El Tucán—The Toucan. Vol. 32, No. 2. Abril 2009

El Tucán 32(2). Abril de 2009. 1

Órgano oficial de la Sociedad Audubon de Panamá.Volumen 32, número 2. Abril de 2009.the toucan

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Gira a Coiba

Rafael Luck

Obituary: Gary Lee VaucherWhat happened to the Field

Editor’s Report?The Bay of Panama is now officially a Protected Area

2 El Tucán 32(2). Abril de 2009.

El Tucán—The ToucanEl Tucán es publicado trimestralmente por la Sociedad Audubon de Panamá y se distribuye en nuestra página web. El Editor es Darién Montañez ([email protected]). Cualquier contribución escrita es bienvenida, en inglés o español, de preferencia artículos que traten sobr la avifauna de Panamá, la conservación del ambiente u otros temas similares. Si se in-cluye el nombre del autor, el artículo refleja las opiniones de quien lo escribe; en caso contrario, el Editor asume responsabilidad por el artículo. También estamos siempre en busca de fotografías para ilustrar los artículos, idealmente de aves, idealmente tomadas en Panamá.

Conferencias MensualesEl segundo jueves de cada mes, la Sociedad Audubon de Panamá organiza una conferen-cia en el Salón Las Oropéndolas del Parque Natural Metropolitano a las 6:30 pm. Durante estos evento también se anuncian nuestras giras y otras actividades.

Upcoming Panama Audubon Society Fieldtrips

Casa #2006-B, Llanos de Curundu Ciudad de Panamá. Apartado 0843-03076, Rep. de Panamá.Teléfono/fax (507) 232-5977www.panamaaudubon.org [email protected]

Sunday, May 3 Beginners’ Bird Walk at the Metropolitan Nature Park

May 22–24 Caribe Occidental, Bocas del Toro

Sunday, May 31 Carretera a Darién and Lago Bayano

Sunday, June 7 Beginners’ Bird Walk at the Metropolitan Nature Park

June 12–14 Yaviza and El Real, Darien

Saturday, June 20 11th Evening of Owls, Wine and Cheese

Sunday, July 5 Beginners’ Bird Walk at the Metropolitan Nature Park

July 17–19 Santa Fe National Park

Sunday, July 26 Summit Ponds, Old Gamboa Road

For more information on any of these trips or to reserve a spot contact the PAS office. Some fieldtrips are for PAS members only.


Obituary:Gary Lee VaucherBill AdsettGary Vaucher, who died tragically on Febru-ary 19 when the helicopter he was piloting crashed at Tocumen, was a stalwart mem-ber of the Panama Audubon Society (PAS), who served over the years as President, Vice-President, Editor of The Toucan News-letter and Compiler of the annual Pacific Area Christmas Bird Count. In all these roles, and as a great observer and recorder of Panamanian avifauna and wildlife in general, Gary made enormously important contributions to our Society and to Panama as a whole.

PAS was formerly a chapter of Florida Audubon Society in the US. Believing that PAS should be a Panamanian organization and not just an offshoot of a US one, Gary, as Vice-President at the time, was the driv-ing force in having the Panama Audubon Society converted into an independent Panamanian non-governmental organiza-tion with its own by-laws and identity. The importance of this visionary step cannot be exaggerated. Our Society “came of age”, becoming fully identified with the Republic

of Panama, and as a result it survived the many trials and changes of the past 25 years. Gary’s work in converting PAS into a Panamanian organization assured its future and ensured that it became the force for knowledge and conservation in Panama that it is today.

For many years Gary was the compiler of the Pacific Side Audubon Christmas Bird Counts, in those heady days when Panama regularly counted more species than any other count in the Americas (and was thus relegated to a separate part of the annual bird count reports in order to avoid embar-rassment to puny US counts)!

But arguably the greatest long-term contri-bution Gary made to SAP and to Panama as a whole was the translation into Spanish of Bob Ridgely’s and John Gwynne’s, Guide to the Birds of Panama. Until 1993, the vast majority of Panamanians—those who did not have a good command of English—had no access to information on Panama’s extremely diverse avifauna. Bob Ridgely was keen to rectify this and obtained rights and grants to enable translation and pub-lishing of his book in Spanish. Gary took on the mammoth (unpaid) task of organ-izing and overseeing the completion of the translation. Julieta De Diego de Fábrega

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was the translator and Belkys Jiménez was her assistant (see Julieta’s own tribute to Gary at www.ellasvirtual.com/article.asp?seccion=5&edition=28).

