Friday, March 03, 2017

Panama Canal area - Summit Hotel

Given we'd seen a lot of wildlife in and around the hotel already and our ongoing need to work through our various illnesses, we decided to spend the morning and afternoon birding the grounds and trails of the hotel.

After an early breakfast we walked towards the trail spotting this Coati Mundi foraging in the grass alongside the golf course:


As you enter the trail there's no real transition, one minute it's golf course, the next minute it's forest.

We saw Yellow-rumped Cacique:


And a new one for us, Hooping Motmot, this is a new species classification so was a lifer for us:


We also saw Fasciated Antshrike, they are a stunning small to medium bird:


The trail ends abruptly on a train line.  It's seen better days, a lot of the signs are over and/or rotting but it did prove an interesting trail to explore.

Back out in the grounds we also saw Yellow-bellied Elaenia:


And this weird flower/fruit arrangement on one of the native trees:


In the afternoon we walked further around the grounds (including a few spots we weren't supposed to but there were very few golfers it being the start of the week), seeing Southern Lapwing:


A Tropical Mockingbird gathering nesting material:


A Thick-billed Euphonia checked us out:


From the road heading down to the entrance there's quite a productive patch, we added Blue Dacnis:


A Palm Tanager fresh from bathing:


and back in the trees outside our room, Tamarind Monkeys screeched their way about:



It really is a very good spot for birding, dare i say it, probably the most productive we found in the canal area, though I gather there are better spots you really do have to pay substantially to access them.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home