Gavia
Well-known member
Panama - January 2011 - Jan. 26
Day 16 - Jan. 27 - Heading Home (?)
As the day of our departure drew near we monitored the weather in the American northeastern states, as well as Atlantic Canada. Some slightly scruffy weather was forecast, but nothing that a sensible well-prepared Canadian airport could not handle. We did not account, however, with the timidity and ill-preparedness of American airports, in particular Newark’s Liberty airport.
In the time it took to drive (early) from El Valle to Panama City Airport, our flight to Newark had been cancelled, because Newark’s airport had been closed to all traffic. Eleven of our group were thus stranded (the others going to different destinations later in the day were not affected). We spent a long time in the airport as the over-whelmed (and not uniformly competent) Continental staff tried to re-book us. In the end we were sent on different itineraries. Two couples made it to Houston that day (though on different flights), and overnighted there. The rest of us had to overnight in Panama City.
We ended up at an ordinary, and quite affordable, hotel in Panama City, about 20 minutes away from the airport. The hotel was within two long blocks of the ocean, and after lunch, in the heat of the afternoon, some went and birded along the seawall that parallels a coastal multi-lane road. There were many waders and herons, though without scopes the shorebirds remained mostly distant and anonymous, but a White Ibis was added to our trip list.
I was up very early the next morning as I had been placed on the first of the two flights to Newark (everyone else was on a later flight, and ended up having to overnight in Newark - but all had trip insurance, fortunately). En route to the airport I had the driver stop at a 24-hour supermarket to buy some snacks, and I had my last new Panama life bird for the trip, House Sparrows, a flock of which were twittering from some nearby shrubs.
My trip home was fairly uneventful, though I was quite astounded when, arriving at Newark airport, I noted there was very little snow to be seen, no concentrations that would have suggested that an airport closure was necessary. Snow wimps.
Despite the travel disruptions at either end of our trip we all thought the experience had been wonderful, and we recommend Canopy Tower and Lodge to you.
I have attached three PDF files. There are two day-by-day comparisons of the birds seen each week, with estimates of the number of each species encountered (Week one for our Canopy Tower base, Week two for Canopy Lodge), and the third is our complete bird trip list, with scientific names.
Our other faunal trip lists follow at the end of this posting.
I thank you for your patience as I’ve uploaded our Panama trip adventures, and I hope you found the account entertaining and useful.
Good birding and safe travels,
Blake
White’s Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada
Butterfly List (in alphabetical order)
Banded Peacock (Anartia fatima)
Black-bordered Crescent (Tegosa anieta anieta)
Brown Longtail (Urbanus procne)
Central American Sootywing (Staphylus ascalaphus)
Clio Crescent (Eresia clio clio)
Common Morpho (Morpho helenor peleides)
Cytherea Sister (Adelpha cytherea daguana)
Doris Longwing (Laparus doris viridus)
Erotia Sister (Adelpha erotia erotia)
Gray Cracker (Hamadryas februa)
Mexican Fritillary (Euptoieta hegesia)
Mimosa Yellow (Pyristia nise nise)
Orange-patched Crescent (Anthanassa drusilla)
Ruddy Daggerwing (Marpesia petreus)
Togarna Hairstreak (Arawacus togarna)
Tufted-Skipper sp. (Nisoniades sp.)
Two-barred Flasher (Astraptes fulgerator azul)
White Peacock (Anartia jatrophae luteipicta)
White Yellow (Eurema albula marginella)
Whitened Bluewing (Myscelia cyaniris cyaniris)
Zera Skipper (Zera zera)
Moth (Xylophanes chiron chiron)
Herptile List
“Fer-de-lance” Pit Viper Snake (Bothrops asper), known locally as Terciopelo
Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor imperator)
Brown Vine Snake (Oxybelis aeneus)
American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus)
Basilisk Lizard (a.k.a. Jesus Lizard) (Basiliscus sp.)
Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)
Mammal List
Variegated Squirrel (Sciurus variegatoides)
Red-tailed Squirrel (Sciurus granatensis)
Crab-eating Raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus)
Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni)
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus variegatus)
Derby's (or Central American) Wooly Opossum (Caluromys derbianus)
Water Opossum (Chironectes minimus)
Common Opossum (Didelphis marsupialis)
Kinkajou (Potos flavus)
Bushy-tailed Olingo (Bassaricyon gabbii)
Northern Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana)
White-headed (or White-faced) Capuchins (Cebus capucinus)
Ecuadorian Mantled Howler Monkey (Alouatta palliata aequatorialis)
Geoffroy's Tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi)
Nine-Banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus)
Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu)
White-nosed Coati (Nasua narica)
Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata)
Day 16 - Jan. 27 - Heading Home (?)
