A Month of Rarities

This was a paradoxical birding year for the island.  The number of birds we are accustomed to seeing was down, but the number of different species, even those which would be classified as rare to the island had increased.  Rare Bird Month, a term coined by Edward Massiah (one of the authors of Birds of Barbados), emphasized this.  The month of November found a higher than usual number of rarities on these shores, and rarities we had.  We recorded the first one on the 1^st November and the last one on the 30^th of November. 

The bird of the month for me was the Common Cuckoo Cuculus canorus. It was the first for the island since 1958.

Here is the list of all the rarities recorded in November

Common Name	Scientific Name
Black-throated Green Warbler	Dendroica virens
Blackburnian Warbler	Setophaga fusca
Hudsonian  Godwits	Limosa haemastica
Long Billed Dowitchers	Limnodromus scolopaceus
Ruff	Philomachus pugnax
Grey Heron	Ardea cinerea
Red Knot	Calidris canutus
Common Cuckoo	Cuculus canorus
Fulvous Whistling	Dendrocygna bicolor
Northern Shoveler	Anas clypeata
Northern Waterthrush	Parkesia noveboracensis

Below are photographs of some of the rarities

Blackburnian Warbler

Common Cuckoo

Hudsonian  Godwits

Grey Heron

Red Knot photograph by Dr. John Webster

Northern Shoveler photograph by Dr. John Webster

Black-throated Green Warbler photograph by Dr. John Webster

Northern Waterthrush photograph by Dr. John Webster