This post is not as indelicate as the title might imply. It is not a practical guide for intimate examinations of tiny birds. Nor does refer to some louche activity involving large motor vehicles. It’s all about plumage and recognition. And there are only two species – and two genders for each one – to wrestle with*.So here are the adult male and female Bahama Woodstars and Cuban Emeralds in all their glory…
Cuban Emerald (f) Gilpin Point, Abaco (Keith Salvesen)
And finally, a brilliant Woodstar photo taken by Tom Sheley, birdman and generous fishing partner, that spans the boundary between wildlife photography and art.
Bahama Woodstar female. Abaco Bahamas . Tom Sheley
There have been very rare reports of vagrant sightings, in particular Anna’s Hummingbird
It’s often a hard decision whether to include a short piece of video footage in a post. By short, I mean less than a minute. On the one hand, there is usually a good reason for inclusion, even if only aesthetic. On the other, it simply takes up more time for busy people who may prefer to flick through an article and enjoy some nice images along the way. Today, you can have the best of both worlds.
Sanderlings are definitively ‘peeps’, a group name that embraces the smallest and squeakiest sandpiper species. They are the wave chasers, the tiny birds that scuttle along the beach, into the retreating tide for a snack from the sand, and back to the beach again as the waves creep in. Their little legs and feet move in a blur, and many people immediately think of wind-up clockwork toys as they watch the birds in action. But these charmers never wind down while there is shoreline foraging to be done.
One of the joys of being a sanderling is that rock pools fill and empty diurnally. At some time during daylight, there’s the certainty of a quick dip. I was lying on the beach when I took this short video, so that I didn’t spook the birds. I was equipped with a smallish camera (I drowned it the following day. By mistake I mean) so I kept my distance rather than try to get closer and spoil their joyful bathing.
I caught these little birds at a critical moment. You can tell that the tide is coming in fast. The peeps are becoming edgy, and weighing up the joys of immersion in a pool with the less enjoyable prospect of being washed out of the pool by the next wave. Within a minute or so, they had all flocked down the shoreline for a foraging session in new territory.
Waves and incoming tide getting a little too close for comfort on the edge of the pool…
Next to the migratory PIPING PLOVERS that favour Abaco as their winter home, the wave chasers are my favourite shorebirds. It was my keenness on them that killed my camera. I went out into the incoming waves to get shots back at the beach with the sun behind me. Great idea until I lost my balance with, as they say, hilarious consequences. Lesson learnt – never turn your back on waves.
“CATCHING THE EYE”: OYSTERCATCHERS (+ BONUS ID TIP)
I’m focusing (ha!) on oystercatchers and their eyes. Like the extraordinary one in the header image. Notice the bright orangey-red ‘orbital ring’, the egg-yolk-reminiscent eye and the pitch black iris. An eye-catching and unmistakeable feature of this handsome black and white shorebird, the American Oystercatcher.
Here’s another AMOY eye, with a different smudge of black by the iris. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that AMOY specialists are able to ID individual birds at least in part by their different eye markings. And you can see that the eye-ring smartly matches the beak into the bargain.
This wonderful photograph of a loving AMOY pair with their precious egg safely encircled by a rocky nest was taken on LBI, NJ by ‘Northside Jim’, whose amazing photos I sometimes include. See how brightly the eyes of each bird stand out, like tiny archery targets.
The World is Mine Oyster
This well-captioned AMOY shot was generously put on Wiki by photographer Dan Pancamo
OYSTERCATCHER ID TIPS
A while ago, when I was choosing AMOY photographs for publication, I idly wondered what was the difference between them and Eurasian Oystercatchers (yes, yes, I hear you – apart from geographical, I mean…). At a first comparative glance, to me they looked remarkably similar in coloration and size. Assuming both species were to be discovered on the same shoreline, how best might one distinguish them? The main differences seemed to be:
Leg colouring differs, AMOY legs being generally pale pink as opposed to the stronger coloured legs of the EUROY (if they can be called that). However there are considerable EUROY variations (see below), from pink to orange to reddish, that are presumably seasonal. The leg colour, assuming they are visible to the watcher, is not quite a definitive identifier.
Both species have black heads and necks, but the AMOY’s back plumage shades to dark brown. But how distinctive would that be in low light or indifferent weather?
Mrs RH, looking over my shoulder, saw it at once: the eyes. If you can see the eyes, you can tell instantly what make of OY you are looking at. Here are a some Eurasian Oystercatchers showing their own distinctively red eyes and orbital rings.
As so often, I have since found that the excellent Birdorable site has nailed the differences clearly and simply. Eye colour, leg colour and – less obviously – the AMOY’s brownish back as opposed to the EUROY’s entirely black and white body. Sorted.
The Great Egret is actually a heron rather than an egret. It’s a Great Heron. All egrets are members of the heron family Ardeidae, but the converse is not true. As long ago as 1758,Linnaeus awarded the bird the binomial name Ardea alba i.e. ‘Heron white‘. Why it should later have been so hard to stick to that authoritative nomenclature, I can’t imagine. Perhaps in time all heron and egret species became so hopelessly confusing for people that it ceased to matter much what they were called.
