Posts in Category: Panama
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Black-bellied Whistling Duck: Panama Canal, Gamboa, Panama, July 2022 — There were large flocks of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks on the Canal. We see them, of course, in South Texas, so they are not new to me, but they are certainly a handsome bird, and it was my first sighting from a small boat, and certainly my closest approach. Sony Rx10iv at 586mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 400 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Wattled Jacana
Wattled Jacana: Panama Canal, Gamboa, Panama (near Canopy Tower), July 2022 — The Wattled Jacana is primarily a South American bird, with a range east of the Andes, but it reaches its northern limits in Panama. There are apparently two forms, not separated by location, but rather by “population”. This is the black-backed variety. There is also a chestnut-backed variety that looks more like a Northern Jacana. Both have the distinctive red “wattle” above the yellow beak, and the yellow underside of the wings…as well as the bright yellow bone spur or spike at the angle of the wing. The theory is that the spike is used for defense. You can see the spike in the photo with the wings extended. We saw Jacanas everywhere from our small boat on the Panama Canal, walking on the water plants in the shallows. We were able to drift up quite close. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 1000 and 640 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Green Heron on the Panama Canal
Green Heron: Panama Canal near Canopy Tower, Gamboa, Panama — On my first full day at the Canopy Lodge, the morning activity was a boat ride on the Panama Canal, which, I will admit, did not sound very exciting to me when I first heard it. I had totally the wrong mental image of the canal. I was thinking a narrow cut through the landscape, something like the canals of Europe, or the Erie Canal, which was the closest canal to me growing up. The Panama Canal is nothing like. The Panama Canal is mostly lakes…larger bodies of water with deep channels for the ships, and lots of little bays and islands and small streams coming in from the sides that you can poke a small boat with an outboard up to explore. It is not contained by concrete (except a little at the locks). And the boat ride was one of the best outings of my time at Canopy Tower. We saw a lot of birds, and both Howler and White-faced Capuchin monkeys, most very close to the boat. We saw so many Green Herons, both adult and juvenile, that I eventually stopped taking photos of them. They were everywhere! Especially the juveniles. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos.
Woolly Possum
Woolly Possum: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — My first night at the Canopy Tower, the guide asked if I would like to go out on a night drive after supper…and of course I said “:sure”. We boarded the Birdmobile, sitting the open back of the pick-up on benches, and headed down the Semaphore Hill road, shining big led spotlights into the trees overhead and on either side, looking for the glow of eyes looking back. Alex (our guide for the evening) spotted this Woolly Possum high in the canopy. The Sony’s multi-frame noise reduction works well with hand held lights and between Alex’s spot and my little, but very bright, tactical light, I managed a decent shot. Sony Rx10iv at 584mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 6400 @ f4 @ 1/125.
Black Hawk Eagle
Black Hawk Eagle: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — As we were driving down from the Tower on my first full birding day at Canopy Tower in Panama, I glimpsed a raptor sitting in a dead snag across the sharp little valley of the stream that that road follows down, silhouetted against the overcast sky. My immediate reaction was Crested Hawk Eagle as, at the moment I saw it, it had its crest raised. (The Crested Hawk Eagle is actually an African Bird…though the name was commonly used for what is now called the Ornate Hawk Eagle in Central America.) We were in the Canopy Tower Birdmobile…a 4 wheel drive pick-up with two bench seats mounted back to back in the open bed of the truck, facing left and right. I pounded on the roof of the cab and called out Hawk Eagle to make the driver stop. We backed up until we re-found the gap in the foreground foliage that gave us the best view of the bird. It was, indeed, a Hawk Eagle, and it did have a crest…but it was the Black Hawk Eagle…and perched…a rare sight indeed! The photo is not great…but the bird was far away against the cloudy sky in poor light and barely visible through foreground foliage…so, all in all, after some serious post-processing, I am pleased with a record shot. There would be people who doubted we saw what we saw without it 🙂 Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. (In the original the bird is so heavily silhouetted that you can see no detail at all, and tiny in the frame.) ISO 250 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Plus 1EV exposure compensation.
