Join Birds Caribbean’s 2022 Global Big Day Celebration with Our Team

Global Big Day—the biggest birding day of the year, is just a few days away.  Again this year we are joining Birds Caribbean in its annual Global Big Day fundraiser.   This fun virtual team event pit together multi-national teams in a friendly competitive birding event in an effort to raise funds for a Caribbean Conservation, etc. This year's efforts will be geared towards raising funds to provide travel scholarships for Caribbean nationals to attend the AOS & BC Joint Conference in Puerto Rico this June. 

Last year our small team The Bajan Birders, made up of birders from Barbados and one from St. Lucia, not only had fun but also assisted in raising funds and won a few awards. 

Teammate Jerome Foster, of St. Lucia, who was only able to bird a few hours in the morning won the Life in the Wild category with “American Kestrels Mating”

and third in Best Bird Photo with an Immature Little Blue Heron.

Yours truly was awarded the Best Shorebird with an image of a Ruddy Turnstone in breeding plumage.

In all, our 9-member Bajan Birders team saw 61 species across two countries, including 8 West Indies endemic species.

This year we want to double all of those numbers, have a greater international presence and raise funds of well over $100. 

To emphasize our goal, the team was renamed “Bajan Birders & Friends”, and invitations to join our team were extended to birders across the globe.

You can join the effort by joining our team. To do that:

• Just follow this link  
• Click the “JOIN A TEAM” button below the Global Big Day graphic on this page and follow the wizard.
• On Global Big Day, May 14, share your ebird checklist with the username “BCGBDBajanBirders”.  
• Make sure to also upload your media - images and audio files.

To donate

• Follow this link
• Simply click the yellow donate button at the top of the page and follow the wizard.
• You can donate without joining the team.

Come bird with us, donate and have lots of fun.

Stay safe and enjoy your birding.

Lifer #148 - American Oystercatcher

American Oystercatcher

My fifth lifer of the year (#148) is one of those birds that you just cannot mistake for any other.  This large, stocky shorebird is about 17-21” (38-21cm) in length and sports a long, bright reddish-orange beak, yellow iris, and a bright reddish-orange eye-ring.  Yes, I am talking about the American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliates), a bird that feeds almost exclusively on shellfish and other marine invertebrates.  I saw this bird at Inch Marlow, Christ Church on Friday, April 22^nd, it was my 82^nd species for the year. (110/10 Big Year)  This year, my tenth year of birding continues to be a memorable one. With eight more months to go is another lifer out there? let's hope so.

110/10 Big Year Update – Mid April

17. Snowy Egret the last Photo Big Year Image entered 

There was a big jump in one of the year’s challenges while only a measly increase in the other.   For most of the year thus far, I must admit I was focusing more on the 110/10 Big Year List than on the Photo Big Year’s images.   That is for a number of reasons, one of which is the lens I am using, the Canon EF-s55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS II.  While this is a fair quality lens, at best, the 250mm, which is 400mm on cropped sensor Canon 7D (250x1.6) max focal length is less than satisfactory for most situations.  Despite that, over 7 images were added to the Photo Big Year page. (See them here)

Only one bird was added to the 110/10 Big Year checklist.  That bird was a shorebird, a Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) and one of the suggested target birds ebird.org said to look out for in April.

Goals for the remainder of April

A Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) was photographed at Folkestone Park on the 13^th.  This is kind of a nemesis bird for me because  I’ve seen it twice and both times I did not have my camera to get a photograph.  I would love to see this bird this year and get a few quality images of it, for it is just one stunning bird.   Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) is another species that should be possible this month.  I will also continue adding as many images as I can, with the hope of finishing the month with at least 25 images. Let's see how it goes.

110/10 Big Year Update – March

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Five year-birds, four images equal a good month of March. Those five birds took the 110/10 big year tally at the end of March to 80 species. The five birds were:

• Pacific Golden-Plover (Pluvialis fulva) which I saw on the 2^nd
• Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla) was on the 3^rd;
• Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri) flew in on the 9^th
• Gray Heron (Ardea cinerea) at Tappy Pond, St. John on the 15^th
• Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) at Oistins on the 19^th

I am placing more effort into quickly increasing the number of photographs for the Photo-Big Year and was able to add a few during the month, my favorite being that of a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nyctanassa violacea) at Oistins. This bird was very cooperative allowing me to capture not only stills but also video.

Goals for April

Scarlet Tanager photographed April 2015 

Spring migration is happening, even though not as noticeable as the fall migration it can produce a few eye-popping birds.  One such bird is the Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea), a fiery red bird with a patch of black on the wings, that bird will be on my radar.  Much easier birds to see will be Yellow-crowned Parrot (Amazona ochrocephala), even though it eluded me thus far, and Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica).  Ebird’s Target Species tool is also suggesting I also look for Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) and Willet (Tringa semipalmata). My target in April is four or more species for the Big Year but I am way behind in the Photo Big Year so 10+. Let's see how that goes.