The job proved to be much, much tougher than expected, and as Gary wrote in his introduction to the Spanish edition, great difficulties arose because many specialized terms, names and concepts that appeared in the English text had no direct equivalent in Spanish. There was also the prickly ques-tion of what system to use for translating birds’ names, since most species had no approved names in Spanish at all (a prob-lem that persists to this day), while garden and open area species familiar to Panama-nians had colloquial names that in other parts of Latin America (and even in different parts of Panama) were used for completely different species! But Gary and his team slogged on year after year to get the job done; the Spanish version of the book was published in 1993. At last Panamanians could get a high-quality and complete de-scription of their country’s birds in their own language. Dr Ridgely, on hearing of Gary’s death, wrote: “Indeed I will always be grateful to Gary for taking the bull by the horns and see-ing the translation of Birds of Panama through to completion. It was a labor of love for all con-cerned, and I think we can all agree that it has had its desired impact.” The publishing of the book in Spanish caused an explosion of lo-cal interest in and awareness of birds, their habitats and conservation that has become stronger and stronger over the years.

These were only some of Gary’s achieve-ments when he was active in Audubon. But they do not adequately describe the person Gary was. Quite simply, Gary loved to be outdoors in Panama, and he had a total communion with its wildlife. He made great contributions to the knowledge of bird habits, distribution and calls in Panama. He could recognize nearly every bird just by its call and knew exactly where to find it.

In later years we did not see so much of Gary because he was so active in other outdoor pursuits. But at his funeral and memorial service I was struck by how many people emphasized that when they needed help and advice, Gary would always be there and with great patience, generosity and thoroughness would ensure that he passed on his knowledge to others. That was indeed my own experience when I started birding; I could always call on Gary to help me iden-tify species I had seen or heard.

One of my best memories of birding with Gary was when he asked me to show him the Speckled Antshrike Xenornis settifrons in Cerro Azul. Strangely, it was the only time I knew him to make a mistake in bird identi-fication. That antshrike was one of the very few Panamanian land birds that Gary had never seen, mainly because it lives in just a few almost inaccessible places in Eastern Panama and a small area of Colombia. It was a terrible day for birding, wet, gloomy and the trail was steep and muddy. All birds with any sense were sheltering out of sight. After about half an hour standing staring into the mist, Gary pointed out two “White-whiskered Puffbirds” that had been invisible to the rest of us mere mortals. They were sitting quietly a few feet in front of us. And then he took a second look and nearly slid off the trail. The “puffbirds” were a pair of Speckled Antshrikes, virtually the only birds we saw that day. Gary had got his “lifer”. The Xenornis sat on their branch for a few minutes, and then flew off into that won-derful, beautiful and enigmatic forest that will be the home of them and their like for eternity, if mankind permits. Fly with them, Gary.

Gary is survived by his widow Daisy. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to her and to Gary’s family. Daisy has been kind enough to request that donations be made to the Panama Audubon Society in remembrance of Gary’s life and work.


Gira a Coiba,enero de 2009Rafael LuckDespués de haber esperado por aproxi-madamente dos meses finalmente salió la expedición hacia Coiba, el día jueves 22 de enero del 2009. Recordemos que dicha gira estuvo programada originalmente para noviembre del 2008, pero por un asunto de mal tiempo tuvo que ser cancelado. Los atrevidos aventureros sumaron 12 personas incluyendo a Darién y Delicia Montañez, Claudia y Bill Ahrens, Tony y Linda Ward, Charlotte Elton, Joan Godrun, Itzel Fong, Maribel Ortíz, Rafael Luck y el superguía Venicio Wilson.

Es importante mencionar que el objectivo del pajareo en este trip era ubicar a las aves endémicas del area, Colaespina de Coiba y Paloma de Coiba. Las Guacamayas Rojas y otras también se reportarían. Hubo un pedi-do especial de fotografiar al lagarto del area conocido como Tito y al ñeque de Coiba.

El grupo clave que llevaba la comida y al guía estrella se fue en el Suzuki Vitara macho (preguntar a Itzel) conducido por el suscrito, saliendo como a las 8 pm de la ciudad y llegando cerca de medianoche al hotel Gran David en Santiago, Veraguas, donde la mayoría de los participantes se hospedaron.

