Hello readers, July was still a month of many immature birds, but especially in the third week of July, I saw many birds molting, which means their song is diminishing, they're more subdued and there's more hiding. Except for the birds that still have loudly begging babies. For seed-eaters, this July is a time of abundant seed and for these birds, there's more song and courtship. So yes, I'm often found in open fields during this time. The hummingbirds in our garden are happy. Thanks to the rain and sunshine, there are plenty of flowers, so the feeders aren't really necessary. That will change in a few weeks when the weather gets wetter. Although due to climate change...I don't know anymore...the "weather" is acting strange here in Boquete too. We've often had summer weather... often a northerly wind, which is actually more noticeable in December, January, February, and March.
I've had plenty of time to watch birds for at least two hours every day... on our other farm and here on the farm. I've been out to other areas a few times. My highlight was definitely the immature Potoo. I went a few times with Hans and also with Ann. You've seen that I've already mentioned this Potoo in my blog. It's fun to see the feathers changing; the wings are longer, and the tail is longer. She/he will soon fledge. I happened to go and see her/he a few days ago, and she/he was still sitting on her/his perch.
Another July highlight was walking around our other farm when I suddenly saw a uniformed Crake flying into a tree. Never seen one on the farm before. I didn't have my camera with me, but I took a picture with my phone. Pretty special!
It was also remarkable to see an older, immature orange-billed nightingale thrush chased away a younger one(same nest)from our feeding platform. It was quite intense and harsh, actually... even though the parent seemed to be okay with it... but now I'm humanizing it a bit :)
On my Youtube channel is also a video of the two immatures.
And of course I did go a few times higher up in the mountains...a cute black faced Solitair juvenile, perching in between her /his food...berries:
And from our balcony with my scope I took a picture of the adult streaked Saltator feeding immature.
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I did go to the continental divide, hope to go tomorrow again...maybe a few highlights for my next story of August 2025!! :)
On the last picture the yellow throated Toucan, always nice to see them...
The alarm calls you hear are from the gray-breasted Wood-Wrens.
The scaly breasted Wrens are mostly very shy, but probably I was passing their nest side or their area, in July they are very active, a lot of nice high note songs you will hear in the forest, but to see them is another thing. But when you have a lot of patience and wait..sometimes you will see them
New story of the month July will come soon in this blog.
Time flies by and June 2025 has slipped through my fingers. Almost every day I went out with my binoculars, often on the farm, but also outside the farm. No big day trips, because we are busy on the farm with doing chores. June is the month of the immatures. Everywhere you hear the squeaking of newly fledged young. The parents are busy looking for food, often with young noisy baby birds flying behind and around them. Every year I notice that the busiest times for fledging are late afternoons around 4pm. In June it often rains heavily that time. Don't always see the logic in it. You often see such a small baby bird squeaking in the rain asking for food. How many birds survive that.? Why not fly out early in the morning, then the sun often shines and more food can be found. Maybe the reason is that there are few active enemies in the rain?
Yes, after all these years of birdwatching I am still full of questions without really satisfying answers...
Two days I was birdwatching the whole day. One Day was with my friend Ann, we went to a "new"city park in the town David. It was very nice. The park is not finished yet and that makes it that some areas are pretty wild and so good for birds. This nest of a rufous and white Wren was made in a brush of very big spines..with in the spines ants who can bite bad..when you disturb them . A very safe place for the birds...apparently it is a great symbiosis. The name of the brush is Bullhorn acacia. The spines are home to ants that protect the plant also from herbivory.
Another day I did go to a big farm high up in the mountains, the owners of the farm are big coffee growers, but the biggest part of the farm is protected area and even a part of it is nacional park.
It is so great of the owners that I can go there and see the birds and wild life. When I see something special I always let them know that. Did see good birds including juvenile Quetzales. Did hike from1850m altitude to 2750m altitude. My highlight was this cute immature buffy Tuftedcheek...
Super cute! I was sitting for 1,5 hour just there on the level of 2750 m in the clouds..cold and happy!
On the way back I did see 4 resplendent Quetzales , one of them was a juvenile Male.
and I felt on a certain moment that somebody was staring at me...love this picture:
SO cloud forest!
On another morning trip did see on the Quetzal trail a lot of immatures prong billed Barbets. One was just fledged...
and a whole family...
a cute immature white throated Mountain Gem
Last June week I took these pictures that I do like to share with you...one from our balcony a juvenile white-naped Brush-Finch :
And a nice very young female collared Trogon (orange bellied) on 1850 meters altitude ...
