Birding from The Delphi Club in the Bahamas Part 3

As we had decided not to hire a car I did most of my birding around the lodge. However on one day I hitched a ride into Marsh Harbour with Sandy the General Manager and while he ran some errands I had a look at some gulls. It was blowing a gale and the gulls were all hunkered down on a dock.

The gulls were nearly all Laughing Gulls, a first for me, and within seconds of them seeing me I realised why they were called Laughing Gulls! Listen to them HERE There was one Ringed Billed Gull amongst them and a Lesser Black Backed Gull and a Royal Tern, which was also new to me.



After watching the gulls I made my way to a restaurant called Mangoes and on the way heard a Northern Mockingbird singing away in a tree and flying overhead was an American Kestrel. The American Kestrel is alot smaller than ours and unfortunately I never really got close enough for a decent photo.

On another day my father was having back problems and wasn't that keen on going fishing as sometimes the journey out to the marls was very bumpy if there was a strong onshore wind. So we borrowed one of the Delphi Club Toyota Hilux's and went to visit the Abaco National Park about ten miles further south. It covers 20,500 acres in South Abaco, and is under the management of the Bahamas National Trust. Within this area are 5,000 acres of Pinewoods where the largest populations of the endangered Bahama Parrot survives . In addition to the parrot, there is a great diversity of birdlife which are protected in this area. As a result, the Abaco National Park has been designated an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society and Bird Life International.

We first of all drove to Sandy Point a small village on the east coast where we found both Cattle and Great Egrets walking around the village.
There were also more Laughing Gulls and Royal Terns on one of the piers. I had read that it was a good place to find Piping Plover but all I could find were Turnstones on the beach. So on failing to find them we headed into the National Park along a fairly bumpy road. We stopped every now and again and I got out to see if I could hear or see the parrots. Unfortunately not. I had heard them a number of times back at the lodge and seen a few in the distance flying over the drive but not close up. I also spished to see if I could call in any warblers. On the first attempt an American Redstart came very close and I was able to photograph it.
I was also able to get good views of a Prairie Warbler which I found to be one of the more common warblers around the lodge.

My main aim on this drive was to get to the Hole in the Wall lighthouse which was 20 kilometres down this track which progressively got rougher and more uncomfortable for my father. It is in the scrub by the lighthouse that Kirtland's Warbler has been seen and as it is a fairly rare warbler I really wanted to hook up with one. I was on the point of turning back on the account of my father's anguished moans when the Lighthouse appeared. We decided to continue at that point.

I didn't find a Kirtland's Warbler and infact we had to get the vehicle back in time to pick up the boats so were under time constraints. No Parrots either, hopefully another day.

Birding from The Delphi Club in the Bahamas part 2

In front of the lodge there is a beautiful beach which attracts a certain amount of birdlife. On my first morning I saw this juvenile Yellow Crowned Night Heron and saw it regularly over the week. It seemed to stand behind holes made in the beach by crabs where they hide before dashing to the sea.


Over the week I saw Little Blue Heron, Snowy Egret and Great Blue Heron on the beach. The Great Blue Heron is certainly quite a lot bigger than our Grey Heron. It tended to fish in the sea as some of the larger fish pushed baitfish into the shore.


Before I went out to the Bahamas i was hoping to see some different shorebirds so was a bit surprised to find Turnstones and Sanderling being the first ones that I saw.





Then one afternoon it was raining lightly and I thought I would see if there was anything different and was pleased to find some accomodating Wilson's Plover.




There were some American Oystercatcher but I found them difficult to get close to. This is heavily cropped image.


The only other shorebirds that I saw was some were Grey Plover or Black-bellied Plover as they call them over there and a flock of Short-billed Dowitcher out on the marls.

Birding from The Delphi Club in the Bahamas Part one

We had set our alarm clocks for 6.45 as Breakfast at the Delphi club starts at 7.00am. This is to ensure that those that are going bonefishing are away with their guides by 7.45am. I opened our balcony door and the dawn chorus had started. Not that I had a clue to what bird was making what sound. Just after 7.00am the sun began to rise over the horizon it was just fantastic.


After a large breakfast both my father and I had decided not go fishing but to take it easy on the first day. I decided to go on a walk. The drive is a loop of about two miles in length and every morning from 7.30am to 9.30am I would bird this loop. The first bird I saw in the Bahamas was a female Western Spindalis. Below is the male


This bird is also on the front cover of my bible for this trip "Birds of the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands" by Bruce Hallett.
It is a photographic guide of what could be found on the island and information on the breeding birds of the region plus the most commonly recorded migrants that either pass through on their way to other destinations or stay during the winter season. It was extremely helpful for most bird ids and where it could not help me I resorted to the net.