Muy temprano al día siguiente y después de un abundante y económico desayuno sa-limos en caravana hacia la playa El Banco, muy cerca de la famosa playa Santa Cata-lina. El camino fue de aproximandamente dos horas y media desde Santiago, y en unas condiciones bastante aceptables. No era necesario usar un 4X4 macho y cual-quier sedán hubiera llegado.

Playa El Banco resultó ser un lugar especta-cular por su belleza: playa de arena ama-rilla, ensenada con pocas olas, pequeños islotes. Uno de los lugares más hermoso de la costa Pacifica de Panamá, poco conocido a nivel nacional y por lo tanto con muy poca gente alrededor. Hay una cabañas que se pueden alquilar frente a la playa.

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El capitán Pedro nos estaba esperando con un bongo de 24 pies y un motor Yamaha de 90 caballos bastante nuevo. La embar-cación salió aproximadamente a las 11 am hacia Coiba en un hermoso recorrido de aproximadamente 2 horas, en un mar que para ser Verano se portó bastante bien.

Llegamos aproxidamente a las 1 pm a Coiba en donde nos recibió una hermoso Garza-Tigre Cuellinuda, pero elusiva como para dejarse tomar un par de fotos de los fotográfos birriosos del trip, léase Rafael e Itzel. A los de Audubon nos ubicaron en dos cuartos enormes, cada uno con 6 camas, pero con aire acondicionado (nada mal para un trip a Coiba). Fotografiamos a Tito, el lagarto, y al ñeque de Coiba justo después de llegar a la Isla.

Mienbras almorzamos nuestros respectivos emparedades vimos algunas aves como el Copetón Panameño, Tangara Azuleja, Elenia Penachuda, Gallinazo Negro y otros. Ade-más del grupo de Audubon en Coiba, había otros grupos, la mayoría extranjeros y algu-nos panameños aficionados a la pesca.

Después del almuerzo salimos hacia Grani-to de Oro, una pequeña isla frente a Coiba, que le hace honor a su nombre con bella arena que asemeja el oro. Hicimos snorke-ling y vimos una gran variedad de peces de todos los colores. Para nuestra tranquilidad no vimos ningún tiburon. En granito de oro vimos una bandada de aproximadamente 35 Playeros Areneros y también una Cara-cara Cabeciamarilla.

A eso de las 4 pm salimos hacia la costa de Coiba en busca de las guacamayas. Nos demoramos como una hora antes de en-contrarlas. Afortundamente el capitán del bongo las localizó desde la misma embar-cación mientras que el grupo de Audubon buscaba desde la playa. Primero vimos un grupo como de 4 guacamayas y tomamos algunas fotos desde la playa. Posteriormen-te al retirarnos en el bongo pudimos ver por lo menos una docena de guacamayas adicionales.

En la noche del viernes tuvimos una exce-lente cena cocinada por el mismo personal de ANAM en la isla. El lugar cuenta con luz, generada desde su propia planta, pero alrededor se veía una oscuridad profunda que permitía que algunos aficionados a la Astronomía, guiados por Charlotte, realiza-ran observaciones (Cinturon de orión, osa mayor, tres marías, escorpión etc etc). Las lecciones de astronomía se hicieron tanto en la noche antes de acostarnos como en la mañana antes de salir el sol.

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El sábado 24 partimos hacia los pozos ter-males en busca del Colaespina de Coiba y otras aves del area. Vimos muchas aves en el camino incluyendo Reinita Gorricastaña y un Gavlilán Blanco que nos estaba esperan-do en los mismos pozos termales. Después de un rato se apareció el Colaespina y pudi-mos observarlo en varias ocasiones, logran-do Itzel Fong fotografiarlo.

Después del camino de los pozos termales, fuimos a visitar el penal de la Isla de Coiba o major dicho, lo que quedó del penal. Muy interesante ver como vivían los presos y sus instalaciones. Aparentemente la colonia tenía ganado y hortalizas e inclusive cultiva-ban y proveían comida para otras cárceles. Durante nuestra estadía en el penal, nos sobrevolaron muchas, pero muchas, guaca-mayas. Ya para el sábado en la tarde había-mos visto alrededor de 35 de estas aves.

