Antigua Wetlands
From April 1st to 3rd, I made a short visit to Antigua, mainly for social reasons. Living in Dominica, there are no land-birds in Antigua I could not see here (except bridled quail dove, which I have seen in Guadeloupe), so I prioritized looking at salt ponds and the birds therein for this visit. A car was obtained in the airport at arrival without previous reservation (50 US$/day).
The drive from the Airport to the all-inclusive Jolly Beach Resort as well as the hotel grounds produced a number of common birds at least including: Bananaquit, Carib Grackle, Cattle Egret, Gray Kingbird, Black-faced Grassquit, Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, Royal Tern, Brown Pelican, Magnificent Frigatebird and Zenaida Dove; the latter seemed darker and more strongly marked than the ones here in Dominica. The above birds won’t be mentioned further.
A short outing late morning of the 2nd to Dark Woods Salt Pond produced very little, the pond produced small numbers of Great Egret, Brown Pelican, Spotted Sandpiper, Green Heron, and Little Blue Heron, while Frigatebirds were flying above. There is a small road leading around the backside of the pond, paved in the northern end. Where this was furthest away from the main road, there was a little pond covered in water-hyacinths, with Common Moorhen and Masked Duck (1 male + 3-4 female/ juvenile). Particularly numerous in this area were Common Ground-dove.
Driving back from the Dark Woods Salt Pond I visited the Ponds along the road just before coming back to Jolly Harbour; a road to Coco Resort and Restaurant ran across a dam and provided good access. Ruddy Duck (27) provided good contrast to the Masked Duck we had just seen, and other finds included small numbers of Green Heron, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Snowy Egret, Pied-billed Grebe, Common Moorhen, Spotted Sandpiper, and Greater Yellowlegs.
Same afternoon we visited the McKinnons Salt Pond, which held a lot of birds. Along the road at the west side there was a large heron rookery including Cattle Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, and Brown Pelican; Green Heron and Yellow-crowned Night-heron were also seen around the pond. Ducks noted included Ruddy Duck (>50), White-checked Pintail (>50), and Blue-winged teal (>40); Common Moorhen was numerous while Caribbean Coot (at least 3) and Sora (2) were less so. I wrote down about 40 Laughing Gull, but probably got so exited about other things that I forgot half of them; one juvenile large gull that was identified as an American Herring Gull from photos was somewhat exiting for the Lesser Antilles. Shorebirds included at least Black-necked Stilt (really a lot), Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs (>10 each), Spotted Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover (~10), Semipalmated Sandpiper (>50), Stilt Sandpiper (>30), Ruddy Turnstone (~6), Sanderling (1), Wilson’s Snipe (1-2), Short-billed Dowitcher (2), Black-bellied Plover (5), and Whimbrel (1); I could not find any Wilson’s Plover anywhere on the trip. Other birds included a White-winged Dove flying by, 1 Belted Kingfisher, 10 Barn Swallows, and one probable White-crowned Pigeon (one certain was seen nearby next day). One magnificent Peregrine Falcon made everything else scramble away during a flyby.
Late morning of April 3rd, we were back at the McKinnons Salt Pond. Overall there were few birds around, especially the shorebirds were absent. Water seemed lower than the previous day, and earth-moving machinery was in action (Antigua does not protect any of its wetlands). Noteworthy observations included Osprey (2), Little Egret (1 in breeding plumage), West Indian Whistling Duck (one near the rookery), and the above mentioned White-crowned Pigeon. I also noticed that the Caribbean Coots actually comprised two families, increasing the total to around 8.
Total number of species was 47, including 2 lifers, one that I had not seen before on this side of the Atlantic, and a few I had not seen before in the Caribbean.
Niels