My 2023 Images - September

September was a month of bird photography for me.  After being inspired by a visiting bird photographer from the UK, Mark Went (Art Studio Wild), I made time just to get out and photograph birds artistically, and not just in a documentary style.  A planned morning of strictly bird photography with a few members of our local photographic club, The Barbados Photographic Society, also helped in that endeavor.  You may notice for the second month in a row the focus was on shorebirds, my favorite subject, which may change in the coming months as I try to balance documenting the arrival of migratory songbirds and planning and preparing photo excursions in the ever-decreasing spare time I have available. As you may know, my tools of choice are trusty Canon 7D II, Candace II, and a Sigma 150-600mm 5-6.3 Contemporary DG OS HSM, also known as Big Selma, and edited the photos with Lightroom 5.  I hope you will enjoy the images and feel free to contact me for prints or otherwise. 

Ruddy Turnstone in breeding plumage 

Camera shy Sanderling

Sanderling in the morning light

Ruddy Turnstone

Ruddy Turn so 😁

Least sandpiper at Portvile Sugar Factory

Yellow Warbler

Little Blue Heron in the fading light 

Laughing Gull

Gull-billed Tern

Masked Duck

October Birding at HP

Northern Wheatear, one of my two Harrison's Point Lifers for 2023

Harrison’s Point (HP), St. Lucy, is my favorite birding spot in October. This place is known for attracting migratory sound birds every year. This month has been halfway through, and I have already seen some regular visitors and some unexpected ones.

A Blackpoll Warbler at HP last year

Some of the birds that I usually see at HP around this time are Blackpoll Warblers (Setophaga striata), Yellow-billed Cuckoos (Coccyzus americanus), and Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus). They have all shown up this year as well. Sometimes, HP also surprises me with some rare birds, like the Black and White Warbler (Mniotilta varia) and Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra) that I saw last year, or the Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens) and Blackburnian Warbler (Setophaga fusca) that was spotted in 2014.

Prothonotary Warbler, my first record of this warbler at HP

This year, I have seen four special birds so far, two of which were lifers for me - the elusive Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda), the stunning Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea), and then two lifers: a Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe), which is extremely rare in this region and only the third record for the island, and the Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus), which is probably the second record for the island. With just two more weeks to go in October, I will be looking forward to seeing more birds at Harrison’s Point.