Birding the Third Weekend of November

The birders on the island had a wonderful weekend with one of them racking up fifty-one (51)species in just a few hours of birding.  His checklist included such rarities as an American Coot, a Grey Heron, a Lesser Scaup, a Ring-necked Duck, a Red Knot, a Long-billed Dowitcher, a Northern Waterthrush and the threatened West Indian Whistling-Duck.  The best part of his checklist is that he was in the company of a visiting birder whose life list may have had a big boost from that outing. 

Another visiting birder, that was with us for a couple of weeks, jokingly allowed me to know that he will soon overtake my year’s list.  His list for Barbados now stands at seventy-one(71) species.  Some of his new lifers are the Barbados Bullfinch, Blackpoll Warbler and Eared Doves. 

My weekend was not as fulfilling.  My species count only totaled twenty-eight (28)species for the two days.  On Saturday I was finally able to get photos of the Long-billed Dowitchers in the east of the island.  On Sunday, my morning started at Six Men’s on the west coast of the island.  Every year a large flock of Sanderlings winter at this location with some tagged ones among the flock.

There were fifty-eight Sanderlings on the beach and among them was

tagged-bird Y2L.  This was the second year I reported Y2L and the third year it was reported in Barbados.  I contacted banded birds (www.bandedbirds.org) and reported the sighting.

Another highlight of the trip was the return of the Ruff.  I first spotted it a week or so ago, it was not seen after that, but now it is back.  I also missed a Green winged Teal at that same northern location.  It was only realized by another birder/photographer, as he was reviewing his photographs from that day.

All in all, it was a fair weekend of birding for me.

 Table below of the birds seen this weekend

Common Name	Scientific Name
Bananaquit	Coereba flaveola
Barbados Bullfinch	Loxigilla barbadensis
Black-bellied Plover	Pluvialis squatarola
Black-faced Grassquit	Tiaris bicolor
Blue-winged Teal	Anas discors
Carib Grackle	Quiscalus lugubris
Caribbean Martin	Progne dominicensis
Cattle Egret	Bubulcus ibis
Common Gallinule	Gallinula galeata
Common Ground-Dove	Columbina passerina
Eurasian Collared-Dove	Streptopelia decaocto
Grassland Yellow-Finch	Sicalis luteola
Gray Kingbird	Tyrannus dominicensis
Greater Yellowlegs	Tringa melanoleuca
Lesser Yellowlegs	Tringa flavipes
Little Egret	Egretta garzetta
Peregrine Falcon	Falco peregrinus
Pied-billed Grebe	Podilymbus podiceps
Sanderling	Calidris alba
Scaly-naped Pigeon	Patagioenas squamosa
Semipalmated Sandpiper	Calidris pusilla
Shiny Cowbird	Molothrus bonariensis
Short-billed Dowitcher	Limnodromus griseus
Snowy Egret	Egretta thula
Stilt Sandpiper	Calidris himantopus
White-rumped Sandpiper	Calidris fuscicollis
Wilson's Snipe	Gallinago delicata
Zenaida Dove	Zenaida aurita

Birding the Third Weekend of November (Photographs)

SB Dowitcher

LB Dowitcher with Peeps

Cattle Egrets sunning

Tag Y2L Sanderling at Six Men's

Sanderling at Six Men's

Part of the Flock at Six Men's

Shorebirds in the north

Ruff in flight

Ruff

Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata)

Length: 5-5.5inches (12.7-14cm); upperparts greenish yellow; feet orange yellow; white wing bars; chest yellowish with faint side streaks; underparts whitish, undertail white; eye stripe whitish 

Breeding Male: black cap; white cheeks; black mustache stripe. Breeding Female: crown blackish streaks. Habitat: Forest and wooded areas, found mostly at Harrison's Point in October but also seen at other locations in St. Lucy during Fall Migration. Graeme Swamp during Spring Migration. Statue: Passage Migrant. 

Blackpoll Warbler makes one of the longest migrations of any North American Song Bird, a total of about 2,000 miles from western Alaska to the Venezuela and Guyana. 

Fall 2018 St. Lucy 

May 2017 Graeme Hall 

May 2017 Graeme Hall 

May 2017 Graeme Hall 

Rare Birds Month

In Barbados, the month of November is referred to as a Rare Bird Month (RBM) by local birders.  Last year (2013), November brought rarities such as the Common Shellduck and a Wilson’s phalarope.

