Island Girl left Colombia yesterday and flew across the Pacific
Ocean, traversing the Gulf of Panama and the Pearl Islands as
she has done before. She seems to like this pelagic shortcut.
She reached land somewhere near the airport and Panama City and
then continued nearly all the way across the Panamanian Isthmus,
touching down to sleep on a forested ridge in the interior. She
roosted about 8 miles south of the shores of the Caribbean Sea
and only about six miles east of Lake Gatun. For those of you
who have been to the Canal, she was 13 miles east of the Gatun
Locks. Her flight path generally put her on the required
northwest curve to handle the jump towards Costa Rica, although
she will have to detour to the SW as always and then swing
around towards Boca Del Toros and the next border. She has often
paused in this region in the past. This is one very experienced
adult peregrine. If we can count her first year (for which we
have no data), she has traversed Panama at least nine times in
her life. Perhaps mor