Retired Nomads: October 1 to 31

Happy Halloween!

this was from 2 years ago my son - Scott and daughter-in-law Sonya

This month included an unplanned trip back to Phoenix, Arizona for a mediation with an ex-employer who didn’t wish to pay my retirement. The bonus was getting to see Scott and family and my BFF Mary again so soon. We were just there 5 months ago.

lobby of Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Courthouse

We were supposed to have a 5 hour layover in Atlanta, but due to potential bad weather they were trying to put as many people as possible on earlier flights. So, we only had 2 hours on the ground and that gave us time to eat lunch. We were assured our luggage would be put on the new flight. However, it did not, so we had to go back 3 hours later and pick it up. The “customer service” guy at Delta said whoever told us that should not have said that.

Since we got in about dinner time we went to Panda Express. I had ordered a couple things at Kohls and picked them up and Greg picked up a new battery for his laptop. We still had time to kill before we could pick up our luggage. So much for getting to bed at a reasonable hour.

We checked in at the Fairfield Inn in Chandler and got some sleep. Saturday we hoped to get the bulk of our running around done. We surprised Scott by showing up at the Post Office. We made plans to meet for lunch and then we did some shopping. We ate lunch at Five Guys. Then, we did some more shopping. We had dinner with Scott and Sonya at Guedo’s Mexican Grill. It was a fun atmosphere and they had great soft shell tacos. Sunday we met with the attorneys. (our first time meeting them in person) We talked about what may transpire at the mediation. We had lunch at Panera and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Mary.

Guedo's Mexican Grill

Monday was the mediation which took all day. We had to sign non-disclosures so we are not allowed to talk about the process or what transpired during the mediation. But, I can say that a settlement was reached. We went to Texas Roadhouse for ribeyes. They were quite good. (Panama beef sucks).

Tuesday, we met Scott for lunch at Los Dos Molinos and for dinner we took Mary to Pei Wei.

Wednesday we had lunch at The Stockyards which is an old establishment that reviews said had really good steaks. They were very good and I said the onion rings were worth the trip. The verdict is still out if the steak was that much better than Roadhouse since it was twice the price. (and that was the lunch prices as dinner was even more) Wednesday night we met everyone for dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. Scott, Sonya, Anthony, Erika, JJ and Brianna and baby Hunter who is now 5 months old. It’s not easy getting everyone together with all the various work schedules! We were lucky to pull that off.

The Stockyards

the family at Joe's Crab Shack

We did go to Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch on 2 mornings and the weather was beautiful. There were a lot of birds and we saw a coyote in a dry water bed. Lots of ducks and other water birds.

coyote

Cottontail

Green Heron

snake skin

Snowy Egret

Black-necked Stilt

Black-necked Stilts

Black-necked Stilts & ducks

American Avocet

Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow

Pied-bill Grebe

Black-chinned Hummingbird

House Finch

Yellow-rumped Warbler

notice the "ball" on the back of the duck's head....

We left on Thursday morning and we only had 1 hour between flights in Atlanta. We made it! By the time we drove home from the airport in Panama City it was 11:30 at night. Phew!

We saw our first Fer de Lance in the woods, which is a venomous Pit Viper. It was on the trail and didn’t move as we walked around it. OK, we have since been told by snake experts that we sent the photo to, that it’s not a Fer de Lance, but a Hog-nosed Pit Viper. We had seen one on the trail a few months prior, but it was a really small one. Perhaps it was the same one grown up or a different one. Either way a good snake to avoid.

We spent 3 days and 2 nights in El Valle at Los Mandarinos. The “oferta simple” was for 3 free tapas and a couple glasses of sangria and a welcome drink. We booked a bird guide for Wednesday morning. We had never done that before as we normally just bird on our own. We hoped to find some new spots to add to our places to bird.

Los Mandarinos

Bay-headed Tanager

unknown young bird

Flame-rumped Tanager

mother Yellow-crowned Euphonia feeding her baby

immature Euphonia

Wood Pewee

Black-chested Jays

Masked Tityra

Bat Falcon

Swainson's Thrush

The next morning we were to meet Mario near the Indian Market in town at 6:45. He wasn’t there by 7:00 so Greg called him. He was in the city with car issues. He also did not have us on his schedule. He said that a Greg from Coronado rescheduled and he confused that Greg with us. So, we rescheduled for 6:25 the next morning.

So, off we went to bird on our own. Back up to La Mesa area and it was a beautiful sunny morning. We ran into a guide from Canopy Lodge with 2 ladies from California and they stopped at several places where we stopped. We were pointing out birds to each other. By the time we worked our way to the top it started to rain. We hoped it would pass quickly but it rained quite a while. We stopped near the trees that had so many birds the day before and through the rain and the windshield I spotted a Belted Aracari. (type of toucan) Greg got a decent picture despite the rain and the windshield. We went to town for lunch. Tried to go to Café Tortuga and it was not open. So, we went back to Carlitios. We took a long lunch and then drove back up the hill hoping it would stop raining. We then drove to the Trail head and parked waiting for the rain to slow down. It finally stopped and we continued to bird for a while. It rained from around 9:00 to around 3:00. We saw a lot of hawks. We also saw 2 more Aracari, though they were far away.

