Birdsandcricket

This was a family trip ostensibly to see England play the West Indies at cricket (or rather to see the Brian Lara show as it turned out!). Needless to say I was able to squeeze a little birding into the schedule. I had done little research prior to the trip but used Richard Fuller's 1997 trip report as the main source of reference.

We stayed in the east of the island at the Allegro Pineapple Beach Hotel. This part of the coast is largely rocky with the odd sandy beach. Unlike areas in the west and the north there were no readily accessible watery habitats and thus my trip list probably suffered because of the lack of wading species. However, the Hotel was surrounded by scrub and wooded areas which supported a reasonable selection of birds.

I hired a Suzuki Jeep for four days at 50 US$ a day. This was sufficient time to get round all the major sites as well as taking in a few tourist sites. Although the road signs are non existent, I found navigating with the aid of the 1:50,000 Tourist Map (obtained from the map shop in St Mary's Street, St Johns) to be no problem at all. The roads and tracks are not well maintained in parts and great caution needs to be taken. At one point the battery of the jeep fell out after I had navigated a particularly rough bit of road!

For forest species I found the Wallings Reservoir area to be best. It is possible to stop at the side of the road just above the hairpin bends and scan the hillside. I found both species of thrasher relatively easy here whereas I had struggled in the Christian Valley area. The latter site is easy to access from Jolly Harbour but unless you are staying there I would make the effort to get to Wallings Res. area or explore some of the other tracks and roads into the forests.

There is a good track into the forest from Wallings Res, which can be accessed across the northern end of the small roadside pond just south of Wallings dam pumping station. The track is not obvious from the road. This seems like a good way to connect with Bridled Quail-dove although I wasn't able to find them.

As well as failing to see Ruddy and Bridled Quail Doves, I also failed to see Caribbean Martin (although I looked several times at Jolly Harbour) and Wilson's Plover, which would have been a tick for me. These might have been easier if we had been staying in the west of the island. I didn't see American Kestrel that is mentioned in all other trip reports that I read.

The Pools I have described as Jolly Harbour Pools were the roadside pools to the south of the Jolly Harbour resort. They might be called something different in other trip reports.

Pied-billed Grebe	Common at Potworks Res, Also seen at Jolly Harbour Pools
Magnificent Frigatebird	Regularly seen around the coast usually in ones or twos. Also seen at Potworks Res and over St John's cricket ground
Red-billed Tropicbird	6+ seen at Great Bird Island, 5th April
Brown Pelican	Regular around the coast. Also seen inland at Potworks Res.
Little Blue Heron	4+ Jolly Harbour Pools 7th /8th. Also seen near hotel and flying over cricket ground (11th)
Snowy Egret	Common
Cattle Egret	Common and widespread
Great Egret	Common
Great Blue heron	3 Potworks Res, 6th
Tricoloured Heron	1+ Jolly Harbour Pools 7th
Yellow-crowned Night Heron	2 Jolly Harbour Pools 7th and 8th
Black-crowned Night Heron	One Jolly Harbour Pools 7th
Green Heron	One or two seen on coast around hotel and also at Jolly Harbour Pools and Potworks Res,
Blue-winged Teal	10+ Jolly Harbour Pools 7th /8th
Bahama Pintail	Surprisingly common with 40+ at Jolly Harbour Pools and also seen at Potworks Res.
West Indian Whistling Duck	One of the highlights of the trip. Other trip reports gave little hope of seeing this endangered species but 8 discovered roosting in dead vegetation at Jolly Harbour Pools
Ruddy Duck	One at Potworks Res 6th and two Jolly Harbour Pools 8th
Merlin	One flew over the cricket ground on the 12th not long after Brian Lara had scored his historic 400 runs. One was subsequently seen the next day at the ground
Peregrine	One flew low over the cricket ground on the 11th
Broad-winged Hawk	Quite common and widespreadthroughout the Island. Seen on two occasions from the cricket ground making this the raptor capital of the island. Mind you I did sit there 36 hours over four days!
Osprey	One seen at Potworks Res, 6th and 8th and up to two seen offshore from the Hotel
Moorhen	6+ Potworks Res and 10+ Jolly Harbour Pools
Caribbean Coot	A difficult species to separate from American Coot. 2 at Potworks Res (6th) were assumed to be this species but not seen well enough to positively identify. 2 seen at Jolly Harbour Pools on 8th appeared to have the higher shield of this species
American Coot	At least three at Jolly Harbour pools, 7th. Originally assumed to be Caribbean Coot but close views suggested they were American
Black-necked Stilt	Very common around Jolly Harbour pools and other coastal lagoons
Grey Plover	3 Runaway salt Pools 8th
Semipalmated Plover	2 Runaway Salt Pools 8th
Lesser Yellowlegs	Common around Jolly Harbour Pools
Greater Yellowlegs	6+ Jolly Harbour Pools 7th and 8th
Spotted Sandpiper	One Jolly Harbour Pools, 7th. Two on 8th
Short-billed Dowitcher	4 Jolly Harbour Pools 8th
Semipalmated Sandpiper	One Jolly Harbour Pools 7th. 40 Runaway Bay Salt Pools 8th
Laughing Gull	Common around Jolly Harbour (60+) and also seen over the cricket ground and in St John's but scare elsewhere e.g. only once seen from Hotel
Royal Tern	Regular off coasts especially at the hotel
Scaly-naped Pigeon	2 seen well at Wallings Reservoir area 8th
White-crowned Pigeon	Fairly widespread and common at Wallings Res area. Seen at Hotel and over cricket ground
Rock Dove	Various plumage phases seen at the cricket ground. None looked like conventional ‘Rock Doves'
Eurasian Collared Dove	Guides didn't indicate that this species occurred in Antigua but seemed to be fairly common around cricket ground
Common Ground Dove	Common and widespread. Surprisingly seen in dense forest at Wallings Dam when looking (unsuccessfully) for Bridled Quail-dove
Zenaida Dove	Very Common and widespread
Mangrove Cuckoo	One seen in Hotel grounds 4th
Antillean Crested Hummingbird	Seen in all reasonably well vegetated areas. Not uncommon around the hotel. Also seen at Christian Valley, Wallings Dam area
Green-throated Carib	Probably overlooked early on. First seen in Christian Valley (two on 7th) then at Wallings Dam area (8th). Subsequently found to be regular around the hotel
Gray Kingbird	Common and widespread. Seen at cricket ground
Caribbean Elaenia	Not uncommon in woody and scrubby areas
Scaly-breasted Thrasher	One seen reasonably well in Christian Valley 7th. Subsequently one seen well at Wallings Dam area 8th and three seen together there on the 9th.
Pearly-eyed Thrasher	One heard singing at Wallings Dam area 8th, was pished in and showed well. One was seen the following day in the same area.
Black-whiskered Vireo	Initially quite difficult to see with the first being at Christian Valley on the 7th. Subsequently discovered that responded well to pishing and was actually quite common with several birds in Wallings Dam areas and also seen around the hotel.
Yellow Warbler	Common
American Redstart	One seen by entrance gate to Christian Valley 7th
Bananaquit	Very common and widespread. One pair was building a nest inside the hotel restaurant.
Black-faced Grassquit	Common
Carib Grackle	Very common around the Hotel, especially at meal times! Elsewhere occasionally seen along the roadside
Lesser Antillean Bullfinch	Common

54 species