Evening Birding the North

Blue-winged Teal

I had a rare happening on Thursday evening - after work birding in the north, and boy was it rewarding. I made several stops and saw many birds, including a year bird and a few rare birds.  The north is suffering immensely from the ongoing drought. The earth is all cracked up and even the deepest water holes are evaporating at an alarming rate. My first visit was to a private impoundment where I was greeted by an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) sitting in water up to its belly.  Other than that not many other birds were around.  It was much better at my second stop, there I saw two rarities, a juvenile  Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica), the second for the month, and the rarer of the two American Coot (Fulica Americana) –the red shielded variety. 

To top off the afternoon, my year bird, a Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), well seven of them at the Half Acre egret rookery.  Other notable highlights were  71  Blue-winged Teal  (Spatula discors), most of which appeared to be pairing up, no doubt in preparation for migration and breeding. I also, belatedly, saw an allusive Masked Duck (Nomonyx dominicus).  I tallied  21 species, 260 individual birds on that afternoon. Not too shabby for one afternoon after work.

Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)

Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)

The Journey to Bird Rock - Part 2

On the afternoon of Friday, March 13, my son Jason and I went back to Greenridge's, St. Lucy to investigate two lookout points we saw on our last visit to Bird Rock on March 7th.  The hope was to find a better and much assessable point to view Audubon's Shearwaters (Puffinus lherminieri) nesting colony. The first location took us to the end of Greenridge's road, then hiked to a peninsular called Touces Point, which had us looking southward towards the Rock Stacks at Bird Rock.  While this location in itself gave a good almost frontal view of the colony, it was just too far away for night viewing. We did take note of another projection that would give us that same look but closer, in fact, this may be a prime location. We went in search of the location but found it difficult so we made our way to the second point we saw, location 3 on the map.

Getting a bit disoriented and lost we stopped and asked the directions of a man and woman who was busy cleaning in front of their house. The man gave us the directions and asked if we were going fishing?  I told him about our quest to see these birds that nest in the rocks just over the cliff. To my surprise, he knew about them, he knew about the Audubon's Shearwaters, but of course not by name.  He referred to them as “Cobblers”, or “small black birds with long wings”, he said he saw plenty of them on the mornings when he used to go fishing a long time ago. This got me excited for two reasons, (1) this breeding colony that was first reported on in the mid -1700s was still active, and (2) there is a possibility of seeing these birds during daylight hours.  

We followed the directions given to us by the man,  and in no time we at location 3.  I gave us a view almost directly overlooking Bird Rock.  My heart skipped a beat when I saw a bird, dark above and with a white underbelly, flying above the rocks but it was just a few Caribbean Martins (Progne dominicensis),  we spent about 30 minutes at that lookout at which point it was almost dark.  

Peregrine Falcon

The most exciting thing we saw was a Peregrine Falcon(Falco peregrinus), which we tried to make a Bat Falcon (Falco rufigularis), perched on a tree not too far away from the rock stacks.   This was the perfect location, it was accessible, and had a great side view of Bird Rock.  The land the location 3 was connected to an old plantation, of which the main house had just been renovated. After a series of visits, I finally met the owner of the land, Mr. Gill.  I asked for permission to visit this prime birding watch spot on his land and explained to him the reason, to see a rare breeding bird. Mr. Gill said ok, it was not a problem, he said just let him know when we are going.

The trip to Bird Rock now has an easily accessible observation point.  This is good news for our Journey to Bird Rock.

The Journey to Bird Rock - Part 1

Bird Rock by John Webster's iphone

It is the local breeding bird never seen by most of the island's birders.  It nests in limestone crevices on a small rock stack about 30 meters offshore Cluffs Bay, St. Lucy, called Bird Rock.  It is known to return to this rock stack daily during the breeding period which commences in late November and tapers off by May- June.  You may ask if you know where the birds sleep and when it goes to sleep, what's the problem? Since the last visit by Martin Frost and Ed Massiah (Birds Of Barbados by Buckley, Hutt Massiah et al) in 1998, many attempts were made to visit Bird Rock, but for one reason or the other, the trip never came to fruition.  The main issue was with the path leading to the nesting colony, it was treacherous during the day, so you can just imagine how it was at night. Let me tell you more about this bird and why the journey to see it is such a difficult one.

The Birds

Audubon's Shearwater  Free image from www.goodfreephotos.com

The bird,  Audubon's Shearwater (Puffinus lherminieri), is about 12” (30cm) – that is about the size of a Zenaida Dove (Zenaida aurita). These seabirds are black at top and white underparts. And were nesting on this same rock stack for over 300 years. In his book The Natural History of Barbados: In Ten Books published in 1750, the naturalist  Rev. Griffith Hughes referred to Bird Rock as a “place of safety for several seabirds”(The Natural History of Barbados: In Ten Books: book IX pg 252) and that it is, and I hope it remains so for another 300 years. These seabirds spend their days far out to see, in the pelagic zone, returning to the nesting site well after dark. Hence the first problem is to see these birds, you have to go after dark, at night.  The second difficulty is the path to Bird Rock.

