Whew, what a fun day! This was my second time birding October Big Day with Lukas Bell, a great birder, guide and a wonderful friend. Last year we did the Changuinola Canal with the legendary Beny Wilson and I met my now beloved captain Enrique who knows his birds, is an indigenous guide and speaks fluent English (few and far between in the world of the Ngäbe). Enrique deserves his own post where I will interview him and speak myself about how fortunate and honored I am to guide with him and the fantastical experiences we’ve shared out in nature together. Having met him a full year ago, we’ve had the fortune to have done many a canal trip together, now into my second season of independent guiding through BocasBiodiversity.com!
I rode my bike at sunrise along the Caribbean coastline to meet Lukas at the Big Creek Reservoir where I found him with Arturo and his children, Adrian (11ish) and Manuela (5 or 6ish?). I’m beyond excited because immediately I notice how determined and patient his little boy is at finding birds and his father describes him as a dedicated nature lover. And it’s obvious where he got that, his father Arturo is a birder but his main passion are plants and their medicinal uses. While birds was the focus for the day I still managed to get an idea of the the immense knowledge this young man held.
Speaking with Arturo, I explained about what Bocas Biodiversity is, much more than just an ecotour operation, but rather what I like to describe as “putting this gringa out of a job” because the true guides of Bocas del Toro are the indigenous Ngäbe of these lands and the Afro-Caribbean locals who’ve been here for generations. If I can get young people pumped about birds and nature (not always easy) I will do everything to help bolster them and widen their knowledge base, knowing they already have incredible value simply because of their hawk-eyes that can find even the most hidden of sloth or cryptic-colored bird that’s practically invisible to the gringo eye, jajaja.
So my goal is to help up-and-coming eco-guides that already hold innate skill in that they can show you everything with their incredibly sharp eyes perfect for spotting wildlife which in itself gives locals & indigenous a huge step up, but that I can help them to practice and improve English such that they can name the different species they find and show guests, including our wide array of bird species, in English. It’s a shame that in order to become a guide, English is highly necessary as the majority of tourists who come to Bocas del Toro don’t speak Spanish.
Upon meeting Arturo and his family I felt such a huge boost because he and his son are well on their way to being star guides should they so choose and it seems that Arturo is indeed interested in working together, along with his keen little boy. I love how October Big Day seems to be sending me wonderful possibilities in the way of working with the indigenous locals and creating long lasting relationships.
Okay, what were we talking about? Oh yea, October Big Day 2024! Jajaja, you can tell where my heart lies, right in amongst the truest locals of Bocas del Toro and all that potential that is just bursting at the seams.
To learn more about this most important facet of Bocas Biodiversity click on the image below!
To read more about my work with helping promote young local ecoguides, visit my GoFundMe page and should you feel that you would like to help support my goal to help Bocas del Toro be purely local, ECO-guides.
So back to October Big Day..I get a little off track when it comes to doing what I can to support young nature lovers! So as I mentioned ages ago, we started out at the reservoir and kicked off the day with a Black Hawk-Eagle that landed in a palm for some far off but thrilling views as it showed off that impressive blotchy white crest. Young Adrian dutifully searched out the calling olive-crowned yellowthroat for us. A Green Ibis perched high in a dead tree looking across at a Ringed Kingfisher looking right back at it and an Anhinga was fishing, it’s non existent head and long bill sticking out of the water like a vine snake, something wiggly hanging from its mouth.
Next we birded Lukas’ garden and neighboring trail for a time, the Sulphur-Bellied Flycatcher showed up, a less common flycatcher that’s always exciting to see and easily confused with the Streaked Flycatcher which also is a possibility. For the beak size, rich rufous tail and what very well seems to be a sulphur belly leans me in the Sulphur-bellied direction.
The garden was brimming with birdlife and we got a lot of our common species coming to the feeders and the strategically planted fruiting and flowering trees and bushes.
The warblers and other migratory birds heading south for the winter are arriving, we had a beautiful little Veery, Swainson’s Thrushes (pictured), Chestnut-sided Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Bay-breasted Warbler, Prothonotary, Tennessee, Canada Warblers, Summer and Scarlet Tanagers, Baltimore Oriole, Red-eyed Vireo..all birds I grew up with each year joining me down here in the tropics. I love migration.
We hiked the trail, it’s a beautiful hike, one peppered with HUGE mature, fruiting trees. A Keel-billed Toucan peered down at us from high and the howler monkeys seemed to always be overhead, luckily not throwing anything on us!
From La Igriega we drove across the island to Boca del Drago where we got lunch and waited for a Brown Booby to show up which, invariably, one did being that we’re much closer on this side to the open sea that a ways out is their nesting island Swan’s Key or Isla de Pajaros. We had lunch at Yaris Noris (highly recommended!) and reflected on our day’s “work” and enjoyed the sea breeze that the Royal Terns bounced upon.
On my bike ride back to my house I stopped at Playa Isthmus to pick up a number of shorebirds skittering along the beach. The Semipalmated Plovers and Semipalmated Sandpipers were plentiful, I had a handful of Black-bellied Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones, a few lone Least Sandpipers and a Willet.
Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover and Semipalmated Sandpiper
It was simply a wonderful day and now I can say I have some new friends just as in love with nature as me. I’m a thankful lil’ gringa.
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