Within five hundred yards of the lodge I had seen two species of woodpecker the West Indian Woodpecker

and Hairy Woodpecker.


I was to see a great deal of both over the week. When I came back to the Lodge and was talking about them and I was shown where the West Indian Woodpecker was making a nest in the lodge itself. Then one of the guests told me that it had even flown into their bedroom!!

On the drive there are the power lines that come to the lodge and on a number of the telegraph poles and lines some Turkey Vultures were sitting.

I thought they were wonderful and the ease with which they fly on the wind made up for their ugliness. Sometimes they would fly within a few yards of the lodge. On one morning I saw about four sitting on the steps down to the beach and I spent twenty minutes approaching them very slowly and got to within a few yards of them.



From the Lodge to the main road there are two types of habitat. Firstly there is the Coppice which is a mixture of hardwoods and broadleaf trees and then there was the Pinewoods. the Pinewoods are made up of Caribbean Pine of which the Bahamian variety can grow upto 80 feet. There is also an understorey of thatch palms, some ferns and various grasses.


Along the road I came across my first Hummingbird and it was the Cuban Emerald. I was hoping it would be the endemic Bahama Woodstar but sadly I never saw one on my trip. I did see the Cuban Emerald on many occasion and I found them very difficult to photograph because they rarely were ever still.

I did however see the endemic Bahama Swallow which regularly flew past the lodge and lived in the pine trees at the beginning of the drive. I also saw my first Barn Swallow of the year flying over the pool. When I was talking to Robin Lane a fellow guest about the swallows he said he had seen a swallow type bird flying in and out of the eaves of the house but he felt it looked larger than a swift or swallow. Well a couple of days later I saw it and it was bigger and stockier than anything I had previously seen and it turned out to be a Purple Martin.

The Delphi Club at Rolling Harbour

I arrived on Great Abaco Island after an eight and three quarter hour flight from London to Nassau and then a half hour flight to Marsh Harbour. Our connections were so tight that we ended flying to Marsh Harbour without our luggage which we were assured would follow the next day. My father and I were then driven by taxi the twenty miles to The Delphi Club where we were staying. It was around 6.00pm and we didnt see one bird on the journey. It is a wonderful lodge in the style of the 18th Century Plantation houses similar to those in the south of the United States. It is situated on a bluff at Rolling Harbour on the east coast of the island looking westwards to the Atlantic. It overlooks a stunning white sandy beach with the turquoise seas beyond.


This Lodge is the inspiration of Peter Mantle who owns the wonderful Delphi Lodge in Co Mayo.(Below)
It had been his dream to replicate the idea of his fishing lodge in Co. Mayo to the Bahamas. The result of which is The Delphi Club at Rolling Harbour. It is absolutely fabulous.

We arrived and were shown to our room, there are eight rooms with six on the ground floor. The room is the width of the building and has a small deck on the seaward side. After we had freshened up we went upstairs and were warmly welcomed by Peter and his wife Jane in the form of a gin and tonic from the bar. In both of the lodges the bar is an honesty bar that is to say you make your own drinks and write down what you have to be totted up at the end of the week.

Some of the weeks guests were on the same flight as us from London but on a different flight to Marsh Harbour , which was delayed and we were not sure they were going to arrive that evening so we went ahead with dinner.

Dinner at the Delphi Club is usually started by canapes coming around the guests before sitting around a long table where all the guests sit wherever they like similar to a large dinner party.

It immediately gives the feeling of a large house party. The food is simply excellent. The Chef Gareth Reid is from Northern Ireland and had been working at Delphi in Mayo for four years and before that had worked with the Michelin starred chef Tom Aiken in London.

The other guests did eventually arrive and fortunately for us had picked up our luggage as well for which we were extremely grateful.

Each evening after dinner the General Manager Sandy Walker finds out who is going fishing the next day and makes up the pairings to go out on the boats and arranges their lunch arrangements.

After this had been done My father and I headed off to bed exhausted.

Killard NR

I was out at Killard NR again and the tide was very high and there were Redshank, Greenshank, Turnstones, Purple Sandpipers and Ringed Plover feeding on the tiny flies that were on the rotting seaweed. I was lying there waiting for the waders to get closer when a Peregrine flew along the shore and all the waders flew off and I got this Greenshank as it flew by.