The Path to Bird Rock

Reaching the lookout point to the rock stacks at Bird Rock,  involves a tricky descent into a wooded ravine, along a tenuous pathway. Tricky enough during the day, so you can just imagine traversing it at night. On Saturday, March 7, John Webster, Ed Massiah, and I, the three birders, took an exploratory trip to Bird Rock, to feel out the path for a night visit. We met at the entrance to the path, which is in Greenridge's St. Lucy, a small community off highway 1B.  We met at 6 AM, well most of us did but one person, who I will not name, was late.  As we waited for John to arrive I took note of the birds in the area, a few Caribbean Martins(Progne dominicensis), Cattle Egrets(Bubulcus ibis) but was surprised when a Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias) flew overhead and landed about a ½ mile away.

The path to Bird Rock started along a trodden path through a pasture, but it was not well defined suggesting that it was not widely used. This slowly gave way to shrubbery and trees. We then started to descend into the ravine, zig-zagging between trees and boulders before coming to a clearing looking out to the rear of Bird Rock. It was a stunning view, enhanced by the morning sun escaping the horizon and starting the journey slowly across the sky, it was breathtaking. An abandoned foundation of a building in the background suggested that someone attempted to make this amazing view a daily event.  We spent some time surveying the area, taking note of a few areas along the cliff that should give a less challenging view of the stacks, before heading back to the top. These areas I will investigate in the coming week.

The excursion to Bird Rock provided us with the information we needed. It would be difficult to make the journey at night. We do have a few other options to explore, but for sure the trip to Bird Rock is on. I hope!

Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)

Length: 16-19"(40-48 cm). Description: A small diving, fish-eating duck with a long slender bill. Males: a large black crest/hood with a white patch, a white breast with black stripes,  chestnut colored sides, and flanks, black upperparts. Long black slender bill and a bright yellow iris  (see image here). Females: cinnamon with a backward slanted crest that can be raised or lowered, dusky brown backs with gray chests and sides, a black upper bill edged with orange and the lower part yellow, the eyes are brown and the feet are green.

Habitat: Ponds, lakes; 

Status: Extremely rare.

Number of times recorded on the island: 2 (2006, 2018) 

Comments: Breeds mainly in southeastern Canada, nests in the cavity of trees.

 

A diving duck, a long slender bill, and a reddish crest that can be raised or lowered

Non-breeding males, females, and immature: brownish-grey, darker on the back

underparts - white

white wing patch in flight

Rare Birds Update: End of February

Glossy Ibis one of the long stay birds 

In the month of February, we had an influx of over 20 visiting birders, some of which, along with local birders reported a total of 70 species to www.ebird.org  on close to 100 checklists.  This moved the total species count from 72, at the end of January to 77 at the end of February. (ref. www.ebird.org). 

Rare birds round up

Most of our rare birds from the end of January continued throughout the month of February. An American Coots ((Red Shielded)Fulica Americana) relocated from Walkers Reserve. Coming on to the list were six new rare birds. Here is the update parish by parish.

 * continuing Bird (Birds from last month)

St. Lucy

• Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)* This bird is really enjoying the Bajan hospitality it was with us since August 2019.

  

  American Coot by Jason Moore

• American Coot ((Red Shielded) Fulica Americana)* this is a new bird for this area, maybe one that relocated from Walkers, st. Andrew.

  

  Southern Lapwing by Jason Moore

• Southern Lapwing (Vanellus chilensis) a bird that once successfully bred on the island but now only a lone female remains. She disappears for months on end before reappearing to lay infertile eggs, because of no male, in a private field.
• Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) –My son Jason and I saw this large gull sitting in one of the wet areas in the north.  It was later identified by photographs as a LBBG, an almost yearly visitor.
• Wood Sandpiper (Tringa glareola) first seen by John Webster yesterday, February, 29^th

• 

  Purple Gallinule by Jason Moore 

  Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica)* a beautiful adult, seen in a bushy area.  

St. Andrew

• American Coot ((White Shielded) Fulica Americana)* - 4 birds remain at Walkers Reserve. I am still anticipating them nesting in the not too distance future

St.  George

• Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)*

St. Philip

• Ruff (Calidris pugnax)*
• Pacific Golden-Plover (Pluvialis fulva)*
• Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus)* – First reported by John Webster on January 16

  

  White-tailed Tropicbird by Quincy Clarke

• White-tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus) seen only once for the month when it was reported and photographed by a visitor.

Christ Church

Northern Parula by Dennis Main

• Northern Parula (Setophaga Americana) – This beautiful bird was reported on ebird by a visitor, Dennis Main. It was seen at Graeme Hall Swamp on the 22^nd. (awaiting confirmation)

St. Michael

• Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) was seen by a visitor as she cruse into the Deep Water Harbor.

Feel free to contact me, Julian Moore @ 100birdsbarbados@gmail.com, John Webster @  barbadosbirds@gmail.com,  or Ed Massiah @ ebmassiah@hotmail.com to report any rare bird sightings, or if you need assistance identifying a bird we would be happy to assist.