Global Big Day 2025 A Fantastic Day of Birding (Part 1)

Global Big Day 2025 was a fantastic experience birding with the family! It was wonderful to reunite The Moore Birders, our family birding team, for the first time since COVID. We were all eager to see as many birds as possible on World Migratory Bird Day, May 10th.

The night before, we held a team meeting to strategize. We assigned tasks to ensure smooth transitions between locations and to guarantee we identified and accurately recorded every bird on our list in our eBird trip report (www.ebird.org). Our plan was to start early, hitting our first birding spot by 5:15 AM, with a highly anticipated visit to a special location scheduled for 6:00 AM. The excitement was palpable!

05:00

The house is quiet, with everyone asleep! What a way to start the day. We were up and moving by 5:15 AM, with my wife preparing breakfast and lunch for us to take along. I decided to head to our first stop, the pond at SBRC, just a short five-minute drive away. My target birds were the Black-crowned Nightheron (Nycticorax nycticorax) and the rare Striated Heron (Butorides striata). While getting ready to leave home, I managed to log my first six species of the day, all common birds found around the house. I then drove to the SBRC Pond at Mangrove, St. Thomas, where I added four more species, including one of my targets - the Black-crowned Night Heron. I saw six of them, of various ages, in the water lettuce-filled pond, but there was no sign of the Striated Heron. By the time we were all on the road, we had already tallied ten species! Unfortunately, we were now running late for our 6:00 AM appointment, so I called ahead to apologize. Due to our late start and the appointment, we decided to skip two other locations.

The New Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary 

The Famous Egrets Island at Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary

Our appointment was at the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary, thanks to the management allowing me and my team to do the first World Migratory Bird Day count at this Important Birding Area (IBA), RAMSAR site, the first time in nearly twenty years.  I was given a tour while it was being worked on, and was excited to see it close to completion and preparing for it grand opening on May 30th.  While we were excited, we didn't forget our task, even though it was difficult keeping everyone from being distracted by all the purposeful distractions that would tantalize while educating the guests to this iconic facility. Our main targets were the less common of the two nightherons on the island - the Yellow-crowned Night Heron (Nyctanassa violacea), and the Orange-winged Parrot (Amazona amazonica), both were seen. We spent about one and a half hours at Graeme Hall and added fifteen species. The reopening of the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary will be a welcome occasion for locals and visitors alike and will have something for all. I will post on our sister blog,  Bird of Barbados, on a later date, but a special thanks to Mr. Da Silva and Mr. Graham Cumberbatch. 

South Coast

Whimbrel @ Chancery Lane - Year-bird

After leaving GHNS, we made a series of stops along the south coast: Oistins, Silver Rock, Inch Marlow, and finally Chancery Lane. This route added another nine species to our tally, including my first of two "year birds," a Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), which we spotted during our stop at Chancery Lane in Christ Church. Unfortunately, we missed a few species that were on our list, namely the Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii) and Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) at Oistins, and the Sanderling (Calidris alba) at Inch Marlow. Following our stop at Chancery Lane, we headed inland to several private locations in and around the parish of St. Philip.

In and Around St. Philip

Black-necked Stilt at a wetland in St. Philip

Our first stop was Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge (WSR), which was surprisingly dry. However, I was pleased to find over fifty Zenaida Doves (Zenaida aurita) feeding in one of the dry areas. Even better, we spotted a single Eared Dove (Zenaida auriculata) among them, adding another species to our day's count. After leaving WSR, we stopped at two private locations, where we added a few more species, including the rare Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus). By this point, we were well past our scheduled breakfast time, so we opted for brunch instead.

At this break, we had reached a total of 43 species (see the full list here). In Part Two, we'll begin our journey north.

