Second full day of the trip I finally convinced Beth to go to the Dry Forest, though the heat chased us out after and hour, even though we started before 10:00. Nonetheless we scored 4 life birds in that short time! The first was one I was afraid I’d never see, the endemic Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo. I’ve had bad luck with cuckoos before, but this was the easiest I’ve ever found:
I was doing a sea watch from the beach around sunset when I happened to notice something funny in the mangroves along the shore. I put the scope on them and there they were, two White-cheeked Pintails!
I thought I had one of these at the hotel earlier, but it was just a Northern Mockingbird, not even a Bahamas Mockingbird. However they are quite common, and I found my first one at the Guanica Burger King where we’d stopped for a shake:
After breakfast I took a walk around the grounds of the hotel. Lots of good birds including Common Ground Dove, White-winged Dove, and American Kestrel; but the highlight was my first Puerto Rican Woodpecker:
I thought I saw two of these last night before dinner, and I was right. This one’s from breakfast. The Pearly-eyed Thrashers and the Greater Antillean Grackles compete to steal food off guest’s plates:
Greater Antillean Grackle (Quiscalus niger brachypterus)
Read the rest of this entry »
