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| Photo courtesy Walkers Reserve |
We met around 6:15 am for a briefing which was lead by Jonathan Ramsay, Regeneration Coordinator at Walkers, also present was Justin Springer of Caribbean Youth Environment Network, local birder Dr. John Webster, my son Jason and our newest residential birder Niels Larsen, along with two others.
We were divided into two groups to cover the reserve, a nearby inland runoff to the sea called Green Pond and the protected stretch of beach that links Green Pond with the Reserve. Each group had a recorder- whose responsibility was to list the bird seen and totals, an ebirder – used the ebird app to record live updates to eBird Caribbean, and a birder – to identify the bird species, he and the ebirder were also responsible for tallying. John and I were the designated birders in each group. My group counted Green Pond, the beach which was over a mile long and littered sargassum seaweed and the meander watercourse of Long Pond that lead back to the Reserve.
The list below highlights the water bird species we recorded:
- Semipalmated Plover
- Sanderling (on the beach)
- Least sandpiper
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Wilson Snipe
- Little Blue Heron
- Little Egret
- Cattle Egret
- Common Gallinule
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| Sanderling among the Sargassum Seaweed |
At the end of the exercise, both groups tallied a total of196 birds made up of 27 different species with the highlight being a Ring-necked Duck and a suspected Little/Snowy Egret hybrid. The hope is to make this census a consistent practice and also to use this model for other wet areas across the island. I would like to thank Jonathan Ramsay for including me in the event.
I was saddened to hear of the injury to the Eurasian Spoonbill at Walker's Reserve. I have to thank you for mentioning the bird on your blog in November (I believe) as I was able to see it and the other one in St. Philip, when in Barbados over Christmas. I have a few good photos and shall treasure them even more now. I hope that the injured bird will still have a good life. I look forward to reading your blog on a regular basis. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteYes it was really heart breaking seeing her like that and in so much pain but i am happy she survived,and is doing find. Congrats on seeing them it is indeed a rare sight for this part of the world.i hope you enjoyed your stay on the island and i hope to meet you on you next visit. Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog
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