En la tarde fuimos a Playa Machete, una playa tranquila, pero aparentemente con un historial que le hace honor a su nombre. El ave de la tarde fue un Cuclillo de Manglar, identificado y fotografiado por el suscrito. Otras aves que se vieron fueron Chorlo Se-mipalmeado y Playero Coleador.

Ya para el domingo 25 quedaba solamente una ave endémica que no habíamos visto: la Paloma de Coiba se volvió el ave a bus-car. Salimos temprano hacia el sendero de Los Monos, que parte era camino de tierra y parte camino de quebrada, dentro de un selva espesa con muchas subidas y baja-das. Los que se lucieron en esta parte del paseo fueron los Saltarines Coludos, que vimos a montones e inclusive haciendo sus bailes de cortejo. La paloma se oyó en mu-chas ocasiones, pero resultó ser un ave tan elusiva que los únicos afortunados en verla fueron los Montañez, Darién y Delicia.

El paseo de Audubon a Coiba resultó una experiencia maravillosa e involvidable para todas los participantes. Coiba es una isla con belleza natural sin paralelo, la flora y fauna es diferente. Es un paseo recomenda-ble para todos los amantes de la naturale-za.

Rafael Luck

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What happened to the Field Editor’s Report? Bill AdsettSome of our older—or should I say more mature?—Panama Audubon Society mem-bers have been asking why they no longer see the wonderful Field Editor’s Report that used to appear in just about every issue of The Toucan. Being myself a mature mem-ber, I fondly recall the pent-up excitement of waiting each month for the Toucan to arrive by snail mail. The moment it arrived I would turn straight to His Fieldeditorshipness (or some such expression) Dodge Engle-man’s latest offerings of rare and unusual bird sightings in Panama, gleaned from a network of informants that was the envy of the FBI. The greatest honor of all, in those simpler days, was to get admitted to that select group of certified informants, having seen (and successfully convinced Dodge that you had seen) some such rarity as the elusive and exciting (as the name suggests) Drab Paltry Brownish Pygmy-Tyrant. Getting things past Dodge was hard work: in those pre-digital photography days, the only way to get him to accept you had really seen the DPBP-T was to give him a very convincing

description not only of the bird but what it was doing at the time, what the call was and so on. Dodge made very sure you were not just “stringing”—giving false testimony—in a bid for fame.

Well, the Field Editor’s report is no more. It has been overtaken by modern technology. Instant gratification has reached Panama’s birding scene. You can now get the lat-est news on Panama’s rare bird sightings almost in real time by a message delivered straight to your e.mail inbox, often accom-panied by a digital photo taken on a cell-phone, of all things. The website is called Xenornis. We have no idea if this title refers to the bird that bears that name, or to the guy who runs the website (Darién Mon-tañez), but anyway it’s excellent and much as we miss the excitement and occasional glory of the famous Field Editor’s report, Xenornis does have the advantage of giving you a chance to go look for that rare bird yourself before it departs, dies or whatever.

If you don’t already subscribe to Xenornis alerts, then take heed of two things; firstly, if you bird in Panama you can’t do without it; and secondly, it’s free! Just go to http://xenornis.blogspot.com and look in the left-hand column for instructions on how to receive regular updates. You won’t regret your decision!

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And Birding Spots in Panama?Another of Dodge’s great contributions to the Panama birding world was his Birding Spots column which appeared from time to time in The Toucan. His ideas have now been incorporated into a book—Where to Find Birds in Panama, by George Angehr and Dodge and Lorna Engleman. Again, take heed of two things, firstly you can’t do without it and, secondly, it ain’t free. But it can be purchased from the PAS office, the Smithsonian Bookstore or in some Farma-cias Arrocha; and at some other locations. (In the US and Canada, the same book is published and marketed under license by Cornell University Press under the title A Bird Finding Guide to Panama.)

