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February 1998 |
Dr. Robert S. Ridgely  During this month we had quite a few important visitors. The top position must go to Dr. Robert S. Ridgely, the world famous ornithologist author of several books including the "Birds of Panama" and the "Birds of South America" 2 volumes. Dr. Ridgely was in Panama leading a group of birders from VENT and I met him by chance in the Summit Gardens. I invited him to come to the Tower, which is only 10 minutes from Summit, and he graciously agreed. The hour was noon, which is not the best time to watch birds, however we had a very productive hour. We saw a Green Shrike Vireo at about 20 meters, we put the scope on it and everybody in the group, about 14, had a good view of this beautiful little bird which in his book Ridgely describes as "exasperatingly difficult to see". We also saw a Black-throated trogon making a nest, a Philadelphia vireo, a Short tailed hawk a Peregrine falcon and a couple of flycatchers. The Short tail hawk gave us an impressive show of its hunting skills dropping like a stone, straight down, to dissappear in the canopy. The group was ecstatic with the Tower, Dr. Ridgely too, they were all joking about staying longer in the tower, one of the older gentleman, whose wife had stayed in the city told Dr. Ridgely: "I'm going to stay here, tell my wife I got lost in the rain forest!!" "We came to Panama three months early" Before leaving, I asked Ridgely to sign my book the Birds of Panama and he wrote: "For Raul, with best of wishes, and may your Canopy Tower succeed! It's a great idea, and I look forward to returning". What more could I ask for? Group of VENT birders with Dr. Ridgely in front of the main gate of The Canopy Tower   201 Families in one year Derek and Harry  These two fellows, Derek Scott and Harry Howard (left to right) are from England. They are in pursuit of a peculiar goal: to see at least one specie of all families of birds in the world during the year of 1998!! By the time they visited The Canopy Tower, February 18, they had seen 150 families out of a total of 201 families of birds presently existing in the world. Not bad!!! Derek is a professional bird guide associated with BIRDQUEST, the well known english tour company and Howard is the Managing Director of BROOKS GREGORY LTD.of Lancaster, which manufactures the strip of cloth placed around the inside of most hats in the world, including, of course, the Panama Hat! In The Tower they saw, among others, one of the eight members of the Bucconidae family, the Black-breasted Puff bird, Notharcus pectoralis. I'll keep track of the success of this truly unique "birdquest". Scott Doggett Lonely Planet Author  Actually, Scott came by the Tower in December 7 of 1997, however, at that time I did not have this feature in the web site so, with your permission, I'll include him now. He is the tall guy in the middle, to his left is Richard Cahill and his girlfriend Gaby and to his right Hernan Arauz and his daughter. Richard and Hernan are two of the best naturalist guides in Panama, they are with Ancon Expeditions of Panama, a recently formed inbound tour operator.For more info about AEP visit its web site at www.ecopanama.com Anyway, Scott came to Panama because The Lonely Planet, the well known publishing company specializing in guide books, will come out with a book dedicated exclusively to Panama and he was researching the country to write the book. This is the first time The Lonely Planet writes a book on Panama and this is an indication of the increasing interest our country is eliciting around the world. Well, I took Scott to The Canopy Tower and he loved the place. Thanks Scott, I'll be the first person to buy the book when it reaches Panama !! Paul Coopmans and BIRDQUEST  Paul Coopmans, fourth from the left, the well known international bird guide visited the Tower the last day of February 1998. He was leading a group of birders from BIRDQUEST. The group had birders from Norway, England, Belgium and Sweeden. They were particularly interested in seeing the Blue Cotinga, Cotinga natterii, and they did, a male and a female. This bird is relatively common around the Canopy Tower and very easy to see. However, to see it from the ground is another story because the Blue Cotinga usually stays in the uppermost level of the forest, the canopy, and to see it from below is quite difficult. From the Tower is another story, you can actually see it looking down as the following picture shows. Cotinga natterii Blue Cotinga  |
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