As the day of our departure drew near we monitored the weather in the American northeastern states, as well as Atlantic Canada. Some slightly scruffy weather was forecast, but nothing that a sensible well-prepared Canadian airport could not handle. We did not account, however, with the timidity and ill-preparedness of American airports, in particular Newark’s Liberty airport.
In the time it took to drive (early) from El Valle to Panama City Airport, our flight to Newark had been cancelled, because Newark’s airport had been closed to all traffic. Eleven of our group were thus stranded (the others going to different destinations later in the day were not affected). We spent a long time in the airport as the over-whelmed (and not uniformly competent) Continental staff tried to re-book us. In the end we were sent on different itineraries. Two couples made it to Houston that day (though on different flights), and overnighted there. The rest of us had to overnight in Panama City.
We ended up at an ordinary, and quite affordable, hotel in Panama City, about 20 minutes away from the airport. The hotel was within two long blocks of the ocean, and after lunch, in the heat of the afternoon, some went and birded along the seawall that parallels a coastal multi-lane road. There were many waders and herons, though without scopes the shorebirds remained mostly distant and anonymous, but a White Ibis was added to our trip list.
I was up very early the next morning as I had been placed on the first of the two flights to Newark (everyone else was on a later flight, and ended up having to overnight in Newark - but all had trip insurance, fortunately). En route to the airport I had the driver stop at a 24-hour supermarket to buy some snacks, and I had my last new Panama life bird for the trip, House Sparrows, a flock of which were twittering from some nearby shrubs.
My trip home was fairly uneventful, though I was quite astounded when, arriving at Newark airport, I noted there was very little snow to be seen, no concentrations that would have suggested that an airport closure was necessary. Snow wimps.
Despite the travel disruptions at either end of our trip we all thought the experience had been wonderful, and we recommend Canopy Tower and Lodge to you.
I have attached three PDF files. There are two day-by-day comparisons of the birds seen each week, with estimates of the number of each species encountered (Week one for our Canopy Tower base, Week two for Canopy Lodge), and the third is our complete bird trip list, with scientific names.
Our other faunal trip lists follow at the end of this posting.
I thank you for your patience as I’ve uploaded our Panama trip adventures, and I hope you found the account entertaining and useful.
Good birding and safe travels,
Blake
White’s Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada
Butterfly List (in alphabetical order)
Banded Peacock (Anartia fatima)
Black-bordered Crescent (Tegosa anieta anieta)
Brown Longtail (Urbanus procne)
Central American Sootywing (Staphylus ascalaphus)
Clio Crescent (Eresia clio clio)
Common Morpho (Morpho helenor peleides)
Cytherea Sister (Adelpha cytherea daguana)
Doris Longwing (Laparus doris viridus)
Erotia Sister (Adelpha erotia erotia)
Gray Cracker (Hamadryas februa)
Mexican Fritillary (Euptoieta hegesia)
Mimosa Yellow (Pyristia nise nise)
Orange-patched Crescent (Anthanassa drusilla)
Ruddy Daggerwing (Marpesia petreus)
Togarna Hairstreak (Arawacus togarna)
Tufted-Skipper sp. (Nisoniades sp.)
Two-barred Flasher (Astraptes fulgerator azul)
White Peacock (Anartia jatrophae luteipicta)
White Yellow (Eurema albula marginella)
Whitened Bluewing (Myscelia cyaniris cyaniris)
Zera Skipper (Zera zera)
Moth (Xylophanes chiron chiron)
Herptile List
“Fer-de-lance” Pit Viper Snake (Bothrops asper), known locally as Terciopelo
Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor imperator)
Brown Vine Snake (Oxybelis aeneus)
American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus)
Basilisk Lizard (a.k.a. Jesus Lizard) (Basiliscus sp.)
Green Iguana (Iguana iguana)
Mammal List
Variegated Squirrel (Sciurus variegatoides)
Red-tailed Squirrel (Sciurus granatensis)
Crab-eating Raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus)
Hoffmann's Two-toed Sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni)
Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth (Bradypus variegatus)
Derby's (or Central American) Wooly Opossum (Caluromys derbianus)
Water Opossum (Chironectes minimus)
Common Opossum (Didelphis marsupialis)
Kinkajou (Potos flavus)
Bushy-tailed Olingo (Bassaricyon gabbii)
Northern Tamandua (Tamandua mexicana)
White-headed (or White-faced) Capuchins (Cebus capucinus)
Ecuadorian Mantled Howler Monkey (Alouatta palliata aequatorialis)
Geoffroy's Tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi)
Nine-Banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus)
Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu)
White-nosed Coati (Nasua narica)
Central American Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata)
