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(Help to make sure that the creatures pictured below stay off the IUCN ‘threatened species’ list)
Tag Archives: Abaco Wildlife
“SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS…” ABACO WILDLIFE APPEALS TO EVERYONE!
“SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS…” 
Image: ©RH
Christmas time. Holidays. Festive season. Yuletide. ġéohol*. Noel. Winterval. However you describe it, there’s a reassuring ritual each year. To many, the familiar religious carols and rites. To all, the cheerful sound of jingling tills. The exchange of presents happily bought and excitedly received. The groaning table weighted with victuals. Light and laughter. Glasses generously filled and refilled. Sudden growing dizziness and a strange lack of coordination. Wondering what others are saying. Wondering what you are saying. Drowsiness. Overwhelming sleepiness. The passage of time. The groaning hangover as seven West Indian woodpeckers attack your skull with hammer-drills… Time for a soothing image.
Image ©BMMRO
Where was I? Oh yes. This is a very good time to draw attention to the various wildlife organisations based on Abaco and in the wider Bahamas. During the year they look after the birds, the marine mammals and so forth that help make Abaco such a very special place to be. I am simply going take the opportunity to post the link to my updated page for ABACO WILDLIFE CHARITIES. Oh. I just have. Well, is there one that appeals to you, I wonder? Just asking… Meanwhile, here’s the music of the heading to get you in the mood
* Old English / Anglo-Saxon origin of “Yule”
HAIRY WOODPECKERS IN THE ABACO COPPICE
HAIRY WOODPECKERS IN THE ABACO COPPICE
The hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus) inhabits forest, woodland or coppice over a wide area of the North American continent and the islands to the east, including the Bahamas. They are mostly permanent residents, though there is a degree of migration within their territorial area.
They are a very familiar sight on Abaco, along with their larger cousins the West Indian Woodpecker. These birds forage on trees for insects, turning over bark or excavating deeper. They also feed on fruits, berries and nuts. It’s not unusual for them to attack the woodwork on houses in a search for bugs…
This male hairy woodpecker is prospecting a promising hole near the Delphi Club guest drive
The marks at the bottom of the hole suggest this may be a nesting hole – past, present or future
It’s certainly deemed worth further investigation… if only he had someone to share it with
He may be in luck! This female hairy woodpecker was in the coppice not far away… A female HW is smaller than the male and lacks the male’s distinctive red head marking. They nest in a tree hole like the one above, where the female usually produces four white eggs. 
ABACO LAND CRAB vs RICKY JOHNSON: ROUND 2 (VIDEO)
A few weeks back, I wrote a post called ‘LAND CRABS: HOW TO STALK & WRESTLE THEM‘. It features stills of famed Abaco nature guide Ricky Johnson in a face-off with a land crab at Bahama Palm Shores. I noted that the large, heavy claw of these crabs is in fact the less worrying one, being used to intimidate and to grip. It’s the small claw that you need to watch out for… 
I have now sorted out an annoying camera card v Mac format incompatibility problem (well, $30 of software has dealt with it. Dear Apple, please make friends with the Panasonic Lumix asap) and to my great surprise I find that I took a video of Ricky and a land crab that perfectly demonstrates the claw point. He did mess with the large claw, but he wisely left the small one well alone…
The footage starts with Ricky’s trademark laugh to get you into the right spirit (it’s impossible to go on one of his Eco-Tours and not have fun while learning). The volume of the commentary drops off a bit halfway through. I haven’t found the gizmo for changing the audio during the video: it’s all or nothing, I’m afraid
If you want to find out more about Land Crabs on Abaco – including Hermit Crabs – you won’t do much better than to check out the comprehensive account by ‘Bob H’ on Yahoo! Answers ABACO LAND CRAB FACTS
Ricky the guide? Here he is in full-on enthusiastic guide mode, ‘pishing’ for male Bahama Woodstar hummingbirds in low open coppice near Crossing Rocks. He has just had a responding call and is keeping us quiet while he locates the bird
MUSICAL DIGRESSION
Those who braved the video may have wondered about the guitar chord at the beginning and end. A few – of a certain age – may have thought it familiar. One or two may have recognised it as the opening chord of A Hard Day’s Night (Beatles 1964). It is one of the most controversial and interesting chords in modern music, with more theories about its exact construction than you can shake a Rickenbacker 12-string at (as played by George Harrison). There have been more than a dozen claimed ‘correct’ chord identities. According to Harrison, it is in fact simply an ‘F add 9′ chord augmented by Macca’s crucial 5th fret, A string ‘D’ on his Hofner bass. Trouble is, there are half a dozen ways to play ‘F add 9′ at various points on the neck, and most of them don’t sound quite right… But that’s enough about that. Anyone who wants to follow this musical meander further - much further – should click HERE===>>> THAT CHORD
AN ABACO INSECT IS BUGGING ME – WHAT IS THIS CREATURE?