Well July is already arrived and that means that still birds...like Seedeaters / Grassquits / Sparrows / Tinamous / Woodrails are nesting and here on the farm a lot of singing orange-billed Nightingale Thrushes . No songs any more from clay colored Thrushes and white throated Thrushes.
I do see a lot of juvenile clay colored Thrushes and white Throated Thrushes, they look messy with their not really adult plumage.
And last but not least...the highlight of the month was a Sunbittern in our stream on the farm. Not a new bird for me but yes new for the farm and a nice thing was also that I heard his call...that was new for me!
This was my story of the month June 2025...up to new bird stories!
We booked last minute, this because we did not know what was going to happen in the world.
(still not....)(politics, wars)
But we took the chance and did see most of our family and friends and the Dutch birds of course.
We decided to stay nearby our family (nearby Amsterdam), so we could save time and did not loose too much time with travel.
This time earlier in the spring time, so that's why I start this story with the Eurasian Linnet. She was my champion in singing this year in the Netherlands.
I did have a few highlights of course..did see for the first time in my life a huge group of common Sandpipers. They breed in much of northern Europe and Siberia, and pass through the Netherlands in large numbers during migration.
You need to enlarge the photos a bit, but wanted to post them anyway. Had to zoom in quite a bit. These photos were taken in the "Waterleidingduinen" ..dunes... in North of Netherlands.
The goose is a Canada Goose, they are common...more and more.
We witnessed a fight between two Buzzards in a creek. I was filming it...but while filming I had had enough. It got ugly, stopped filming and we walked away...on the way back we saw one of the birds lying dead in the water. I had never heard of it and looked it up to see if it ever happened...this was the answer... Buzzards are territorial and protect their territory, which sometimes leads to fights with other buzzards or other birds of prey, but deadly fights are rare.
On a happier note.. it was quite a while ago that I saw a gray Wagtail, this was in Denekamp on the German border. At the same spot we saw two different Flycatchers. Both are migrants and had probably just arrived. They were singing at the top of their lungs!
a gray Wagtail male
spotted Flycatcher
European pied Flycatcher
In the middle of Amsterdam suddenly in a tree an Eurasian Goshawk:
What struck me is that I saw very few black-tailed Godwits (Grutto). Spoke to a gentleman who fixed my binoculars👌 He told me that he often goes out with his boat...and that he had only seen one black-tailed Godwit in the area so far, where normally many more can be seen. It was also super dry in the Netherlands, almost no rain fell and to this day still not enough rain.
Anyway... for sure there were also a lot of nice birds to see... my best pictures:
gray Heron (blauwe Reiger)
Mute Swans (Knobbelzwanen)
eurasian collared Dove (Tortelduif)
Egyptian Goose (Nijlgans)
European Robin (Roodborst)
white Stork (Ooievaar)
graylag Goose (grauwe Ganzen)
Barn Swallow (Boerenzwaluw)
common Moorhen (Waterhoen)
I did notice also that more and more people in the Netherlands are interested in Birds👍
Did see more Dutch people with binoculars. I notice that also in Panama... more Dutch people are
interested in birdwatching :)
The nice part of the Netherlands ..it is flat... no mountains, so easy😊😊
my sis with her binoculars
Me watching birds on 'Landje van Gruijters"
Me watching birds in "Buitenplaats Leyduin"
Me in heaven.. "in het Wormer- en Jisperveld"
early morning (6.30am) in Heemstede
I have the idea that the people who live in this house
are bird lovers 😍😍
And then ...the 9th of May 2025 we did arrive at home in Boquete Panama...and the next day it was
Global Big Day and so at 6am I was counting birds, starting on our farm and did go to two other areas and counted until 7pm.
Totally different world and of course a jetlag. But that was no problem..
I was SO awake, thanks to the many birds and the whole day great weather!!!
The highlights of this day were an immature emerald Toucanet..just fletched.
And a group of three wattled Bellbirds Juveniles were displaying.
I do have videos of both highlights, will post them on my Youtube channel.
Here some pictures of the GBD 2025, Panama is by the way nr. 7 on the GBD world list, everywhere
in Panama.. birdwatchers were counting birds..a lot of new birdwatchers, mostly very young people!
immature emerald Toucanet just fletched
not birds but I love this kind of encounters
a Bat Falcon in front of her nest
Okay not the best Picture of a resplendent Quetzal
tufted Flycatcher
almost 7pm and 161 birds further and ready for a cup of coffee 😉
So this was the month of May..up to the next month!
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