Maybe it was that type of carelessness that led to people from the mid-c19 onwards eyeing up GREGs as a source of hat feathers and other decorative necessities. As with flamingos and many other beautiful avian species, mankind’s millinery and other fashion needs were satisfied at the expense of gorgeous plumage. Actually, at the cost of the birds’ lives: they were simply shot in huge numbers.
Healthy populations were decimated; for some species they never recovered. For others, the great egret among them, the passage of time and the passing of fashions – backed in many cases with conservation programs – have successfully restored the populations. In 1953 theNational Audubon Society, which was formed at least in part to discourage the killing of birds for their feathers, took a decisive step in the cause of the great egret by making the bird the emblem of the organisation.
Photo Credit: Nina Henry photographed all the egrets in this post. Her wonderful images of this magnificent egret heron made a significant contribution to the original “BIRDS OF ABACO” project.
There are few more exhilarating sights in the world of birds than an osprey swooping from a great height down into the sea, emerging with a large fish held characteristically ‘fore and aft’ in its claws, and flying into the distance with heavy wing-beats.
This fantastic photograph of one of Abaco’s unique ground-nesting parrots was taken by ace photographer Nina Henry during the preparation and compilation of BIRDS OF ABACO. It’s the most special of the many we studied. The bird clearly displays the full fanning of its tail; and the image captures the bright colours perfectly. NH/RH/KS
The sounds are unmistakeable – a discordant chorus of soft chuckling noises like tongue-clicks as the RWTs flock into a bush, interrupted by harsh, metallic calls like rusty metal gate-hinges being forced open. Or maybe a lone bird mournfully repeating its eerie call from the mangroves far out on the Marls as the bonefishing skiffs slip silently along the shoreline. No other species sound quite like Agelaius phoeniceus.
The handsome males sport flashy epaulets, most clearly visible in flight or in display – for example to impress a prospective mate. Again, they are unlikely to be confused with another species.
The females, as is often the way, are less showy. I have read that they are ‘nondescript’ or ‘dull’, which is unnecessarily harsh, I reckon. Here are a couple of examples.
And the darker brown ones that are clearly not handsome black males? These are young males in their first season, before they move on to the full adult male plumage. Originally I had designated them as females (as I had assumed). I was very gently corrected by the legendary bird expert Bruce Hallett. I took the first male juvenile at Casuarina, when I also made the sound recording (below). The second was at Delphi (with some ‘light’ issues, I notice…).
Fledglings are kind of cute…
SO WHAT DO THEY SOUND LIKE?
You may need to turn up the volume a bit. You will also here a lot of dove noise and, in the background, the sound of waves lapping onto the shore.
Photo Credits: Tom Sheley (1, 2, 4, 5, 8); Alex Hughes (3); Keith Salvesen (6, 7, 9 & audio)
There are twelve species of tern – ‘swallows of the sea’ – that to a greater or lesser extent may be found on Abaco. Whether they will actually be visible at any given time is less certain, though. For a start, the only resident species is the lovely Royal Tern, available at many locations on Abaco and the cays throughout the year. Others are migratory, transitory or – rarest of all – vagrant birds blown off-course by wind or storm.
ROYAL TERNS Thalasseus maximus PR1
In the slightly less commonly-found category are the summer migrant terns that, by definition, are only in residence for around half the year. Four of these are fairly common in certain areas, and actually breed on Abaco; these include arguably the prettiest of all, the bridled tern. The other two tern species (gull-billed and sandwich) are more rare and do not generally breed locally.
LEAST TERN Sternula antillarum SR B 1
BRIDLED TERN Onychoprion anaethetus SR B 2
ROSEATE TERN Sterna Dougallii SR B 2
SOOTY TERN Onychoprion anaethetus SR B 2
GULL-BILLED TERN Gelochelidon nilotica SR 3
SANDWICH TERN Thalasseus sandvicensis SR 4
There is one rare winter resident migratory tern species. I had to check when the last one was recorded for Abaco. It was of course only in January this year, when ace birder-photographer Sally Chisholm saw one at Treasure Cay and managed to photograph it for posterity.
FORSTER’S TERN Sterna forsteri WR 4
The final four ‘Abaco’ terns are very much the occasional visitors. Three of them pass over the Bahamas on their longer migration, but may make a pit-stop around Abaco to take on fuel. Likelihood of sighting one? Slender but not impossible… The fourth, the Arctic Tern, is a very rare vagrant, a bird well away from its usual home or migration route as the result of storms or faulty satnav or sheer happenstance. Don’t travel to the Bahamas intent on seeing one.
CASPIAN TERN Hydroprogne caspia TR 4
As for the remaining three species, they are the transient black tern and common tern; and the vanishingly rare vagrant Arctic tern (the clue is in the name). No photos of any of these I’m afraid, so here’s a handy checklist instead.
