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How Josh spent his winter vacation, Part I: Guadeloupe
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: How Josh spent his winter vacation, Part I: Guadeloupe
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2000 17:10:02 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
Hi Carolinabirders,
I was reminded today that I had not yet posted the results of my winter
break birding adventures, so here goes:
My girlfriend and I flew from RDU to Port-au-Pitre, Guadeloupe, in the
French Lesser Antilles on December 20. The two-hour layover in Puerto
Rico was torture, knowing that there were probably life birds just
outside the airport but not knowing if I could find them and return
before our plane took off.
I woke up the next morning, took out my binoculars, and pretty much
didn't put them down during daylight for the next four days. We were
staying in a resort on Grande-Terre, the flat and mostly developed half
of the butterfly- (or hourglass-) shaped island. I expected mostly exotic
bird species here; happily, I was wrong! Apparently, the exotics on
Guadeloupe are primarily restricted to the edges of sugarcane fields and
around the airport. The cities and suburbs were full of native species,
overwhelmingly Lesser Antillean Bullfinches, Carib Grackles, and
Bananaquits. The B-finches and Grackles swarmed around the outdoor tables
of the resort at breakfast- and lunchtimes, where you might expect to see
House Sparrows and Starlings. A little bakery across the street put out
dishes of brown sugar that brought in amazing hordes of Bananaquits, I'm
not sure if the sugar was attracting birds to entertain customers
(probably not - I was one of very few paying attention) or to keep the
birds away from the baked goods (which had no shortage of sugar in them
as well). Zenaida Doves lurked quietly in a few spots, and some flowering
trees outside our room's balcony attracted a Green-throated Carib
(hummingbird) occasionally. I saw some Yellow Warblers on an offshore
islet where we had gone snorkeling that afternoon, but never saw any on
the main island; I suspect these of being residents rather than wintering
birds from the US, as they had more reddish color on the head than I am
used to.
On our second day, We visited one of the offshore islands, Les Saintes,
but the forest there had been nearly denuded by feral goats. Iguanas had
once lived across the island, but we only saw them in a large old
military fort which excluded the goats and preserved the vegetation. The
main attraction here ornithologically was seabirds, lots of Magnificent
Frigatebirds and several Brown Boobies. I did see my first (and only)
exotic species of the trip here, Eurasian Collared-Dove (Surprise,
surprise...).
I was a little frustrated over the next few days, as my travelling
companions were all non-birders, and frequently wanted to rush quickly
through our visits to the jungle and return to the beaches and snorkeling
(I have to admit, the snorkeling was spectacular in some places).
However, my girlfriend shares my enthusiasm for creepy critters and
wanted to dig through leaf litter and rotten logs looking for
Onychophorans, fascinating weird little creatures that I can describe off
the listserv if anyone's interested, so between the two of us we ended up
in the forest just enough.
Our first jungle excursion was to the Chutes du Carbet. This is a series
of three waterfalls coming down off of a volcanic mountain. The lowest
waterfall was easy to hike to, and so of course had few birds; we did
come across a very cooperative Plumbeous Warbler here, but otherwise only
Bullfinches. We tried hiking up to the others; it was extremely steep
in places, and we ended up covered in mud up to (and in) our ears. Here,
of course, we saw birds. The most common were Plumbeous Warblers and
Purple-throated Caribs (also hummingbirds, a little more spectacular than
their green-throated lowland cousins). Some larger birds flew by; I had a
brief glimpse of one with bare yellow skin around the eyes, a Forest
Thrush. On the way back down, as the sun sank, the Pearly-eyed Thrashers
started coming out. And back in the picnic area, before returning to our
vehicle, a falcon flew over and disappeared into the jungle; American
Kestrel is the only species recorded from Guadeloupe, but up in the
mountains... flying into the jungle... that close to South America... my
brain drools at the possibilities. Alas, I'll never know.
Our last day we headed for the underwater Cousteau Reserve, but stopped
en route at Cascades de la Ecrevisses, which (pardon my French - it's
really bad) roughly translates to Crawdad Falls. Tremblers (a kind of
thrasher, so named because its wings and tail shake a lot) foraged on
berries around the parking lot. Due to some complications, the rest of
the group had to go make a phone call, and so my girlfriend and I had a
little more time here than elsewhere. She dug in the woods, while I
watched the trees and the river. Finally, shortly before we had to leave,
it flew across the river and briefly perched in view: the Guadeloupe
Woodpecker! After missing this species the previous day, I had almost
given up on my chances of seeing it. We stopped next at Maison de la
Foret, a little nature center with a trail through the jungle. The
greatest excitement here was a Ruddy Quail-Dove that flew out of the
woods and across the road. And, while waiting for our boat out to the
Cousteau Reserve, I finally saw the third and last hummingbird species of
Guadeloupe, the Antillean Crested Hummingbird.
We left Guadeloupe the next day. I flew back to Miami; but since it is
now dinnertime, I'll have to relate the rest of the trip - including some
actual Carolina birds - later.
To be continued . . . .
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology
jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/