Top Ten Lifers of 2009: Number 4

Greater Antillean Bullfinch, Loxigilla violacea

April 6, 2009 Kim, Andy, and I were on our last day of birding on Grand Bahama. We had quite a few life birds in the hatch and we were still missing the Greater Antillean Bullfinch on our list. Someone told us that it was guaranteed to be found in the Garden of the Groves. We had been there on the previous day but decided it wasn't worth the price of admission but here we were back at the same site and forking over our $10 for the chance for one more bird. It was very hot and there really wasn't ANY bird activity going on in the gardens. We were almost to the point to admit defeat but we found another Red-legged Thrush and decided to chase it for awhile and get some last looks when we found ourself at the back of the gardens. It was right then, at the crucial point that we were going to leave that we found the bird. Our group circled in the suspect and we all nailed our lifer Greater Antillean Bullfinch right before we headed off to the airport. A great way to end a nice birding trip. And such a great bird deserves a place on my Top Ten list of 2009.

Top Ten Lifers of 2009: Number 7

Number 7 Lifer of 2009 taken on Grand Bahama

At number seven for 2009 my favorite bird of my Bahamas trip was the Red-legged Thrush. This is a very common bird on Grand Bahama but despite this I couldn't help but be intrigued by it's glaring red eye and red flamed legs. Our first time spotting this bird was outside of Garden of the Groves. We were in the parking lot on our first full day when we noticed that there was a bird literally a few feet away from us on the ground. We immediately all jumped on the bird and got nice looks. The photo above was taken on our last day in the Bahamas from the inside of the Garden of Groves. It was skulking about a chain fence and just out of my cameras reach. I thought I had a nice photo before it flew away but I was disappointed to find that the crazy red eye is partially obscured by a branch. Nonetheless this bird will always remind me of my Bahamas trip and the fun time had by our South Florida birding crew.

Bahamas Day Three

It's taken me almost all month to finish up this three day journey to Grand Bahama but with life being busy and my laptop being stolen, things haven't been that easy around here. Nonetheless here is the last installation of our trip. For those of you still stopping by, thank you for your patience and I'm buying a new laptop next week so we should have more weekly posts in the future!

On our last day in the Bahamas we decided to drive out to the Owl Hole. The drive in is a little haphazard and you should check your car for clearance before making the trek. We didn't see any new birds but it was nice to watch Cuban Emeralds flying from top to top of the pines. I've never seen so many hummingbirds as we saw on Grand Bahama.

After Owl Hole we made our way to Rand Nature Center. We made the mistake of waiting to hit this spot until our last day. By far it was one of the most productive parts of our trip. Plus we got to correctly identify Poisonwood, which we were ALWAYS looking for at each trail. If you're not famaliar with the tree then just be warned that it can really damage your skin by touching any part of the plant.

Once on the Rand trail we immediately found our lifer Cuban Pewee. It was only a few feet away and luckily for us, we all saw it because it was the only one we would see on our trip. It's always nice when you get to really soak in a bird at close distance. We made our way to the old Flamingo compound which houses a nice little pond. A loop around the pond would offer us more Cuban Emeralds, Palm Warblers, catbirds, and another lifer, two female Black-faced Grassquits.

The trails of Rand Nature Center are also supposed to be good for seeing Red-tailed Hawk though we didn't spy one. This education Red-tailed gave us an eye and amazingly enough a LOT of birds were found surrounding its cage. We quickly located a Western Spindalis nearby and found a few more warblers for our day list.

We headed back towards the nature center where a beautiful singing male Black-faced Grassquit awaited us. And after we almost gave up the trails a Bahama Mockingbird came out in full view. It was really easy to distinguish from the multitude of Northern Mockingbirds we saw on this trip due to the lack of white wing patches and the presence of streaking on the flanks.

With just a couple of hours left we rushed back to Garden of Groves to try and pick up a Greater Antillean Bullfinch. We paid our fee and entered the park at the hottest part of the day with a pretty steady wind picking up. It seemed like a hopeless search. Not only could we not find the bullfinch but we couldn't find ANY birds. We finally came across a little bit of activity. Another Red-legged Thrush gave us great looks and then finally we saw an interesting bird fly across one of the ornamental ponds. It was our bullfinch and it was at eye level. We all released our frustrations out and soaked in the little male bird. It was the perfect ending to our trip. Of course we didn't know it but we had another adventure in store for us once back to our lodging.

What you may notice from the photos above and below is that we aren't on a cruise ship and we aren't doing any real birding. We were really looking forward to celebrating our birding trip on the way back, sitting on the cruise ship, drinking a few spirits, and casually looking for birds. But our ship gave us another fate. The engine decided to die and our plans were adverted to a flight option.

So we sat in the airport from 2PM until almost 7PM. Unfortunately the airport ran out of food so after our many rounds of beer we merely laid there exhuasted and hungry. Our last meal being early that morning before heading out. It wasn't quite the ending we hoped for but all in all, the birding was great, the company was amazing, and the travel was fun.

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.

Bahamas Day Two

After a great Day One of birding we were all set for our first and only full day's worth of birding on Grand Bahama. We started the morning by heading to the Garden of the Groves. The garden doesn't open until 10AM so we birded the parking lot for nearly an hour. We quickly picked up a lifer right out of our little red rental car. A very nice Red-legged Thrush gave us great looks only a few feet away.

This is the best Red-legged Thrush photo of the trip. The killer red eye is hidden behind the palm frond but you see the namesake red legs.

After snagging our lifer thrush and promptly thereafter our lifer Cuban Emerald (a gorgeous green hummer). We made our way to the abandoned Shannon Golf Course. It was a little tricky finding a path into the golf course area but we found something that resembled a path and made our way in. To say this place is overgrown is an understatement. Really if you didn't tell me this was once a golf course I would never believe you but there are still a few areas that are open enough to bird. We didn't go very far along the paved path but the birding was spectacular.

