St. Croix Christmas Bird Count 2015

Least Grebe
Crazy people including myself have been known to spend all day counting birds for fun. i’m not going to write about the history of the Christmas Bird Count because you can find that on line at
the Audubon’s website or at Wikipedia. Instead i’m going to introduce you to my team and an actual day in the field doing the Christmas Bird Count on St. Croix.

Belted Kingfisher

Sunday, December 27, 2015 was the day chosen to conduct the island wide count. The charts said the sun would be rising around 6:45am so myself and Nicole Rahman set our alarm clocks for 5:30am. It was dark and windy and about 15 minutes into awakening a small squall came through. Not exactly ideal conditions.

The coffee was brewed, the cups filled, and we were dressed in our hiking clothes. Within half an hour of awakening Nicole and i had gotten ourselves ready, packed the car and were on our way to catch the Cattle Egrets at their roost in Salt River.

Great Egret

When we got there, to our dismay, we found the gate locked…we were still early; the sun hadn’t started coming up yet so we tried a few other entry points. Everything was blocked off but just as we were about to give up and move on to another location we finally discovered a pedestrian gate built into the fence, which in the dark we had overlooked.

Now the count could really begin. 

Frangipani Pond

Birders always love to get unusual birds when out…but on a CBC day that is not always the case. In order to cover the territory in one day you have to keep moving and can’t wait around hoping for an atypical bird. For us there was a little bit of disappointment at Salt River…no exotic warblers but lots of Royal Terns, Cattle Egrets, White Crowned Pigeons, Scaly-napped Pigeons and the usual suspects, Northern Waterthrushes,Yellow Warblers and some Pelicans. We covered the area, counting as quickly as we could, then jumped back in the car.

Common Gallinule

Counting birds is not just a site specific endeavor…as we drove we had a separate driving count where we noted all the birds we saw and heard along the road and as far as we could see. Both of us were on the look out at all times…noting Kingbirds on the wires, Kestrels buzzing by or waiting on a tree, Bananaquits sqawking and other birds calling out to each other. The more you looked and listened the more you could add to the tally. Thank goodness Nicole loves doing this as much as i do. 

Blue-winged Teal

Our next stop was a hike in to an old favorite, Frangipani Pond. Here we hoped to catch the Least Grebes and maybe an unexpected duck dabbling along the edges. We had a nice variety of Black-necked Stilts, Blue-winged Teals, Herons, Grebes and the Vireos and Warblers calling to each other. We checked our notes to make sure we had included everyone and hiked back out. If we hadn’t had to move on we would have loved to linger.

Black-necked Stilt

In the car we were back on the alert. Smooth billed Ani’s, Red-tailed Hawks, Mockingbirds and others were known to frequent the fields we were passing. When either of us spotted something we didn’t have on the list already it was like hitting the jackpot. Whoo hoo we got that one today.

Fredensborg Pond

Fredensborg is a big pond mid-island that is privately owned. Since we have permission to go there we hopped the fence and hiked in. Lately it is being used by a group that races remote controlled boats so you can imagine how the birds react when these boats buzz by their nests and roosts. The counts have been going down at this pond but every once in a while an out of the ordinary bird reveals itself. We had fun watching the Osprey chase off the Red-tailed Hawks and Great Blue Herons are always a treat to see. Again we hoped for unusual warblers in the back fields but it wasn’t happening.

Osprey

The Agriculture ponds were waiting for us down the road. There are three ponds that are “maintained” by the government, notice the quotes. These ponds have been known to harbor Purple Gallinules but unfortunately we only had Common Gallinules on Sunday. We did pick up a Cape May Warbler and a Wilson’s Snipe that was beautifully camouflaged. 

Wilson's Snipe

Back in the car we headed for the dump but stopped at the Water Treatment Plant. For the first time since I have been doing this annual count not one bird was available to add to the list. Not a dove or a kingbird…nothing. 

Don't know what it was

At the dump  the operator questioned why we were going in and when we told him it was to count birds he looked at us a little strangely then gave us the go ahead. Here we got to watch a flock of Killdeer fight off two Red-tailed Hawks. It was quite a sight to see the whole flock go after the Hawks, they were relentless. We stayed until they had driven them off then left to hike in to Mannings Bay West.

American Oystercatcher's

This pond is getting more and more overgrown with mangroves so wading in is the only way to view the birds. But you don’t just wade in…first you have to find a way in through the tightly packed mangroves…and as you walk your feet are sinking into the muck every step you take. We were up to our knees in water and grass that was twisting around our legs. We pushed aside mangrove branches and squeezed through as quietly as we could. Lucky for us we managed to sneak up on a huge(for here)flock of Blue-winged Teal.

American Wigeons

We were beginning to count and i noticed the American Wigeons off to our right and got really excited. We don’t get a lot of them here but when we do it is special. The males are really beautiful but unfortunately those pics didn’t turn out. Only the one when they flushed is half way decent.

Old nest at Mannings Bay West

We had a lovely time mucking about at Mannings. Its a nice place to count birds because the habitat includes the pond with the mangroves, the walk in through the casha grove where warblers like to hang out, and the open area before you get to the pond.  After finishing we went to the airport to check for Sparrows and Zenaida’s. Having had just hot drinks to sustain us all day we needed food so we headed out to get some. After eating we split up but didn’t stop counting.

Every year for the Christmas Bird Count we tally them up for a full day.  By the time Nicole and i had finished counting we had spotted 51 different species of birds. Not bad for such a small island. 

Birding isn’t just about the birds, its about every place you go, all the beautiful things you experience, the flowers, the insects, the vistas and it’s a great way to spend a day out in nature.

See ya next week.