Birding Chiapas

Keel-billed Toucan NOT taken in the wild but at the zoo.  It's captive and does not count.  But gods it's a gorgeous bird! To find this bird, go to Palenque, Chiapas. 

Where do I begin?  I suppose from the start, but it will be difficult to incorporate all my thoughts into one post. Over the next several weeks, I'll be covering a lot of different topics from bird photography to group dynamics while birding. In the past, I've always planned and organized my own trips, but for this trek, I let others do it for me.  The allure?  We had great guides lined up for the tours which included some very rare birds on the endemic list.  There were two birds specifically on this trip that were important for me to observe. And one I needed help finding.  

As we flew out into the night skies above Mexico City, I felt homesick for all my friends who live in the surrounding states.  As a younger man, I rented an apartment during a summer in Mexico City, partied in amazing locales, studied at the university in Guadalajara, spent many vacations in Puebla and Tlaxcala, ate at great restaurants and discovered the wonders and beauty of Mexican culture. 

Our destination was Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. This is a state I have never visited before so it was on the top of my list of places to explore. Instead of cultural study, as I usually do, I focused solely on the wildlife and natural parks found around the area. 

Tiger Longwing

Rain forest birding is some of the MOST difficult birding out there.  On our first day in Tuxtla Gutierrez, we were all anxious to get out into the field again and find birds!  On this trip, my friend Gordon got a taste of birding in the tropics for the first time and it was fun to be there with him as he experienced a bit of international birding.  We had many birds to find and so we headed out to the local zoo in Chiapas.  As I've previously mentioned about zoos, they are great places to find local birds within an artificially created safe zone. The birds I present to you all today are wild birds that hung around the zoo(minus the Keel-billed Toucan).  Don't ask me what critters they had in their cages because I won't remember:)  I was more interested in the wild bird population living on the property. 

Plain Chachalaca

Many of our new birds were ground birds like the Plain Chachalaca above.  Around southern Mexico and Guatemala, grouse make for a tasty treat. This is why the Ocellated Turkey is listed as Near Threatened. When I first went to Mexico, I discovered that the country, when compared to other Spanish speaking countries, had been terrible maintaining their wildlife populations. Some states, like San Luis Potosí, had wiped out montane forests. Similar experiences/observations in other Mexican states had me concerned. While hunting may have subsided a bit, it appears habitat loss has become the number one issue for this country. It's also an issue in many parts of the world including the U.S. (but more on that in a few weeks.) With that said, Chiapas has set aside large tracts of rain forest habitat and they currently are working on mangrove restoration along their beaches. The trash issue also seems to be a lot less than I remember!  These are all great things and I hope it continues. 

Plain Chachalaca chick

How about the birds?  Featured above are pics of a Plain Chachalaca.  I was so excited to see these "new" birds. I remember having one perch on my shoulder in Panama, but it was not wild. 

These birds were common and observed on many of our treks around Chiapas. 

Zoomat entrance

Our stop at Zoomat was productive and exciting. Our visit perhaps made us a bit cocky with our cameras.  Birds seemed easy and cooperative to document.  This would NOT be the case for the rest of our trip:) Difficulty level for birding this area: Easy. 

Crested Guan

The next bird featured is the Crested Guan.  I had seen this bird before in Guatemala and this was the ONLY time we saw this bird in Chiapas.  But in the zoo, the birds casually hung in silence above picnic tables or near restaurant stands making me think that they enjoy scraps:)

I think the iguana above was part of the zoo display, but I really don't know.  These large reptiles hang out in many different locations.  On another trek we spotted two of these large lizards in the wild at a local park.  

Green Jay

Also at the zoo?  Green Jays!!!!!!  WOW!  In Chiapas, the Green Jay has yellow eyes.  And on this trip, I learned that the Green Jays in Texas have dark eyes.  Something new I didn't know!

 Fatima Peacock (Anartia fatima)

Wrens in the Neotropical world are awesome.  They have beautiful songs and wonderful coloring. This Banded Wren was a thrill!

Banded Wren

Also very common to the Chiapas landscape?  Russet-crowned Motmots. We had plenty of opportunities to see these birds on many of our outings. 

Russet-crowned Motmot

How about a crazy bird?  This was another bird that was only seen at the zoo.  The Great Curassow is listed as vulnerable due to habitat loss and overhunting.  Here at the zoo, it casually walked the grounds without the fear of either.  Look closely at the pic below to see a young bird walking with the mother. 

Female Great Curassow with chick

It was comical watching people eat at the picnic tables with these large birds walking around them. 

