67 Bird species spotted during I.M.B.D. Celebration — 2013 October 14th & 15th 2013

67 Bird species spotted during I.M.B.D. Celebration — 2013 October 14th & 15th 2013 By: Michael H. Ryan For the fourth time over the past 5 years, a quiet celebration of the International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) was undertaken in St. Kitts. Over a two day period, I traveled through St. Kitts tabulating the number of Birds species that were seen, and subsequently sending a report to the e-bird website to contribute to their collection of data. This year, there was noticeably an absence of large numbers of waders, due in part to the shortage of rain for this time of year. September is normally very rainy as it is the height of the Hurricane season and at very least, a few Tropical waves should pass through. The best pond for waders, Cockleshell Pond was empty of water and the water level in most of the other ponds was down significantly for this time of the year. While most of the expected waders were eventually spotted, it was literally one or two at most, instead of the dozens that are seen at this time of year. In effect, the number of birds were down considerable from previous years. Some of the normal sightings were not seen this year, such as the Least sandpiper, Wilson’s snipe, Short-billed Dowitcher, Solitary Sandpiper, Wilson’s & Snowy plovers, House sparrow, Killdeer,and a few others. Only three types of the Birds of Prey family were spotted instead of the 4 or 5 normally seen. However, that’s the way birding goes and some days are better than others! The main locations were Bayfords & Wingfield level, and all of the Ponds from Half Moon Bay Pond, heading South on the South-East peninsula. The trips on both days started before 7:00 am and carried on to just before 6:00 pm. BIRDS SEEN: Date: October 14th & 15th 2013 1. Brown Pelican 2. Brown Booby 3. Magnificent Frigatebird 4. Royal Tern 5. Least Tern 6. Common Tern 7. Little Blue Heron 8. Snowy Egret 9. Great Blue Heron 10. Great Egret 11. Yellow-crowned Night Heron 12. Green Heron 13. Cattle Egret 14. Semipalmated Plover 15. Black-bellied plover 16. Stilt Sandpiper 17. Semipalmated sandpaper 18. Pectoral sandpiper 19. Sanderling 20. Spotted sandpiper 21. Willett 22. Whimbrel 23. Lessor Yellowlegs 24. Greater Yellowlegs 25. Ruddy Turnstone 26. Black necked stilt 27. Caribbean Coot 28. Common Moorhen 29. Pied –billed Grebe 30. Blue winged teal 31. White-cheeked Pintail 32. Ruddy Duck 33. American kestrel 34. Red tailed hawk 35. Osprey 36. Red Jungle fowl 37. Scaly-naped Pigeon 38. Rock Dove 39. White-winged Dove 40. Bridled-quail dove 41. Eurasian Collard-Dove 42. Common Ground Dove 43. Zenaida Dove 44. Antillean crested hummingbird 45. Green throated hummingbird 46. Belted kingfisher 47. Stolid Flycatcher 48. Lesser Antillean flycatcher 49. Grey kingbird 50. Caribbean Elaenia 51. Barn swallow 52. Brown trembler 53. Scaly-breastered thrasher 54. Pearly eyed thrasher 55. Black whiskered vireo 56. Blackpoll warbler 57. Black & white warbler 58. Northern Waterthrush 59. Prairie Warbler 60. Hooded warbler 61. Yellow warbler 62. Northern Parula 63. American Redstart 64. Bannaquit 65. Black-faced Grassquit 66. Lessor Antillean bullfinch 67. Nutmeg Mannikin