Need to exercise your body and relax your mind, have fun doing it, and hone your nature-watching skills at the same time? Just go to Panama City’s best kept secret: the Metropolitan Nature Park, tropical forest within the city. The park trails are open from 6:00 a.m. every day of the week. There are several to choose from, all start-ing either from the visitor center or from the guard post at the entrance to the Mono Tití and Cienaguita Trails, both located min-utes from downtown on Avenida Juan Pablo II. For good exercise and nature viewing (including over 200 bird species), the best bet is to take the loop on the Mono Tití and Cienaguita trails via the Mirador, the highest point in the park. During the week, you will have these trails pretty much to yourself. The place feels and is safe; the entrances to the trails are guarded and to the best of our knowledge there has never been an incident in the park. (Nevertheless, use common

sense and take the same precautions you would anywhere else in Panama City.) Also remember that its not a zoo; the animals and birds are wild and can be elusive. Which makes seeing a Rosy Thrush-Tanager or a troop of Geoffroy’s Tamarins all the more exciting. The best time of day, of course, is early morning.

You have to pay a small fee to enter the trails, payable at the visitor center, but if you wish to go there regularly, the best thing to do is to buy a season ticket. You can get more details from the park Admin-istration at the visitor center from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, tel 232-5552, www.parquemetropolitano.org.

PAS is a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Nature Park, and hosts introductory birdwalks on the first Sunday of every month. So forget the boring crowded paths in Parque Omar, or the hundreds of motor vehicles passing you on the Amador Causeway; take your exer-cise at the Metropolitan Nature Park and get away from it all.

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Useful Websites for Panama Bird Enthusiasts:PAS members will get even more bird in-formation for their bucks by looking at the websites and—if they wish—joining or con-tributing to the following fine organizations:

BirdLife International (BLI)www.birdlife.org

PAS is very proud to be the Panamanian na-tional partner of this worldwide network of independent national conservation organi-zations. PAS’s most important long-term program—the Important Bird Area (IBA) program—is part of a BLI worldwide project to identify all the important bird conserva-tion areas of the world, make sure they are protected and thus hopefully conserve all extant bird species for future generations. BLI advises governments and the UN on bird conservation issues.

Individuals can join BLI, and receive World Birdwatch, a quarterly magazine with all the latest worldwide news and individual coun-try features.

Neotropical Bird Club (NBC)www.neotropicalbirdclub.org

Any member of PAS who is really interested in birding in the neotropics (the tropical

Americas) should consider joining this club. It publishes three first-class magazines each year, with news on birding topics and on ornithological investigations and discoveries throughout the region, gives small grants for bird study and conservation projects, and organizes specialized birding trips to neotropical countries (this year, Guyana). The membership fees are very reasonable considering the quality of the work turned out by NBC.

Xenocantowww.xeno-canto.org

Run by birders for birders, this is a wonder-ful website that contains recordings of bird songs and calls from all over the Americas. Even if you are not a bird song fanatic, this website gives a fascinating insight into the complexity of neotropical avifauna and the lengths some people will go to to sort it all out! Anyone can contribute good-quality re-cordings to the site, as long as you are sure that you have identified the bird correctly!

And, of course, don’t forget PAS’s own web-site at www.panamaaudubon.org

Another useful website:International Union for the Conser-vation of Nature (IUCN) www.iucn.org

Also known a the World Conservation Union, the IUCN – part of the United Nations - is by far the most important organization dealing with conservation issues at worldwide level. It brings together all the players—govern-mental, non-governmental, academic, etc—to discuss and resolve at global level the major conservation issues facing the planet today.

PAS is a member of the Panama National Committee of the IUCN.

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¿Necesita ejercitar el cuerpo y a la vez relajar la mente mientras observa la Madre Naturaleza?Entonces lo mejor que podría hacer es visi-tar el Parque Natural Metropolitano (PNM), un bosque tropical dentro de la ciudad. Los senderos del parque abren a las 6:00 a.m. todos los días. Se pueden escoger entre varios; todos comienzan en el Centro de Visitantes o en la garita de seguridad en la entrada de los senderos del Mono Tití y la Cienaguita. Ambos lugares están ubicados a unos minutos del centro de la ciudad, sobre la Avenida Juan Pablo II. Para hacer un buen ejercicio y ver la naturaleza, la me-jor ruta es un círculo por los senderos del Mono Tití y La Cienaguita, pasando por el mirador en la parte más alta del parque.

Durante la semana, se ve poca gente en los senderos. El lugar se siente y es seguro; hasta la fecha no ha habido incidentes que lamentar. Pero por supuesto debe usarse el sentido común y tomar las mismas pre-cauciones que utilizaría en cualquier otra parte de la ciudad. Y también debe tener en mente que el parque no es zoológico; las aves y los animales son silvestres y a veces difíciles de ver. Pero eso enriquece la expe-riencia de observar una Tangara Pechirro-sada o los Monos Tití en su habitat natural.