Images from GBD2025

Images From Global Big Day 2025

Zenaida Dove

Hybrid Little/Snowy Egret

Little Egret

Peeps - L - Western Sandpiper, R- Semipalmated Sandpiper

Another Hybrid at Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary

Black-necked Stilt

Western Cattle Egret

Western Cattle Egrets at Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary

Black-whiskered Vireo

Orange-winged Parrot

Green Heron keeping a watchful eye on a Common Gallinule 

Green Heron

Nonbird - Green Monkey in Red Mangrove

Egret Island @ Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary

Whimbrel

Great Blue Heron

Snowy Egret @ Silver Rock

October Big Day 2024, Count Me In!

Blackpoll Warbler - a bird I am hoping to see during OGBD 2024

Tomorrow, October 12th, is World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD), and I'm excited to join our local birders and countless others worldwide for a full day of birding. This year's October Big Day marks my quest to surpass my previous record of 65 species in 2020. While that was a remarkable achievement, I'm aiming for a respectable 55 species this time around.

My birding day will kick off in the north, at Harrison's Point, and gradually wind its way east, south, and finally west. I'll also be leading a field trip with visiting students from McGill University, adding an extra layer of excitement to the day.

Follow My Progress

You can stay updated on my birding journey in two ways:

• eBird Trip Report: Check out my eBird trip report for the most up-to-date information on my sightings.
• X (Twitter) Updates: Follow my Enthusiastic Birder X account for periodic updates on my progress.

Let's celebrate these amazing birds together!

Global Big Day - Images

Semipalmated Sandpiper @ River Bay, St. Lucy

Greater Yellowlegs

Roseate Tern (Foreground) and Ruddy Turnstones @ Long Pond, St. Andrew

Roseate Tern @ Long Pond, St. Andrew

Semipalmated Plover

Semipalmated Sandpiper

White-rumped Sandpiper

 

Global Big Day Birding - The Afternoon

Migratory shorebirds at a refuge in St. Lucy

My Global Big Day birding adventure continued in the afternoon, after a late start. I had planned to begin at noon, but I only got on the road at 2:30. This meant that I had to skip some of the places I wanted to visit in the southeast of the island. However, I was joined by the rest of team Moore Birders as we headed to our first stop Redland, St. George.

 American Coots - Red-shielded at Redland

At Redland, we spotted Pied-billed Grebes (Podilymbus podiceps) and the two types of American Coots (Fulica Americana): White-shielded and the much rarer Red-shielded. Then we moved on to our next stop at the Ermy Bourne Highway, on the border of St Joseph and St. Andrew. Here, the bird we were targeting was one not seen for the year thus far namely Black Swifts (Cypseloides niger). We were lucky to find two of them flying among Caribbean Martins (Progne dominicensis) over the hills of Cambridge, St. Andrew. We also saw an Antillean Crested Hummingbird (Orthorhyncus cristatus) and a Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) on the beach side of the road, wading among the rock pools on the seaside. We continued our journey northward, stopping at a few locations but not adding any more new birds to our list until we reached North Point, the northernmost point of the island. There we observed Grassland Yellow-Finch (Sicalis luteola) in the fields next to the solar farm. We also added one more bird, an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), as we drove to our last stop of the day.

Semipalmated Plover in the beautiful sunset 

We arrived at our final destination around 5:30, with the sun just above the horizon. My son and I quickly surveyed the mudflats and added eight new birds to our Global Big Day list. Most of them were shorebirds. We sat on the grass, watching the busy shorebirds feed in front of us as the sun set behind them, painting the sky orange. It was a beautiful, peaceful, and wonderful way to end a day of birding.

Collared Plover was the bird of the day

As we sat there, reminiscing about the birds we had seen throughout the day, our bird of the day flew in. It was a rare one: a Collared Plover (Charadrius collaris) a South American plover. It was amusing to watch it chasing around the larger Semipalmated Plovers (Charadrius semipalmatus) from its space on the drying mudflats. It was a fitting way to end our day of birding on this World Migratory Bird Day, surrounded by examples of such migrants, at a place established to provide them with refuge as they travel across flyways in search of better conditions.

