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BIRDERS' EXCHANGE RECIPIENTSEmberá-Drua and Harpy Eagle Project, Panama Visit to the Emberá Drua Indian CommunityBy Rosabel Miró – Panama Audubon Society
To show their appreciation for receiving the binoculars they invited us to walk a trail they had recently improved. For the last two years they have been receiving groups of tourist coming from American cruise ships and they realized that having a trail would allow them to offer birding and nature walks.
Lunch time arrived and we all were very hungry. Patacones (fried plantins) and fried ?sh were presented on Heliconia leaves instead of regular plates. Dirty ?ngers at the end of your meal? Not to worry. They offered us a bowl of water with aromatic spices that erased any ?shy odors.
As always happens, good things came to an end. Around mid-day we packed our belongings, thanked our new friends and left, but not without taking lots of pictures and feeling sad about leaving.
Five young members of the Emberá-Drua Indian tribe who received binoculars from the ABA's Birders' Exchange program through the Panama Audubon Society (PAS). The recipients are involved in a program to monitor Harpy Eagle nests.
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| Copyright © American Birding Association, Inc. 2005. All material displayed on the ABA website is subject to copyright protection either by the ABA or its associates and should not be reproduced in any form without the express prior written consent of ABA. |
On Tuesday, December 10th a group from the Panama Audubon Society accompanied by two tourists, Joe and Diane Haselmayer from Lambton Wildlife, Inc. (Toronto, Canada) went to the Emberá Drua Indian community. This beautiful town is situated on the bank of the Río Chagres, the river that supplies the water for the operation of the Panama Canal as well as for the cities of Panama and Colón, the two largest cities in our country. The purpose of our visit was to deliver ?ve binoculars donated by Birders' Exchange and to give away some brochures and calendars produced for us for our country-wide educational campaign to save Harpy Eagles.
In order to reach this community we drove for about an hour and a half from the city and arrived at Lake Alajuela, one of the arti?cial lakes created to hold water for the Panama Canal. Once we were there, we waited for Odino and Caisamo to take us in their cayuco, a large canoe made from the trunk of a tree, to the Embera community. The forty-?ve minute boat ride was peaceful and beautiful. When we left Lake Alajuela and started our way up the Río Chagres, hundreds of Neotropical Cormorants joined us for more than ?fteen minutes.
The Emberá Indians were expecting our arrival and we talked to them about our Binoculars and Checklist Program, our conservation efforts and how they could helps us monitor Harpy Eagles and other birds. They were very pleased to receive the Birders' Exchange binoculars and they asked us how they could do more for preserving the forest surrounding them.
The trail was a good one. At the very begining we heard and saw some Yellow Tyrannulets, Fasciated Antshrikes and some elusive wrens. Once we were inside the forest, we saw a small stream along the trail, some colorful Heliconias, and big trees keeping past secrets of the jungle.
While we were eating we noticed that one of the cooks had a design painted on his legs. We asked him about it and he offered to paint us. He ran back to his house and several minutes later he returned with a small sharp stick and a small bowl with a black liquid. He then started painting the ?rst volunteer. He stuck the end of the stick in the ?re to char it, then into the liquid and then he proceeded to paint a design around to the wrist, similar to his, but not quite as elaborate. Ultimately all of us had our wrists painted.
