More Bahamas birds, Lakeview Drive Ponds

glam Gallinule

In the Bahamas, we stayed at the Comfort Suites on Paradise Island (following a recommendation by Corey Finger at 10000 Birds). Just down the road, less than a quarter-mile, is a birding hotspot, the Lakeview Drive Ponds, and we visited them several times during our stay.

Even before getting there, there were birds, like this cooperative young Green Heron by the roadside.

too young to know better

And the edge of a dirt parking lot held a few Common Ground-Doves, which were actually a life bird for me.

hello, lifer!

There are two ponds. The east pond is larger and a little wilder, and harder to find a good vantage point to. In one spot at the west end, you can sit on the roadside railing (or stand between it and the pond edge) and look east over the pond, though. The east pond is where the Least Grebes mostly stay (another lifer).

Least but not last

very grebelike

There was a mama grebe with a baby grebe peeping after her around sunset one day. Quite charming, though the light was too poor for photos.

Bahama Duck, yet another life bird

The west pond has a nice viewing platform, and is where the ducks mostly hang out. The exceptionally cute White-Cheeked Pintail (a.k.k Bahama Duck) was a real highlight.

Elena has decided these are the Best Duck.

Other waterbirds were also plentiful--a surprising number of White Ibis, one Glossy Ibis, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Common Gallinules, American Coot, a couple of stray Mallards that I'm assured are releases, Neotropic Cormorant...

Neotropic Cormorant

About sunset, an Osprey flew in to roost, and we saw Merlins as well.

I'll be your Osprey this evening

The viewing platform makes the west pond a popular place to feed ducks. I watched one afternoon as six people (one couple and four individuals) came and fed mostly the resident domestic Muscovy Ducks over a half-hour period. These are very fat ducks. Oddly the Mallards didn't come close for feeding, though the Pintails and Coots did.

Common Gallinule not shy at all

Some of the other waterfowl were quite habituated as well; a couple of the Gallinules would come right up on the platform and mix with the Muscovys, one one of the Great Egrets liked to loaf there as well.

habituated Egret

Notable among the landbirds was a fairly sizable flock of Boat-Tailed Grackles, which apparently are increasing numbers in New Providence recently. I took this photo just to document how many there were in one tree, but I kind of like how it came out.

artistic Grackles

North of the ponds, you can walk east along Casio Road to the Ocean Club. There were some nice birds hanging out in the vegetation on the north side of the road. Though I didn't find the Black-Faced Grassquits I was hoping for I did get amazing close looks at Smooth-Billed Anis foraging in the hedges.

smooth operator

Near the Ocean Club, I had my best view (and only half-decent photo) of a Red-Legged Thrush. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed by these thrushes; for some reason I thought they were bold and easily seen like Robins. Oh well. Very pretty, though.

got to be good-lookin' 'cause you're so hard to see

I'm going to do one more post about the Bahamas soon. Fair warning!

Common Ground-Dove, ohsocute

Big White Birds

Just because, here's some photos of the big white wading birds of Florida.

the more I look at this one, the more I like it (Snowy Egret, Green Cay)

Some of the birds at the wetlands parks are quiet used to people and go about their business within a few feet of the boardwalks.

up close and personal with a Great Egret at the Green Cay boardwalk

Great Egret hunting, Wakodahatchee Wetlands Park

Cattle Egrets were happy to get close as well. At Wkosahatchee, a bunch of them flew up onto the boardwalk railing only a few feet away from us.

no, you back off

Let me tell you something, buddy...

more 'tude

I looked at this next one a long time while photographing, and then again at the photo at home. It's a Cattle Egret, too, just in a slightly different state of plumage.

Here's an odd one out for the big white birds. This is a Little Blue Heron--they're white in their immature plumage:

odd one out

I'll finish this up with a White Ibis in nice light:

damn fine lookin' bird

South Florida retention pond

This Limpkin walked around the pond, passing maybe 25 feet from the house. Not especially skittish.

One prominent feature of the South Florida landscape are the retention ponds. Every housing development has one, sometimes several; it's typical to see a circle of houses with a little pond in the middle.

These ponds aren't very deep, and aren't too clean, but they help contain runoff and keep oil and fertilizer and other pollutants out of the water supply. Plus, where there's water, there will be birds, especially since the ponds often have some fish in them.

Our friends Adam and Judy live in a South Florida development, and have a little retention pond in the backyard. The homeowners' association hasn't done much landscaping around it, so it's just a pool at the end of the lawn, but they still have birds, which we greatly enjoyed when we visited last month. There was a big flock of White Ibises that hung out must days like huge pigeons.

acting like they own the place

And a pair of Limpkns were frequently present.

Limpkins foraging

I'm guessing they were a mated pair, since I saw them passing food between them.

At evening the Limpkins flew across the pond, giving an raspy call.

Occasionally there was a Great Egret, and once a Great Blue Heron. At sunset, ducks would settle on the pond and around the shore; usually Mottled Ducks, but our last evening there thirty or so Ring-Necked Ducks decided to spend the night there.

Great Blue Heron on a drainage pipe

Great Egret at work

Plus there were flyovers by Osprey, Turkey Vulture, Kestrel, Merlin, and Peregrine Falcon--that really made the Ibises jump--and a visit by a Royal Tern who fished for a while and then flew on.

Tern hovering on the hunt

Tern in the evening sky

Oh, I didn't even mention the Anhingas, or the Cormorants, or the Killdeer... I think we had 16 species, Just amazing stuff to find in the backyard.

Waiting for the shorebirds

Great Blue Hunter

It's the end of July and I'm waiting for the shorebirds to show up. As far as I know, nobody's been seeing much in Manhattan--no sandpipers at all, for one thing. I've read that Jamaica Bay is quite uncharacteristically slow, too--maybe the migrating shorebirds are avoiding the whole area.

I was up at Inwood Hill Park the other weekend, and although there were no sandpipers or plovers, there were a few birds of the heron family, including my first Great Blue Heron of the year in Manhattan--two of them actually, hunting quite successfully in the coves.

Snowy Egret

There were also at least one Snowy Egret, and a Great Egret. All nice to see, but I'm still waiting for my peeps.

Great Egret, workin' hard

Spring begins

Spring has arrived, and with it the first migrants. American Woodcocks have been seen in the Ramble several times in the last couple of weeks; then on Tuesday, a pair showed up in Bryant Park.

Woodcocks have a terrible time navigating through cities. They migrate at night, flying very low--only about 50 feet up--and their eyes are placed so far back on their heads that their vision straight in front is poor. All this makes them the most like birds to be involved in window collisions.

These two seemed OK--they were foraging actively in the light rain, and seemed quite aware that they were being watched. They didn't flush to cover, but they did move away from the observers' lines of sight. Of course, who can really tell how a collision-dazed Woodcock would act?

It rained into the evening, so they might not have flown out tonight. If you're in New York City and reading this on Wednesday, it might be worth looking for them. Today I found them in the daffodil plantings near the birdbath in the northeast part of the park.

Sparrows are moving through as well--this Swamp Sparrow was also in Bryant Park, and I've seen several in Central Park as well. Both parks are covered in a fine mist of Song Sparrows. Central Park has also been hosting a large number of Fox Sparrows--I've seen a dozen in a day.

Other recent arrivals are Black-Crowned Night Heron; one has been reported around the Lake in Central Park. I haven't seen it yet, but I did have my first Great Egret of the year at Turtle Pond on Monday evening.

And of course, Spring isn't Spring until the Phoebes arrive. They started to come in at the end of last week, hurrah!

I haven't seen any warblers yet, but there was a sighting of a Pine Warbler at the Ross Pinetum in Central Park on Monday. Keep watching the skies!

Surprises and diversions

Sunday, Elena and I went up to Riverdale to visit my elderly aunts. The bus was stuck in traffic on the Harlem River Drive near Macomb's Dam Bridge. I was looking out the window up at the clear blue sky, and I spotted a hawk, circling up a thermal on straight wings. Its wings were wide and pointed, and dark-bordered, and the bird was light underneath with a thick black subterminal band on the tail--a Broad-Winged Hawk, my 181st species of the year in New York County.

Coming home, we were intending to take the West Side express bus from Riverdale. We had discussed maybe taking a local bus to go to Inwood Hill Park, but decided that we'd rather walk through Central Park and look for the Pine Siskins peopel were reporting at teh Shakespeare Garden. As we walked to the bus stop, no less than 6 local buses passed us. Then I looked at the MTA's handy bus tracking app. There was no bus within an hour of us. We took the seventh local bus instead. Clearly Something wanted us to check out Inwood Hill.

All the sandpipers and plovers were gone from Muscota Marsh. Song and Swamp sparrows were plentiful in the tall grasses, and a single Great Egret hunted in the outgoing tide.

Over in the big cove were many ducks and geese, and a single Kingfisher.

It was a very pleasant interlude, but I'm still not sure why Something sent us all those buses.

Hanging with my peeps

Semipalmated Plover, Muscota Marsh, Inwood Hill Park

My next trip up to Inwood Hill brought more shorebirds. A Great Egret was on the mudflat of the bay, a couple of hours before low tide, with a flock of sandpipers.

Great Egret and Sandpipers, Spuyten Duyvil Creek

The fishing was pretty good, it seems.

Great Egret fishing, Spuyten Duyvil Creek

There were a couple of mixed flocks of sandpipers, Least and Semipalmated, in the bay and in Muscota Marsh nearby.

Semipalmated and Least Sandpiper

The big deal bird was a single Semipalmated Plover hanging with the sandpipers at the Muscota Marsh area.

Semipalmated Plover, Muscota Marsh, Inwood Hill Park

The two Semipalmated species were life birds for me, and my 173rd and 174th species of the year in New York County.