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Site 2 - Main monitoring site |
In early 2019 Wilnise and I went with our birding group
(Mike, etc.) to do a survey along the road that goes to the Camp Louise beach (edit: Actually the stretch of mangroves between St. Michel and Camp Louise). We
stopped at the mangroves and surveyed from the road. Wilnise and I returned a
month later and the fields and mangroves were dry – we were able to walk pretty
far into the mangroves and saw warblers. I was awarded funding from BirdsCaribbean
to continue monitoring this area, train other birders, and have a bird workshop
for the children in the area. These are my notes for this work. Bird lists are
uploaded to eBird.
19 Feb. 2020 Mini-foray
at mangrove next to beach
I did a stationary survey by myself after a swim at the
beach. Very small patch of trees, No remarkable birds, cattle and snowy egrets
in wet area next to it. Brown pelican flew by on beach.
7 Mar. 2020 First
trip to train others
Two trusted motorcycle drivers took Wilnise and me to the
mangroves to commence monitoring this year. Our first stop along irrigation
canals became muddy so we weren’t able to get in a great spot, but did see both
yellowlegs species and some black-necked stilts and killdeer. We moved to a new
location that will be our long-term monitoring spot for this mangrove. Rice
fields run along it and they are full of water now (previous week had rain
almost the entire week).
We then went to the small mangrove that I previously
surveyed next to the beach, and saw a green heron perched on top of a bush.
Then walked north along the beach to a rocky tip. A remnant mangrove runs along
the beach, we recorded the clear song of a yellow warbler. We saw 2 spotted
sandpipers bobbing their tails along the ocean shore. In the back area of the
mangrove where trees were cut so now it’s only a mudflat, we saw 2 Wilson’s
plovers chasing little crabs. The motorcycle drivers Wid and Carlo took to spotting
the birds, and I think are candidates for training to be guides. Wilnise asked
the men in the snack shacks along the beach who to contact for arranging a kids
bird camp.
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Lesser and greater yellowlegs |
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The team at site 2 - main site |
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Site 3 - the little mangrove right at the beach |
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Site 4 - destroyed mangrove on left (remnant on right off of photo) |
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Spotted sandpiper at site 4 |
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Wilson's plover at site 4 - in the mudflat that once was a mangrove |
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