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WildWings JAMAICA TRIP REPORT

September 15-21, 2003

By John Murphy, USA.

The trip was centered in the mountainous, eastern region and the coastal town of Port Antonio. We were met at Kingston-Manley Airport by Jeff, our driver for the next couple of days. He spirited us through the heat and traffic of Kingston, and into the cool highlands of the Blue Mountains. Our base for the first 2 evenings was the Forres Park Lodge which is part of a working coffee plantation, and has a large variety of fruit trees. This bountiful food source is quite a draw for both local birds and neotropical migrants. The balcony of our room overlooked a hedge of flowering trees and shrubs, and within minutes of our arrival we added Red-billed Streamertail and Vervain Hummingbirds to our life lists. While enjoying the activity, we were joined on the balcony by our guide, John Fletcher. John is a native of Britain, but has lived in Jamaica for 50 years so he is very familiar with the local avifauna. Following an afternoon downpour, we joined John for a walk around the hotel grounds. The birds were active and we quickly found ten endemics -- Jamaican Parakeet, Jamaican Woodpecker, Jamaican Tody, Orangequit, White-chinned Thrush, Jamaican Pewee, Rufous-tailed Flycatcher, Jamaican Euphonia, Jamaican Vireo and Jamaican Spindalis. Also saw Jamaican Oriole, a near-endemic.

Our day began with an early morning walk around Forres Park with John Fletcher. Saw many of the same birds from yesterday as well as an immature Cape May Warbler and Caribbean Dove. Following a fine breakfast, we all loaded up in Jeff’s four-wheel drive Montero and set out for Abbey Green. The road to our destination was itself, an adventure, but Jeff deftly negotiated the crater-sized potholes, the stream fords, and the hairpin switchbacks. We made several bird stops which produced Stolid and Sad flycatchers, and Arrow-headed Warbler. At Abbey Green, which, at 5000’ is one of Jamaica’s highest coffee plantations, the weather was cool and cloudy. We checked a forested area which hosted a number of bromeliads in search of Jamaican Blackbird, but to no avail. Rufous-throated Solitaires were heard calling in the distance, and after some searching we managed to get good looks at them. A walk along the roads turned up several Greater Antillean Elaenias, Greater Antillean Bullfinch, White-eyed Thrush and Yellow-shouldered Grassquit. On the drive down the mountain, Jeff spotted activity in some trees on a distant ridge. He suspected Ring-tailed Pigeons, and he was correct. There were three of them foraging in the upper branches. Just before getting back to Forres Park, a Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo appeared in a roadside tree. We all hopped out of the car in time to get excellent views of this secretive bird. This evening, we bade farewell to John and Jeff as we prepared for an early morning departure.

This morning while waiting in the pre-dawn darkness for our driver, we heard a Jamaican Owl calling. It worked its way closer, but being without a flashlight, we were never able to get a look. Wayne arrived at 0500 in a bus which could accommodate a minimum of 30 people, though we were the sole passengers and would remain so for the next four days. In spite of the bus’ girth and length, Wayne maneuvered it around the narrow, mountainous roads like it was a European sports car. At Hardwar Gap, we met up with Dwight Pryce. He led us around Holywell National Park where we found some great birds. Dwight alerted us to a calling Jamaican Blackbird somewhere on the hillside above us. We searched back & forth along the trail until we eventually located it feeding in moss high in a treetop. Later as we rounded a bend in the trail, Dwight raised his hand to stop us, then pointed out a Crested Quail-Dove walking along the trail just a few yards ahead. Our luck continued as we found a Blue Mountain Vireo along the same trail. On the road down from Hardwar Gap, we found another Jamaican Blackbird in a bromeliad-studded tree. Also saw Ring-tailed Pigeons, Blue Mountain Vireo, Jamaican Elaenia, Greater Antillean Elaenia, Arrow-headed Warbler and Sad Flycatcher. We continued our decent to the northeastern coast and the town of Port Antonio. Our lodging for the remainder of the trip was at the Hotel Mockingbird Hill. Again our balcony proved fruitful as we soon had a Black-billed Streamertail feeding on the blossoms of a nearby tree.

We birded Ecclesdown Road in the John Crow Mountains this morning. At our first stop we got great ‘top-side’ views of Antillean Palm Swifts as they flew past in the valley below us. We soon began hearing the eerie call of the Jamaican Crow at many of our stops. For such a large and vocal bird, the crow proved surprisingly difficult to get a good look at. Much more cooperative were the parrots. We had excellent views of both Black-billed and Yellow-billed Parrots in flight and perched. Dwight located a Jamaican Becard and later pointed out one of their nests to us. By the time we finished up our morning with a stop at Reach Waterfall, we had added Blue Mountain Vireo, Ring-tailed Pigeon and Worm-eating Warbler to the day’s list.

I awoke this morning to the calls of a Jamaican Owl and the sound of rain. The rain confined us to the hotel for much of the day, but that didn’t prevent us from seeing some new birds. Somehow, the Jamaican Mango had eluded me the entire trip, but this morning we found 2 feeding on a flowering vine only a few feet from the bar veranda, and between the showers, I spotted a Caribbean Martin flying in the distance. Dwight had to return to his ‘real job’ this morning, but before leaving us, his keen eye picked out a Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo sitting on a partially concealed telephone wire. Dwight Pryce has a knack for finding birds, and we were fortunate to have him as a guide.

More rain this morning, but it soon gave way to clear sky. From the veranda, we again saw Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo as well as a beautiful male Baltimore Oriole. We departed for a scheduled rafting trip on the Rio Grande which I feared would be a bit too ‘touristy’ for my liking. I was pleasantly surprised, though, as the route is very scenic and we saw very few people. The river is smooth for the most part, however there are a few stretches of rapids over which it was fascinating to watch our captain, Howard, maneuver to 30’ bamboo raft. We saw many Green Herons and Spotted Sandpipers along the shoals, and as we approached the confluence of the river and sea, a Magnificent Frigatebird flew overhead.

Sunday, 21 September 2003

This was our day of departure and I took one final walk around the grounds of Mockingbird Hill in hopes of finding the elusive Jamaican Lizard-Cuckoo. I was able to find a Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo, Ruddy Ground-Dove and a Rufous-tailed Flycatcher, but no Lizard-Cuckoo. It, and the Jamaican Potoo turned out to be our only misses among the 30 endemic species. We ended the trip with a total of 80 species. Not a huge number, but the quality of the endemics and other West Indian specialties certainly made for an exciting trip. Our guides, John Fletcher and Dwight Pryce are both excellent birders, and without their assistance we’d have likely missed many of the birds they located. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone with an interest in Caribbean birdlife.

Following is a list of birds (and totals) encountered. Endemics are in bold print.

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) — 10

Magnificent Frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) — 2

Great Egret (Casmerodius albus) — 2

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) — 6

Little Blue Heron (Egretta caerulea) — 16

Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis) — 41

Green Heron (Butorides virescens) — 25

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax vilaceus) — 3

Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) — 47

Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) — 2

American Kestrel (falco sparverius) — 13

Killdeer (Charadrius vociferous) — 3

Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca) — 2

Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularia) — 20

Laughing Gull (Larus atricilla) — 5

Royal Tern (Sterna maxima) — 1

Rock Dove (Columba livia) — 11

White-crowned Pigeon (Columba leucocephala) — 34

White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica) — 13

Zenaida Dove (Zenaida aurita) — 4

Common Ground-Dove (Coumbina passerina) — 22

Caribbean Dove (Leptotila jamaicensis) — 3