The Melastome Eaters

Tomorrow morning we wrap things up here in Cerro Azul and head for the Canopy Lodge, where we will spend our last 4 nights in pure birding luxury before returning to San Francisco. So this morning (August 21), for our last birding hike in Cerro Azul (of this particular trip), we decided on the Maipo Trail. It goes right into Chagres National Park, and is teeming with birds, many of them the type we don't see in the less wild areas of C.A. Quite a few of the melastome trees were full of berries, and that's where we saw the most birds. Amongst the species eating these berries were Black-cheeked Woodpecker, Red-capped Manakin, White-ruffed Manakin, Olive Tanager (abundant, traveling in large flocks, and very noisy), Palm Tanager, Blue-gray Tanager, Fulvous-vented Euphonia, White-vented Euphonia, Bay-headed Tanager (abundant), Emerald Tanager, Speckled Tanager, Yellow-and-black Tanager, Scarlet-thighed Dacnis, Blue Dacnis, Green Honeycreeper, Shining Honeycreeper. Carlos has told us from the beginning that planting melastome trees is the way to go - we are believers.

Two of the Red-capped Manakins were in full display mode, landing on a branch with lowered heads, wings held at an angle, fluffing up their ruffs and shuffling sideways along the branch. Sorry - no video - but it was quite a sight to behold.

Elation Followed by Disappointment

Well, we went inside the second orange house on Monday afternoon (August 17) and we absolutely love it. The owner has taken amazingly good care of it - all the wood is sealed, the ceiling is finished, the main level has new tiles on the floor, the windows fit tightly, the upstairs wood loft floor does not creak and bounce like all the other loft floors we have walked on. Both bathrooms have hot water in the sinks and showers (not cold-water sinks and on-demand hot water heaters in the shower only, with wires hanging out every which way.) It has a lovely tiled terrace running the full width of the house. It has a large, solidly-constructed gazebo with electricity, a built-in grill, a tile counter and a sink. It is being offered for a good price, and includes all the furnishings except for the kiddie toys and swing sets and play house. We had high hopes.

When we came to Panama in mid-July, we did not expect that our 6-week stay would result in a house purchase. Then we started seeing what we thought were some pretty nice-looking and affordable houses. Then we saw this house and fell in love. We hired a civil engineer to walk through our favorite houses with us to share his professional observations, and found it to be a really valuable experience. We now look at every house through Dirk's eyes, and most of them have a lot more problems than we suspected before we learned some of the skinny from Dirk. He saw no major problems with this house, and only a couple of very minor ones (for instance, one of the rain gutters had fallen off and needed to be replaced.)

So Mayra, our excellent attorney, researched the details of the property, and although the title is clear, she discovered a little glitch that will most likely prevent us from buying this house. The possibility still exists that we can work something out, but we no longer have much hope that this will be our Panama home.

If this wonderful house is not meant to be our home, we will return to Panama in a few months and search anew. Our friends and contacts here in Cerro Azul tell us that houses come on the market often, and you do have to be here to find out about them, especially the unadvertised ones, as we have already learned. That's our plan.

Romeo y Julieta

Today (August 17) we took our first walk along the Romeo & Juliet trail. It leads to a waterfall, and I don't think we made it that far. I stopped at the creek crossing where the water would have gone over the tops of my shoes. Les went a little farther, and he doesn't think he was quite to THE waterfall either. The trail is steep and slippery at this season. Going down was treacherous, and coming back up made us huff and puff and sweat.

Although it was not terribly birdy, we came across some great birds. The usuals were present, and we crossed paths with a few fun flocks. We also had some nice looks at little groups of Gray-breasted Wood Wrens and Song Wrens. We were surprised to find 3 more lifers on the walk. First was 2 to 4 Spot-crowned Barbets with a flock of tanagers , honeycreepers and dacnis. Nice-looking birds, and only the second species of barbet we have seen. Short-billed Pigeons were the next lifer - we had to work long and hard to get a decent though distant view of what we thought was such a skittish species. Then on the way back, we got to within 25 feet of one feeding on berries in a nearby tree.

