Northern Mockingbird

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

Osprey

After work today, I thought I’d head down to Grant Park and see if the feeder area had any good birds. When the weather is brutal, like it was this afternoon, the feeders usually host some good birds. On my way to the feeders, I stopped at the beach parking lot and decided to walk out to the concrete pier and see what was around. No more than 30′ from my truck and I find a Northern Mockingbird! I didn’t even bring my camera with me. I ran back to the truck and got it setup. I walked to where I last saw it but I could not find it. I figured it had to be in the grasses somewhere, so I walked towards the lake. As I walked farther, there is a gap between the grass dunes and there it was! So, I circled back around towards the parking lot, to try for a better view. As soon as I got over there, it flew right out in front of me and fed for several minutes. It was quite active, moving very fast over the grassy areas, feeding. It was hanging with 7 American Robins, 1 Savannah Sparrow and 1 Field Sparrow. I watched it go from the sandy area of the beach, all the way to the west side of parking lot and then across the outlet to the yacht club side. Eventually, it ended up on the parking lot side again. It was extremely windy and very chilly, especially compared to the last week of beautiful weather. This was a completely unexpected bird for the day, which makes it all the more rewarding. Photos below are from the afternoon. Enjoy!

Tag: Northern Mockingbird

Paradise Island, Bahamas Vacation 2024