Here is a list of bird species seen during the 2023 Global Big Day:  

1. Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis)
2. Eurasian Collared-Dove(Streptopelia decaocto)
3. Cattle Egret(Bubulcus ibis)
4. Caribbean Elaenia(Elaenia martinica)
5. Golden Warbler(Setophaga petechia)
6. Bananaquit(Coereba flaveola)
7. Barbados Bullfinch(Loxigilla barbadensis)
8. Scaly-naped Pigeon (Patagioenas squamosa)
9. Common Ground-Dove(Columbina passerina)
10. Green Heron(Butorides virescens)
11. Striated Heron (Butorides striata)
12. Black-crowned Night-Heron(Nycticorax nycticorax)
13. Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis)
14. Carib Grackle(Quiscalus lugubris)
15. Brown Booby(Sula leucogaster)
16. Rock Pigeon(Columba livia)
17. Zenaida Dove (Zenaida aurita)
18. Magnificent Frigatebird(Fregata magnificent)
19. Green-throated Carib(Eulampis holosericeus)
20. Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla)
21. Royal Tern(Thalasseus Maximus)
22. Black-whiskered Vireo(Vireo altiloquus)
23. Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)
24. Rose-ringed Parakeet(Psittacula krameri)
25. Black-faced Grassquit(Melanospiza bicolor)
26. Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus)
27. Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
28. Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)
29. Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps)
30. American Coot  (Fulica Americana)
31. Black Swift (Cypseloides niger)
32. Antillean Crested Hummingbird (Orthorhyncus cristatus)
33. Caribbean Martins (Progne dominicensis)
34. Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)
35. Grassland Yellow-Finch (Sicalis luteola)
36. Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
37. Black-bellied Plover (Pluvialis squatarola)
38. Collared Plover (Charadrius collaris)
39. Least Sandpiper (Calidris minutilla)
40. Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)
41. Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)
42. Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
43. Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
44. Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
45. Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus

Global Big Day Birding - The Morning

On May 13th, I participated in the Global Big Day, a worldwide event to celebrate  World Migratory Bird Day and bird diversity.  I had a blast birding for half a day, although I wished I could have stayed longer. Unfortunately, some urgent matters came up that shorten my outing. Nevertheless, I was proud to add my observations and photos to the island's and my team's (Bajan Birders & Friends) final counts. I spotted 45 different species of birds, two of which were first for the year for the island and four for me.

Caribbean Elaenia @ Graeme Hall 

The first bird I heard today was a Grey Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis), singing at 4:39 am. That was the start of our birdwatching day, breaking the quiet of the dawn. After a while, more birds joined the chorus, like the native Barbados Bullfinch (Loxigilla barbadensis). Then a Golden Warbler (Setophaga petechia) chimed in, followed by a couple of Caribbean Elaenias (Elaenia martinica). Some Eurasian Collared-Doves (Streptopelia decaocto) added their low tones and a pair of Bananaquits (Coereba flaveola) made their sharp noises. We had already seen seven kinds of birds by the time Jason and I left the house, around 5:30 in the morning.

Black-crowned Night-Heron @ SBRC's Pond

We went to the SBRC in St. Thomas first. We were looking for the uncommon Striated Heron (Butorides striata) and Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) and we spotted them right away. We also saw a Green Heron (Butorides virescens) there. We had 14 species on our list when we left the SBRC.

We continued our journey to Pile Bay, where we spotted two Brown Boobies (Sula leucogaster) perched on a distant bouy. We hoped to see a Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) at Carlisle Bay, but we only found a Royal Tern (Thalasseus Maximus) and two Laughing Gulls (Leucophaeus atricilla). By the time we arrived at Graeme Hall Swamp, our list had grown to twenty-two species. 

The Graeme Hall Swamp was teeming with birds.

Golden Warbler @ Graeme Hall

This is the kind of habitat that World Migratory Bird Day and Global Big Day aim to protect and promote by emphasizing its ecological value and its crucial role in bird migration. At the swamp, we encountered seventeen species, but only three counted for our list.

A minor glitch with our vehicle delayed us a bit, so we could've only visited one more location before ending our morning's birding. That place was Oistins, Christ Church, where we added three more species to our list. One of them, a Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), was the first of the four new birds for the year for me.

