Northern Birding Part 2

This is the second of a two parts description of my birding trips to the northern parish of St. Lucy on September 2^nd and 8th

 

Saturday, September 8^th, found my birding pal (my son Jason) and I, once again in the northern parish of St. Lucy.  We were there not just for birding but to take part in the Global Shorebird Count which is a part of the World Shorebirds Day.  We were hoping to see the Collared Plovers from last week, and with the help of Dr. Webster, do a systematic count of the many shorebirds in the north.

Our counting started at 6am at our first location which was busy with shorebirds.  Jason, who started birding in July, recorded his first lifer for the morning a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron.  Not too long after that he had another lifer an Upland Sandpiper.  This bird has evaded me since I first saw it in 2013 and was on my 2018 Migration Bucketlist so you could just imagine the satisfaction I felt as I marked it off my bucketlist.  We spent 1 hour and 24 minutes at that location and recorded 29 species of which 11 were shorebirds.  I was mostly impressed by the number of Semipalmated Sandpipers (350) and White-rumped Sandpipers (70).

With most of our allotted time for the morning’s birding slowly ticking away, we made a mad dash in the attempt to record two of the rarest shorebirds on the island, the Collared Plovers, which we saw last weekend, and the Southern Lapwing, which we did not, on that occasion.  The tables were turned this time, we had no problem finding the Lapwing, a lifer for Jason but lucked out on the Collared Plovers.  I guess that is the way birding goes anyway we tallied 30 species.

All in all we had a wonderful two weekends birding in the north.  Of course it will be a regular occasion when we enter the month of October, which is customarily our warbler season at Harrisons point.  I eagerly look forward to sharing it with you.  Enjoy your Birding!

Here is a list of all birds seen that day: 

1. Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis)
2. Scaly-naped Pigeon (Patagioenas squamosa)
3. Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
4. Common Ground-Dove (Columbina passerina)
5. Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)
6. Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus)
7. Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis)
8. Upland Sandpiper Bartramia longicauda
9. Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)
10. White-rumped Sandpiper (Calidris fuscicollis)
11. Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos)
12. Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)
13. Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus)
14. Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria)
15. Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
16. Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
17.  Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
18. Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
19. Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
20. Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis)
21. Black-whiskered Vireo (Vireo altiloquus)
22. Caribbean Martin (Progne dominicensis)
23. Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
24. Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis)
25. Carib Grackle (Quiscalus lugubris)
26. Yellow Warbler (Golden) (Setophaga petechia [petechia Group])
27. Grassland Yellow-Finch (Sicalis luteola)
28.  Black-faced Grassquit (Tiaris bicolor)
29. Bananaquit (Coereba flaveola)
30. Barbados Bullfinch (Loxigilla barbadensis)