“The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play…”
Unless you’re a bird watcher in Panama during the Green Season – then Herodotus’ famous adage “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous birders from the swift discovery of their needed life birds” comes into play. (Many may not know that that eminent Greek was also a keen bird watcher.)
Thus following our hike up and down the road into Volcan Baru, we drove over to Parque Internacional La Amistad, an international peace park established in 1988 and jointly managed by the governments of Costa Rica and Panama. La Amistad spans over 221,000 hectares of the Cordillera de Talamanca and is the home of some marvelous birds, including that superb hummingbird, the Violet Sabrewing, Campylopterus hemileucurus.
Unfortunately, the rain was what could be best described as “torrential” (it’s a rain forest – it’s not as if we were surprised). So while we did venture forth and succeed in getting soaked to the marrow of our very bones, most of the birds seen were identified from the shelter of either the upper gatehouse, where we began our La Amistad hike, or the lower gatehouse, where we finally found shelter and from which our driver picked us up, having felt pity upon us.
All tolled, the birds I personally listed at La Amistad, in addition to the Violet Sabrewing, were:
Yellowish Flycatcher, Empidonax flavescens
Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush, Catharus frantzii
Ruddy Treerunner, Margarornis rubiginosus
Magnificent Hummingbird, Eugenes, fulgens
Sooty-capped Bush-Tanager, Chlorospingus pileatus
Black-cheeked Warbler, Basileuterus melanogenys
Brown-capped Vireo, Vireo leucophrys
However even though we left La Amistad and headed back to Los Quetzales, the bird watching for the day was by no means over…
Peace and good bird watching.
Other rain-soaked “members of the expedition” also blogging about the Panama la Verde Birding Circuits trip:
Bill at Bill of the Birds
Jeff at Jeffery A. Gordon
Mike at Birding to the EDG