ELECTIVE MUSICAL DIGRESSION
Written by Peter Seeger a few years earlier, Turn x 3 was released in 1965, the title track on the second album from the Byrds. At a rather febrile time in US history (Vietnam, draft riots, black civil rightists v cops and so on), this unusually palliative and thoughtful song with its religious connotations to some extent stood for peace and hope in a time of turmoil.
Photo credits: Keith Salvesen (1, 2, 3, 5, 18); Tony Hepburn (4); Alex Hughes (10, 11); Bruce Hallett (6, 7, 12); Woody Bracey (8, 13, 16); Duncan Wright (9); Dick Daniels (14); Sally Chisholm (15); Keith Kemp (17)
Note: You may find ads in this post. This is because WordPress / AI has now decided that you (dear reader) and I (angry author) are presumed to be up for car insurance deals, slimming advice, and incontinence apparatus. I’m probably going to have to buy my way into a new contract, as they presumably intend.
CLAPPER RAILS Rallus crepitans are elusive birds of mangrove swamp and marsh, more frequently heard than seen. They tend to lurk around in foliage and are easy to overlook – creatures of the margins rather than of open ground. If lucky, you may come across one foraging secretively, beak-deep in the mud.
Tom Sheley’s wonderful photos featured here of a preening clapper rail were taken during backcountry explorations to locate and photograph species for BIRDS OF ABACO. By being an early riser and a patient cameraman, Tom managed to capture this fine bird engaging in some quality grooming. The one below is also ‘vocalising’ – also known in rails as ‘rousing’.
CALL
AGGRESSIVE CALL
Clapper rails are capable of swimming and even of flying if they choose to (which isn’t often). However the most likely activity you will observe is skulking, picking their way quite delicately through marginal vegetation, or (if you are lucky) doing some serious beak-deep foraging in the mud. Their foraging is made easier by the fact that they are omniverous.
Occasionally they run, a process that looks endearingly comical and which possibly gives rise to their name (see below).
It almost goes without saying nowadays, but the biggest threat to these rather charming inoffensive birds is habitat loss. Which is to say, mankind either directly or indirectly. Drive bulldozers through the mangroves and marshland of sub-tropical coastal areas, chuck down a few acres of concrete and tarmac… and the clappers will very soon be clapped out. As they will if the climate we have unarguably changed irrevocably ruins their unobtrusive lives.
ADVISORY LINGUISTIC STUDY
When I first wrote about this species, its binomial name was Rallus longirostris ie simply ‘long-beaked rail‘. Which it is. Then came an annual official AOU shuffling of species and revision of names. The clapper rail was re-designated Rallus crepitans or ‘rattling / rustling rail‘. Which it does, but it also has other vocalisations (try the sound-files above). So maybe less clear-cut for ID purposes (there were other rail name innovations that, reading about them, made me crack open a beer instead of wanting to tell you about them. I’m old-school.
OPTIONAL LINGUISTIC DIVERSION
“TO RUN LIKE THE CLAPPERS“. This phrase seems to be fairly recent, most likely originating as military (?Air Force) slang early in WW2 or possibly from earlier conflicts. Some suggest it is a rhyming slang bowdlerisation of ‘run like hell’ with ‘clapper(s)’ standing for ‘bell’, along the lines of the Cockney “I’ve bought a new whistle” (whistle and flute = suit). Almost all plausible explanations relate to bells: the speed of the clapper of a vigorously rung handbell. One stand-out meaning relates to the historical era of City prostitution and the high risk of syphilis (‘pox’) or gonnorrhea (‘clap’). You can probably make the link.
Photo credits:Tom Sheley, Sandy Walker, Erik Gauger, University of Amsterdam (print), OS / CC
In January I will be returning to Abaco for a few happy days, for the BMMRO biennial Retreat. I haven’t been back since before Dorian and Covid. I am pretty excited by the prospect, having really missed the island, the friendships, the birdlife, and a whole lot more. During the long interval I have kept in close touch – most days, it seems – and continued with this blog.
Birds and marine mammals have always been the main theme, but there’s a great deal more to investigate in the MENUS. Between now and my visit, I plan to post some wonderful bird photos from my book BIRDS OF ABACO. Mostly they will by contributors; a few may by me.
BIRDS OF ABACO: THE DOWNLOAD
The whole edition was sold out ages ago, so unfortunately I wasn’t even able to replace lost / damaged copies. However I recently compressed the entire book into an 18mb file. Do pass it round; please don’t monetize it!
The birds shown above represent the 8 species found on Abaco. However, in New Providence, there is a beautiful pigeon that, as of a few years ago, had not made its way over to Abaco and had yet to be introduced there. Possibly the situation is different nowadays. Info would be welcome.
Pied Imperial Pigeon (Nassau)
Species checklist taken from the complete checklist in ‘Birds of Abaco by Keith Salvesen’ (aka Rolling Harbour
*For some, there is a shooting season
Photo credits: Gerlinde Taurer (1); Alex Hughes (2); Tom Sheley (3, 7, 13); Tony Hepburn (4); Keith Salvesen (5, 8, 14); Bruce Hallett (6, 9, 10); Woody Bracey (11, 16, 17); Milton Harris (12); