Two Rare Birds and Baby Ducks at WSR

Shorebirds @ WSR

Since the rains came, Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge (WSR) have been a hive of activity.  Even though its at less than 30% of its water capacity, it is still attracting lots of birds, even rare ones.

Glossy Ibis

  On the 28^th a Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) and a Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica), both rare birds, were recorded there. 

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks Ducklings

Along with a clutch of 11 Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis) in the back swamp.  A high count of over 100 Semipalmated Sandpipers (Calidris pusilla) was tallied in the tray in front of the lookout.  All in all the WSR is shaping up to have a busy fall migration, lets hope for more rain to get it to at least 50% of its water capacity.

Upcoming Birding Events

If you're looking to start your journey into this intriguing world of birding, ebirding, and citizen science, here are three upcoming events to look out for.  There are  The Global Shorebird Counts, September 3^rd – 9^th, and The Cornell Labs October Big Day 2020 on October 17^th.

Global Shorebird Counts September 3-9

The Global Shorebird Counts

What is it:  The Global Shorebird Counts is an annual week-long event held around World Shorebirds Day which is celebrated yearly on 6 September.  It is used, in part, to draw attention to the continuing decline of shorebirds across the world due to such things as habitat loss, hunting, and climate change.  It also strives to raise public awareness of the need for continued shorebird research, monitoring, and conservation and to connect people with shorebirds through wetland sites around the world.

How to participate: By getting out to your local beaches, parks or wetlands during the week of the Global Shorebird Counts, especially on September 6^th World Shorebirds day, count the shorebirds you see, enter the results of your count on ebird.org, share the checklist with World Shorebirds Day and that’s it.  See the 4 steps how-to here.

October Big Day

What is it:  It is an occasion when birders from across the world join together on October 17, to count and record as many birds as possible in a day.  In 2019 over 20,000 persons, in 170+ countries saw and reported just over 6,700 bird species, of which 49 was submitted by the 4 birders that took part locally.  This year can we double the participants to 8 persons and try for 60 species?

How to participate:  Follow this link to see how to

We are living in the time of COVID 19, so while we are excited and eagerly looking forward to these upcoming birding events just remember safety first.  Practice Social Distancing even when out in the field, becareful when sharing equipment, like your scope, camera, and bins – remember your eyes are one of the entry points for this virus, but most importantly and always practice common sense. Stay safe and enjoy your birding.

WSR Alive With Shorebirds

I made a few passes by one of the islands Important Birding Areas and first shorebird sanctuary, Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge (WSR),  Like most of the wet areas that depend heavily on rainfall, it was suffering badly.  With the constant rains, we have been having over the last few days, that wetland is slowly coming alive.

After the day of rain on Monday 17th,  it was about 20 - 30% full but more importantly, it had attracted shorebirds, lots of them.   The numbers varied somewhat over the visits but in total  10 species of shorebirds were seen there thus far.

Here are the shorebirds recorded:

Pectoral Sandpiper @ WSR

1. Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus)
2. Stilt Sandpiper (Calidris himantopus)
3. Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)
4. Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos)
5. Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)
6. Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus)
7. Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)
8. Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria)
9. Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
10. Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)

I am excited at seeing one of my favorite birding locations coming alive with birds, especially shorebirds. Knowing the present dangers that these small birds face during migration it is heartwarming to see them at this oasis of safety. 

First Week OF August

What a week of birding the first week of August provided. It gave me my first lifer for the year, two yearbirds and  a few rare birds. Here is the break down.

The Lifer

e.g. example of a Sandwich Tern  

I was excited to land my first lifer for 2020 on the 5^th of the month. I was  at Long Beach, Christ Church watching a Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus) and a Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) feeding close  to shore, then another tern joined in the mix.  This bird got my attention because it was smaller than the Royal but yet it was still kinda large.  Through my bins, I saw that it had a black cap, bill, and legs, but what cemented the identification as a new bird for me was the yellow on the tip of the bill, which made it a Sandwich Tern (Thalasseus sandvicensis).  This became my 141st species for the island. (why not my 142^nd ? will be explained in a later post ). The best part of the afternoon came a few minutes later when the Sandwich and Royal Terns were joined by 3 Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii).  I was able to observe these 3 tern species Large, medium, and small, flying around and feeding, sadly I did not have a camera to document it.

