Birthday Bird Watching

In amongst all our adventures, I had a birthday.  No, I’m not going to tell you how old I turned.  I'm just going to say OLD.  Inspired by our line handlers, who eagerly watched the birds fly by and could name each and every one, we decide to go on a bird watching tour at the Soberania National Park for my birthday.

Bright and early at 5am, we get up and make our way to the main street to await the tour bus.  A white van pulls up, and after a stumbling spanish discussion with the driver to check we had the right bus, we jump in.

A 45 minute bus ride later, and we are at the National Park.  First stop, the Canopy Tower.

picture care of www.thevisitorpanama.com

We walk up a tremendous amount of stairs to the very top of the tower to take in the view.  I don't know what I was expecting.  Probably something like the movie Avatar where birds and wildlife would be sweeping past us at close range, colourful birds with large beaks coming to sit on my outstretched hand.   At the top of the tower, well I could see a lot of trees...  I could make out a brown blob fairly close by, that with my cameras zoom revealed a howler monkey.

But the main thing I wanted to see on the tour, and had informed the tour guide as much, was a Toucan.  Our tour guide pulls out his telescopic lens and points it at a distant hill.  "Here" he calls me over and instructs me to look through the lens.  And yes, there was a brightly coloured Toucan on the other side.  I pull back and try to find where the lens is pointed, to see the bird with my own eyes.  I just can't make out where they possibly might be.  There in the far distance I can see a tree with no leaves.  With my cameras zoom I can make out that there are birds on the tree, possibly Toucans.  

We do see a number of small, sparrow sized birds close by covering many colours of the rainbow.

Down from the tower, my legs now resembling the consistency of jello, we embark on a walk through the bush, to a pretty pond.  I look out for crocodiles, but alas, see none.

We continue to walk on for another hour or so, finally completing our circle back to the visitors centre.  As we walk up the path we hear the loud flapping of wings.  On the deck of the visitors centre, we see strange plastic contraptions with tens of humming birds coming to drink from them.

Another tour group arrives, this time with an unusual pet in tow.  The local tour guide has domesticated a racoon as her furry friend.  I go in for a weary cuddle.

After 3 hours of trekking, I am relieved to see our tour bus close at hand.  The tour guide has other plans and leads us back down the road we drove down, to see more birds.  This part of the track apparently holds the world record for the most species of birds seen within a 24 hour period.  

As we walk the guide makes amazingly realistic bird sounds, and we hear the birds around us replying.  Every so often, the guide would just stop, point the telescope at a distant tree where there would be a pretty bird.  Through only the use of the human eye, we could barely make out that there was even a bird in that direction, mostly they just looked like a leaf on a tree to us. We took a few pics of the birds that were close enough for our camera's zoom to make out.

We make it home late afternoon, quite weary.  I am treated to a dinner at the local Lebanese Restaurant and attempt to say things like "hummus" and "falafel" in Spanish, which puts emphasis on different vowels.  We manage to order something which looks great when it arrives.  

A fun day out, but now back to boat preparations!