Christmas in the Caribbean Dec. 17-27

At Christmas time last year, my family decided that we'd had enough of the 'typical' Christmas - i.e. gifts, decorations, cold, etc. - and that this year we would do a trip to somewhere warm instead as a gift to everyone. I had originally tried for Trinidad & Tobago as they fit the bill quite nicely (and have some good birding to boot) but that got vetoed and instead we went to Barbados. Overall it was a nice trip, spending time with family and exploring the island while soaking up the sun, warmth and rum punch. Unfortunately I lost my phone partway through the trip, and all of my landscape/people/random photos along with it... I may do a post when I get back to the Sault featuring some of my parents' photos to make up for that though.

Due to the nature of the trip and the relative lack of bird diversity in Barbados, I didn't really do much birding while there but did manage to pick up 13 lifers (out of 41 species total), only missing 2 of my targets (Caribbean Martin and Gray Heron). Luckily most of my targets were common on the island - I think I had 7 on the first day just walking to the beach! These 13 were Carib Grackle, Scaly-naped Pigeon, Barbados Bullfinch (the only endemic on the island), Antillean Crested Hummingbird, Green-throated Carib, Gray Kingbird, Orange-winged Parrot, Black-faced Grassquit, Black-whiskered Vireo, Eared Dove, Caribbean Coot, Little Egret and Masked Duck. Other birds of interest were the endemic subspecies of Bananaquit and some such as Zenaida Dove, Grassland Yellow-Finch, Brown Booby and Caribbean Elaenia which I had only seen on one previous occasion each.

Other wildlife seen included the endemic Barbados Anole along with Johnstone's Whistling Frog, Cane Toad, Velvety Free-tailed Bat, Greater Bulldog Bat, Jamaican Fruit Bat, Green Monkey, Mongoose, Green Sea Turtle, several species of crabs, flying fish, quite a few other fish, butterflies, etc. On our deep-sea fishing trip we caught Barracuda and Wahoo, both of which were delicious!

Barbados Anole

Rose-ringed Parakeet

Black-whiskered Vireo

I never managed any decent photos of Carib Grackle despite their abundance - they always seemed to be around when I didn't have the camera on me. They are quite tiny compared to our Common Grackle though!

Barbados Bullfinch was probably my favourite bird of the trip

Anole again

Green-throated Carib

Bananaquit

Another Anole

 Brown Booby

It came in pretty close!

Scaly-naped Pigeon

One of my only surviving landscape shots...not sure how he got out there!

Black-faced Grassquit

Zenaida Dove

Gray Kingbird

Snowy Egret - I didn't manage any shots of adult Little Egrets but I may have a photo of a nestling

distant Caribbean Coots with some Gallinules

Scaly-naped Pigeon again

Shiny Cowbird

Masked Ducks

Common Gallinule