September: Rares, Rares Rares

White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus)

It is looking like a September to remember.  What a bold, early prediction you may say, but thus far for the month we have seen a mega-rare bird, two rare ones and unusual numbers, and we are just  12 vdays into the month.  Look at what we saw so far.

Mega-Rare Bird

On September 5^th,  John Webster saw a small tern while birding in the eastern parish of St. Philip.  The bird was identified as a White-winged Tern (Chlidonias leucopterus), which is one of the terns commonly referred to as marsh terns.  This small Eurasian Tern, about 9-10” (23-27cm), breeds in central Europe through central Asia, and locally in eastern Asia, with a wintering range that includes Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeastern Asia, and the Australian region.  This would make the 6^th record of this species for Barbados (The Birds of Barbados: An Annotated Checklist (BOU Checklist Series): Paul A. Buckley, Edward B. Massiah el.at).
Check out this article on Marsh Terns from Birdguides.com

Rare Birds

Red Knot (Calidris canutus)

Three species of birds that would be considered rare for the island was recorded thus far for September.  Even though some may not consider them rare because one or two are seen almost yearly, they are rare to our region or to our island according to ebird.org.  On the second of September and today, a Brown Pelican(Pelecanus occidentalis)was seen sitting on a buoy in the bay at Pile Bay, St. Michael.  This bird may be the same bird that was seen multiple times last month on the south coast.  The other bird was a Red Knot (Calidris canutus) that was seen on September 03^rd, by John Webster.

Rare Numbers

We had a few interesting numbers during the month, but two really stood out.  On September 2^nd  John did the first-ever Big Sit* for the island.  He saw 38 species, which in itself was outstanding for one location,  but not as mind-blowing as the 255 Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) he saw.  He promised to share his experience with us on the blog so look out for that.  On the morning of the 7^th, Edward Massiah saw nine Hudsonian Godwits (Limosa haemastica) in St. Lucy.  This was a significant number as was shown by Ed’s comments when he said “Largest flock of adults I have ever seen!”.

Migration is definitely in full swing.  What else will show up in the month of September?  Whatever it is you will know about it here.

What is a Big Sit?