Date: 1/27/25 9:21 am From: Veer Frost <0000038039fb4cf6-dmarc-request...> Subject: Re: [VTBIRD] If you ever get the chance, this is an amazing spectacle each fall
This is brilliant, thank you!Veer
On 1/27/2025 at 10:22 AM, "Charlie Teske" wrote:Unprecedented Raptor Migration at Panama’s Canopy Tower - - January 17, 2025 - - Rosannette Quesada - - Articles Text by Cameron Cox
Cameron Cox at the Canopy Tower It was my privilege to be the last hawk counter in 2019 to count at Canopy Tower, before COVID changed the world. It was my great honor to be the hawk counter to revive the Canopy Tower/Semaphore Hill count in the fall of 2024. Canopy Tower is a special place and any time spent there is a joy, but for me to be able to experience the ebbs and flows of fall migration in such a special place, a deep feeling of privilege is the only way to describe it. The thing that has kept me enthralled with the world of birding and nature observation for many years is the fact that there is the potential to witness something incredible on any day in any place. However, special things, things that stay with you, happen most frequently in special places. Panama, a narrow land bridge connecting two vast landmasses in the heart of the highly ecologically diverse Neotropics, is special if only for its geography: every speck of land matters for the wildlife of an entire hemisphere. Canopy Tower is particularly special due to the views it offers, the surrounding forest, and the commitment to conservation that it embodies. Special things happen at Canopy Tower almost weekly, be it a bush covered in a variety of gem-like butterflies flashing and sparkling as they feed, a tree full of irate hummingbirds mobbing a completely unaffected Tiny Hawk calmly waiting for a living jewel to make its last mistake, or enjoying a front-row seat watching a mother sloth care for her baby with the most obvious pride and affection.
Broad-winged Hawk by Cameron Cox None of these things were why I was in Panama, they were merely bonuses. When the entire population of several species of raptors migrate from one continent to another twice per year, most funneling through the sliver of land we call Panama, the table is set for observers to witness a truly special natural event. My job, stationed at Canopy Tower, was to sort and put a number to this natural phenomenon. This season was the best example yet as to why Canopy Tower is a special place to experience breathtaking bird migration. In a record-setting season filled with highlights, the unquestioned highlight of all highlights occurred on October 15, when 345,681 raptors poured past me and a handful of delighted observers, the vast majority in the span of just 90 minutes! That number represents a season’s worth of raptors in some years and is unprecedented in the history of the Semaphore Hill hawk count. During this phenomenon, some moments felt as if the onslaught of hawks would sweep the Tower away with them in their hurry to reach their South American destinations! The total for the season was 655,386, easily breaking the prior record count of 524,884 set in 2018. Broad-winged Hawks led the charge with 398,971, breaking the prior record of 257,676, a truly impressive showing of this compact, Amazon-bound Buteo. Other new high counts for the Semaphore Hill count were Sharp-shinned Hawk at 5, an improvement on the prior record by 1; Merlin at 30, breaking the prior record of 21; and tying the prior Red-tailed Hawk record at 1. Second highest counts set this season were Turkey Vulture at 168,014, Swainson’s Hawk at 86,758, Peregrine Falcon at 104, and Osprey at 71. Due to some scheduling conflicts the count started later than normal, so the Mississippi Kite count was well below the most recent prior counts at 602, while Swallow-tailed Kite was only slightly below average at 13. I can only guess what a good kite migration would look like in September; I imagine thousands of these elegant raptors streaming over is magical. The combination of the late start and multiple rainouts due to tropical activity in the Caribbean resulted in a very low amount of time counting, just over 200 hours, while in 2019 it was over 300 hours. It was an interesting season, boom or bust: Besides the 345,681 day, I had four other days over 50 thousand, three days with counts between 10 and 20 thousand, and a bunch of days of a few thousand or fewer. Slow days for raptor counting can still be great days to look at Blue Cotingas, marvel at sloths, or watch Black Hawk-Eagles displaying over the forest. Time on the deck at Canopy Tower is never wasted.
Cameron Cox counting raptors at the Canopy Tower observation deck With all the insane migratory raptor flights I witnessed, all the beautiful tropical birds I was able to enjoy, and the unique tropical wildlife I was fortunate to observe, it was the value of Panama for North American breeding songbirds that most struck me this season. Eastern Wood-Pewee was the most omnipresent species throughout my stay; I was rarely out of earshot of a very vocal pewee and often four or five; likewise, Acadian Flycatchers were everywhere. Thrushes, particularly Swainson’s Thrush, poured through by the hundreds, and our beloved warblers of multiple species moved past the Tower in small wave after small wave. Familiar swallows flowed by like a chattering river. As goes the habitat in this slender land-bridge, so go the familiar summer birds of backyards and forests for North American birders: We are connected by this common bond of birds that are valuable to us all. Panama, for birders from temperate regions, is synonymous with exciting tropical species, and birding in Panama is synonymous with Canopy Tower and the other Canopy properties, for very good reason! Perhaps, though, we should expand our understanding of Panama and our thoughts on when to visit this jewel of a country to include the potential to see some of the best raptor migration of the planet. While we are at it, a trip to Panama can expand our understanding of familiar birds, in completely different habitats, thriving in tropical forests in ways we might not imagine—if we can see beyond trogons, cotingas, and toucans! Trogons, cotingas, and toucans though, and the excitement of the exotic, are well worth our attention as well. Panama has it all!
