Freeport Accomodations

After a full day's worth of birding we headed back to our comfy little bed and breakfast. As a last minute decision we decided to stay with Anne and Mike Acosta in Freeport. They were lovely hosts and gave us a delightful breakfast each morning. After a quick dip in the pool Mike even brought out a surprise bird for us, a homing pigeon.

Mike is known on the island for raising homing pigeons though he currently doesn't have any. So of course when this bird (above) showed up on someone's hotel balcony, Mike was called over to access the situtaion. He picked up the bird and brought it home to only find that it was banded in Cuba. He's made a few calls in but no one has put a claim to it. I don't generally enjoy checking out Rock Pigeons but it was entertaining to see this bird up close and hear some of Mike's stories about racing.

As to our accomodations, the place was pretty perfect for our quick trip. We felt really safe leaving all of our gear and passports at their house and it was nice to take a quick swim during the late afternoon heat. Plus we had the luxury of having the place to ourself though the Acosta's are quite friendly and kept us company at times. I believe they found us somewhat peculiar with our early morning birding and fast paced style. We certainly weren't on island time but that doesn't mean it didn't slow us down a little.

After our full day's worth of driving around and investigating all the possible bird stops we decided to relax in the backyard and watch the Orchid Tree. We ended up getting two new weekend birds right in the backyard. A Baltimore Oriole took a bath in the bathing platform they have set up for birds and then a White-winged Dove flew in to the bath as well to investigate. We relaxed pool-side and enjoyed some yard birding before deciding to walk the golf course behind their house to pick up a few other weekend birds like Blue-winged Teal and Spotted Sandpiper. We also saw another Indigo Bunting in their yard before calling it a night.

In fine tourist fashion we headed to the port for drinks and dinner. I highly recommend the cocount drinks with the extra rum. It's certainly a great way to end a wonderful day's worth of birding in the Bahamas.