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!