This month started off pretty promising.  While a group was birding at Harrison’s Point, St. Lucy on November 1^st, a warbler which was later identified as a Black-throated Green Warbler Dendroica virens was seen.  This five inch wood warbler with its Yellow face and olive green upperparts, has only previously been recorded a total of seven times on the island, with the last observation in April 1993.

On Sunday 2^nd November at the same location, another wood warbler was recorded, a Blackburnian Warbler Setophaga fusca.  The first confirmed record of this bird on the island was on November 4, 2000 at Harrison’s Point.  Last year, one was identified at the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary.  The Blackburnian is a small song warbler with a black face mask, orange yellow eyebrow and white wingbars. 

The shorebirds were not to be outdone.  The three Hudsonian  Godwits  Limosa haemastica which were in the north of the island last month, stayed over for RBM.  In the east, Long Billed Dowitchers Limnodromus scolopaceus  and a Red Knot Calidris canutus were also recorded.

  

Barbados is well known for Eurasian rarities. Two such birds were recorded in the first week of November.  The first one, a Ruff Philomachus pugnax, was recorded on the 7^th November in the north of the island. Ruffs are shorebirds known for the ruffle around its neck which it displays during courtship. The second bird, a Grey Heron Ardea cinerea, was spotted in the east of the island. It was observed to be standing not far from its New World double the Great Blue Heron.

This was just the first week, let us see how the month progresses.

Blackburnian Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler by J. Webster

Hudsonian Godwit

Hudsonian Godwit

Blackburnian Warbler

Birding the 3rd Weekend of October

The fourth weekend of October 2014 was a good weekend for birding here in Barbados but I was only able to spend a few hours in the field on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.  The rest of the time was spent armchair birding; I followed the observations of the birders in the field over our local net.

Friday 24

While driving on the highway which passes through Greenland in the parish of St. Andrew, on the compound of the state owned Agricultural Station I notice an Osprey perched in a decaying tree busy preening. It was no dough drying itself after fishing in the nearby lake. It was the first Osprey I had seen for this Autumn Migration, so I stopped.  I was able to spend a few minutes photographing the bird, answer a few questions and share information on Ospreys and other migratory birds with the employees who came out to see the bird.

Later that afternoon, I decided to check out a few of the birding Hotspots in the northern part of the island.  From the birding net I learned that Dr. Webster, local photographer and birder, was also in the north birding so we agreed to meet at Harrison’s Point.

Fosters

My first stop was the private ponds and mud flaps at Fosters.  There were very few shorebirds at this location.  Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs made up the bulk of the shorebirds but the peeps, mainly White-rumped and Pectoral Sandpipers were present.  From the plover family there was one record each for a Semipalmated and an American Golden Plover.  A Yellow billed Cuckoo and the ever present Cattle and Snowy Egrets made up the thirteen species recorded at Foresters.

Next stop Harrison’s Point.

Harrison’s Point

With the overcast weather conditions, by the time I reached Harrison’s Point the light was starting to fade. The singing of a Yellow Warbler drew my attention to a wooded area which consisted mainly of what is locally referred to as River Tamarind or Myamosee trees (Leucaena leucocephala).  I located two Yellow Warblers and one Blackpoll Warbler in the woods.  I was later joined by Dr. Webster and from the River Tamarind woods we moved further into Harrison’s point.  We recorded two more Blackpolls and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  In total we recorded seven species of birds before heading home.

On my way home as I was passing through Haggatts in the parish of St. Andrew I noticed a bird flying over a grass field.  I pulled my car off of the road and took a closer look, to my surprise it was a Nighthawk.  I took out my camera knowing very well that with it being so dark outside that the photos would not be legible.  I just needed one to confirm the ID.  I was able to confirm that it was a Nighthawk but was not able to confirm the type.  This was my second sighting of a Nighthawk for the year.

Saturday 25

I met three other birders at Harrison’s Point, St. Lucy at 6am.  The sky was overcast with the threat of rain.  On this morning, Blackpoll Warblers were falling from the sky.  It was hard to believe that just a year ago we stood in this same position and did not even see one Blackpoll - that’s birding for you!  The birds were everywhere and they were very curious which made photographing them pretty easy. Yellow-billied Cuckoos also showed up and I recorded eight of these birds.  A flock of Pectoral Sandpipers and two Wilson’s Snipes flew overhead.  At the end of my two hours, I had recorded fifteen bird species.

The others continued bird at various locations in the north and recorded Godwits, Blue Winged Teals, Black-bellied Ducks with Ducklings, an Osprey and a Peregrine Falcon just to mention a few.  Not a bad weekend birding!

See gallery for Photos