Pipeline Road, Panama

 At 6 a.m. we boarded a mini bus with a very knowledgeable guide and headed to Parque Nacional Soberania which runs along the Panama Canal and the Pipeline Road, an unpaved track that goes for 17 kilometers through lush jungle.

Our first stop was a wetland known as the Ammo Dump, a leftover from WW2. It's now a thriving wetland with lots of birds.

 

Our first sighting was a Rufescent Tiger Heron sticking out of the green like a periscope.

And the sights in this open habitat just kept coming...

Muscovy Duck, preening.

Lesser Yellow-headed Vulture flyover, a rare sight in this part of Panama.

Two Purple Gallinule walking on top of the water vegetation.

Southern Rough-winged Swallows in a not so neat row on a power line.

Yellow-crowned Tyrannulet.

Thick-billed Seed Finch (female).

Yellow Warbler, a familiar springtime migrant back home. Now in Panama for winter.
 

Wattled Jacana.
 

The wetland was an excellent preview of coming attractions. We walked to the Pipeline Road up a small rise into jungle and some open land.

Here are most of what we saw on this amazing road...

Blue Dacnis.

Golden-collared Manakin (female).

Greater Ani, noisy, crow like birds.

Red-capped Manakin.

Red-throated Ant Tanager.

Rufous Motmot. That tail!

Social Flycatcher being social sharing a branch.

 

White-necked Puffbird.

Buff-throated Saltator.

Cinnamon Woodpecker.

Fasciated Ant-shrike.

Blue Dacnis (female).

Golden-hooded Tanager. Those colors!

Plain-colored Tanager with insect.

Squirrel Cuckoo.

While birding a group of White-faced Capuchin scrambled up into the tree tops, knocking dead branches to the ground.

 

And a Two-toed Sloth hung from a tree slowly observing the scene below.

A truly magical place with an incredibly lush ecosystem. It was honor to observe it for several hours.

Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal

 On Thanksgiving Day our ship sailed from the Western Caribbean Sea into the Panama Canal. The ship went through the Gatun Locks until it arrive in Lake Gatun. 

The land bordering the locks was ripe with birds!

 

Open spaces for raptors and flycatchers to get a meal as well as jungle for more secretive species. Here is a highlight of this wonderful morning and afternoon birding the locks of the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal.

Red-lored Amazons taking flight along the tree line.

Mangrove Swallow perched on the small ladder of a small barge.

 

Yellow-headed Caracara flying and enjoying its breakfast.

Brown Pelican number 20.

Great Kiskadee, male and female.

Greater Ani.

Little Blue heron with a  fresh meal.

Grey-breasted Martins on a tall light pole.

Southern Lapwing.

Tropical Kingbird.

American Kestral.

Tropical Mockingbird on the pool deck of Viking Mars.

Great birding from our ship, even birds on our ship! Fabulous day!