World Shorebirds Day 2019

A large percentage of the migrating birds to this island are shorebirds.  This family of birds is on the decline worldwide due to habitat loss, hunting and climate change just to name a few.  The Global Shorebird Counts (September 3^rd – 9^th) and the World Shorebirds Day (September 6^th), was set up to highlight the plight of these marathon migrants around the world and the need for shorebird conservation and research.  You can get involved by getting out during the counting dates September 3^rd – 9^th, count the shorebirds you see, enter the results of your count on ebird, share the checklist with World Shorebirds Day and that’s it.  Those few steps can potentially save thousands of shorebirds so get involved. 

Two Rare Birds For August

Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
Photograph by Sahara Moore

It has been an uneventful birding year in Barbados thus far but the month of August gave it just a little spark with two rare birds.  The first one, a Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), was seen by Ed Massiah on August 1, in the parish of St. Philip.  These birds, though common in other islands of the Caribbean, are considered rare to ours, even though around 2008 a pair successfully nested and raised chicks at Walkers, St. Andrew, now Walkers Reserve. 

Black-necked Stilts look like birds on stilts. They are between  13.5-15.5” in length, with long pink legs, black upperparts, and white underparts.  The last Black-necked was recorded on May 1, 2013, at Chancery Lane’s swamp.

The other rare bird seen was a Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus).  This species has become a yearly visitor to our island.  This one was spotted in the parish of St. Lucy on August 19.  Ibis is known for its decurved bill.  Glossies are 22-25” in length.  Adults are mostly dark with iridescent green and reddish tones, with a very thin white border surrounding the dark facial skin.  Immatures are a duller brown.

As we approach the end of August and the birds begin to arrive we will be on the lookout for more rare birds.

Lifer #140

Wilson's PloverCharadrius wilsonia

Tuesday afternoon I passed to check the water level at Chancery Lane’s Swamp after a few days of heavy rain.  The swamp was about 10% of its full capacity but it had a few shorebirds wading and feeding.  There were Sanderlings,(Calidris alba) Semipalmated Plovers (Charadrius semipalmatus)and a single Willet(Tringa semipalmata). One bird among the Semi-plovers caught my eye. It was about the same size as the plovers but a little paler and a had a large bill. Straight away I knew it was a Wilson’s Plover (Charadrius wilsonia), a rare bird for the island.  It was also my 140^th lifer for the island.

Wilson's Plover is a stocky 'ringed' plover, about 7-8” in size, with a large head and a long heavy black bill.  Males have a black breast band while females and immature birds have a brown breast band.  This is the second lifer I recorded for this year.

A Visit to Chancery Lane

A Dry Chancery

The rainfall we were having over the last few days encouraged me to pay a visit to Chancery Lane, which is on the south coast of the island, to see what effect it had on this wet area.  On my way there I passed through the town of Oistins and made a check for seabirds.  I saw three small white Terns fishing close to shore.  These birds’ bill and legs were red and they had a black crown with bright white plumage. They were no doubt, Roseate Terns.  As I was about to continue on my journey to Chancery, a fourth tern flew by.  This one appeared slightly larger, with longer wings than that of the Roseate Tern.  Its back was also shades darker than that of the Roseates.  Could this be a Common Tern? 

Brown Pelican

An object bobbing in the sea about 400 to 500 feet out also caught my attention.  On closer inspection, I realized it to be a Brown Pelican, a rare but yearly visitor to our shores.

The stop at Oistins, while fulfilling, was not the main purpose for me being on the south coast that afternoon,  so I continued on my way to the Chancery Lane Swamp.  When I arrived, I was surprised to find that the area was still mostly dry, with just a few “puddles” here and there.  A few shorebirds, made up of

Semipalmated Plover

Semipalmated Plovers, Ruddy Turnstones and a Sanderling, were relaxing around the larger catchments.  The air was full with the loud calls of the Black-whiskered Vireos and Golden Warblers.  With the prolonged dry spell we had, or continue to have, I guess it was wishful thinking to believe that the first real rain of the season would have much of an effect on this wet area.  However, it was good to see that the micro-ecosystem cycle that comes to life when water accumulates in this area, was beginning to take place.  With every collection of water, hundreds of Fiddler Crabs congregated.  This is one of the basic food sources and just a glance of the swamp at Chancery Lane slowly coming alive, and not a minute too soon.  We move swiftly into the migration season.  So please join me in a rain dance.

