September in Review - Part 2

Woodbourne Shorebird Rescue

 

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 

Black-crowned Night Heron

Laughing Gull

Oistins, Inch Marlow and Long Beach

Whimbrel in flight

Common Tern fishing

The beautiful Long Beach

Turtle at Oistins

St Lucy 

Short-billed Dowitcher

1st year Black-crowned Night Heron

Semipalmated Plover

The Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge (WSR).

Fresh Water Wetlands

The fresh water areas on the island of Barbados are of importance to migrating shore and water birds.  There are made up mainly of a network of artificially created swamps for the purpose of luring migrating birds down so that they can be shot.  Some of these shooting swamps, as there are called locally; maintain water levels outside of the shooting season which spans from July to October.  This is a plus for those birds which migrate outside the hunting season.

But without a doubt the beacon in bird conservation on the island of Barbados is -
The Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge (WSR).  This once abandoned shooting swamp was brought to life to give the many migrating shore and water birds a place of safety during migration.  At this one location you can see well over 15 species of birds on any given day but it is well known for Snowy, Cattle and Great  Egrets, Little Blue Heron, Green Heron, Black Bellied Whistling Ducks, Common Moorhens or if you prefer Common Gallinule and much more.  I am expecting to pay a lot of visits there during the New Year.

Click Here  Google Map

Click Here to read about how WSR came about.

Click Here for articles on the Woodbourne Shorebird Sanctuary (WSR).

Below are some Photos from WSR:

The observation blind built at Woodburne Shorebird Refuge
 called "The Hutt," after  Barbadian Ornithologists, Naturaliist and  Conservationist Captain M.B. Hutt (1919-1998)

One of the fresh water ponds at WSR

Osprey "Pandion haliaetus" fishing at WSR

Sora "Porzana carolina" in the wetfeilds



Green Heron "Butorides virescens " and Wilson's Snip "Gallinago delicata"

Egrets taking time to rest at the pond infront The Hutt

Great Egret "Ardea alba"

3 Hours 5 Locations 16 Species = Great Afternoon

After a hard days work I decided to relax by going birding and it was rewarding.  I saw 10+ species of bird and visited five (5) different locations. At one of the location, a shooting pond, shorebirds were caged up from the just concluded hunting season, one of the tricks  hunters use to lure bird into firing range.   How sad these poor birds look. In the cages were Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) and Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes) that I was able to identify. Here is list of the bird I saw and some photos

Bird	Latin Name	Number
Great Blue Heron	Ardea herodias	1
Little Blue Heron	Egretta caerulea	4
Green Heron	Butorides virescens	5
Great Egret	Ardea alba	2
Cattle Egret	Bubulcus ibis	20+
Snowy Egrets	Egretta thula	1
Common Moorhen	Gallinula chloropus	10
Wilson’s Snipe	Gallinago delicata	4
Spotted Sandpipers	Tringa erythropus	3
Semipalmated Plover	Charadrius semipalmatus	3
Belted Kingfisher	Megaceryle alcyon	1
Gray Kingbirds	Tyrannus dominicensis	3
Black-Faced Grassquit	Tiaris bicolor	2
Carib Grackle	Quiscalus lugubris	10
Green-throated Carib Eulampis holosericeus	Eulampis holosericeus	1
Sora	Porzana carolina	1
Yellow Warbler	Setophaga petechia	1



Blue Heron in Flight

Black-Faced Grassquit

Spotted Sandpiper

Green Heron and Snipe



Cattlesand a Snowy Egret

Common Moorhen

Caged Birds at ahooting swamp