I made this trip to four southeastern Caribbean islands in order to add some missing species to my Caribbean list. I began the trip with a Caribbean list of 449 species and I hoped to add five or more new species. In fact I added ten new species and ended the trip 459 species. I missed only one target bird – Rufous-vented Chachalaca on Bequia. I had been to all the islands except Bequia on Field Guides tour in April 2007 and had seen all the endemics. The present tour was designed to find a few vagrants and summer residents. My success in finding birds that I was looking for and more was due to the expertise and assistance of Eddie Massiah on Barbados, Anthony “Jerry” Jeremiah on Grenada, and Fitzroy Springer on St. Vincent. I thank all of them for their assistance.

I arrived at Barbados in the early afternoon of 28 May. Eddie Massiah met me at the  airport and we proceeded directly to our first birding site – Congo Rd. Ponds. These private ponds are among the few “shooting ponds” kept full during the dry season. There were both Snowy and Little Egrets on the ponds and our target bird, a Eurasian Spoonbill, was also there. We had great views of this bird standing and later flying. We also saw single White-rumped and Pectoral Sandpipers. Eddie was surprised at the White-rumped which may be a new late spring record for the island. After birding the ponds we walked around the perimeter and found several Grassland Yellow-Finches, an uncommon resident, and the endemic Barbados Bullfinch. We then stopped at ponds at Golden Grove where we found Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (the pale-breasted South American form) and Bayfield where there were two female Masked Ducks. We also saw a dozen Black Swifts at Bell Point. We then headed west and went back to Bridgetown where we saw a Rose-ringed Parakeet and some Yellow-crowned Amazons. Eddie considers both species to be established. According to “The Birds of Barbados” the parakeet was released in the 1980s and the Amazon was first noticed in the early 1990s.

The next morning we drove to a turf farm at the north end of the island. After a brief look for a Gray Heron that had not been seen for weeks, we searched the turf farm for a pair of Southern Lapwings that were probably breeding. Eddie found them and we had good, long scope views. We did some more birding before taking the afternoon off. That evening we went into Bridgetown to watch about 70 Caribbean Martins come in to roost.  

On June 30 I flew to Grenada and spent the afternoon birding casually around the hotel and reviewing my notes. The next morning Anthony “Jerry” Jeremiah picked me up to take me birding. We generally followed his standard tour with special emphasis on sites where we might see my target birds. He took me to La Sargesse and then drove down a country road with small farms. In the back of a goat pasture, he found a beautiful male Blue-black Grassquit singing on the top of a high piece of grass. We did not see its display flight, but we got a fleeting glimpse of the female on the way out of pasture. I thought we would have to go to Grand Etang Park in the center of the island to find my next bird, but Jerry knew a closer site on Mount William where the swifts were seen regularly. On the mountain it was overcast with low clouds around the mountain. Nevertheless we saw 5 Chaetura swifts, which could only be the Gray-rumped Swifts that I was looking for. No othr species of Chaetura swift has been recorded on the island. Black Swifts and White-collared Swifts have also been seen on Grenada, but they have very different silhouettes. After stopping at several mangrove flats, we drove to the back of the Grenada Dove Preserve where we heard three of the endemic doves calling. Jerry planned to walk to the beach and look for Collared Plovers, but I got the impression we were unlikely to be successful. I suggested we move on. About noon we stopped at Rex’s Grenadian Resort that has three inter-connected fresh-water ponds just behind the beach. This has been a good spot for vagrants. There were two Laughing Gulls flying over the pond and a tern that had an unusual wing pattern. It was an innature Large-billed Tern  – the first record for Grenada and the third for the West Indies.  Contact me if you'd like a copy of the rare bird report. We spent over an hour photographing the tern. Jerry went back later that afternoon to get more photos, but the bird was gone. He did photograph it the next morning.

I left Grenada the morning of June 1 and flew to St. Vincent, where I caught the 8:00 AM ferry to Bequia (pronounced Bekway), the northernmost of the Grenadines. I had been told that the target bird, Rufous-vented Chachalaca, was most active at dusk and early morning. This small island is well forested and hilly, The birds are most often seen Spring Estates, a short drive from town. A taxi driver and I searched the area that evening and the following morning. We had no luck despite that fact that I was playing the bird’s calls to attract it. Other residents were familiar with the bird and call it “Coccolico” a nice onomatopoetic name. The residents believe that bird was there during the winter dry season when water was hard to find, but disappeared when the rains came. Certainly there is plenty of habitat for the Chachalacas on the island.

I took a ferry back to St. Vincent on 1 June having descended from my Grenada high to a Bequia low. Even the Red-footed and Brown Boobies I saw from the ferry couldn’t cheer me up.  There was one species left on my hit list – Short-tailed Swift. Fitzroy Springer, a forestry worker who leads nature trips on the side, picked me up the next morning. He had a carload of people – two dragonfly experts who were doing research for book on dragonflies of the Caribbean, and a French couple who were going hiking. We drove to Vermont Nature Trail – a long, steep, muddy hike to a parrot observation site. I remembered climbing it on the Field Guides Tour and promising myself I would never do it again. The dragonfly experts wanted to stay near the stream at the base of the trail and search for their prey; the French hikers were already well on their way. Fitzroy suggested we go to a nearby water collection area and watch for swifts. We went there and immediately saw the swifts feeding over the open water. While watching the swifts, I stood on an ant colony hidden in the grass. I had many ants on my legs when Fitzroy noticed my problem and suggested I move. I got rid of most of the ants before they bit me, but I did get a few bites from ants that had crawled up my leg under my pants. After an hour or so Fitzroy took me back to town. (I had to check out of my hotel by noon.) I caught the afternoon flight to Barbados, spent the night at an airport hotel, and took the 7:00 AM on Jun 4 to Miami. I made it all the way back to Jackson Hole in one day.

 Trip List

Tony White