Lesser Antilles Cruise Part 3: Dominica to Grand Turk

 

Red-necked Parrot

After a successful clean-up of targets on St Lucia, our cruise vessel headed north to Roseau, the capital of the island state of Dominica (often confused with the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles). St Lucia and Dominica were the most important of the six ports on our cruise schedule for birders. I again planned to hire a guide, hopefully with less hassle than the St Lucia shenanigans. I’d hoped to corner “Dr Birdy”, Bertrand Baptiste, who is something of an avian legend locally. Bertrand was not available so I instead hired his able assistant, Ricardo, a sharp observer and good company in the field.

Ricardo at first parrot lookout

There is just one primary site for the Dominica targets: the Syndicate Nature Trail and access road to Morne Diablotin National Park in the island’s north. On a day trip to Dominica during a cruise, there is insufficient time to locate a key target, Forest Thrush, which occurs primarily in southern Dominica and elsewhere is found only on Guadeloupe, which we were not visiting. The Syndicate Trail is especially important for Dominica’s two endemic parrots – Red-necked Parrot and Imperial Parrot, the latter being the largest neotropical parrot.

Valley view from parrot lookouts

We saw several Red-necked Parrots flying between forest patches along the access road on the way up the mountain, and quite a few more from three lookouts along the trail that overlooks a heavily forested valley. 

Red-necked Parrot

The critically endangered Imperial Parrot is much more scarce - with as few as 50 wild birds surviving - and is often missed on birding trips. As soon as we arrived at the first lookout, however, an Imperial Parrot called loudly from vegetation immediately below us. It did not show and another hour passed before we heard a second bird from another lookout distantly. The parrot appeared briefly as it flew through the canopy opposite the lookout. At this point, Dr Birdy turned up with another tour group he was leading. We heard more Imperial Parrots faintly and he scoped one in a distant tree: an impressive feat of spotting. The bird was joined by its mate and the pair offered reasonable if distant flight views (the image below was the best I could manage but shows its distinctive shape) before flying much closer, showing nicely as they disappeared into the vegetation.

(Very distant) Imperial Parrot 

Along the road to the mountains we encountered the first Lesser Antillean Swifts of the trip feeding over a field. A few more swifts were seen in the forested valley from the lookouts. This is another target that can be missed on a cruise trip; I did not see it on other islands.

Lesser Antillean Swift

Roseau, capital of Dominica

Also en route to Morne Diablotin we encountered a few Caribbean Martins outside a village. These were the only ones logged for the trip other than a pair seen during our first port call at Antigua.

Caribbean Martin

Along the forest trail we we heard several skulking endemic Plumbeous Warblers and eventually saw a couple in the thick undergrowth. A Rufous-throated Solitaire of the endemic race dominicanus was seen.

Plumbeous Warbler

Also in the forest was a calling House Wren of the endemic race rufescens showing nicely. This and other House Wren subspecies in the Lesser Antilles sound and look quite different to their better known cousins and are surely good candidates for splits.

(Dominican) House Wren

At the well-kept national park headquarters at the trail entrance we had Mangrove Cuckoo calling before finding our final target – a Brown Trembler, vigorously shuffling its wings in the subcanopy.

Brown Trembler

The usually skulky Scaly-breasted Thrasher showed nicely.

Scaly-breasted Thrasher 

Two male Blue-headed Honeyeaters buzzed around in forest near the trail lookouts – the only ones seen other than a single female on Martinique. Along the access road we had nice views of Purple-throated Carib, Green-throated Carib and Antillean Crested Hummingbird. All three were widespread during the trip; the latter two I had seen previously in Puerto Rico.

Antillean Crested Hummingbird

Green-throated Carib

After the vessel left Dominica, I saw from the ship deck a flock of 4 Audubon’s Shearwaters feeding about 20 nautical miles north-west of the island. A few more Audubon Shearwaters were seen before we reached our next port stop - Charlotte Amelia, the capital of the island of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. 

Charlotte Amelia - capital of St Thomas

St Thomas north coast

We visited the newly opened botanic gardens, seeing Scaly-naped Pigeon close, a fantastic display of orchids and a Grass Anole (Anolis pulchellus). This port call was mostly a sight-seeing trip through the historic town.

Grass Anole

Botanic garden orchids

After leaving St Thomas, I was very happy to see a Black-capped Petrel at sea from the ship at 21.34836N, 70.47093W. The bird was distant but its distinctive features, shape and flight were clearly observed. The species is known to nest only on the islands of Hispaniola (in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Dominica. The sighting was not overly distant from Hispaniola. Also seen was a pod of what I identified as Melon-headed Whales. Other opinions are welcome.

