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