110/10 Big Year Update: 1st Week of January

At the end of the first week of my 110 for 10 (110/10) 2022 birding big year I have seen a mixed bag of birds. One lifer, a few rare birds, and lots of local birds, all of this in birding just in the southern and south-easterly parishes. Thus far my checklist stands at 53 species but because of technical difficulties – no images have been posted for the photo challenge.

The Lifer

Northern Parula

Adding a new bird to one's life list is always a big deal, but it is nothing to compare to getting a lifer, in the first week of a big year, it’s an amazing feeling. The bird that gave me that wonderful feeling was a Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) I saw it, my 145th Barbados lifer, at the Graeme Hall Swamp on the 3^rd. It gave me hope for the remainder of the year.

The Rare Birds

Along with the Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) I saw three other rare birds:

Purple Gallinule

• A juvenile Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) at Bayfield
• Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor) also in the parish of St. Philip and a

  

  Lesser Black-backed Gull

• Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) that flew right over my car while parking at Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown.

Goals for this Week

My goal for this week is to get into the North for Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes), and Fulvous Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor).  In the south, I will continue my search for wintering warblers at Graeme Hall Swamp.  Other than that Ebird Target Species said there are 23 species I have over a 2% chance of seeing in January.  I am taking those odds and seeing as many of those birds as I can this week.

I hope everyone will have a good and safe week, birding-wise and otherwise.