Birds of Panama and Costa Rica

My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Panama and Costa Rica with Lindblad/National Geographic.  We were aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion, a relatively small cruise ship that holds about 62 passengers and crew I would estimate at something over 20.  This is a photo of the ship taken early in the voyage when our weather was overcast with real and threatened rain, even though this is supposed to be the dry season. 

On our forays from the ship we used Zodiacs which would usually be loaded with ten people.  In some cases we did Zodiac tours and in other cases we were landed on the beach for hiking, kayaking, swimming or other activities.  This was on the first full day of our voyage and our first Zodiac tour around Barro Colorado Island... and it rained on us. The weather improved significantly on the Pacific side of our cruise and so did my photographs!  (Trust me on this... I obtained some spectacular photographs!)  On this particular tour we saw a couple of small crocodiles on logs, Howler monkeys, toucans, an Osprey and other birds. 

If I am remembering things correctly, this is a Social flycatcher.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to ever get a photo of the bird in a natural setting.  There were also Great kiskadees in this area.  

This was our introduction to the Magnificent frigatebirds which usually were around on our entire voyage. 

And another photo of a Magnificent frigatebird... 

Birds of March's Point

I took the following photos last month while wistfully waiting for a Snow bunting to appear. 


It was a fairly windy day and for either that reason or the fact that there was some small food source floating on the top of the water, there were a lot of gulls moving along the shoreline.  On November 17, the day that these photos were taken, there were about 20 Bonaparte's gulls sprinkled among Glaucous-winged gulls and Mew gulls.  It was the only day of about 7-8 that I observed them along the Point. 

I at first thought that I was photographing a Brown-headed cowbird when I took this photo but I'm now considering that this might be a female Brewer's blackbird.  I'm making that judgement based on the shape of the bird's bill.   If you have an opinion please let me know. 

This is a male Brewer's blackbird as told by the yellow eye...

Yard Bird and March's Point Birds

I tried for more photos of the Snow Buntings on March's Point this afternoon but was unsuccessful in even seeing them.  There were a lot of cars out and a lot of people outside of the cars and judging by my limited prior experience I think that both were a put-off to the buntings.  However I did have a fairly successful day of photography, thanks to the beautiful weather we had. 

This Fox sparrow was photographed in my yard taking a bath...

 

There were two Bald eagles along the west side of the March's Point Road and this was the more photographable of the two...

 

A Double-crested cormorant making its way back to its roost over on one of the islands...

 A group of male Mallards following behind a female.  I edited the female out of the photo.

Snow Buntings on March's Point

I've spent about ten hours spread over 6+ days attempting to see and then photograph the Snow bunting that was reported on March's Point a couple of weeks ago.  I didn't find the bird myself but was alerted to it's presence by emails from other birders.  By yesterday I had given up but was at March's Point searching for gulls, waterfowl and shorebirds to photograph when I flushed the buntings.  It was a complete surprise.  The original report was for one bunting and I found a flock of five! 

I came tantalizingly close to obtaining a photograph of the birds yesterday but they flushed as I was out of the car mounting my camera on my monopod... and I didn't think the birds could see me!  I did manage a photograph... four of the five buntings, backlit and sitting on the edge of one of the tanks over 150 yards away. 

I returned this morning just after breakfast and waited for over an hour for the birds to show again.  I was frustrated but patient.  I watched a pair of Bald eagles work to successfully capture a waterfowl in the water and was watching the only one of the eagles I could see when I became aware of some movement on top of the berm.  Closer examination with binoculars revealed the flock of Snow buntings.  Over the next hour and a half or so they made about three trips to the side of the road, returning each time to the top of the large tanks or the top of the berm.  On only one of their trips was I successful at photographing them, but I got what I consider really good photographs of the birds.  I have to say that these are beautiful birds, even when not in breeding plumage! 

So I appreciate being notified of this photo opportunity... here are the Snow buntings photographed on our own Fidalgo Island...