Panama: Ammo Dump

The Ammo Dump, Pipeline Road, Old Gamboa Road: only a birder could find the romance in names like that! On our return from Chiriqui, we found not just the romance but the birds, lots and lots of birds, on what turned out to be one of the most exciting days of the entire Panama La Verde circuit.

It started with a fine Yellow-headed Caracara on the roadside, a species I’d first seen the day before over Los Quetzales. This one was obviously interested in the highway carnage of the night before, and simply flew up into the low vegetation when we stopped to admire it.

The Ammo Dump, a series of small ponds near the Canal, was a revelation.

Wily and elusive Wattled Jacanas wandered around at our feet, and both Green and Striated Herons were out in the marsh. An adult Rufescent Tiger-Heron flushed from the roadside and led us to a well-concealed stick nest, where a juvenile perched, teetering, on the edge. All of this took place under the weirdly watchful eyes of Greater Anis.

It had rained a bit early that morning, so there was lots of bathing and preening going on. Rusty-margined Flycatchers, wet and bedraggled, perched up close and obligingly revealed their wing-edgings, just in case there was any doubt.

And it went on and on, a new bird a minute. The biggest shock, one that left me so dumbfounded as to forget to use my camera, was a White-throated Crake blithely wandering across the road in front of our vehicle. It’s all about timing and luck, of course, but ours was right on that day!