November 1999
by Mark Lockwood
In November 1999, my wife and I took a Bahamas Cruise on the Disney Magic. The cruise made stops at Nassau and at Castaway Cay, Bahamas. The first stop was at Nassau where we birded the botanical gardens and visited the freshwater ponds on Lakeshore Drive on Paradise Island. The botanical garden was an excellent place to bird and we saw many of the Bahamian species we had expected to find on New Providence at that one stop. Much to our surprise, there were also three free-flying cockatoos, two Sulphur-crested and one Corella at the botanical garden as well. Paradise Island is reached by causeway from New Providence. We had originally planned to rent a car in Nassau, but Budget did not have a car when we arrived. We took taxis and rode the city buses instead. As a result we did not visit the Westgate Estates area (east of Nassau) as we had originally planned. We had wanted to visit The Retreat, the headquarters of the Bahamas National Trust, but the office and sanctuary are closed on weekends. We made no effort to find the introduced Cuban Grassquit during our day on New Providence.
The other stop was at Disney's "private island" of Castaway Cay. The islands had patches of coppice, but was mostly mangroves. Unfortunately, only one small patch of coppice was accessible. Where we did see Bananaquits, Black-faced Grassquit and one Thick-billed Vireo. I suspect that if there had been trails on the main body of the island we would have see other Caribbean specialties.
SPECIES LIST:
Taxonomy and nomenclature follows the AOU 7th edition Check-list of North American Birds.
5 November - left Port Canaveral at 5:00 pm.
6 November - New Providence; birded botanical gardens at Nassau and
ponds along Lakeshore Drive on Paradise Island.
7 November - Castaway Cay (formerly Guana Cay); Disney's private
island,
mostly mangroves with very little coppice accessible.
8 November - returned to Port Canaveral by 7:00 am
NP - widespread birds seen on New Providence and Paradise Island
BG - Nassau Botanical Gardens
PI - freshwater ponds on Paradise Island
CC - Castaway Cay
| SPECIES | WHERE SEEN |
| Least Grebe | two at PI |
| Brown Pelican | five at NP and one at CC |
| Neotropic Cormorant | one at PI |
| Double-crested Cormorant | three at CC |
| Magnificent Frigatebird | one female at CC |
| Great Blue Heron | two just off CC, seen from the ship |
| Great Egret | one at CC |
| Turkey Vulture | three at CC |
| White-cheeked Pintail | 25 at the ponds on PI |
| Osprey | one at PI |
| American Kestrel | one light phase female at BG and one dark phase male at CC |
| Common Moorhen | three at PI |
| American Coot | one at PI |
| Black-bellied Plover | one at CC |
| Piping Plover | five at CC |
| Ruddy Turnstone | four at CC |
| Laughing Gull | common at NP and CC |
| Ring-billed Gull | four at CC |
| Herring Gull | one first winter bird at CC |
| Royal Tern | four at CC |
| Rock Dove | common on NP |
| White-crowned Pigeon | about 10 at BG |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove | five at BG, several others seen on NP |
| Common Ground-Dove | common on NP and CC |
| Smooth-billed Ani | one on CC |
| Bahama Woodstar | one male and two females at BG |
| Belted Kingfisher | one at PI |
| Yellow-bellied Sapsucker | one on CC |
| Cuban Pewee | one seen well at BG |
| La Sagra's Flycatcher | four ot five at BG |
| Gray Kingbird | two at BG, they are reported to leave by late October |
| Loggerhead Kingbird | one at BG and another at PI |
| Thick-billed Vireo | singles at BG and CC |
| Red-eyed Vireo | three at BG |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | one on CC |
| Hermit Thrush | on at BG |
| Red-legged Thrush | three at BG |
| Gray Catbird | five on CC |
| Northern Mockingbird | common on NP and CC |
| Bahama Mockingbird | two adults at BG and one immature on CC |
| Cape May Warbler | 10+ at BG |
| Black-throated Blue Warbler | three males at BG |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | four on CC |
| Black-throated Green Warbler | one at BG |
| Prairie Warbler | five at BG and one on CC |
| Palm Warbler | common on NP and CC |
| Blackpoll Warbler | one at BG |
| Black-and-white Warbler | one at CC |
| American Restart | common at BG and one on CC |
| Bananaquit | 10+ at BG and two on CC |
| Black-faced Grassquit | one at Bg and two on CC |
| Clay-colored Sparrow | one on CC |
| White-crowned Sparrow | one immature on CC |
| Blue Grosbeak | one at BG |
| Indigo Bunting | two on CC |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 15+ on CC |
| House Sparrow | four on CC |
Mark Lockwood
Austin, Texas 78745
mwlockwood@juno.com