Male Great Curassow versus human butt

I noticed that two of the birds at this zoo had bands on them.^  

Finally today folks, I want to share MY bird of the day along with the endemic black Agouti from the photo below.  I was SO excited to finally see the skittish White-tipped Dove out in the open.  These birds are often heard but rarely seen. It was a bird I already had on my life list but one without photo documentation. It appears that several zoo scraps were enticing enough to lure a couple of these secretive birds from the dark forest. 

White-tipped Dove and Agouti

I could have smacked the birder who said that he wasn't really interested in "doves". "They're drab and boring." I mean...I get where he's coming from here, but still, this is no ordinary dove! It's not often you see these birds so I observed for as long as I could.  Pretty epic moment!  I'm not sure I need to go to Texas anymore after this visit;)

My journeys will continue over the next several weeks.  I'll be sharing thoughts on the pros and cons of guided tours, listers, photography, and of course focusing on some of the most amazing places we stopped to bird. I'll also be featuring beautiful butterflies in several of my posts from Chiapas. So let's get this party started. Until next time friends.......

What You Wish For

Just slightly blurred in the center...bummer

Today's post is a reflection on photography over the past 6 months with my new camera and lens. Of course there are many more shots out there that I haven't used for this post but I thought it would be "fun" to review several shots of pics that didn't quite turn out as I had hoped....and why I never chose them for the various series of writes.

Of course I wish these shots had turned out better.  I sometimes go with the idea of what I would like to capture on film and have high expectations to get those shots. I do some research online and look at what others have posted.  I don't exactly want their shots but I do take the challenge of trying to capture something similiar.  With the two shots above and below at the Whitewater Draw, I had wanted clear shots of the masses of Sandhill Cranes descending onto the fields below.  I used a new telephoto lens on this windy day and had difficulty getting very clear shots.

At first, I thought it to be a failure on my part.  Afterall, I took over 600 pictures!  On my small camera screen, the shots looked amazing.  But soon to find out once I got home.....only 10 or 11 of them turned out!!  As a fellow photographer told me on that day, it just means you need to go back again next year.  And I will:)

I love the legs here....but the shot is too blurry to be of any use:(

I would also discover that it is "normal" to take hundreds of pics and discover only a few good ones out of the batch.  The process of selecting shots is tricky and it works in 3 layers.  First, I delete all blurry images right away.  Second, I keep the ones that "may" have some saving quality.  And third, a few will be spot on perfection. The tricky part is in the second phase.  There are sometimes excellent shots hidden within the photo.  But it takes time and effort to spot where the picture may be.....and that is time consuming.  And I let them sit over a week so that I have time to process things again.  When I head back to the shots, I will have a fresh perspective.

Wildlife is tricky.  Another photographer said that it's all in the tracking.  For birds and mammals, this is correct.  But for butterflies, it is not:)  It takes great patience to capture these shots.  And when I did, there is disappointment by a random leaf in the photo or worse....a slighly blurred image!!! 

And then there is lighting!!!  This Western Bluebird below was a great catch.....but the sunlight was all wrong!  Disappointment happens and you hope that another opportunity will present itself.  But like this bluebird, it is too late to capture this magnificent bird as it is too hot.  I'll have to wait again for next year in Tucson.  Or will I?

I loved this shot so much but again, the lighting was all wrong.  Too much shade. 

Or this image below.  Looks great until you blow it up more.....slightly blurred.  Can't use.  Darn it!

And then there is tracking birds and the manual focus.  Automatic doesn't work with wildlife because the focus ends up being too slow.  So manual is the only way to go with moving objects.  The problem with manual is that you have to be quick and predict how something will move in flight, in water, or on land.  Some of the shots that I really loved turned out to be too blurred for any use. And that is where tracking is important....predicting how the bird or animal will move.  Many times photographers will set up tripods etc, but my best results have been from not having a stand tie me down. My hands have gotten better with the focus....and I'm not wasting as many shots on the memory card.  

And then there are the shots when just one of the focal points is SLIGHHHHTLY out of focus or cut off. 

.....like this shot here.  I loved the picture below but the feet were cut off!!!

.....or the landscape looks great but the owl is out of focus:)  And in wildlife photos, you only get one shot.

My final example is of this agouti in Panama near Gamboa.  Great shot of the animal carrying something but the darn tree gets in the way!!!  So my question to you all is....."What do you do with these types of shots?"  I'd categorize them in group two because they are in some sense "picture worthy" but not frameable.

So what I wish for, isn't what I always get.  But I do think it's worth striving for:)  Until tomorrow...

The Coiba Island Experience

Greetings everyone!  Here is the million dollar post from our Panama trip on Coiba island.  This was the most expensive and yet amazing experience we had in Panama.  It was worth every penny.  I wrote about our investigation on Coiba island several months ago.  We had also done some research on the Darien Gap.  Both would have cost around the same amount of money and both offered similiar experiences.  However, we were travelling during the rainy season and most of the Darien would be inaccessible due to flooding trails.  We then began to focus our attention on the biologically diverse island of Coiba.  80 percent of this large island remains untouched with pristine primary forests.  It's one of the last places in Panama to view colonies of the Scarlet Macaw.  There's even a species of howler monkey that is endemic to this island only.

