Panama
11-21 March 2012
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Panama
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March 2012 we eagerly returned to Panamá with
naturalist and bird guide Mark Pretti.
This trip covered some of the same ground we did with Victor Emanual Nature Tours
(VENT) back in 2005,
e.g. the canal zone on the Pacific side near Gamboa, and
added in several days up closer to cloud forest at the
Canopy Lodge in El Valle de Anton. After arriving in Panama City rather late on a Sunday evening, we met up with the group on Monday morning. We birded in the Metropolitan National Park in Panama City in the morning, and spent a pleasant afternoon (not to mention enjoyed a superb lunch) at the Miraflores Locks Visitor Center at the canal. We had visited the locks and the accompanying museum back in 2005, but it was a treat to sit on the deck and watch the ships maneuver their way through the canal. Liza had some fun too sending photos of ships to her brother Lee, who rather promptly responded with where the ships were registered and their destination ports.  We spent the next
several nights at the Gamboa
Rainforest Resort - a gorgeous facility and a real
treat. Mark referred to our stay there as "spoiled
comfort" and he wasn't kidding. While at Gamboa, we
visited the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center and
its100-foot tall canopy tower. (And quite the tower -
unlike some we've been up in the tropics, this one didn't
sway ominously!) The tower afforded us great views
over the landscape and marvelous looks at the birds, as well
as a troop of not-quite-awake howler monkeys, lots of moms
with young ones. We also birded Pipeline Rd (Camino de Oleoducto)
and Old Gamboa Rd.From Gamboa we drove a few hours to the west to stay at the Canopy Lodge. We had stayed at the sister facility Canopy Tower back in 2005; at that time the lodge was under construction. While the grounds at the lodge themselves were spectacular and had awesome birds (including a sunbittern in the stream one morning), we also had several walks higher up the road in the low cloud forest. All in all it was a productive birding trip, even considering that we had been there before. The group was a lot of fun and Mark, as always, is the consummate naturalist and bird guide. The food at both Gamboa and the Canopy Lodge was excellent, and the wine (mostly Chilean) flowed liberally. But we promise, that didn't affect our bird counts! There are three pages of trip photos linked below - one page each for Gamboa and El Valle, and a page of bird photos. The Home link takes you back to this page. The GPS link will take you to a map of the first day on the Garmin Connect website; click Next on the Garmin page to view the subsequent days. Be aware of some funky data (impossible speeds, etc.) and ignore those. :-) Also the satellite images of El Valle are mostly clouds. But the satellite imagery of the canal zone is pretty cool. |
 Map shamelessly copied from www.ventbird.com Click here for GPS data / maps / satellite imagery. On the Garmin page that comes up - click the Next link in the upper right to see subsequent days. Trip bird list (Robert's) [pdf] |
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Click photos to enlarge...
GPS data / maps / satellite imagery