110/10 Big Year Update - March 3rd Week

Last week was a good week of birding for the 110/10 Big YearChallenge.  It ended with two new year-birds, both rare to the island, and a couple of decent images.  The first year-bird came early in the week when I paid a brief visit to Tappy Pond, St. John. 

Grey Heron

It was a location I normally would not stop at because the deep irrigation pond there seldom attracted any birds of note, but on this occasion, I did and was rewarded with a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea)^(#79), the old world equivalent to the Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias). These birds can prove difficult to separate but I took my reference from the color of the thighs, which are brownish on the Great Blue, and pale, like the thighs of this bird, on the Greys.

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

The second bird was much easier to identify, it was an adult Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) ^(#80) I saw it on a bright sunny morning at Oistins, Christ Church on the 19^th.  One of the photographs of that bird became my 8^th image in the Photo-challenge 2022 along with a male Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis) at number 7.

Shiny Cowbird

Thus far for Mach, 5 new species were added. With another twelve days to go, I will hope for at least 2 more species. Let’s see how that goes.