The third was definitely the most exciting find - a young Barred Forest-Falcon. Les spotted it fly down to the side of the trail, where it walked around in the grass for a few seconds, then stood still for a minute or two. Then it flew up to a low branch in a bush, where it sat for several minutes. Les got footage of this beautiful, honey-buff-colored bird inside the bush as it watched a butterfly fluttering nearby.

After a couple minutes of watching the butterfly, the little falcon caught and ate the butterfly, and then flew off into the forest. In the species account in A Guide to the Birds of Panama, Ridgely says the Barred Forest-Falcon "Follows swarms of army ants persistently, then often terrifying the other the small birds in attendance, though it captures mostly large insects, only occasionally going after a bird." Another book we like to use in Panama is The Birds of Costa Rica by Richard Garrigues.

A Double-edged Rainbow

Casas, casas, casas. Looking at them and thinking about them is mostly what we've been doing lately. We have been surprised and very happy with the combination of planning, coincidence and good timing that has broadened our network of connections here in Cerro Azul. Through the Internet (how, can anybody out there remind me, did we ever live without it??), we were fairly well-prepared to launch ourselves into the house-hunting project. We joined several yahoo group forums and combed through the archives and current posts for recommendations of real estate agents, lawyers, prices and warnings and such.

We already had a few friends here, mainly Carlos Bethancourt and Jose Soto (of Canopy Tower fame.) Once we were here in C.A., we (mostly Les) started talking to anyone and everyone we met. But I made a few contacts too, and remembered some people from our December trip when we just happened to see them up here. Panama is a small country, and everyone knows everyone, we keep hearing. It's turning out to be true. Word got around in the ex-pat community that we were hunting; from them we received tips on a few un-listed houses, and also leads on reliable contractors. We met gardeners, who connected us up with several houses for sale that were listed nowhere - not even a "se vende" sign on the fence. It really is who you know, not what you know.

Our real estate agent Yolanda, of Las Olas Properties, has been fantastically wonderful. She is a Woman of Action! On each trip up to C.A. to show us houses, she has brought along her husband Sergio. They are a great team - he offers pertinent observations and advice as we walk through the houses and around the lots. On Saturday, August 15th, Yolanda brought Sergio and her two children, Fernando and Sophia, all pictured here.

So today (August 16), after the early-morning fog lifted, and after he had fed the birds their breakfast bananas, Les pointed out a rainbow. He said it was a good omen, since we were to look at a couple more houses with Yolanda this afternoon.

We already had 3 favorites amongst the houses we had been inside, but felt we should view a few more before deciding on one. Today we looked at one more - the habitat was beyond wonderful - nary a pine tree on the lot. It was the only lot we have looked at that had nothing but native trees. We saw our lifer Scarlet-thighed Dacnis there a couple weeks ago, and Yolanda had contacted the owner, who sent his gardener over to open the place up for us. Every time Les and I went there (about 5 times since the Scarlet-thighed discovery), great birds were around - Violaceous Trogon, Masked Tityra, Streaked Flycatchers, Buff-throated Saltators, hordes of tanagers and honeycreepers. The house has a nice paint job on the outside, but heavy drapes over all the windows, so we had no idea about the inside. Today we gained access, and it was awful. Dank and dark upstairs - three rooms full of who-knows-what, since there were blankets and comforters covering the head-high stacks of whatever. On the main level was a tiny and sad-looking little kitchenette and living space, dark and in poor condition. We also heard through friends that residents in this area (the Frente district of C.A.) had not been able to obtain phone service, despite months of attempts. That's a deal-breaker for us - we must have our Internet.