Fiddler Crabs

Sanderling

Birding Last Day of June

Solitary Sandpiper - Tringa solitaria

With all the rain and strong winds, we were experiencing last week, on Sunday I headed to the east to see if any new birds were about.  On my way there, I first checked the irrigation ponds at Redland in St. George and was surprised to find a very early or very late Solitary Sandpiper.  According to ebird.org, this is the second Solitary ever recorded on the island in the month of  June.  It is so rare, that I was prompted to investigate the possibility of this being its old world doppelganger, GreenSandpiper.  I will let you know how my investigations into that matter end up.

Leaving Redland, I ventured to a private pond in the east and recorded a tally of sixteen species including nine shorebird species but nothing out of the ordinary.  We are still a few weeks away from the busy period resulting from the fall migration but things are starting to heat up.

 Here are the species I saw on Sunday

1. Scaly-naped Pigeon - Patagioenas squamosa
2. Eurasian Collared-Dove - Streptopelia decaocto
3. Common Ground-Dove - Columbina passerina 
4. Zenaida Dove - Zenaida aurita
5. Common Gallinule - Gallinula galeata
6. Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis squatarola
7. Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus
8. Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres
9. Semipalmated Sandpiper - Calidris pusilla
10. Western Sandpiper - Calidris mauri
11. Short-billed Dowitcher - Limnodromus griseus
12. Solitary Sandpiper - Tringa solitaria
13. Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca
14. Lesser Yellowlegs - Tringa flavipes
15. Little Egret - Egretta garzetta
16. Snowy Egret - Egretta thula
17. Cattle Egret - Bubulcus ibis
18. Green Heron - Butorides virescens
19. Carib Grackle - Quiscalus lugubris
20. Yellow Warbler - Setophaga petechia
21. Grassland Yellow-Finch - Sicalis luteola
22. Barbados Bullfinch - Loxigilla barbadensis

Incidental Birding

Fulvous Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor)

It looks like the dry spell is finally over.  We had a lot of rain over the last two weeks, not enough to start affecting the water levels in the ponds and wet areas but it is looking promising.  The island though was blanketed by a cloud of Saharan dust for most of last week and reports are that it should continue into this week. 

Black Swifts (Cypseloides niger)

I saw a few interesting birds as I traveled around the island last week.  On Wednesday afternoon I saw two Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) in St. Philip.  The following day, the 20^th, I saw a raft with close to thirty Laughing Gulls (Leucophaeus atricilla) , just off the coast of Speightstown, St. Peter, on the West Coast.  Later that day I recorded my 85^th bird species for the year, when I saw five Black Swifts (Cypseloides niger) while I was driving along the Ermy Bourne Highway, St. Andrew.   The following day I found myself in the northern parish of St. Lucy and in the pond outside the world famous Mount Gay Rum Distilleries I saw a Fulvous Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) resting peacefully on the pond.  On Saturday afternoon I saw a total of five Masked Ducks (Nomonyx dominicus)at two different locations in the central parish of St. Thomas.  The first four I saw by a bridge at Farmers, two females, and two males.  One of the males was in breeding plumage, showing a blue bill.  The final one, a female, was seen at the SBRC pond.

Laughing Gulls (Leucophaeus atricilla)

With the rains coming, I am expecting to see more birds as we enter July and then into the fall migration.  Stay tuned to this blog for the latest in birding happenings on the island of Barbados.

