ABACO HUMMINGBIRDS: WHAT’S THE NEWS?
SIGHTINGS POST-DORIAN
Since the hurricane struck nearly 3 months ago, order is slowly being imposed on the chaos. Debris is being removed in vast quantities, building repairs are in progress, shops and some businesses are starting to open – and even (only last week) a bank.
Specific bird news from Abaco post-Dorian is sporadic, with people having plenty of other concerns at the moment and for some time yet. The wellbeing of the parrots has been checked during a scientific survey last month. There is infrequent but positive news of the shorebirds, especially of the piping plovers that are counted each winter season. There have been some reports of the warblers (of which there are an astonishing 38 species recorded for the Island and its cays).
As yet, I have seen no recent mentions at all in SocMed about the hummingbirds – the endemic Bahama Woodstar (#1 F; #2 M); and the Cuban Emerald (#3 F; #4 M). Are they around? Is anyone seeing them darting about like jinking bullets or feeding on flowers on the hover? I’m not on-island, so I’d be very pleased to know: are the hummers still humming?
Photos: Tara Lavallee (1); Bruce Hallett (2); Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour Abaco (3), (4)
ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO 
We were in Hope Town on Elbow Cay for Hurricane Dorian and saw one Bananaquit two days after the storm and a small group of Bahama Swallows late afternoon, day four post-Dorian. We saw no hummingbirds. We also did see one American Kestrel, and sadly, another was seen floating in the harbor entrance. A neighbor reported seeing the Barn Owl the last day before we evacuated and hopefully was the one we had seen the month before the hurricane off Parrot Cay.
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Thanks for this news. Biggest surprise in the circs? The group of swallows. Saddest – the Kestrel. So pleased the owl was seen, I expect they can take care of themselves (except for car strike…). Now that things have calmed down and Emeralds are being seen, it’s sad no Woodstars. It’s possible the flowers they prefer were trashed and are just beginning to grow back. However I had good news from Leno Davis / BNT 2 days ago that when they surveyed in Oct, they saw woodstars in the ANP.
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Glad you sent this out because I have been worried about the hummers. Charmaine had told me that the Bahama Woodstars took a real hit in a hurricane past and were just making a comeback. Can’t image they would have anywhere to hide from the wrath of Dorian.
I am presenting some photos in a couple weeks and wanted to include the plight of the Abacos parrots. Have you gotten any feedback on the results of Audubon and partners survey?
Sally
On Sun, Nov 24, 2019, 2:48 PM ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO wrote:
> Rolling Harbour posted: ” ABACO HUMMINGBIRDS: WHAT’S THE NEWS? SIGHTINGS > POST-DORIAN Since the hurricane struck nearly 3 months ago, order is slowly > being imposed on the chaos. Debris is being removed in vast quantities, > building repairs are in progress, shops and some busin” >
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Stunners, one and all!
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