I had my first vacation to The Bahamas at the end of October. This was not by any means a “bird” vacation, however. I actually won the trip, and it was 4 days and 3 nights, but I extended it to 7 days and 6 nights. I stayed at the Atlantis Paradise Island, which was absolutely gorgeous. I took the last two days to look for some birds and butterflies. I can’t go to a new place and NOT look for birds, right?! The resort was huge and there were plenty of places to walk and attempt to find birds and butterflies around it, which is exactly what I did on the first of the two days. On the second day, I walked from the resort all the way to the other side of the island and walked the entire Paradise Island / Ocean Club Golf Course looking for birds and butterflies. That turned out to be rather decent and provided a few good water birds, as well. On my way back to the resort, I stopped at a little sanctuary called Turtle Point. It was basically a pair of small stairs down to a deck, overlooking a small pond, that was loaded with turtles. The deck was only about 8′ x 12′. This little area was amazing though! After standing there, watching birds fly around the pond, out comes a Least Grebe family, with the parents teaching the little one how to eat fish. I stood there for almost 45 minutes watching them. For the two days I went out and looked for birds, I ended up with 54 species and 10 lifers! I was pretty happy with that, considering what it was. I was also able to get photos of 9 of the 10 lifers, with the Bahama Mockingbird as the only one that eluded me. I have the life birds listed first and then a few of the common birds after. Enjoy!
Lifers
Bahama Woodstar
Black-faced Grassquit
Gray Kingbird
Least Grebe
Loggerhead Kingbird
Neotropic Cormorant
Red-legged Thrush
Smooth-billed Ani
White-crowned Pigeon
The Others…
Warblers
Royal Tern
Black-necked Stilt
Common Ground Dove
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Green Heron
Tricolored Heron
Northern Mockingbird
Osprey
Awesome shots, Jeremy! The eye ring on the Red-legged Thrush is pretty cool. I love the Green Heron eating the Anole, too.
Thank you very much! The Red-legged Thrush flew right to me, and I never saw it at first. The heron was just sitting there and then it started shaking its tail. I knew it was getting ready to strike, but I couldn’t figure out at what. Then in a blink it happened, and I caught it all.
Amazing shots, Jeremy! Congrats on all the lifers and seeing so many birds! Those would all be lifers for me too, except the Neotropic Cormorant! -Tom
Thank you, Tom! Much appreciated!