Saint Lucia warbler (not one of mine this! nicked it from here)
The taxi arrived one hour late to meet me this morning, which was a bit tedious, I walked down the hill to meet it and scored a mating pair of American kestrels on overhead wires. We left Castries at 0630, picking up a small flock of Caribbean martins over town. Driving through Dennery we had two little green herons over the road. Nearby, the driver suggested the 'Eastern Nature Trail' (which starts at the top of the hill to the south of Dennery) - this proved to be a good idea. The habitat consisted of thick, dry coastal scrub and cliff edge and looked good for the endangered white-breasted thrasher. They took a while to find but eventually two flew into view briefly. Other birds here included more lifers - Lesser Antilles saltator (1), Caribbean elaenia (4) and the cracking St. Lucia warbler (2), as well as more black-whiskered vireo and another noisy flock of Caribbean martins.
The driver bought me breakfast in a roadside bar in Dennery by way of compensation for his late arrival and we got on famously after that. On the way back we stopped just south of town at a good-looking wetland (the Cul de Sac River Marsh). This produced some great birds - the easy star was the long-staying Eurasian spoonbill, found in April last year, this is a cosmic rarity on this side of the Atlantic (first record?). Other highlights were little blue heron (2), snowy egret (1), great egret (1), greater yellowlegs (+), lesser yellowlegs (+), solitary sandpiper (1), Wilson's snipe (2), Caribbean coot (1), moorhen and osprey (1 - of the resident race). At least two libellulids were photographed but remain unidentified at present.
Eurasian spoonbill - this one must have caused it's finder a momentary loss of cool I imagine
One of four libellulids (this one is Orthemis 'Aruba-form') seen at Cul de Sac River Marsh (Castries)
Lesser 'legs
No comments:
Post a Comment