Hawk Ridge News - Panama Trip Summary Fall 2021

Hawk Ridge Panama Trip Summary
By Margie Menzies, Education Director

A marvelous group of 11 excited birders participated in Hawk Ridge’s first sponsored international Birding Trip to Panama through Holbrook Travel in the fall of 2021. We arrived in Panama City on October 28, were met at the airport, and shuttled to our hotel situated along the Panama Canal, where Beny Wilson, our guide for the first seven days of the trip met us. Many of us hurried up, checked in and dumped our luggage in our rooms, and hot-footed it back outside to bird in the area around the hotel for a couple hours with Beny before dinner. Best therapy ever after a day of airports and planes! Species tally of 52 for the first day between the airport and hotel and in the area around the hotel! Some of the stars the first day were a Bat Falcon, some Panamanian regulars like Clay-colored Thrushes, Southern Mockingbirds and Tropical Kingbirds, and plenty of northern migrants either still moving or already returned to their winter homes. And of course, the first amazing sightings of huge kettle of raptors, which would remain a mainstay throughout the trip most days.

 

First stop on the next morning after breakfast was Ancon Hill, Panama Audubon’s Hawk watching site in Panama City. Huge kettles of birds were moving through on all sides of the small hilltop knob location. One side looked out across downtown Panama City, and the other side across the Panama Canal area. It turned out that our visit coincided with the largest count day of the season for Ancon Hill. In the words of our Panamanian counters from their HMANA website: “WOW! Raptors all over! The thickest part of the MEGA kettle hit our site, from 9:00 am and on raptor activity was massive and constant.” The count was 172,163 for the day- and 123,191 were Turkey Vultures, but they were also accompanied by Osprey, Mississippi Kites, Broad-winged Hawks, Swainson’s Hawks, Peregrine Falcons, and Merlins. Truly a sight that defies imagination and an incredible opportunity to meet the Panamanian counters and share stories from Hawk Ridge. Look for some virtual Panamanian guest speakers coming up, and Beny our guide says he wants to visit Hawk Ridge in September next fall! Hope we can make that happen!!

 

So many amazing places and birds that a couple of paragraphs can’t possibly do the trip justice. Every day was full of adventures, but highlights included a boat expedition in the Darien region to an Embera community called Marea, and an uphill muddy hike to see a Harpy Eagle nest complete with chick and adult female, with the male spotted flying over on the hike back down! The village also provided us with a fabulous mini-festival complete with music, traditional dancing, and the opportunity to receive a temporary Embera tattoo, and appreciate and purchase traditional handcrafted items. We experienced the incredible diversity of birds associated with an ant swarm on the Pipeline trail in the lowland rainforest region of Gamboa. The immensity of the Panama Canal operation was fascinating, and we experienced the Pan-American Highway, traveling on it until it ended in Yaviza, Panama. 

 

My total count for the trip was 327 species of birds seen and heard in the 11 days. So many birds and so many unique habitats! Our guides were absolutely incredible and really knew the regions we were visiting.  An amazing experience for all and one we plan to repeat for next fall- and if that’s not soon enough for you- we are also sponsoring a Costa Rica birding trip from March 10-19, 2022. Register HERE TODAY to join us in Costa Rica! Hope to see you soon!