A Week Amongst Birds

During the peak of the pandemic whenever I got Zoom fatigue I would take a break by checking out the livestreamed Feedercams set up by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. One such feeder was from the Canopy Lodge in Panama. So while we were tossing around the idea of actually traveling for thanksgiving I proposed the Lodge and my daughter jumped at it. My husband is game for anything and although he can't tell Bird A from Bird B he is always happy to tag along. 

Canopy Lodge

The famous Panama Cam Feeder - this time in person!

Birding trips are not relaxing in the traditional sense of a holiday and this was no exception. Breakfast was usually at 6 or 6:30 and we were off to the woods by 7/7:30 am. Come back for lunch around 12:30. Head out again at 2:30 and back by 6 pm. Checklist at 6:30 pm, dinner at 7 and bed at 8:30/9. Rinse and repeat 5 times. That summed up our week in Panama. It involved a lot of standing, quietly at that, sometimes I daresay with full bladders, and staring into bushes trying to detect movement. Our guides were magicians who seemed to possess superhuman abilities to differentiate between the 50 shades of brown/green all hiding within another 50 shades of brown/green and within milliseconds of spotting - recognizing the bird! By Day 3 some of that magic started rubbing on us a teensy bit and my daughter and I picked up a few skills and were able to recognize the bigger species and a few commonly occurring thrushes, kingbirds and other flycatchers.

Besides the birds, the birders are also an interesting bunch. There are many types of birders and one is bound to encounter a few specimens in such a trip. The photographers, who along with their equipment look like Arnold from the poster for the movie The Predator-sin muscles of course. To these folks a bird is not seen unless it has been captured through their lens. There are the hardcore lifelisters who have a goal of increasing their lifelist of species and will be willing to wait for any amount of time for the manakin or warbler to show up so they can check it off their lifelist. It is a numbers game for them and some actually feel that we should be out by 5am as after all the early bird gets, well, the bird.  Then there are those who have converted to birding recently and have the zeal of the convert which can be a little irritating especially as they hog the spotting scope. And some are simply there to see what they can see and that's that. They are more naturalists than birders and enjoy all the nature around them.

Where do we (my daughter and I) fall? Well, we do keep an ebird list, but we don't have a lifelist goal - we just wanted to stumble upon the birds, see some new species, if possible see their behaviors in their natural environment and in that process learn something about the birds and ourselves. So at times, we wanted to move on when the manakin didn't show up or didn't care if we couldn't tell if the warbler we saw was the chestnut-capped or chestnut-sided. My husband was totally having fun as he didn't care about eBird, lifelist, bird id - if he saw a cool bird that was great, and if he managed to get a picture that was even better! He just enjoyed being out there listening to the bird song, the noises of the forest and the changes in weather. No FOMO, no pressure!

In Birding Uniform and Gear :)

I was asking the guides about the local birding scene and they told me that it was not much, although now there is an effort to introduce school kids to the bountiful wildlife in their country. By now the locals are very familiar with the migrant birders who swoop down to the lodge during the birding season, all clad in drab grays and greens, sporting rain gear, their binoculars around their necks, and standing sometimes on the roadside peering up among the trees. We must seem like a weird cult to them.

Spectacled Owl

Overall it was a fabulous trip! While it is true that we saw 140 species of which a 100 were lifers for us, it was not the quantity but the quality of the experience that made it memorable for us. Walking into the woods to see the spectacled and mottled owl was an unforgettable experience. As we stood in the slush in complete silence peering at these magnificent birds we felt like we were invited into their world for a brief moment.  A Rufous-Vented Ground Cuckoo became the star of the week. This bird is so shy that it has one of the fewest observations on eBird and we were lucky to bump into a pair that stood in front of us for 10 long minutes foraging, or as the guides say "working in those bushes." 

Rufous-Vented Ground Cuckoo

We had tried to see manakins in the past in other countries but finally saw the Golden-Collared in Panama. These guys are legendary dancers and although we didn't see him dance we heard his clicking rhythm and saw him and his mate in the forest floor. We followed antbirds just like they follow army ants and although they were too quick for the scope or the camera we managed to catch a glimpse with our eyes. For the first four days we saw one lonely keel billed toucan fly above and then stumbled into a dozen on our last day! 

Keel Billed Toucans

One day when we had wrapped up the day's birding and were walking back to the van, my husband the straggler, who is always taking pano shots on his Blackberry (yes, he still has one of those!), came across a bird which had eluded all of us. The rest of us who went ahead were ready to leave so my daughter went back to get him and saw him photographing a mystery bird. When she alerted all of us, there was a mad rush to go back and sure enough he had stumbled upon the Long-Tailed Tyrant which made the life list for everyone in the group! He was beaming as everyone thanked him for the "nice find."

Long-Tailed Tyrant

Another time after an all day birding session we were returning to our rooms, ready to dash through the last 100 yards from the parking lot all swearing that we will not stop for another bird and sure enough my daughter spotted a Rufous-Crowned Motmot which was the first time we saw one and once again we stopped. How could you not when you see this being appear suddenly in your field of view!

Rufous Crowned Motmot

This basically is the joy of birding - just walking into a space not knowing who is out there and finding someone "working".

 I am normally a walking clock, I have everything timed and am always on a schedule getting from point A to point B. Birding is the only activity that has made me slow down and pause and take notice of things around me. I don't have to go to Panama to experience this. On our nightly walks there have been many times when an owl has surprised us. Just hearing the great horned would make my daughter and I pause and look around and occasionally he/she would grace us with their presence by flying past us. Those are magical moments! Birding has not only given me a renewed sense of why conservation is important and why habitats need to be protected but has also made me more aware of the everyday happiness hidden among trees and bushes in these uncertain times.