Caribbean Waterbird Census on St. Croix

Otherwise known locally as the CWC count. Although you can't see them in this picture there are birds out there. Wilson's Plovers chattering and running around, very upset that we had invaded their domain.
Least Terns, the few that still haven't flown south, are in the air very angry and vocal about the fact that we had to walk through their loafing area to check the water point. Sandpiper's that are transiting through on their migration and Ruddy Turnstones one of which was still in his glorious breeding plumage.

The idea behind the Waterbird Census is to document waterbirds and their wetland habitats on a regional basis. Participants choose important wetlands to monitor on their islands and set up schedules and teams of observers. The goals of the program, sponsored by the Society for Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds, is to learn more about status, distribution, and abundance of waterbirds. Ultimately these surveys will lead to more conservation and management of the wetland habitats for the birds that frequent them and give researchers valuable information.

So this morning myself and a partner went to four wetlands on St. Croix. We counted the birds we found there from GPS points that had been established three years ago which was when the census began. We do the census according to standard scientific criteria so that other researchers can duplicate our work or use the information we have gathered in other regional studies. We were repeating counts this morning that we did last week. One other team was also out recording birds at Great Pond and will be out again tomorrow at Southgate. They have a much harder time of it as their wetland areas are much bigger and take longer to survey, plus i don't think they could have avoided the deluge unless they aborted.

A friend of mine asked me if i'd label the pics but instead they are listed here.The first two pictures were of the Mt. Fancy wetland but the following three are of the Coakley Bay wetland and the last two are Lowry Hill north and south ponds. We did Coakley first, Mt. Fancy next, then the Lowry Ponds.

This morning we were out there trying to beat the 100% chance of rain forecast. You can't survey the birds when its raining because they hunker down and your binoculars and scopes fog up. We looked up the time the sun rises and got there before it. The first wetland is a bit of a chore to get into so we wanted to be real quiet so as not to disturb any of the birds. We pulled it off, set up and started counting. We were able to complete Coakley before any rain drops started coming down. On the drive to the next one it let loose.

Mt. Fancy beach which wasn't included in the census had a lovely variety of shorebirds and i saw my first Sanderling of the season there. The rain had subsided again and we were able to crank out this wetland and lolly gag along the beach with out getting wet. It wasn't until we got to the Lowry Hill ponds that the deluge really began. Luckily we were still in the car and just waited it out until we had a window of opportunity.

i'm sure you are thinking what pond when you look at this green photo...but this is a pond that is so over grown you can barely see in. Last week it had sandpipers, a green heron, common gallinules, two nests and enough water to make it worthwhile for birds. This morning it was practically deserted and what was once water was now just mud.

This pond...Lowry Hill North had a moorhen family and a lonely Least Grebe. All in all we managed to do our counts, get muddy, get wet and feel good about completing the census on time. i know i'm cheating by putting this up but it is what it is.
See ya next week.