Our morning birding ended at about 8:10 am with a tally of twenty-eight species seen. 

Here is a list of the birds seen at the break:  

1. Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis)
2. Eurasian Collared-Dove(Streptopelia decaocto)
3. Cattle Egret(Bubulcus ibis)
4. Caribbean Elaenia(Elaenia martinica)
5. Golden Warbler(Setophaga petechia)
6. Bananaquit(Coereba flaveola)
7. Barbados Bullfinch(Loxigilla barbadensis)
8. Scaly-naped Pigeon (Patagioenas squamosa)
9. Common Ground-Dove(Columbina passerina)
10. Green Heron(Butorides virescens)
11. Striated Heron (Butorides striata)
12. Black-crowned Night-Heron(Nycticorax nycticorax)
13. Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis)
14. Carib Grackle(Quiscalus lugubris)
15. Brown Booby(Sula leucogaster)
16. Rock Pigeon(Columba livia)
17. Zenaida Dove (Zenaida aurita)
18. Magnificent Frigatebird(Fregata magnificent)
19. Green-throated Carib(Eulampis holosericeus)
20. Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla)
21. Royal Tern(Thalasseus Maximus)
22. Black-whiskered Vireo(Vireo altiloquus)
23. Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)
24. Rose-ringed Parakeet(Psittacula krameri)
25. Black-faced Grassquit(Melanospiza bicolor)
26. Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus)
27. Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
28. Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)

October Big Day

One of  the Highlights from Day 2 - 6 Glossy Ibises

The October Big Day did not go to plan but I still saw 36 species.  In the morning I popped into a few locations in the east and visited the north in the afternoon.  The highlight of the day was 6 Glossy Ibises (Plegadis falcinellus)  at Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge.  Twenty new birds were added to the checklist, closing the the day with 50 species.  See the info below

October Big Day Total: 36 species 
Total Species count for Global Bird Weekend: 50 species 

See Day 1 Trip report here 
Click here for the full checklist
Click here to see the images for the weekend 

 

110/10 Big Year Update

Lifer 147, Year 70 - Baltimore Oriole

January 2022 was the best month of birding I have ever had on this little rock, EVER! It was simply awesome right down to the last day.  Look at these stats, 73 species seen for the month, a new personal record, 4 lifers, tons of rare and mega rare birds. let’s first look at what happened in the last week of January.

Final Week

In the final week of January, I saw five year-birds, with two, which included a lifer, on the very last day of the month.  On Sunday 23rd, I birded with my son, who is also doing a big year, in the south and east of the island.  The bird he really wanted to see was the Northern Parula (Setophaga Americana) at Graeme Hall, which would have been a lifer for him.  After not seeing it we continued birding the areas along the south coast slowly moving on to the east coast, with him collecting a few year-birds of his own along the way.  Of course, these were birds I have already seen until we got to Woodbourne Shorebird Refuge (WSR) to see four Lesser Scaups (Aythya affinis) that were there from late last year. 

#69 - Northern Shoveler

It was there that I saw my first new bird for the week a Northern Shoveler (Spatula clypeata).  Surprisingly I only noticed this very unique duck while examining the photographs taken on the day.   Bird Number 70 came on the 26^th and it was a shocker. Happily unlike my previous shocker for the year, the yet-to-be-identified blurry image of a warbler at Turners Hall Woods, I was able to capture a few serviceable images of this bird, a beautiful male Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula) at Chimborazo St. Joseph.  Later that afternoon I got one of my targeted birds for the week a Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus).  This male was hunting for bats over the Scotland District valley bordering St. Thomas, St. Joseph, and St. Andrew. Then on the very last day of the month, I added Orange-winged Parrot

Lifer 148, Year 73 - Cape May Warbler

(Amazona amazonica) and Barbados lifer #148, a Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina). The latter was first seen by John Webster at the Graeme Hall Swamp on January 23rd.