Melon-headed Whales

Our final port call was Grand Turk in the UK territory of Turks and Caicos islands. I looked unsuccessfully here for Bahama Woodstar, a Bahamas endemic which occurs sporadically on Grand Turk. Instead I made do with old friends like Tricoloured Heron and White-eyed Vireo.

Tricoloured Heron

White-eyed Vireo

All up, in addition to two seabird lifers, I saw 20 of 30 Lesser Antilles species that I had not seen previously. Seeing them all would have required also visiting Barbuda, Montserrat, Grenada, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Barbados and Guadeloupe. Other than the woodstar I missed two potential targets: Forest Thrush (for reasons explained above) and Bridled Quail-Dove (seen most easily on Antigua and St Thomas among the islands we visited, but I spent little time birding on those two). To sum up, birding during day stops on cruises can be a rewarding and relaxing way of cornering difficult targets.

Ebird list for Dominica

Trip Report on Surfbirds

Grand Turk

Lesser Antilles Cruise Part 2: St Lucia

 

White-breasted Thrasher

Following our visit to Martinique (next post) we sailed south to the island state of St Lucia in the southern Lesser Antilles. St Lucia has something of a mixed reputation. Fine mountain and coastal scenery; one of the world’s highest murder rates; a superb collection of birds that makes St Lucia a desirable destination for world listers. The island has 4 endemic species; 2 species shared with one other island; and several well-defined subspecies likely to be future splits.

St Lucia's east coast

A joy of cruise birding is that you have full-day stops in ports that allow plenty of opportunity to look for birds. It’s possible to see all the St Lucia specialties during a cruise port stop, as I did with ease. My initial error was to hire a guide for the two of us for a full day with Wildlife Ambassadors, a tour company based in the capital, Castries. The cost was a somewhat expensive $US280 (lunch $40 extra), but after the deal was sealed, the cost was raised to $360. This happened amid much confusion about whether I was able - or wanted - to join a larger group at a lower cost. Little to zero information was available about these larger groups. Then just 4 days before my scheduled day on St Lucia,I was told there would be no “private tours" at all and I would have to join a group of six. The other clients were from another cruise ship that was departing earlier than mine, thus cutting short my birding day. This I learned myself; the company had ignored my questions about whether the second cruise ship was leaving earlier than mine.

Castries

Luckily I managed to track down a guide called Vision, who was once associated with Wildlife Ambassadors but had fallen out with the company. Vision was a lively and well-connected companion; he spoke superb English and was an expert bird tracker. There were just the two of us as clients at a fair cost in his excellent vehicle. Vision met us at Castries after leaving the ship and we drove across the island to the Preslin area on the east coast - a rugged patch of dry limestone scrub.

With Vision in the field

Here we soon found a Lesser Antillean Pewee of the endemic and distinctive subspecies latirostris – an excellent candidate for a split.

Lesser Antillean (St Lucia) Peewee

Lesser Antillean Flycatcher of the local subspecies sanctaeluciae showed well in the scrub and later in the wet mountain forest we were to visit; I also saw other races of this species on Martinique and Dominica. Lesser Antillean Saltator was seen again after a glimpse on Martinique.

Lesser Antillean Flycatcher

Then came one of the star birds of the trip. White-breasted Thrasher is restricted to coastal limestone scrub on St Lucia and Martinique. It took some time tracking but eventually Vision pointed quietly to some leaves behind a tree trunk that were being shuffled about. “The bird is there and will appear in a moment,” he whispered. And it did. This stunner jumped up on a rock, showing brilliantly, then to a branch were it preened briefly before disappearing.

White-breasted Thrasher

We left the coast for the Des Cartiers Rainforest Trail, high in the mountains of central St Lucia. A run-down picnic area serves as a starting point for the trail and birders unwise enough to leave valuables in vehicles have returned to find them gone. The endemic St Lucia Parrot can be difficult but fortunately 2 birds were seen well flying between forest patches along the road to the trail, with another couple seen from the trail and others heard.

St Lucia Parrot

On the trail we found another much-wanted endemic – a male St Lucia Black Finch quietly wagging its tail deep in the rainforest vegetation. We saw a third endemic, St Lucia Warbler, both in the rainforest and in the coastal scrub, but frustratingly didn’t manage a photograph. Also in the forest was a Rufous-throated Solitaire of the St Lucia subspecies sanctaeluciae; I had seen the species in the Greater Antilles.

St Lucia Black Finch

Another to avoid the camera was the final endemic – St Lucia Oriole. Individual birds were seen well but briefly on two occasions in the rainforest canopy. A single Lesser Antillean Euphonia – another species that can be difficult – was seen somewhat distantly, with several others heard. All targets accounted for. We finished our excursion with a visit to a lively fishing port market, with large numbers of Magnificent Frigatebirds vying for fish scraps.