GREENSHANK

As well as the waders there were quite a number of Meadow and Rock Pipits on the seaweed as well.

ROCK PIPIT

MEADOW PIPIT

I also got this Pied Wagtail having a stretch.It was surprisingly confiding.

Not a Cattle Egret!

Latest sightings from BirdGuides, 28 Feb at 23:29

28/02 23:29 DOWN : Cattle Egret, Dundonald [A]
by river in Moat Park (for 16th day)

It was a beautiful morning this morning and I had received the above email during the night from Birdguides. Dundonald is a suburb of Belfast. My first inclination was that it was a Little Egret as I have only ever seen Cattle Egret in open land next to animals, In Italy around Water Buffalo and in Africa feeding with Giraffe. They are seen in Ireland but I never have.

So I parked in the Macdonalds car park and walked along the stream. Lots of litter, 2 Grey wagtail and eventually a Little Egret.


If you are into Bird Photography this bird is fairly approachable for a Little Egret. if you get too close it will fly perhaps a hundred yards further down the stream.

I then headed home and stopped off at the Castle Island Hide on the River Quoile. The view out the front of the Mourne Mountains covered in snow was wonderful.


The water levels were very high and out on the water there were about twenty Goldeneye displaying. Suddenly a flock of about fifty Lapwing took to the sky and I looked over to see what had spooked them expecting a Sparrowhawk or possibly Peregrine but no even better in my opinion flying over the rushes on the far side of the bay was a Hen Harrier. It was nicely backlit but too far away for a decent image.This is a heavily cropped shot.

I have just won a Nikon Camera in the Daily Telegraph's Big Picture Competition

Last saturday I was having a look at the travel section of the Daily Telegraph and on the back cover I noticed a picture of a tiger chasing two deer. It was taken in India and the photographer had won a camera. I said jokingly to my wife I am going to win a camera next week and I received the same response as I usually get when I say I am going to win the lottery. "That's nice Darling"
So I sent of one of my shots of an Albatross at Kaikoura to the Telegraph.


Well this morning I was telephoned by a nice woman called Caroline who informed me that my photo had been chosen to be published in the Daily Telegraph travel section this coming weekend and that I had won a Nikon Coolpix S640. Happy Days

A Reminder that the Northern Ireland Ornithologists'Club "Sam Penney Memorial Lecture" is on Wednesday 24th February

On wednesday night Chris Gomersall an ex staff photographer of the RSPB is giving the annual "Sam Penney Memorial Lecture" at the Ulster Museum at 7.30pm.

Sam Penney was one of Ireland's leading ornithologists in the 40's and 50's and was the first president of the Northern Ireland Ornithologists' Club.

One of the first Bird Photography books I bought was his 2001 book "Photographing Wild Birds" along with Artie Morris's "The Art of Bird Photography"


You can visit Chris's website HERE

Indian Bird Photography

A Beautiful Peregrine Image by Clement Francis
I have recently been receiving some emails with questions from some Indian Bird Photographers and enquiries about them.

Well I think this guy Clement Francis has some simply outstanding photographs.

Have a look at his Portfolio

The other site I would highly recommend is Vijay Cavale's India Birds
as many of his photographs have bird calls as well.

Here are some more.

Rishi Bajpai's Indian Wildlife Photos

Vijay Cavale Bird Photos

Clement Francis Bird Photography Outstanding

Mohanram Kemparaju's Bird Photography

Krishnan,s Bird Gallery

Dhritiman Mukherjee Images

Ramki Indian Wildlife Images

Rathika Ramasamy Bird Images

Ganesh H Shankar Nature Photographs

Jayanth Sharma Wildlife

Sudhir Shivaram's Indian Wildlife Photographer

Suresh V S it's Just Birds

Another Beautiful Peregrine Image by Clement Francis

Why have the Black-Tailed Godwits Disappeared from RSPB Belfast Harbour Reserve

Well I have been to the RSPB Belfast Harbour Reserve quite a few times recently and I find it unbelievably depressing and I am finding on speaking to volunteers and birders that I am not alone. Some birders have said to me recently that it is barely worth going any more and if they do it is for the social aspect rather than the birding. You used to go and there was nearly always Black-tailed Godwits right in front of the hide, and I mean loads, which was one of the main attractions of the Reserve. The beauty of this was that when the Black-tailed Godwits were feeding several species of shorebird also feed amongst or on the edge of these flocks. So there were chances you would see Ruff, Curlew, Snipe, Redshank, Whimbrel and Common Sandpiper. The largest flock of Godwit I have seen recently are at the Whitehouse Laggoon on the other side of Belfast Lough so I guess they have found a better food source there.



Now it feels as though its a desert. Right out in front of the hide there were a large patch of willows kept at about four feet in height and to the right of the hide there was a row of willow along a wall kept about two to three feet in height. The willows afforded birds protection particularly the Reed Buntings, Robins, Chaffinches and Tits. The willows in front also provided cover for the Water Rails. Most of the willows in front of the hide have been cut down and the small hedge to the right protecting a little crop field have all been cut down. See the photos below.


Why would anybody remove the habitat that protects these small birds from a Sparrowhawk that regularly flies past I just do not know.

It is a year now since the RSPB suspended and then sacked Anthony McGeehan as the warden and I'm afraid it shows. On a positive point his Industrial Tribunal is on March 8th and he will be asking for his job back, compensation and an apology and the sooner the better in my view. At least he had the right idea that if you bring the birds close to the hide the public engages with them far better than looking through binoculars or scope to the far side of the reserve where many of the waders roost at high tide in Belfast lough. So it is definitely time to go back to feeding them on a regular basis rather than sporadically.

On two occasions recently I have seen a fox walking infront of the central hide and the last time I was there one of the occupants of the hide told me he had seen two together in the last couple of weeks.


So yet again unless the RSPB urgently does something about it the breeding success of any breeding bird on the reserve will effectively be compromised and this is after spending thousand's of pounds on a predator proof fence.

Earlier in the year the RSPB with funding from the Alpha Programme managed by Groundwork NI replaced a sluice that controlled the water levels on the reserve. Why this was necessary I am not really sure as it had been working up until Anthony was suspended in early January 2009, he had a problem in the summer which had been rectified. Then the RSPB pretty much abandoned the reserve for a few months until bringing in a retired warden to help out for a few months. The idea of the sluice was to enable control over the levels which makes me wonder why for most of the autumn the water levels were far too high and there was a distinct lack of waders. Why put in a sluice if you are not going to use it properly?

In my opinion the senior management of the RSPB Reserves in Northern Ireland is distinctly lacking. Look at Belfast Harbour in the summer they advertised for a new warden and hired Chris Sturgeon. He had little conservation experience having mainly worked on building sites in Australia or as a barman in France but he had beens working as a volunteer on the reserve with Anthony. Now I think Chris works hard and has had an almost impossible job in having to follow in McGeehan's footsteps but there was considerable disquiet amongst RSPB workers in Northern Ireland especially some of those on contracts with the RSPB who applied for the job, however again in my opinion at least he would do his boss's(Gregory Woulahan) bidding. The advert for the job in the papers said 'knowledge of birds would be an advantage but is not essential'. My God what eejit would put an ad in the paper for a RSPB warden of probably Northern Ireland's most prestigious reserve saying knowledge of birds an advantage but not essential.

I had an interesting exchange in Fermanagh at the end of January relating to Chris's boss. I was photographing a shoot and in the morning one of the guns shot a mink swimming across a river. I didnt witness it but at lunch I was talking to the beaters and one of them started talking about mink and how that last summer there had been a great fuss and panic within the RSPB in Northern Ireland as this guy had written on a blog about the RSPB drowning mink down on their reserve in Fermanagh. I didnt let on it was me!!!! This beaters best friend did work on and off for the RSPB and the beater told me that the reserves manager had come down and told everybody to totally deny the allegations and had also contacted the warden who was on a year off on an island in the southern ocean to keep his head down. It just confirmed what I already knew. When I got home I rang my wife's relative who works at Belvoir and they were very loath to talk about anything as Mike Clarke the Director of Operations of the RSPB had sent out a letter to the staff at Belvoir telling them not to discuss Anthony McGeehan or related issues with anyone. However fortunately blood is thicker. They told me that Woulahan had been in a right old pickle about it. They also told me I wasn't very popular up there ;-) As I said to them you would wonder whether Woulahan would tell the truth in Anthony's Industrial Tribunal they said highly unlikely as he was too busy protecting himself at everybody else's expense and their view was the sooner he was moved to somewhere else within the RSPB the better as there is a lot of ill feeling within Belvoir(Belvoir is the Northern Ireland headquarters of the RSPB) about him and that everybody is too scared for their jobs to say anything.