{"id":2905,"date":"2022-12-23T15:12:44","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T15:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.zeiss.com\/sports-optics\/birding\/en\/?p=2905"},"modified":"2023-02-01T09:38:31","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T09:38:31","slug":"reaching-1000-with-the-zeiss-dti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.zeiss.com\/sports-optics\/birding\/en\/reaching-1000-with-the-zeiss-dti\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching 1,000 with the ZEISS DTI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was my first time in Panama. My first time in the neotropics, in fact, and only my third time birding in the New World. I\u2019d joined Gavin Bieber and his WINGS Birding <\/a>group for a week at the world-famous Canopy Tower: an old US Army radar tower that has been repurposed into a magnificent birding lodge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The mid-section of the tower holds a set of comfortable rooms, the top floor splits between the dining room and a lounge area and, up a small ladder and onto the roof\u2026 well, that\u2019s where the magic really happens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I arrived late at night, after an unscheduled extension to my layover in Miami. The drive up to Canopy Tower gave nothing more than tantalising glimpses of the rainforest in the car headlines. Levels of excitement and anticipation were high for the following morning and I managed, just about, to get some sleep.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dawn breaks rapidly in the tropics, and by 6am it was light enough to climb the ladders to the observation deck. Wow! Perhaps it was the jet lag, perhaps it was the four hours of sleep or perhaps it was simply the breath-taking view, but I was a little emotional when I first caught glimpse of what lay beyond the tower. It was a perfect morning: clear skies, but mist in the valleys. To the south, the Panama Canal. In the distance to the east, the skyscrapers of Panama City. And in every other direction, rainforest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Panama City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from Canopy Tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Close to the tower, a young Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth was hugging the upper limbs of one of the trees. Off somewhere out of sight \u2013 but not out of earshot \u2013 a troop of Brown-mantled Howler Monkeys, making sure that everyone in the forest knew they were awake. And around the tower, birds. So many birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a steep learning curve and in the space of just less than an hour, the list<\/a> was dozens strong. A few species were familiar but most were new for me. Indeed, many of the families<\/em> were new for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Golden-crowned Manakin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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White-necked Jacobin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Skip forward to that evening and, still buzzing from the first day of birding around Panama\u2019s Canal Zone, we arrived back at the tower for a shower and dinner. I was advised to bring my ZEISS DTI up to the dining room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each evening, the staff at Canopy Tower hoist several bunches of bananas into the trees outside the dining-room window. The bananas attract a host of night-time visitors that would otherwise be difficult \u2013 if not impossible \u2013 to see. I scanned the tree with the DTI and was taken aback to see five<\/em> critters waiting patiently for their fruit to be served: a Western Lowland Olingo, two Kinkajous and two Western Night Monkeys! Although just about visible in the overspill from the dining-room lights, using the DTI allowed us to observe the animal\u2019s natural(ish) behaviour as they moved through the trees, including seeing the Kinkajous use their prehensile tails to great effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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