It started from the tiny surfing village of Santa Catalina.  We found a guide by the name of Javier who runs a place called Casa Kenia.  He runs a great program that took us several nights to the beautiful and isolated island of Coiba.  Accommodations were okay on the island.  We did have a/c for a couple hours, but it ran on generators and eventually, the unit would shut off at 2 in the morning:)  I must make this note because it's very important to know before going.  Having ANY accommodations were better than none in this very beautiful national park.  But because it was a little rough, some birders will dislike this place because they physically can't hike the trails or have difficulty getting in and out of the boat.   So I offer this advice.  If you are thinking about going to Coiba Island, make sure you bring water shoes of some kind and spare clothes which should include some good hiking boots to walk the sometimes muddy trails.  Don't forget sunblock and your camelback for water!! It is a primary rain forest and has its challenges at times, but thanks to Javier, we had a fantastic experience on the island.  A lot of it is unexplored botanically and guess what?  The Smithsonian own the tiny island known as Coibitas to monitor this park and protected marine area.

I promised wild monkey shots...not good ones.....but here they are.  This little white faced Capuchin monkey was throwing mangos at our building in the morning.  I moved quickly with my camera in hand to snap several shots off before he moved too far into the tree tops. The bottom pic looks like the mysterious BIG FOOT picture taken awhile back.  I laughed at how this monkey walked from one section of rain forest to the other.  Some people believe it's easy to spot wildlife, but I'd like to say that it's one of the most challenging things to do as an amateur photographer.  The wildlife is all around you, but you have to really look and listen to see all the wonderful critters.

My case in point.  Where is the monkey in the trees of this picture? 

Pic taken by my friend Jen Inboden

So why did Panama leave this island in such a pristine shape?  Quite simple.  They placed a penal colony here which accounts for a small portion of the islands deforestation.  The vegetation is growing back as the colony is shut down.  No more prisoners live here anymore.  You may think of this place as the "Alcatraz" of Panama.  Many people were afraid to come here because several prisoners had murdered locals who accidentally wandered onto the wrong island.  I'll tell that story in a few days.  But because Coiba Island had this reputation on the mainland of Panama, it was protected unintentionally by killers and murderers......with a positive outcome for Mother Nature and for human kind! A potential algae that grows around the waters has been recently discovered to fight cancer.

The island is large with flowing rivers full of animals.  It's difficult to get inside the interior and we had only scratched the surface.  One side was completely off limits as the tides and currents of the ocean made for a dangerous ride.  Instead, we were able to visit the calmer side of things within one of Panama's most beautiful and sacred coral reefs. Coiba Marine Park is considered one of the top ten reefs of our world.   Several smaller islands surround this larger one.  It's possible to have whale and dolphin sightings here.  While on this trip, I saw many large sea turtles swim around the reefs. And birding.....well, there's a lot of them to see here as well.   The beach above was an entrance to a secret trail full of old and twisty vegetation.  Monkeys had recently walked on the beach leaving their fresh tracks behind in the sand.

Not all rain forest is the same.  People want to know what primary or secondary forest means in person.  Well after walking around in primary pure virgen rain forest, I will never forget how incredibly cool it was.  Twisty gnarly vines connected mammoth trees together.  And there was a soothing presence about it all.

Iguanas galore on Coiba island. 

It's difficult picking out the massive amounts of green pics and determining which shot will be posted on the blog.  For me this post was the most difficult because I had to choose which pics best represented what I saw in the forests.  Here is an example of the viny ancient look of Coiba.  In fact, Coiba is known as one of the viniest rain forests on this Earth.  It has a unique look. 

It wasn't uncommon for vines to connect or take over entire trees.  Vines would come from the ground....the air.....water.......basically anywhere they could cross; they would. I loved the bark of this tree on the pic below.  Moss and lichens covered many of the trees in Panama which added a lovely green tone to the brown bark.

This is a saltwater crocodile below.  A special post will be released in November on this guy, but for now, here's a pic. What? You want more now?  How about a clip on him on the last day of the month?  I have a fantastic video showing this guy in all his glory on August 31st.  We had to be careful swimming in certain areas around the island.  These guys are pretty territorial so you won't find many concentrated in one area, but there are usually a couple lurking around the waters.  When we went swimming, we always kept our eyes open for floating logs because that's what they looked like in the ocean waters. 