La mejor hora del día es, como siempre, al principio de la mañana.

Para entrar a los senderos hay que pagar una módica suma, pagadera en el Centro de Visitantes. Pero si tiene la intención de ir con frecuencia al parque, es mejor com-prar un pase válido por tiempo definido. Se pueden pedir mayores detalles en la Administración del parque localizada en el Centro de Visitantes, entre 8:00 a.m. y 4:30 p.m. de lunes a viernes, teléfono 232-5552, www.parquemetropolitano.org. La Sociedad Audubon de Panamá (SAP) es miembro fundador del patronato del PNM, y desde 2006 realiza ahí giras introductorias a la observación de aves el primer domingo de cada mes.

Olvídese de los senderos aburridos y con-curridos del Parque Omar o de los cientos de vehículos en el Calzada de Amador; haga su ejercicio en el entorno natural del Parque Natural Metropolitano

Algunos Sitios de Web de Interés para los Fanáticos de las Aves Panameñas:Socios de SAP podrán informarse mejor si consultan los sitios de web de las siguientes excelentes organizaciones. Si lo desea, se podrá contribuir a o hacerse socio de las mismas.

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BirdLife International (BLI) www.birdlife.org

Con mucho orgullo SAP es el socio pan-ameño de esta red mundial de organiza-ciones conservacionistas nacionales. El programa más importante de PAS a largo plazo, el programa de Áreas Importantes para las Aves, es un proyecto global de BLI cuyo objetivo es identificar todas las áreas del mundo que son importantes para la conservación de las aves, asegurase de su protección y por ende conservar todas las especies de aves para las futuras genera-ciones. BLI asesora gobiernos y las Na-ciones Unidas sobre los asuntos relaciona-dos con conservación de las aves.

Al hacerse socio de BLI, usted recibirá la revista trimestral World Birdwatch que con-tiene noticias mundiales y artículos sobre paises individuales.

Neotropical Bird Club (NBC)www.neotropicalbirdclub.org

Cualquier socio de PAS que está realmente interesado en observar y saber más de las aves del neo-trópico (la región tropical del continente americano) debe considerar hac-erse socio de este club. El club publica tres revistas al año con artículos sobre obser-vación de aves e investigaciones y descu-brimientos ornitólogos en toda la región, hace pequeñas donaciones para estudios y proyectos de conservación, y organiza giras especializadas a países neotropicales (este año, a Guyana). Las cuotas de membresía son muy razonables, tomando en consid-eración la calidad del trabajo realizado por el NBC.

Xenocantowww.xeno-canto.org

Manejado por observadores de aves para observadores de aves, este maravilloso sitio de web contiene grabaciones de cantos de aves de todas partes de las Américas. Aunque usted no sea conocedor de las

canciones de la aves, este sitio le revelará la complejidad de la avifauna neo-tropical y los extremos a los cuales algunas perso-nas están dispuestos a ir para descifrarla! Cualquiera persona puede contribuir graba-ciones de buena calidad, siempre y cundo esté segura de que se haya identificado la ave correctamente!

Y, por supuesto, no se olvide de visitar el sitio de web de SAP www.panamaaudubon.org

Otro sitio de web de interés:Unión Internacional para la Conser-vación de la Naturaleza (UICN)www.iucn.org

Es parte de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas, y por mucho es la organización de mayor importancia que maneja asuntos de conservación de recursos naturales mundi-ales. Une a todos los jugadores – gobiernos, organizaciones no-gubernamental, académi-cos etc. – para discutir y resolver a nivel glo-bal los mayores problemas de conservación que enfrentamos hoy en día.

SAP es miembro del Comité Nacional del la UICN.

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The Bay of Panama is now officially a Protected AreaBy Rosabel Miró and Karl KaufmannOn February 16, 2009 Panama Audubon Society received great news: The Bay of Panama Ramsar Site was officially included in Panama's National Protected Area Sys-tem. Since 1998 the Panama Audubon Soci-ety (PAS) has been working for the conser-vation of this internationally important area for migratory shorebirds. In 1998 the main objective was to declare the area a Ramsar Site but due to the many threats the area was facing, we started pursuing the protect-ed area designation in September 2006.

