Costa Rica and Panama 1/5-18/2024

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

January 15; Gatun Lake, Panama

The ship set anchor in Gatun Lake last night, and we had three choices for outings this morning: 1. a boat ride to the mouth of the Chagres River with a hike on the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center trails; 2. a visit to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on Barro Colorado Island; 3. a Zodiac ride around Barro Colorado Island. Prior to our trip, I consulted with two of my birding friends, Allen Hale and Walt Childs, and both who had been there in the past, said to take option #1. So that was our original plan.

However, the evening before, the Lindblad activity manager said that option #1 involved a 45 minute bumpy ride each way on a motorboat. She also told me that some guests without back issues on previous trips complained about sore backs afterwards. Given Alice's major spine surgery in 2022, we decided that it wasn't worth taking a chance. Option #2 involved climbing multiple flights up and down steep stairs, so we choose option #3. That turned out to be a bad choice.

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Panama Canal

This morning, Alice wasn't feeling great, so she opted out of going on the Zodiac ride around Barro Colorado Island. I wasn't upset about missing option #1, and hoped to see lots of neat species on the Zodiac tour. This was the only time on the trip where Lindblad was not allowed to use NatGeo naturalists, and was required to have a research institute guide on the Zodiac.

Our guide was a young woman who had just completed her Ph.D. in marine biology (?). She spent the first 30 minutes on the Zodiac talking non-stop about Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute activities, the next 30 minutes talking non-stop about her Ph.D. research, and the last 30 minutes talking non-stop about research funding. Not once did she stop talking to point out any wildlife. The only times she commented on wildife were when either the NatGeo Zodiac driver or I interrupted her.

At one point, a Zodiac in front of us had pulled into a small cove, and I could see everyone pointing and looking at something. When that Zodiac pulled out, we pulled in, and our "naturalist" kept talking about her Ph.D. research. I finally interrupted her, mentioned that the previous Zodiac folks were looking at something there, and could she tell us was it might have been. She finally looked up and pointed at a Keel-billed Toucan that immediately flew away. We were lucky to relocate the Keel-billed Toucan later. Another time I saw some birds on a buoy and asked if they were Mangrove Swallows. She answered yes, but my photos show that they were Gray-breasted Martins.

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Gray-breasted Martins

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Limpkin

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Yellow-headed Caracaras (two photo composite)

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Yellow-headed Caracara

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Keel-billed Toucan

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Magnificent Frigatebird

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Mealy Parrots

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Crocodile

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Howler Monkey

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Blue-morpho Butterfly

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Unidentified ID:9582

At one point I saw an all yellow bird fly into the dense vegetation and disappear. I think that it was the underside of the bird, but it could have been its upper side. It was most likely a Yellow Warbler, but a Saffron Finch was also a possibility. Both species have been recorded there on eBird, but Yellow Warbler more frequently.

We returned the the Quest, and in the afternoon made our way through the gates of the last lock and into the Caribbean. There were lots of birds flying around, and more animals along the coast.

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Leaving the Panama Canal