AN ABACO INSECT IS BUGGING ME – WHAT IS THIS CREATURE?
There I was, walking slowly along the Delphi drive trying to locate some small chirruping bird in the coppice – close at hand, chatty, but invisible among the leaves. Then I saw this creature. It’s not an insect I have ever seen before, and I haven’t been able to find out what it is. It’s probably something elementary – an ‘Abaco Black Orange-Feeler Beetle’ – that is familiar to everyone. Except me. I’d just like to know. Any help out there? A response via the Comment box below would be appreciated!
This insect has some interesting features. The feelers are segmented, with 9 joints, so that in close-up the apparent smooth curve is not a perfect one but an articulated series of ‘straights’. It has 4 toes for gripping, and leg spines. It appears to be a voracious leaf-eater. And it can scratch its head. Overall, it looks aggressive and somewhat alien. Imagine if these things were the size of a potcake. Coming at you…
ANNA HUMMINGBIRDS ON A HANDHELD FEEDER – VIDEO
ANNA HUMMINGBIRDS ON A HANDHELD FEEDER
A brilliant hi-def video by the excellent ornitho-artist blogger BIRDSPOT. A very effective combination of the visual, amazing sound, and keeping very still. I realise you are highly unlikely to encounter one of these hummers on Abaco. But you might. Although they are normally found on the west coast of North America and inland from there, they have been regularly seen well outside their usual range, for example in Alaska, New York, Newfoundland and… Florida. So it’s only a matter of time before one slips across for a quick vacation in the northern Bahamas. Best not a pair, though. They are apparently very territorial, and the poor endemic Bahama Woodstar has enough trouble fighting its corner with the migrant Cuban Emerald… (credit: BIRDSPOT with thanks for use permission)
THE INTRIGUING PARROTS OF GREAT ABACO ISLAND – PODCAST
A 5 minute PODCAST from ABC Radio’s ‘The Science Show’ featuring Caroline Stahala, research scientist and Abaco Parrot expert, and David Knowles of the Bahamas National Trust, Chief Park Warden for Abaco
The online report is headed by this: “Holiday homes and resorts are replacing the forests in which the Bahamian parrot of Great Abaco Island breeds. When Christopher Columbus discovered the beautiful Bahamian islands in 1492, he wrote in his journal ‘the flocks of parrots obscure the sun’. Now the Bahamian parrot is confined to just two islands and they’re a protected species. On Great Abaco Island Bahamian parrots breed in the pine forests of the south and, as Pauline Newman discovered, their nesting behaviour is quite extraordinary”
CLICK HERE==>> ABACO PARROTS PODCAST – THE ABC SCIENCE SHOW
For the relevant web page and a transcript of the talk CLICK LOGO===>>> 
Thanks to the ABC Science Show for use approval – click name for more Podcasts
- Abaco Parrot
FAREWELL 2011, WELCOME 2012 & A NEW YEAR FOR ABACO WILDLIFE
Out with the Old, in with the New with the fine collection of logos craftily adapted by Mrs rh during the year from the official Delphi Club bonefish logo. By a strange coincidence the 5 logos almost make up an Olympic rings design, especially fitting for 2012… The rh household failed to get a single ticket for any of the events we applied for in the so-called ballot. But as long as all the mid-ranking management from struggling midlands football clubs, and all subordinate temporary assistant under-secretaries in obscure non-participant consulates got their quotas, that’s the main thing. I am not a bitter person. That left a very generous 783 tickets for the entire Great British Public to share. And there’s even one left still for the men’s freestyle subaquatic triathlon (javelin, 100 metre hurdles and graeco-roman wrestling).
A very Happy New Year to all you kind followers since the first tentative blog-steps last April – and equally to those who got here through a Google input error… Here’s where you all came from (with a special mention of the surprising number from Tunisia, Japan and Fiji) 
THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE – DELPHI CLUB, ABACO
Selected Birdyography – please see the BOOKS page for full details – starting with the ‘Go-To’ reference book
Bruce Hallett
Birds of the Bahamas and the Turks & Caicos Islands
James Bond
Birds of the West Indies (Collins Field Guide)
Norman Arlott
Birds of the West Indies (Collins Field Guide)
P G C Brudenell-Bruce
The Birds of New Providence and the Bahama Islands (1975)
Flieg and Sander
A Photographic Guide to Birds of the West Indies
Herbert Raffaele et al
Field Guide to the Birds of the West Indies (Helm Field Guides)
