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