Geoffroy’s Tamarin
Geoffroy’s Tamarin: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — Tamarins are among the smallest of primates, and the Geoffroy’s is small for a Tamarin (1.1 pounds). It is also the only Tamarin in Panama. There are at least three families of Tamarin’s who live on Semaphore Hill and visit the Canopy Tower several times a day. The kitchen and dinning staff enjoy putting out bananas for them, sending the bananas out on a kind of pulley string to a branch at eye-level, or swinging a banana out on a string to drape over an even closer branch. If there are no bananas out, a single Tamarin may come and wait for one, but as soon as the banana appears the whole family comes running through the canopy to join in. At first glance the Tamarins are more cat-like than monkey-like, but they have long prehensile tails and definitely use their “hands” as we do, for grasping and grooming, and generally holding on to things. They are always calling to each other, and their habit of pulling their lips back to show their row of tiny, very sharp teeth, give them a somewhat fierce appearance. They are great fun to watch as they clamber over the trees, and each other. One of the families had a two “toddlers” and they are, if possible, even cuter than the the adults. Sony Rx10iv at various focal lengths for framing. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos.
Stripe-throated Hermit Hummingbird
Stripe-throated Hermit Hummingbird: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — The Stripe-throated Hermit is a hard hummingbird to photograph. They rarely perch, and when they do it is in deep cover well away from any feeders. I caught this one momentarily perched on a feeder in the courtyard of the Canopy Tower lodge in Panama. Though I don’t like, or often post, feeder shots, this shot is exceptional (at least among my shots) in that it shows this tiny hummer in all its fine detail. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications with multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 5000 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
White-vented Plumeleteer
White-vented Plumeleteer: Canopy Tower, Panama, July 2022 — Another hummingbird from the courtyard at Canopy Tower, and another new bird for me on this trip. I have seen the Bronze-tailed Plumeleteer in Costa Rica, but the White-vented does not get that far north, and in Panama is limited to the east haft of the country, from the Canal Zone to the Darian. The plumeleteer is a fairly large hummingbird, and the brilliant green certainly makes it stand out. My Panama Birds app has it as rare but also a species of least concern from a conservation standpoint. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. Equivalent ISO 3200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.
Blue-chested Hummingbird
Blue-chested Hummingbird: After my orientation and my welcome by the Red-lored Parrots from the top floor dinning area and lounge of the Canopy Tower, I went down to ground level to check on the hummingbirds I had glimpsed between the van and the door of the Tower on my way in. There were at least 5 species coming to the feeders they have out in the front courtyard. This is the Blue-chested Hummingbird, a new hummer for me on this trip. Blue-chested is an optimistic name for the species, as it it hard to see the blue…I see it as more of a light purple wash, and more of a bib than a chest orniment, in most light. Not as flashy as some hummers but still a beautiful bird. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 2000 and 1000 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Minus .3EV.
Fleischmann’s Glass Frog
Fleischmann’s Glass Frog: Canopy Lodge, Panama, July 2022 — One of my favorite things to do in the tropics is to go out at night with a flashlight looking for frogs (and whatever else we find). I was particularly eager at the Canopy Lodge in Panama because Glass Frogs live on the property. I have seen a few different species of Glass Frogs in Costa Rica, but only when Cope has brought them in for photography at his place. I was hoping to encounter one “in the wild” in Panama. Tino, my guide at the Lodge, was pretty confident he could find me some around the ponds on the far side of the stream, and indeed he did…three individuals and a couple of egg clusters. Fleischmann’s Glass. Frog is one of the smaller Glass Frogs…at under one inch, the smallest I have seen so far. All Glass Frogs shelter on the underside of leaves in the rain and it had just stopped raining when we went out, so we did a lot of peaking under leaves. These were hiding along the small stream that runs out from the lower swimming pool/pond. The egg cluster was about 20 times as big as either frog. There are fertile eggs in the cluster, and infertile. The tadpoles first meal will be the infertile eggs. The call of this Glass Frog is a sharp “wheeet” and, as you can see from the inflated call sacks, they were calling almost continuously…trying to attract females and defending their small territories. Sony Rx10iv at 330mm to 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications and multi-frame noise reduction. Taken by the light of a led flashlight. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos.