Birds of Barbados: September 2017

Sunday 24 September 2017

2017 Photographic Big Year - 84

Week 38 and one more bird to add to my Photographic Big Year 2017 list. This is one of the lager Shorebirds, standing at 15.5” with a wing span of 29”. Bird number 43 is a Hudsonian Godwit⁴³.

See images below. See 2017 Photographic Big Year images here.

84 -Hudsonian Godwit - Limosa haemastica

Sunday 17 September 2017

World Shorebird Day 2017

World Shorebird Day was created to raise awareness of the need to protect shorebirds and their habitats throughout their life cycles; to raise public awareness of the need for continued shorebird research, monitoring, and conservation and to connect people with shorebirds through wetland sites around the world.For yet another year I was happy to do my part in helping to reach the ideals of this movement in spotlighting these threatened birds and took part in the seven day Global Shorebird Counting which took place over the days of September 1^st to the 7^th. I registered five locations across the island for counting and tallied 18 species of shorebirds with over 450 individual birds. Here are a few high points.

High Counts

Two hurricanes, Irma and Jose, to the north – east sent hundreds of shorebirds to the beaches and wetlands across the island. This mass invasion of these feathered migrants emphasizes the importance of wetland habitats along migration routes, sadly many of these areas are disappearing and this is why the World Shorebird Day and initiatives like it which emphasize these fast, among other, are important. I was not surprise to see high number of Semipalmated Sandpipers and Plovers as it is the for this time of year but I was surprised with the Short- billed Dowitchers and White-rumped Sandpipers totals, for example on September 6^th, World Shorebird Day, I counted over 90 White-rumped Sandpipers at the Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge. Lesser Yellowlegs and Ruddy Turnstones were two other species with high counts.

As the curtains came down on World Shorebird Day 2017 and I viewed the Actual Global Shorebird Counting Locations I saw how these little waders, these shorebirds, mobilized many persons across the globe. I hope that my small effort on this tiny island of Barbados helped to raise awareness of the need to protect shorebirds and their habitats throughout their life cycles; to raise public awareness of the need for continued shorebird research, monitoring, and conservation and to connect people with shorebirds through wetland sites around the world.

Enjoy your birding!!

The shorebirds I saw

1. Whimbrel

2. Semipalmated Plover

3. Ruddy Turnston9ne

4. Least sandpiper

5. Semipalmated Sandpiper

6. Short-billed Dowitcher

7. Spotted sandpiper

8. Solitary sandpiper

9. American golden plover

10. Lesser yellowlegs

11. Pacific golden plover

12. Black-bellied plovers

13. Red knot

14. White-rumped sandpiper

15. Pectoral sand

16. Western sandpiper

17. Greater yellowleg

18. Sanderling

Wednesday 13 September 2017

Banded Knot

I am always excited to find banded birds, for it gives a vision into the travels of these marathon migrants. My excitement multiplies two fold when the banded bird is a Red Knot. This threatened aviator has one of the longest migrations of any bird. Every year it travels more than 9,000 miles (14,000 km) from the Arctic to the southern tip of South America and back. The most famous banded Red Knot, B95 aka Moon Bird, is over 20 years old and have flown the equivalent of the distance from the earth to the moon and back.

I saw a banded Red Knot on September 8^th at River Bay, St. Lucy. The bird looked healthy and was busy feeding in the decaying Sargassum Seaweed that littered the beach. The bird was banded at Kimbles Beach New Jersey, United States on May 18^th, 2011 and had many sightings since then.

Here are links about Red Knot Migration and banded Red Knot B95

Here is a list of the sightings:

2011

· 5/19/2011 - Kimbles Beach - north, New Jersey, United States

· 5/20/2011 - Kimbles Beach - north, New Jersey, United States

· 5/25/2011 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 5/26/2011 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 5/27/2011 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 5/28/2011 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

2012

· 5/23/2012 - Cooks Beach - south, New Jersey, United States

· 5/24/2012 - Fortescue - Raybins Beach, New Jersey, United States

· 7/31/2012 - Little Piskwamish - north flats, Ontario, Canada

2013

· 5/16/2013 - Fortescue - Raybins Beach, New Jersey, United States

· 5/19/2013 - Fortescue - Raybins Beach, New Jersey, United States

2014

· 5/18/2014 - Reeds Beach - south, New Jersey, United States

· 5/26/2014 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 8/4/2014 - Little Piskwamish - south flats, Ontario, Canada

· 8/10/2014 - Little Piskwamish - north flats, Ontario, Canada

· 8/23/2014 - Little Piskwamish - north flats, Ontario, Canada

2015

· 5/23/2015 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 5/25/2015 - Fortescue - Raybins Beach, New Jersey, United States

· 5/25/2015 - Mispillion Harbor Point, Delaware, United States

· 5/26/2015 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 5/27/2015 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 5/28/2015 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 5/28/2015 - Mispillion Harbor - Back Beach, Delaware, United States

· 5/29/2015 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

2017

· 5/25/2017 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 5/26/2017 - Mispillion Harbor, Delaware, United States

· 5/31/2017 - Fortescue - Raybins Beach, New Jersey, United States

· 9/08/2017 – River Bay, St. Lucy, Barbados

Monday 11 September 2017

2017 Photographic Big Year - #82,83

Week 36: This week was an extremely busy one in shorebirds migration, hundreds of birds of various species flew into the island. It afforded me the opportunity to add two more species to my Photographic Big Year gallery. These two birds were American Golden-Plover⁸²and Red Knot⁸³.

See images below. See 2017 Photographic Big Year images here.

82 - American Golden-Plover - Pluvialis dominica

83 - Red Knot - Calidris canutus

Birds of Barbados

Big Year 2017