BIRDING IN BARBADOS. In February last year I was fortunate to book a guide for the day whilst on holiday in Barbados in an area called Mullins Bay which is on the leeward side of the island. I found him on a website named “birdingpal.org”. This website lists birding pals all over the world. Some are professional guides and charge a daily fee but others are just locals who enjoy birding and are willing to impart their knowledge. The locals might ask for petrol money or a spot of lunch, depending on a short or full day trip. The guide I found in Barbados supplemented his normal job by taking out holidaymakers from single persons to small groups. I was in fact quite lucky as he had just returned the previous day to the island after being in the UK for several months. His name is Ryan Chenery if you ever need a guide in the Caribbean. He has a website at: http://www.birdingtheislands.com/

I was to be accompanied by my brother-in-law who in fact wasn’t a bird watcher at all but just loved the open countryside and nature. Ryan agreed to pick us up from our villa nice and early one morning. Before the off he explained a bit about himself and how the day would unwind. It was soon apparent that to find birds one had to find a fresh water supply, which as it turned out wasn’t the easiest thing as it had been particularly dry there. That didn’t mean Ryan couldn’t find a pond / reservoir or two dotted around the island. Our first stop was to be a local stretch of beach close to where we were staying with the chance of a wader or two.

Spotted Sandpiper. Sanderling

The first bird found was a Spotted Sandpiper which scampered along a rocky shore and did it’s best ​ to avoid being photographed. We also watched a small group of Sanderling at distance running in and ​ out with the tide and out to sea Magnificent Frigate Birds. Having only found three species we were ​ ​ soon driving to the northern tip of the island to a spot where locals created small ponds to lure in the migrating waders which unfortunately risked getting shot. The roads on Barbados are not the best and as one goes across country they go from bad to worse. The roads eventually turned into rough tracks (good job our guide knew the area). We passed several groups of Cattle Egrets and small Common ​ ​ Ground Doves were found scampering along the roadsides with Violet-eared Doves on the overhead ​ phone lines. On reaching our destination we found no ponds, due to the dry weather, or gun toting locals to be seen. We did have great views of a Grassland Yellow Finch which is slowly increasing ​ its population after having a few lean years.

Cattle Egret Common Ground Dove

Violet-eared Dove Grassland Yellow Finch

From here on in it was a case of crisscrossing the centre of the island travelling from top to bottom searching for small ponds or reservoirs. I swear at one point we were in someone’s back yard. At one of the ponds I left my camera in his car and ended up rushing back to fetch it as we spotted a Solitary ​ Sandpiper walking across some lily pads. It was at this point whilst going back to the car I missed a bird called a Sora which Ryan and my brother-in-law had good views of. There were ducks present in ​ the shape of Mallards and Blue-winged Teal plus Caribbean Coots. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

Solitary Sandpiper Blue-winged Teal

Moving on to two large shallow reservoirs we found another bird that has slowly been increasing in numbers again….a Least Sandpiper. Ryan was quite excited at finding a small group of these. There ​ ​ were more Spotted Sandpipers here along with, Semipalmated Plovers and a Great Blue Heron. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Several smaller birds darting in and out of the shrubbery escaped identification.

Least Sandpiper Semipalmated Plover ​

All in all we had a great day and even though we didn’t identify large numbers of birds those that we did were first class. Other birds that we added to our list at various places were Antillean Crested ​ Hummingbird, Caribbean Elaenia, Yellow Warbler, Caribbean Martin, Black-faced Grassquit, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Scaly-naped Pigeon, Green-throated Carib, Shiny Cowbird, Zenaida Doves, Grey Kingbird, ​ ​ Bananaquit, Carib Grackle and Peregrine Falcon. ​ ​ ​

Some of these we were lucky enough to see most days from the balcony of our villa. Barbados ​ Bullfinches, Grey Kingbirds, Shiny Cowbirds, Bananaquits, both Hummingbirds, Zenaida Doves ​ ​ ​ and Carib Grackles visited us most meal times but especially at breakfast. The Grey Kingbirds all ​ ​ but begged for a morsel of food to be tossed off the balcony which they then caught in mid air.

Barbados Bullfinch (nowhere near Grey Kingbird as colourful as the Eurasian version)

Shiny Cowbird Bananaquit

Carib Grackle Zenaida Dove

Green-throated Carib