Birding Walkers +

Pied-billed Grebe @ Walkers Reserve

With “drought-like conditions”  prevailing and a scarcity of migrating birds, because of the time of year, choosing a location for a few hours of birding was challenging.  I decided to take the suggestion of fellow birder, Dr. John Webster and head east to the parish of St. Andrew.  There, my son Jason, nephew Davion and I, visited Walkers Reserve, Long Pond and made a short visit to Greenland Irrigation Pond.  Here are the highlights.

Walkers Reserve – 23 Species observed

Pied-billed Grebe and two chicks @ Walkers Reserve

This was my first visit to Walkers since the Introduction to Birding workshop on May 25^th  and I was eager to see what birds were around.  John visited the reserve the day after the workshop and saw not only the Ruddy Duck but also reported a Pied-billed Grebe with seven chicks.  I was keen to see them and also to get a good sighting of the Ruddy Duck.  We got started at the Main Pond, which was not the plan but a cluster of shorebirds on the far bank of the pond caught our attention.  We tallied 25 Semipalmated Plovers, 75 Ruddy Turnstones and a Sanderling.  These birds appeared to be in the process of migration as a small mixed group of Turnstones and Plovers flew in and we saw the main group of Turnstones taking to the sky as one body and disappearing over the trees.  As we moved on to the southern pond we quickly located the family of Grebes, the chicks appeared healthy, we even saw one diving.  A few of the Common Gallinules in this pond also had chicks but we never saw the Ruddy Duck.  As we were leaving Walkers we saw a Great Blue Heron wading in the main pond.  It is rare to see Great Blues at this time of year and even more so with the scarcity in seeing them last season, but it was easily my bird of the afternoon.

Long Pond – 14 Species observed

Sanderlings and Semipalmated Plovers @ Long Pond

There were only a few birds at Long Pond.  The main bird of interest was a Sanderling molting to breeding plumage.  The transformation which some birds make to breeding plumage still intrigues me and sanderlings are one of the poster birds for this change.  In normal plumage, it is a pale-ish grey bird but around this time of year, the breeding season, it starts to replace that pale look with a reddish-brown and black livery, making it distinguishable from its non-breeding self.  Sadly while the molting process may start here on the island, by the time the process is completed the bird would already have migrated.

Greenland Irrigation Pond – 8 Species observed

With the sun setting over the hills of St. Andrew, we made our final stop at Greenland Irrigation Pond. This small and usually deep pond has suffered greatly from the dry conditions and is now very shallow and receding at the banks.  This pond  still attracted Common Gallinules (21) but not much else.

At the end of our trip to St. Andrew, we tallied 26 species made up of 388 individual birds.  Common Gallinules accounted for 163 birds with 141 of that number recorded at Walkers Reserve.  Even though I did not see the Ruddy Duck it was still a good afternoon of birding in the east.

---See images here

Birds seen:

1. Pied-billed Grebe - Podilymbus podiceps
2. Scaly-naped Pigeon - Patagioenas squamosa
3. Eurasian Collared-Dove - Streptopelia decaocto
4. Common Ground-Dove - Columbina passerina
5. Zenaida Dove - Zenaida aurita
6. Green-throated Carib - Eulampis holosericeus
7. Antillean Crested Hummingbird - Orthorhyncus cristatus
8. Common Gallinule - Gallinula galeata
9. American Coot - Fulica Americana
10. Semipalmated Plover - Charadrius semipalmatus
11. Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres
12. Sanderling - Calidris alba
13. Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca
14. Great Blue Heron - Ardea Herodias
15. Little Egret - Egretta garzetta
16. Snowy Egret - Egretta thula
17. Cattle Egret - Bubulcus ibis
18. Green Heron - Butorides virescens
19. Caribbean Elaenia - Elaenia martinica
20. Gray Kingbird - Tyrannus dominicensis
21. Caribbean Martin - Progne dominicensis
22. Yellow Warbler - Setophaga petechia
23. Grassland Yellow-Finch - Sicalis luteola
24. Bananaquit - Coereba flaveola
25. Black-faced Grassquit - Tiaris bicolor
26. Barbados Bullfinch - Loxigilla barbadensis