Saturday May 14th, 2016 the day of the Cornell
Global Big Day, was the hardest day of birding I have ever done since stumbling
into this past time a few years ago. But
it was fun, as my family and I traversed the length and breadth of our lovely
but dry island in search of our feathered friends. I always felt that a goal of 50 bird species
at this time of year and under these drought conditions was going to be difficult
but not impossible. However I fell short
of my goal. My final tally was 45
species from 16 checklist and counting over 600 individual birds. I touched every one of the eleven parishes but
only reported sightings from eight of them. Here is a breakdown parish by parish of the
birds seen on The Global Big Day in Barbados.
St. George
The first bird of the day was a 1Caribbean Elaenia, which
was sweetly singing in a tree outside my bedroom window. Other birds I listed before leaving home
included 2Barbados Bullfinch, 3Black-faced Grassquit, 4Grey
Kingbird, 5Scaly-naped Pigeon, 6Zenaida Dove and 7Carib
Grackle.
St. Michael
My first stop was at Bellville in the city where my targeted species
were two Parrots.
Right away I was able to locate the more popular of the two, the 8Orange-winged
Parrot. The second one, 9Yellow-
crowned took a bit more effort and I eventually caught a glance of it sitting
in a tree. This was a year bird for me. Other birds that were added to the checklist
were the ever present 10Rose-ringed Parakeet, my first hummer
of the day 11Green-throated Carib, 12Bananaquit, 13Black-whiskered
Vireo and 14Shiny Cowbird. I then turned my attention towards sea
birds at the fishing village at Pile Bay, on the outskirts of the city. My target birds, laughing Gull and Royal Tern,
were not there but I added to my tally 15Caribbean Martin, 16Common
Ground Dove and 17Magnificent
Frigate bird.
St. Thomas
From St. Michael I journeyed inland to the central parish
St. Thomas and to the pond of the recycling company SBRC.
This man-made pond has attracted many exciting birds over time but my
target bird was a Great Heron which has been a fixture there for a number of
weeks. It is also a great location for
Eurasian Collared Doves but disappointingly none of these two birds were there.
I
did see the ever present 18Cattle
Egrets, 19Green Heron, 20Common Gallinule, 21Laughing
Gull and 22Yellow Warbler.
St. John
I added one more species, 23Grassland Yellow-Finch, at Tabby Pond, St. John as I was on my way
to St. Philip.
St. Philip
This parish provided the best birding of the day adding nine
species to my Big Day checklist. The
nine were two whistling ducks the 24Black-bellied and 25West
Indian Whistling Duck, the egrets 26Snowy, 27Little
and 28Great. The doves
were 29Eared, 30Eurasian collared and 31Rock. Sandpipers made their mark with 32Semipalmated, 33Willet, 34Ruddy
Turnstone, 35Greater Yellowlegs, 36Semipalmated and 37Black-bellied
Plovers and 38Red-billed Tropicbird to complete the list. We then moved south to Christ Church.
Christ Church
We took our lunch at the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary around 12 noon but were hoping to see target
species for this location – Black-crowned Night Heron, Great Blue Heron and
Little Blue Heron but none were seen. We
did see a 39Spotted Sandpiper
there. Birds entering the checklist from
other locations in the parish of Christ Church were 40Royal Tern and 41Antillean-crested
Hummingbirds.
St. Andrew
After our lunch stop we headed north making three stops in
the parish of St. Andrew and adding three species to our Big Day checklist
namely 42Pied-billed Grebe, 43Caribbean
Coot and 44Masked Duck. Then it was off to our final stop.
St. Lucy
I officially ended my Big Day quest in the most northern
parish and with one of the most peculiar bird on the island the 45Southern Lapwing.