Through the years, with the generous sup-port of many donor, PAS carried out several projects and activities around and within the site to further its conservation. PAS also gave many newspaper and magazine inter-views, always with the purpose to make all Panamanians aware of the important role the Bay of Panama wetlands play in the annual migration of more than 30 species of migratory shorebirds, in protecting lo-cal communities against adverse climatic

conditions, and in providing nursery areas for many species of commercially important fish and shrimp, among other environmen-tal services.

Many groups sent letters of support to the Panamanian government and to the Ram-sar Convention showing concern about the well being of the ecosystems of the Bay of Panama Ramsar Site and supporting its protection: the Waterbird Conservation Council, the Western Hemisphere Shore-bird Reserve Network, National Audubon Society, BirdLife International, the College of William and Mary and the Panamanian National Wetlands Committee.

As Lourdes Lozano, from the Environmen-tal National Authority (ANAM) pointed out “There is more that brings us together than separates us and when we work together what prevails is the best for all.” I would add that this was a team effort, that an alliance among NGOs, the government and individu-als for the protected area designation of the wetlands of the Bay of Panama was born and paid good dividends. ANAM's Protected Areas Department was fundamental in the delimitation of more than 85,000 hectares. For many months they worked together with the legal and mapping departments to make this happen.

To celebrate, members of the Panamanian National Wetlands Committee (CEASPA, CREHO, Smithsonian Tropical Research In-stitute, Natura, Aududon), some other NGOs (Marviva, Avifauna and CIAM) and José Ar-cia, a journalist that has been covering news related to the site, made a symbolic toast at a small gathering on February 13. With this, we hope to send a strong message locally: many important and well-known NGO's care about the Bay of Panama wetlands.

To all of you our message is simple: Let us continue finding ways to collaborate for the conservation and protection of this magnifi-cent site!

Karl Kau

fmann


Aerial Survey of the Pacific Coast of PanamaA research team from The Center for Con-servation Biology (CCB) recently returned from Central America, having successfully completed an aerial survey of the Pacific Coast of Panama to estimate and map waterbird populations during the peak of fall migration. Flying at an altitude of only 20-30 m in a Cessna with pilot, Carlos Diaz, the survey team flew 1,565 km of shore-line in 3 days between 21 and 24 October, 2008. More than 490,000 shorebirds, sea-birds, herons and egrets were counted and mapped.

Full story at the CBC website www.ccb-wm.org/news/2008_OctDec/2008_Panama_survey.htm

Reunión del Fondo de Pequeñas Donaciones/PNUDDel 11 al 15 de febrero, dentro del marco del Taller Regional para América Latina y el Caribe, estuvieron reunidos en Panamá los Coordinadores Nacionales del Programa de Pequeñas Donaciones (PPD) del Fondo del Medio Ambiente Mundial de la región, miembros de los Comités Directivos Na-cionales, funcionarios de la Oficina Central en Nueva York e invitados especiales. Este programa es implementado en Panamá por el PNUD.

El día 13 de febrero nos pidieron que habláramos sobre nuestra experiencia de trabajo con estos fondos y cómo logramos sinergías con diferentes actores locales que

buscaban objetivos afines de conservación. Gracias a los fondos del PPD GEMAS, una organización de base comunitaria aledaña al IBA Humedales de Santa María, fue ca-pacitada en el 2007 por nosotros en obser-vación de aves y aviturismo. Casi un año después surgió la idea por parte del PNUD de ayudar a GEMAS y al gobierno local en la declaración de la primera IBA reconoc-ida oficialmente en el país. Luego de varios meses de conversaciones y organización del evento, con el apoyo adicional de otra ONG que trabaja en el área, se realizó un acto donde se declaró bajo decreto municipal estos humedales como IBA. Se contó con la asistencia de varias ONG importantes del país, miembros de la comunidad, autori-dades locales, la Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente, entre otros. Aquí se adjunta una foto del evento de designación.

Nuestra participación en este tallertenía la intención de estimular a los Coordinadores Nacionales y hacerles ver que con los part-ners de BirdLife en sus respectivos países de procedencia se pueden realizar trabajos similares. La Estrategia de Biodiversidad del GEF Small Grant Program promueve el trabajo en IBAs y rutas migratorias.

El Tucán—The Toucan. Vol. 32, No. 2. Abril 2009

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