Two New Birding Locations in St Lucy
It all started with a telephone call from Dr. John Webster
informing me that he and Edward Massiah had discovered a new pond in the St.
Lucy area. In this pond they found a female
Ruddy Duck, a species which is no stranger to the island, with records dating
back as far as the 1800s (Birds of
Barbados). This duck though,
has not been recorded, in the wild, for many years. It was of great interest to me too, having
only seen the Ruddy Duck/White-cheeked Pintail hybrid at Royal Westmoreland, a
golf resort here in Barbados. Seeing one
in the wild would be a first for me.
My next question to Dr. Webster was a question any birder
would ask. When can I go and see it? A week is a long time to wait to see a bird but
our schedules were conflicting, so it had to wait until the next weekend. My next step was to find this pond on Google
Earth to try to find out how it could have been over looked for such a long
time. I found what I thought was the
pond, in an area called Half Acres. It
was not a difficult pond to reach and I was able to visit this Pond early one
morning. There were ducks there but none
were Ruddy Ducks. So thinking I had
missed it, I dejectedly called Dr. Webster to let him know I found the pond but
no Ruddy Duck. On explaining my location
and the route I took to get there, I was surprised to learn that it was not the
pond he had told me about, but in fact I had accidentally discovered another
new pond and from what I saw at this pond it may also be an IBA (Important Birding
Area) for Barbados, and maybe even the region.
The Half Acres Pond
How this pond too, remained undetected for so long is beyond
me. It is about a mile away from another
pond, Chance Hall Pond, which I visited three times in the last two weeks and
is also just a couple metres away from a busy highway. The pond was about 58m at the widest area and
it looks deep, showing no effects of water loss from the drought that is affecting
so many of our wet areas at this time. Black-crowned
Night Herons, about nine of them of varying ages where observed among the
Egrets. One of the Night Herons was
sitting on a nest. It was always thought
that these herons had a roost in this area, since single birds were seen at various
nearby locations. This not only confirmed
this fact, but is noted as the first record of nesting outside of The WSR. This was a good find, but there is still
another pond with a Ruddy Duck to be found.Pond #2
On Saturday afternoon on March 23rd the family
and I were in the Parish of St. Lucy, we decided to go and look for the other
pond. Thanks to Edward Massiah, I was
able to pinpoint the location of the pond on Google Maps. Seeing it on the map though, and actually
getting to it was a different story.
With my wife as navigator, we set off.
After making wrong turns, giving up, restarting, off roading and other
uncertainties, we finally located the pond. This was confirmed by a beautiful female
Ruddy Duck to the far side of the pond.
The pond was circular in shape, about 55m at its widest and showing
signs of water loss. On my first
approach to the pond I saw a lone female Masked Duck, was this Laurie?
The truth is, to me every lone Female Masked Duck I see I think it could be
Laurie. The pond also contained 2 other
ducks, female Blue-winged Teals, and a couple of Common Gallinules.
I was happy to see we have two more ponds to add to our bird
trail. I will keep monitoring these
locations and update you on any new occurrences. These ponds also encouraged me to keep checking
for other ponds on the island with the help of Google Earth. So, you never know, this list could be updated.
Until next time enjoy your birding.
