A Good Week for Birds
It’s been a good week to see birds, and it’s not even over. Although the number of migrating shorebirds is steadily dropping, there are still plenty of beautiful and intriguing birds to see.
On Tuesday, I was looking for sea turtle tracks at Baie de Petites Cayes and Baie de Grandes Cayes and there were some real treats. For the second week in a row we saw a belted kingfisher (and for the second week in a row, I didn’t get a great photo of it). We also saw a family of American oystercatchers, who seem to always be there during low tide, when they can forage in the tide pools. The mom and dad have bright red bills, while the juvenile has a dark bill with a red tip. You can even see the young one with a whelk in its bill in one of the photos below.
Today at Baie de l’Embouchure, Le Galion and Salines d’Orient, there were also some nice sightings. The best was a great egret fishing in the bay. After catching a pretty good-sized fish, it was just about to swallow when a magnificant frigatebird swooped in and stole the catch. I ended up missing what would have been an awesome photo of the steal, but it was still great to see. The low tide also meant extended mud flats on Salines d’Orient and a chance to see the Wilson’s plover, which is not particularly common here (the last photo below).
October 6th, 2011 at 7:53 am
Mark,
As always, beautifull pictures.
I took some of them for my website…
See you soon
Valerie