Then we went back to what we have been calling Casa Roca (the Rock House.) We really like it. Rock walls, mucho character and personality, a lot of potential. But it would need a lot of work. No hot water in the bathrooms except the on-demand hot water in the showers, unknown if there is hot water in the kitchen, probably would need electrical re-habbing, bathroom on the main level needs to be completely redone. Could we endure the construction and rehab? We're not sure.

As we were leaving Casa Roca, Arturo, the gardener for Casa Roca, came along and told us that he had yet another house to show us, but not until Monday the 17th. From the outside, it looked clean and well-maintained, in great condition, and other than the bright orange paint job (popular up here in C.A.) we liked the looks of it. We will report on it later. He also showed us another FSBO (for sale by owner) home, which was in the most perfect condition we have yet observed. No mold, no peeling paint, no bugs anywhere inside, completely finished ceilings, tasteful wall colors and tiles, beautiful inside and out, perfect move-in condition. But it was surrounded too closely by large, somewhat ostentatious homes, some with indoor dogs that barked a lot, and we felt closed in when we were outside. The lot was kind of small, so there was no buffer zone. We want to have windows and doors open so we can enjoy our yard and the birds and the sounds - this perfect house was probably not for us.

A couple days ago we thought our top three choices were #1- Casa Roca; #2- a little orange house (Casa Naranja #1) on a mostly pines lot in move-in condition but nothing exciting; and #3- one we call Casa Termita (saw a few termite trails on the outside of the walls - but the habitat on the lot was great and the house was cute.) Now we had to think about #4- the Perfect House that we'd all but rejected, but it was within our price range and so perfect, and #5- the potentially great Casa Naranja #2 that we had not been inside. Decisions usually come easy for us - the right choice is so obvious. But now we have almost too many choices - any one of them could be the right one.

Onward.

A Couple More Terrace Birds

Three-Toed Sloth © George Griffeth 2009

Ok, the picture isn't of a bird. But, our amigo Jorge captured the essence of Three-toed Sloth. And we saw one yesterday from the terrace. Today (12 August 2009) we saw our first Squirrel Cuckoo in C.A., and it was just 10 feet off our terrace. A Thick-billed Euphonia chased it away, but not before we had a good view.

Also today we finally saw Swallow-tailed Kites from the terrace - we saw them every day we were at the big house on Castillo. We don't know why they don't pass over this house more often - there are plenty of odes for them.Vultures are also in short supply over this plot on C.A. Additional species for our Terrace list (since the original Terrace post)include Scaled Pigeon, White-tipped Dove, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Lesser Greenlet, Masked Tityra, Tropical Gnatcatcher, Buff-throated Saltator.

Gecko Feeder

Last night (11 August 2009) while climbing the spiral staircase to our internet room I spied something moving on the hummingbird feeder. Cindy held the flashlight while I shot videotape. There are several geckos around (but not in, so far as we've noticed) the house, but this is the first we've seen indulging in agua con azucar (sugar water). Hope she finishes off with a tasty gnatty tidbit.

Tayra and Mantid

The past couple of days we've done a little of this & a little of that, without much to report. Yesterday a short walk on one of the trails in the forest was fun, with nothing unusual, but we did meet up with a couple of large, fast-moving passerine flocks that challenged us - they were in the highest tree-tops and we were on the ground. It was fun, and walking through the tropical forest continues to amaze us. There is just so much to see, discover, hear, and try to identify.

Today we were driving back up the hill toward C.A. when I saw a Tayra (Eira barbara) on a hillside. He was headed for the road (which he crossed after Les screeched to a halt so we could watch this beautiful beast) and then he disappeared into the forest. He was very dark brown or black, without the lighter-colored head they attain when older. We were really excited - our first mustelid in Panama!

This afternoon Les spotted a really cool mantid on the terrace. It's about 3 inches long and looks like leaves - see Les's video. We think it is a Hooded Mantis. It was walking toward the shade of the terrace. When it came to the wall of the house it began searching for footholds and made it up about two feet before falling back down. It sat for a few moments and then continued on it's walk.