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How Josh spent his winter vacation, Part I: Guadeloupe



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/