The photos below and above show you a small area of brushy undergrowth where a cotton plant was thriving. This scene served us well. From this one vantage point we saw a Mangrove Cuckoo, lots of White-crowned Pigeons, and some great warblers like Worm-eating, Common Yellowthroat, and Northern Parula. Plus the cotton was being looted by the Cuban Emeralds for nesting material. It really was a highlight of the trip standing in this one overgrown area.

Anxious to keep birding we left the Garden of the Groves are and headed out to West End. We didn't have much luck at the development site described in Tony White's birding book. The place has been really developed and leveled down to flat land down there but the scenery out to West End was beautiful. We stopped to check our the conchs lining the shore and even had some guys wave us over to see the Barricuda they were chopping up that morning.

The above photo was taken by Kim Cressman.

We picked up a few new birds for our Bahamas list like Herring Gull, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, and a Belted Kingfisher from this spot. On our way back from West End we stopped at another cave area near a night club called Fern Gully & Josey Cave. After a short spin around the loop we found a few more migrants including an Indigo Bunting.

Once back in Freeport we went on a mission for lunch but coffee was first. In the process of rolling down the electric window it somehow slipped off the track and wouldn't roll up. We went back to the rental office and unfortunately when I closed the door the window broke into pieces inside the door. This would come back to haunt us before we left. But for the time being, nothing but time was lost and we were upgraded to a nice little blue car.

After a nice quick lunch and some required shopping we made our way to Emlin's Tract near Lucaya. In the past this was a good spot for Brown-headed Nuthatch but we wouldn't find any during our trip. Instead we did have a very frisky pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers approach us. This pair was VERY vocal and basically came as close as possible to us with a scolding call. I snapped a few photos and then moved away to prevent the birds any more stress.

Some believe the Bahama subspecies of Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Polioptila caerulea caesiogaster, should be elevated to full species status. It's call is very different and the size seems larger as well.

We then proceeded on a little goose chase for a trail that somehow must have disappeared in the last 10 years since Tony White's book was published. We made amends by having drinks instead at our favorite little bar, Bikini Bottoms, and having some fun on the beach.

Photo taken by Kim Cressman.

Photo taken by Andy Lantz.

The day was far from over but you'll have to come back later to hear about our cute bed and breakfast, our yard birds, and the last day, where a few more Bahamaian specialty birds came into play at the last minute.

Bahamas Birding Day One

Saturday April 4th was our sail date from Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived at the port early in the dark hours and boarded our little cruise boat. This boat runs daily from Ft. Lauderdale to Grand Bahama. As we watched the sunrise we started IDing birds. Before leaving port our list hit 17 species with the highlights being Tree Swallows and Black-necked Stilts. I missed the stilits due to a small nap on the ship's deck but I don't regret it because I would need some rest for this crazy whirlwind of a trip.

The boat ride over was fairly slow but we did have a pair of Royal Terns feeding the whole way over. At times they would perch on the airhorn to rest. Also a Semipalmated Sandpiper was spotted about half way over and cruised along aside us for most of the trip in. Our hope was to see some pelagics but we had to settle for the above mentioned birds and some really cool flying fish.

Upon arriving we found a taxi and were promptly dropped off at the wrong airport where our rental car awaited us. After walking down the road to the right airport we spied many Smooth-billed Anis and a our first American Kestral of the trip. Once we had our car we made a quick trip to our bed and breakfast to check in and then we hit the road east.

Our birding spots were provided for us by the very essential Tony White book A Birder's Guide to the Bahama Islands. Our first bird stop of the trip was Lucayan National Park where a series of caves are located. These caves or caverns as they are called are some of the most extensive surveyed systems in the world. We hiked toward Ben's Cave with very little bird activity other than the anis that called from the pine trees.

Once down in the cave we found a Northern Waterthrush and some bats. These Buffy Flower Bats (Erophylla sezekorni syops) are endemic to the Caribbean. There's a photo below taken by Kim while we were at the cave. The caves are a host to many interesting animals including a species of crustacean (Spelionectes lucayensis) that has never been documented elsewhere in the world. We also found that the birding was almost always good where a cave was located so we visited quite a few during our stay on Grand Bahama.

Two photos above taken by Kim Cressman. The top photo shows you the stairs into Ben's Cave and the last shot is of the fruit bats that live there.

The next cave, Burial Mound Cave, was even more productive for birding. Once again upon walking down into the cave we located another warbler. This time a stunning Hooded Warabler gave us great looks. Outside the cave entrance we picked up our first Bahama targets. A Western Spindalis and a LaSagra's Flycatcher were found in the same tree over the cave entrance area. And further down the path we found a few Thick-billed Vireos in a mixed flock that included one Black-whiskered Vireo, a Black-and-white Warbler, and a few Pine Warblers.

Once we sufficiently birded the cave areas to the north we headed south to Gold Rock. Along the way we weaved through the mangroves but the only new birds we picked up for the trip were Red-winged Blackbird and Ruddy Turnstones on the beach. Apparently they filmed parts of Pirates of the Carribean near Gold Rock beach.

Photo by Kim Cressman of myself and Andy checking out Gold Rock.

Since the birding was slim on the ocean side we decided to bird the cave areas one more time before departing back to our lodgings. On the second loop we found a Prairie Warbler, a female American Redstart, a gorgeous male Cape May Warbler and a Black-throated Blue Warbler. We ended the day with two vireo species and eight warblers. Migration seemed to be just right for our trip and we fell asleep that night listening to a Chuck-wills-widow calling outside.

Tomorrow's post will detail our trip out to West End, our rental car woes, and a few new lifers.