Birds of Barbados: December 2016

Sunday 11 December 2016

Friday 9 December 2016

100th for 2016

Northern Pintail (L) and 3 Blue-winged Teal

BIRD 100!! Yippee!!. For third years in a row, 2014, 15 and now 16, I reach the mark of 100 bird species for Barbados. This year I started with a bang coming out of January with sixty-one species but going into November with seven need in a poor migration season, I thought I would not have made it. Then I landed six species in November leaving me with just one more to get which I did on December 08.

Bird 100

Northern Pintail

I found my 100^th at the Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge (WSR) while doing a little after work birding. When I first saw this bird I knew right away I had not seen it for the year as yet. It was an elegant looking duck, long necked and a dark grey bill and stood at a length of 21”. It was a Northern Pintail (Anas acuta). The bird was sitting among a flock of Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors) and Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis) but it was easy to see the female Pintail by its size, long neck and reddish head.

My next target will be 105 species which would surpass the 104 I did in 2015, the most I’ve ever recorded in a year. So I’ll be ending the year with a bang.

Hope your birding is also going well, whatever the case enjoy your birding.

My 2016 list

Sunday 4 December 2016

November’s Birding

Great Egret - Ardea alba

The month of November was the reassurance that the almost two year drought was now over. At the end of the month every pond, swamp, marsh and puddle were bursting at the seams, for example The Hope Pond, a small roadside pond in the northern parish of St. Lucy where birds such as Masked Ducks, Lesser Scaups and Great Blue Herons were recorded, was dry for two year but is now full to the brim, the Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge (WSR) was another location which was badly affected by the low rainfall but by the end of November it was a large lake.
The weather caused some damage to houses, vehicles, agricultural production and even fell trees thankfully no loss of life was reported.

Birding was not bad I tallied sixty-six species six of which were first for the year. Here are some of my highlights other than first for the year:

Fulvous Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna bicolor

Ducks made their presence felt: While Blue-winged Teal, which are normally the first migrating ducks seen for the fall migration season, were being seen from as early as September, November had two new first fall arrivals, Ring-necked Duck Aythya collaris on the 15^th, Lesser Scaup Aythya affinis on the 28^th. A notable mention and my second sighting of this species for the year was a beautiful Fulvous Whistling-Duck Dendrocygna bicolor seen on the 28^th. Other birders have reported sightings of Ring-necked Ducks at a few locations across the island.

Gray Heron Ardea cinerea

Gray Heron Ardea cinerea: This large heron was seen on 5^th.

Northern Waterthrush Parkesia noveboracensis

The return of the Northern Waterthrush Parkesia noveboracensis: I heard this warbler at one other location in the east of the island before having my first sighting at the WSR on the 25^th.

Barbados x Lesser Antillean Bullfinch

Suspected Barbados x Lesser Antillean Bullfinch: This is the second Bird of this type I have seen, first one being in 2013 which turned out to be a hybrid, so we can assume that this one is also a hybrid. This bird was seen on the very last day of November.

The future will judge if the rains of November 2016 broke the near two year drought on the island. The fact is that every wet area on the island had its thirst quenched and drank to the expansion of their banks. This probably guarantees wetland habitats until the next rainy season, which is good for the birds and birding.

Enjoy your birding I am 😉!

Here is a list of the birds seen in November:

1. Black-bellied Whistling

2. Fulvous Whistling-Duck

3. Blue-winged Teal

4. Ring-necked Duck

5. Lesser Scaup -

6. Magnificent Frigatebird

7. Brown Booby -

8. Great Blue Heron

9. Gray Heron

10. Great Egret

11. Little Egret

12. Snowy Egret

13. Little Blue Heron

14. Cattle Egret

15. Green Heron

16. Black-crowned Night-Heron

17. Glossy Ibis

18. Osprey

19. Common Gallinule

20. Black-bellied Plover

21. American Golden-Plover

22. Semipalmated Plover

23. Killdeer

24. Whimbrel

25. Hudsonian Godwit

26. Ruddy Turnstone

27. Red Knot

28. Ruff

29. Stilt Sandpiper

30. Sanderling

31. Least Sandpiper

32. White-rumped Sandpiper

33. Pectoral Sandpiper

34. Semipalmated Sandpiper

35. Short-billed Dowitcher

36. Wilson's Snipe

37. Spotted Sandpiper

38. Solitary Sandpiper

39. Greater Yellowlegs

40. Lesser Yellowlegs

41. Wood Sandpiper

42. Laughing Gull

43. Lesser Black-backed Gull

44. Roseate Tern

45. Royal Tern

46. Scaly-naped Pigeon

47. Eurasian Collared-Dove

48. Common Ground-Dove

49. Zenaida Dove

50. Green-throated Carib

51. Antillean Crested Hummingbird

52. Belted Kingfisher

53. Merlin

54. Peregrine Falcon

55. Caribbean Elaenia

56. Gray Kingbird

57. Black-whiskered Vireo

58. Barn Swallow

59. Northern Waterthrush

60. Yellow Warbler

61. Grassland Yellow-Finch

62. Bananaquit

63. Black-faced Grassquit

64. Barbados Bullfinch

65. Carib Grackle

66. Shiny Cowbird

Birds of Barbados

Big Year 2017

Wednesday 28 December 2016

The Rehablitation of Amelia The Great Blue Heron

Thursday 15 December 2016

Hurricanes and Birds Part 1: Mean Hurricane Matthew By Emma Lewis

From Birds Caribbean By Emma Lewis