The Year Birds

One of the 3 Whimbrels @ North Point

As you may know, I am trying to see a minimum of 110 species of birds for 2020 (check my progress here).  I added two new species, along with the above lifer, to conclude the week at 88 species for the year.  The first yearbird, a Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos), came on the 3^rd at Redland St. George. A few days later at North Point, St. Lucy on the 7^th, three Whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus) were the 88^th species for the year. I hope this trend continues into next week.

Rare Birds

While at long Beach observing the terns and other peeps on the beach, a Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) flew in and started fishing not too far away. This may have been the same bird I saw last month sitting on a buoy far out to sea at Oistins. It was good to have this closeup look at this prehistoric looking bird.  On the 7^th, while in the parish of St. Lucy I made a short stop at a private location to check up on a Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) who took up residents there for close to a year.  I was astonished on seeing not just that one bird, but a second Glossy with it.  While this is not the first record of multiple Glossys on the island, I am hoping that these two wll be the first breeding pair for Barbados.

Migration An Action

Semipalmated Sandpiper at North Point

When there is physical evidence that a species of bird(s) is in the process of migrating, we refer to it as a flight.  You can tell a flight is on because there is a sudden spike in the numbers of that said bird across the island.  The first week of August saw a flight of a few species.  Least (Calidris minutilla) and Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius) were visible on the first two days of August., and this was followed by Semipalmated Sandpipers and Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) as the week progressed. On Friday three Whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus) at North Point, St. Lucy, and four birds at Chancery Lane, Christ Church suggested a flight of this large shorebird was ongoing.

This was a great start to the business end of the year added to that we are getting regular showers. Rain fell almost daily. I am looking forward to what the 2^nd week of August will bring. If it is any thing like the first week i would be extremely happy.  Stay safe friends and enjoy your birding

The Barbados Birds and Birding Report - July

The month of July continued the dry, dusty, hot drought-like conditions that were so prevalent in the month of June.  That all changed in the few final days closer to the end of the month when 2 weather systems passed in the space of a few days and provided the first real rain in weeks. First, on July 25 TS Gonzalo, which was the earliest G name storm in history, passed to the south of the island with little fanfare and not much rain.  A few days later another stronger system, which would become Hurricane Isaias, passed to the north of us.  It provided us with the much-needed rain which brought to life many of the dried up wet areas, e.g. Chancery Lane and North Point.

North Point by John Webster

Chancery Lane

This was timely as the fall migration started. The first sign of this was at Inch Marlow on the 10^th, were two Spotted Sandpipers (Actitis macularius) in breeding plumage were seen.  In the days to follow, especially during the bad weather periods, we saw flights of lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) and Least Sandpipers (Calidris minutilla).

Birds and Birding for the Month

In July four birders combined to report 40 checklists to ebird.org.  The only species addition to Barbados 2020 checklist was a Willet (Tringa semipalmata) at inch Marlow, Christ Church.  We also had a few Collared Plovers (Charadrius collaris), recording five at three locations across the island, these you will see in our rare bird update.

Rare Birds by Parish   * Birds from last month)

St. Lucy

• Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)* This bird is has been around since August 2019.
• Fulvous Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor)* – this bird continued at the Mount Gay Distillery Pond and another private pond. 
• Collared Plovers (Charadrius collaris)* – were seen at two locations, first at River Bay and also at Rockfield.
  
  

St. Andrew 

• American Coot ((White Shielded) Fulica Americana)*, 6 at The Walkers Reserve, with a pair actively involved in nest building,  and one at Bawdens, an aggressive male paired with a Red shielded female.
• American Coot ((Red Shielded) Fulica Americana) the rarer of the two American Coot on island. One bird is at Walkers Reserve and the other is paired with a White Shielded at Bawdens as mentioned above.  

St. Philip

• Collared Plovers (Charadrius collaris) - 3 seen around the Tropical strom Gonzalo passed to the south of the island