Xenornis

Rosabel Miró, Bill Porteous and Darién Montañez spent the afternoon at Costa del Este hoping the 17 feet tide brought some interesting species. The pond by the Escuela Interamericana (A) had two each of Wilson's Phalarope and Stilt Sandpiper mixed in with a few hundred Dowitchers and Willets. One of the Stilt Sandpipers was still moulting into its winter plumage, as its undertail coverts had traces of black and white barring. Then we went to the other pond on the plot of land between the main road and the ditch by the mangroves (B), which was full of gulls and sandpipers. The Gray-hooded Gull was here, with its hard-to-miss red bill and legs. Its back is also lighter than that of the average Laughing Gull, turning lighter gray on the nape and off-white on the crown. All of this gives the bird a very pale appearance. The same flock had two Ring-billed Gulls and an Elegant Tern. The tern had black on the nape extending up to its crown, and just the forehead was white, and its thin cu...

Rosabel Miró, Chris Rhodes and Darién Montañez visited Costa del Este at 7:00 A.M. to look for interesting gulls on the puddles in the mud. The first stop was on a large, shallow pond to the left as you descend from the bridge across the Corredor Sur from Chanis, on a large plot of land between the new Colegio San Agustín and the houses. The most interesting bird there was what seemed to be an all-dark Green Heron. Ridgely mentions a melanistic phase found in the lowlands of Bocas del Toro, but Costa del Este is quite a long way from Bocas. We thought this bird was clearly a Green/Striated Heron after comparing it with the real Striated Herons that were all around the same pond. Its plumage was almost black, though, dark brown on the sides of the neck. After that we stopped to watch a flock of gulls standing next to a large puddle next to the mouth of the canal that separates Costa del Este from the mangroves to the east. There was a Franklin's Gull, but the highlight was a possibl...