Panama Part 1: Tranquilo Bay
While I've gotten to do quite a bit of travel this year–certainly much more than last year–not much of it has been for bird purposes. Obviously I've managed quite a bit of birding on the side , but even trips for pleasure like Oaxaca have been for a mix of things rather than proper birding trips. That changed in September, quite dramatically. Earlier this year our friend Mollee invited Nikki and I to join her on a birding trip to Panama. We dragged our feet on giving an answer, in part because I was in a bit of a slump bird-wise at the time and in part because of some medical issues that made it difficult for Nikki to travel. Eventually Nikki encouraged me to go even though she wasn't able to join, so I accepted. That was a very good decision. This was a birding trip, but a non-traditional one. Rather than buzzing around Panama trying to hit up as many places as possible and maximize our bird list, we were going to be based in one place almost the entire ti...