My Seventy-Seventh for the Year

Whimbrel - Numenius phaeopus

I registered my 77^th bird for the year on Thursday July 23^rd, 2015.  It was one of the largest shorebirds, the Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), locally known as Crookbill. I saw two Whimbrels at the now dry Chancery Lane Swamp along with four Willets (Tringa semipalmata)  , two Black-bellied Plovers (Pluvialis squatarola) (maybe juveniles) and over twenty Semipalmated Plovers (Charadrius semipalmatus).  Whimbrels are large shorebirds about 15-18 inches in length with a long down curved bill.  These birds are annual visitors to the island mostly around this time.

We are still at the beginning of the southern Migration season but it is slowly heating up. Due to the low rainfall, we been having, many of the wet areas are dry or almost dry but this could change very quickly. So stay tuned!

Here are a few photos of the birds at Chancery Lane on Wednesday.

Whimbrel - Numenius phaeopus

Whimbrel

Willet - Tringa semipalmata

Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus

Willet and Black-bellied Plovers

Willet and Black-bellied Plovers

Willets

Willet in Flight 

Yellow Warbler - Setophaga petechia

My 120th Barbados Lifer is a mega-rarity

I recorded my 120^th local lifer on July 13^th, 2015 while I was not even out birding.  Well, that is not altogether true because I am always birding, but on this occasion I was on my way home from work.  It was about 4:45pm and I was driving through an area which had a mixture of residential and commercial properties, most of which had neatly cultivated agriculture plots to the back of them,  along a highway in the central parish of St. George. This highway is usually very busy but it was abnormally light with traffic that afternoon and as I was driving, I noticed a bird I thought to be a Caribbean Martin but the wings were swift like in nature.  I pulled into a vacant lot to take a closer look only to realized it was not a Martin but a swift.

This was a large swift with brown upperparts, white belly and throat and a brown chest band.  I posted a photograph of the bird along with its description to our local bird alert net and Edward Massiah, a co-author of  The Birds of Barbados an annotated checklist, identified it as an Alpine Swift.  In less than 30 minutes he was standing next to me seeing the bird for himself.

Alpine Swift

Alpine Swifts (Tachymarptis melba) are 8 to 9 inches in length with a wingspan of 22 inches.  This bird breeds in southern Europe and winters in Africa.  It is one of the fastest birds in the sky and is said to spend most of its life on the wing, feeding, drinking and even sleeping while in flight.  It is considered a very rare bird for Barbados with this one being only the fourth ever confirmed sighting with the first one being in 1955.(The Birds of Barbados an annotated checklist pg167)

Here are a few of the photographs of the Alpine swift.

State of my Birding: Second Quarter 2015

The second quarter of the year is normally the driest, even though it includes the first month of the hurricane season, June.  Most of the wet areas around the island had low water levels with many completely dry.  I reduced my birding excursions significantly, and during that period I recorded twelve (12) new birds for the year, two of them were lifers, which brought my year count to seventy four (74) species. The two lifers - a Herring Gull, observed in the month of May and a Collared Plover in the month of June.

April

Scarlet Tanager by John Daniel

The Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) on April 21^st was the bird of the month for me. It was not a lifer but I am yet to get a photograph of this fiery red and black bird. There were many unconfirmed sightings of this species throughout that month. Other uncommon sightings included a pair of Bank and Cliff Swallows among a flock of Barn Swallows in Christ Church. These were the only new birds for the month of April.

May

Herring Gull

May was a good month for me. I added eight species to my year list which included a lifer. I was also part of the First Annual Cornell Global Big Day and recorded forty-four (44) species on that day, including a Ruff, which was seen in the parish of St. Lucy.  It was rare to see one at this time of the year. The lifer I recorded in this month was a Herring Gull seen in the East of the island.  I needed help identifying this gull because the quality of my  two photographs were not the best and I sought the help of experts both local and overseas, with all agreeing that it was an American Herring Gull.  One of the persons I asked, namely Steve Bright, wrote an informative post explaining the process he took in identifying this Gull.  The latter part of May was very dry and that continued into the month of June.

June

Collared Plover

June is the start of the hurricane season, but if you look at the wet areas around the island many were still dry or drying.  Important Birding areas like Chancery Lane and WSR were almost dry.  However, this did not prevent the migrating birds from stopping in, with shorebirds such as Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plovers, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Ruddy Turnstones, Willets and a few Short-billed Dowitchers made use of the few wet areas still around.  My lifer for this month is a shorebird but it prefers pastures and lawns. It was a Collared Plover which I saw in the parish of St. Lucy.  I did very little birding in June, so I only recorded one bird for that month.

New Page

You may have noticed a new page was added to the blog called Book Store. This page highlights a number of field guides you can use in Barbados and the Caribbean. So if you are looking to get a field guide from Amazon you can use one of these links.
 

In this quarter I missed just one bird, a Ruddy Duck, which was seen in the parish of Christ Church. At the end of June it was still dry but we were starting to get some rain.  By the end of the next quarter we will be deep into the Southern Migration period and all of the wet areas should be at peak levels. It should be a blast. Stay tuned!!