Broad-winged Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk drying its' wings

House Wren

Roadside Hawk

Violet-crowned Woodnymph

Belted Aracari

mother Euphonia feeding her baby

Rusty-tipped Page Butterfly

chickens at the chicken farm

We went back to the hotel and then went for a walk until it was too dark to see birds. We went back to Triana and had the paella for 2.

Mario showed up the next morning. He came with us in our car after we sat at a local fonda and discussed what we were going to do based on the weather and what we wanted to look for. We started at a small lake on someone’s property and saw Mascovy Ducks, a Green Heron, a Green Kingfisher and our first Boat-billed Heron. Then we walked around their property and saw some more birds and saw a few that we had not seen before such as the Northern Oriole. Then we went up to the La Mesa area and he took us to a few places that we had not stopped at before. We took a hike and found an Orange billed Sparrow and a Black tailed Warbler. We also finally saw a Bay Wren. We hear them all of the time, but had never gotten a good look at one. We walked a lot of the same areas and he also showed us some places we could take short trails to see more. We eventually made it up to the area where we saw the most birds the day before. We walked past them and found a Water-thrush which we had seen once before. Then he took us on a trail where we found 2 different kinds of Woodcreepers and a Sycle-billed hummingbird that nearly knocked Greg over as it buzzed by him. It started to rain a bit so we headed back down the mountain to go look for the Spectacled Owl and maybe a Tody Motmot. We did see a Spectacled Owl with a young one. (about 7 months old) They were high up in the tree and hard to get good shots of. Then, it started to rain. Then it started to POUR! Good thing it was the end of our day because either way it would have been the end of the day. We had arranged for late checkout at 1:00 so we needed to get back and check out. We went back to Casa Tortuga and it still wasn’t open. Maybe they stopped opening for lunch as we drove by it the day before later in the day and it was open. Hmmmmm. So, we went to the Chinese place that we have eaten at before and while it’s not bad food, it’s just not overly flavorful. Then we stopped at the local panadaria Cana and had a couple of yummies. It had stopped raining so we decided to take the new back road from El Valle to Las Lajas. We got a short ways and Greg sees the river has overflowed the bridge and we can’t pass. It’s a small one lane road with no place to turn around, so Greg had to back all the way back up to the main highway. So, we headed back home for a nice hot shower. We are coming into the height of rainy season so it’s always iffy weather-wise.

they rent rooms there

the grounds at Los Duendes

Mascovy Duck

Green Heron

Boat-billed Heron well hidden in bush

immature Streaked Saltator

flowers

Tennessee Warbler

We saw 11 new birds in our one half day with Mario. That brings our Panama bird count around 347 now. Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures of them.

Our group dinner was at The Bahia condos where Bluwater Bistro is. We had 13 of us. I tried to make reservations but the cell phone of the manager I had did not go through. So, we decided to just spring a large party on them. (even with notice this restaurant can struggle to get food out) We got there to find out the owner had lost his cell phone and they already had a party of 16. They said if we didn’t mind waiting about 45 minutes they could get us served. The manager offered to buy the first round of drinks and also brought out several free appetizers for us. It was very nice out and we had a nice breeze off the ocean. Food was good as always and a good time was had by all.

We went to PriceSmart on Monday and Tuesday we went back to El Valle with new birding friends Jane & Walter. We had a beautiful sunny day and even saw quite a few birds. We saw 2 new ones for us and heard one that is almost never seen. We had a nice lunch at Casa Tortuga. (yes, it was finally open for lunch) Jane saw a toucan.

Crimson-backed Tanager

Yellow Warbler

wild orchids

Monarch Butterfly

Walter and Jane on the steep road on the back road to Altos del Maria

Black and White Warbler

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Motmot

Bay Wren trying to hide

Wood Pewee

Summer Tanager

Crimson-backed Tanager

Rusty-tipped Page

Red-crowned Woodpecker

Black-chested Jay

small part of the Hawk migration

if you look closely...all of those dots are hawks

Good friends Carol and Dave are coming back for a visit over Thanksgiving. They plan on spending a couple of days here at Coronado Bay and then moving on to Boquete to spend 3 nights at Boquete Garden Inn.

For the next couple of weeks we will “hunker down” because of all the Panamanian Holidays that cause generally craziness for driving/shopping etc. So, we got groceries stocked up and don’t plan to go out much.

Here are the holidays:

Monday, November 2 (day of the dead)

Tuesday, November 3 (separation from Colombia)

Wednesday, November 4 (Flag Day)

Thursday, November 5 (patriotic commemoration in the city of Colón)

The holidays will continue into mid-month :

Tuesday, November 10 (the first cry of Independence)

Saturday, November 28 (Independence from Spain)

Many businesses are closed and sales of alcohol is prohibited on some of those days. For the most part the whole country takes time to be with family and friends except for essential jobs.

Here are a few photos from our morning walks: