather on the other one, so maybe they both had white in the tail area.
ReplyDeleteThe most obvious (but still not obvious) difference is that the Yellow-crowned Euphonia has blue chin and throat, while the Thick-bill has yellow.
DeleteDon't you just love bird identification!
ReplyDeleteThat is why you guys are professionals!
ReplyDelete