Birding the Third Weekend of November

The birders on the island had a wonderful weekend with one of them racking up fifty-one (51)species in just a few hours of birding.  His checklist included such rarities as an American Coot, a Grey Heron, a Lesser Scaup, a Ring-necked Duck, a Red Knot, a Long-billed Dowitcher, a Northern Waterthrush and the threatened West Indian Whistling-Duck.  The best part of his checklist is that he was in the company of a visiting birder whose life list may have had a big boost from that outing. 

Another visiting birder, that was with us for a couple of weeks, jokingly allowed me to know that he will soon overtake my year’s list.  His list for Barbados now stands at seventy-one(71) species.  Some of his new lifers are the Barbados Bullfinch, Blackpoll Warbler and Eared Doves. 

My weekend was not as fulfilling.  My species count only totaled twenty-eight (28)species for the two days.  On Saturday I was finally able to get photos of the Long-billed Dowitchers in the east of the island.  On Sunday, my morning started at Six Men’s on the west coast of the island.  Every year a large flock of Sanderlings winter at this location with some tagged ones among the flock.

There were fifty-eight Sanderlings on the beach and among them was

tagged-bird Y2L.  This was the second year I reported Y2L and the third year it was reported in Barbados.  I contacted banded birds (www.bandedbirds.org) and reported the sighting.

Another highlight of the trip was the return of the Ruff.  I first spotted it a week or so ago, it was not seen after that, but now it is back.  I also missed a Green winged Teal at that same northern location.  It was only realized by another birder/photographer, as he was reviewing his photographs from that day.

All in all, it was a fair weekend of birding for me.

 Table below of the birds seen this weekend

Common Name	Scientific Name
Bananaquit	Coereba flaveola
Barbados Bullfinch	Loxigilla barbadensis
Black-bellied Plover	Pluvialis squatarola
Black-faced Grassquit	Tiaris bicolor
Blue-winged Teal	Anas discors
Carib Grackle	Quiscalus lugubris
Caribbean Martin	Progne dominicensis
Cattle Egret	Bubulcus ibis
Common Gallinule	Gallinula galeata
Common Ground-Dove	Columbina passerina
Eurasian Collared-Dove	Streptopelia decaocto
Grassland Yellow-Finch	Sicalis luteola
Gray Kingbird	Tyrannus dominicensis
Greater Yellowlegs	Tringa melanoleuca
Lesser Yellowlegs	Tringa flavipes
Little Egret	Egretta garzetta
Peregrine Falcon	Falco peregrinus
Pied-billed Grebe	Podilymbus podiceps
Sanderling	Calidris alba
Scaly-naped Pigeon	Patagioenas squamosa
Semipalmated Sandpiper	Calidris pusilla
Shiny Cowbird	Molothrus bonariensis
Short-billed Dowitcher	Limnodromus griseus
Snowy Egret	Egretta thula
Stilt Sandpiper	Calidris himantopus
White-rumped Sandpiper	Calidris fuscicollis
Wilson's Snipe	Gallinago delicata
Zenaida Dove	Zenaida aurita