Our excursion today brought us to the lowlands along the Pacific coast of Panama -- warmer, drier and overall more enjoyable. While exploring a large rice plantation, we saw innumerable heron, ibis and stork in addition to a variety of raptors. Although multiple species were sighted, Barred Antshrikes, Lesser Yellow-headed Vultures, and Brown-throated Parakeets provided the best images.
We visited the nearby Lance-tailed Manakin lek as a final stop of the lowland tour. As most such leks, it was mosquito-infested and filled with a complex tangle of vines (making autofocus essentially useless); however, the challenges of the endeavor were rewarded with a new addition to our Manakin image collection.