Fish market

Along the Des Cartiers Trail

Ebird lists for Des Cartiers rainforest and white-breasted thrasher site

Lesser Antilles Cruise Part 1 – Antigua to Martinique

 

Martinique Oriole

We opted for an 11-day cruise of the Lesser Antilles with a schedule giving options for the highest number of potential bird specialties and endemics in that timeframe. I’d previously done the Greater Antilles so was focused on East Caribbean targets. The itinerary included the independent states of Antigua & Barbuda, St Lucia and Dominica; and the island territories of Martinique (France), St Thomas (US Virgin Islands) and Grand Turk (the UK’s Turks and Caicos). Our cruise departed from the giant US ferry terminal in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Our cruise ship in Antigua

The cruise allows the best part of a full day at each of these six port stops, so it is possible to head off in search of birds with a local taxi driver or to hire a guide for a morning or a day. Or to simply wander around sight-seeing. I hired guides on St Lucia and Dominica – the two most critical destinations for birds.

St John's: capital of Antigua & Barbuda

The port of St John’s on Antigua was our first stop. Here I scored the first two Lesser Antilles targets – Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, which was abundant on all islands; and Caribbean Martin, with a pair nesting around the wharf. The martin was encountered just once more on our voyage (a pair on Dominica), so this one could potentially be missed on a cruise.

Lesser Antillean Bullfinch

Other birds on Antigua in a small wetland behind the cruise terminal and elsewhere about St John’s included a surprising Yellow-crowned Night-Heron and White-crowned Pigeon, which was common here though not encountered elsewhere on the trip. Zenaida Dove and Grey Kingbird were plentiful and widespread on other islands.

Coast of Antigua

Non-birdy critters were present in the form of Leach’s Anole (Anolis leachii) - one of a group of peculiar dragons found in the Lesser Antilles.

Leach's Anole

As we headed south aboard our vessel, the Enchanted Princess, relatively few seabirds were encountered though Brown Pelican was in frequent presence around the ship. Magnificent Frigatebird and White-tailed Tropicbird were fairly common, with the occasional Red-billed Tropicbird seen. Sooty Tern and Bridled Tern were about in small flocks.

Magnificent Frigatebird

Our next port was Fort de France, the capital of France’s beautiful and moutainous island territory of Martinique.

Fort-de-France

We took a taxi to Jardin de Balata, the island’s botanic gardens a half-hour drive through Martinique’s central mountains. The gardens are considered to be among the world’s finest. We had a pleasant morning here.

Jardin de Balata

The first bird seen apart from the ubiquitous Carib Grackle was Caribbean Elaenia (subspecies martinica). I had seen the species before on the island of Cozumel, Mexico, and it was present on other islands during this trip. I found a Lesser Antillean Pewee of the subspecies brunneicapillus. This species I had seen previously in Peurto Rico. The subspecies on Martinique, Dominica and Guadeloupe (the latter island we did not visit) is a strong split contendor, as is the St Lucia subspecies. Lesser Antillean Flycatcher, widespread in the Lesser Antilles, was a lifer seen briefly.

Caribbean Elaenia

I saw a female Blue-headed Honeyeater, a species shared only with Dominica. Antillean Crested Hummingbird, which I had seen on Peurto Rico, put in a brief appearance. More showy and co-operative were the numerous Purple-throated Caribs (below) attending nectar feeders around the entrance building.

The star of the show was Martinique’s sole endemic species – the Martinique Oriole. This one (below)  took a fair bit of work but finally one showed nicely in the park grounds.

Grey Trembler, also found on St Lucia, put on quite a show as it perched in the sub-canopy vigorously shaking its wings. Scaly-breasted Thrasher was seen briefly while Pearly-eyed Thrasher – another old friend from the Greater Antilles – was seen well, although it is less common here than elsewhere in the Lesser Antilles. Bare-eyed (Spectacled) thrush was added to the list, as was Lesser Antillean Saltator, seen better on other islands later.

Grey Trembler

Another potential split is the rivierei subspecies of the Broad-winged Hawk, seen in the gardens and elsewhere on the island. Found also on Dominica and St Lucia, this race is likely to be split together with two other subspecies: one on Antigua and one on Grenada, St Vincent and Tobago.

Broad-winged Hawk

Another attention grabber was a huge Antilles Pinktoe Tarantula (Caribena versicolor) - below- in the middle of a path in the gardens in broad daylight.

Martinique was a gem to visit and we looked forward to our next island destinations.

Ebird list for Martinique