February's Goals

I would like more lifers! January has spoiled me into thinking 150+ lifers is possible by year-end.  In February, finding the identity of the blurred bird in the image from Turner Hall will be a priority, also birding Graeme Hall and other wooded areas for songbirds and other migrants. Caribbean Martin (Progne dominicensis) is just one of the forty-four species ebird.org Target Species highlighted for the month.  About five of those birds, like the above mentioned, the odds of seeing them are very high, 70 – 100%, another 15 about 10 -30% while the most of them lie between 0 – 5% chance of seeing.  Let’s see if the trend started in January continues as we enter the 2^nd month of the 110/10 Big Year.

Global Bird Weekend & October Big Day - Day 2

Hudsonian Godwit

The October Big Day birding went better than I anticipated. I knew I would have only been able to get out late in the afternoon, so I planned and maximized the time I had ending the day tallying 51 species.   Nineteen of those species were a first for the Global Bird Weekend, ending yesterday with fifty-five species.  The final day of the Bird Weekend will be even busier for me but I will try to add a few more species.

Here is the days checklist:

1. Black-bellied Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis)
2. Blue-winged Teal (Spatula discors)
3. Rock Pigeon (Columba livia)
4. Scaly-naped Pigeon (Patagioenas squamosa)
5. Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
6. Common Ground Dove (Columbina passerina)
7. Zenaida Dove (Zenaida aurita)
8. Green-throated Carib (Eulampis holosericeus)
9. Antillean Crested Hummingbird (Orthorhyncus cristatus)
10. Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)
11. Black-bellied Plover  (Pluvialis squatarola)
12. American Golden (Plover Pluvialis dominica)
13. Semipalmated Plover (Charadrius semipalmatus)
14. Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)
15. Hudsonian Godwit (Limosa haemastica)
16. Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
17. Stilt Sandpiper (Calidris himantopus)
18. Sanderling  (Calidris alba)
19. Least Sandpiper  (Calidris minutilla)
20. White-rumped Sandpiper (Calidris fuscicollis)
21. Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos)
22. Semipalmated Sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)
23. Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri)
24. Short-billed Dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus)
25. Wilson's Snipe  (Gallinago delicate)
26. Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius)
27. Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria)
28. Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
29. Willet (Tringa semipalmata)
30. Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
31. Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla)
32. Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii)
33. Royal Tern (Thalasseus maximus)
34. Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens)
35. Great Egret  (Ardea alba)
36. Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)
37. Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
38. Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea)
39. Tricolored Heron (Egretta tricolor)
40. Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
41. Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
42. Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax)
43. Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
44. Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)
45. Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri)
46. Caribbean Elaenia (Elaenia martinica)
47. Gray Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis)
48. Caribbean Martin  (Progne dominicensis)
49. Barn Swallow  (Hirundo rustica)
50. Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis)
51. Carib Grackle (Quiscalus lugubris)
52. Grassland Yellow-Finch (Sicalis luteola)
53. Bananaquit Coereba flaveola
54. Barbados Bullfinch (Loxigilla barbadensis)
55. Black-faced Grassquit (Melanospiza bicolor)   

Images From The Global Big Day

Here are a few images from The Global Big Day and to reed more about that day click here

Snail Kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis)

Snail Kite in flight

Orange-winged Parrot (Amazona amazonica)

Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres) stretching a leg and a wing

Ruddy Turnstone

American Coot (Fulica Americana)

American Coot sitting on a nest at Walkers Reserve, St. Andrew

Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) 

Green Heron (Butorides virescens)

A fraction of the 200+Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis), at St. John

Male (L) and female (R) Caribbean Martins (Progne dominicensis)

More Caribbean Martins

Even More Caribbean Martins

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) in the oil fields 

Barbados Bullfinch (Loxigilla barbadensis) with an injured eye

Barbados Bullfinch

Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularius) in breeding plumage

Spotted Sandpiper, a winter visitor will soon be on it was north for nesting 

Male Golden (Yellow)Warbler (Setophaga petechial)

Yellow Warbler singing "sweet sweet sweet want so more sweet"

Grey Kingbird (Tyrannus dominicensis)our largest tyrant

Grassland Yellow-Finches (Sicalis luteola)