Saltwater crocodile

This reptile fascinated me.  He also scared me a bit as I had never been close to one before.  I've seen alligators and caiman but nothing prepared me for the size of this creature....15 feet long!!

As I walked the beach, I noticed something in water.  I hadn't paid attention to the signs, but it stated that crocodiles live in these waters and that visitors should keep their eyes and ears open.  Traveller note. Always keep your eyes and ears open in wild national parks:)  Luckily I had followed that tip and spotted this guy in the water.  I had been snapping shots of birds in the mangroves nearby.  Crocodiles are fast. Traveller tip two.  If you should ever be chased by one on land, make sure you run zig zag. 

It wouldn't be right to post all these pics without including a shot of the agouti. Apparently, Coiba island has their own variety of this rodent, but I couldn't tell the difference. 

I'll have more shots and views for you from this amazing journey to Coiba Island and surrounding areas.  I think I have broken down the topics into some interesting areas that you'll find fascinating.  Some are on plants.  Some are on gardens.  And some are on reflection.  Either way, I hope you enjoy this mini series.  If you have the 500 to 600 dollars and time for this week stay, I  highly recommend it.  It isn't a trip for the faint of heart, but if you have energy and endurance, this place will capture you imagination.  Like Gamboa, it was difficult saying good-bye to an area not travelled by many people.  In fact, most Panamanians were excited that we were going to the island and stated that they wish they could visit.  Most travellers wanted to go but didn't have the money to do it....especially the backpackers.  Speaking of backpackers, we met two of them on this trip.  They went to Coiba on their own which was much cheaper, but they didn't have a guide or a way back.  It was difficult for them to get a view of the entire island and were limited to just a couple of trails from the ANAM station.  It was by luck that we came along and were able to bring them back to Santa Catalina.   I recommend a guide so that you get the full experience of the islands because it's a definite must see for your bucket list! PS.  Javier is a birder:) Until tomorrow....

http://www.casakenia.com/

LOST! in Gamboa

Sometimes magic happens when you least expect it.  We left Panama City and in 45 minutes time, we were taken back in time to the quiet community of Gamboa circa 1915.  The town was abandoned when the US turned the Canal over to Panama. Gamboa remains today a reminder of the past where Smithsonian scientists go to escape the City and some Panamanians remain to tell their stories.  A part of the Canal still functions as workers dredge the bottom of the river so vessels won't get stuck.  However, many of them don't stay in the town but instead take a bus back to Panama City. There are no real super markets except for the tiny shop behind the purple house near the bus station. There's really nothing here for urbanites and that's why the town is left alone.  So keep it secret; keep it safe:) Today's post is a fun one....pure fiction and stupidity on my part.  I didn't realize how special this place would be for me until it came time to go home. Imagine a bubble where time stopped and the ghosts of our past remained. While we were here, I was reminded of the TV series LOST!  Here is some evidence that we think created the inspiration for this show.

We were surrounded by lots of wildlife as this ghost town kisses the border to one of Panama's premier birding locations in the world.....the infamous Pipeline Road.  But iguanas weren't the only things we saw.....

We saw evidence that the "Others" lived in or near the Soberanía National Park.   It was eery to think that beyond the howler monkey situation, there were people watching us.  But it didn't stop there.....

Signs were barely visible behind all the vegetation indicating there may be some dangers lurking around us.....

The Smithsonian kept a research center on tropical plants that looked very much like the Orchid Station.....but where were the scientists?

Old structures on the verge of collapsing, which also included a Catholic church, were reminders that a civilization once lived here.

Apparently, super humans existed with great big muscles.  Were they still there?  Or were THEY "the Others" we had read about?  The back sign reads, "DEAD end".  Luckily we weren't attacked by these ball loving super human monsters.

These gorgeous Panama Canal homes just sat empty.  We tried to escape within them to protect ourselves from the race of agouti that had overrun the town, but we discovered that a lot of the wood had been rotten.  Staircases were dangerous to climb.  Therefore, we had to run elsewhere.....

Constant rain and lightening reminded us that it wasn't a good idea to remain too long on the empty streets.....

These homes had a lot of vultures around them waiting for some unsuspecting tourist to die.  NO ONE was around.....I wish I could really buy one of the old homes and fix it up. Can you believe that no one lives in them??  In the US, they would be purchased in a snap, but here in Panama they just sit.  Perhaps indications that there were crocodiles around waiting to eat humans........Best move on!!!

What is this????  The animal race known as the Agouti.  They were all over the city and today, they are the only living creatures you'll see around town. 

This is a dead leaf.  It was just cool to look at......

Final evidence that we were LOST! in Gamboa......a lighthouse full of bats!!!  Catch the video below to see the action pics......

Tomorrow we'll take a serious look at Soberanía National Park and the infamous Pipeline Road.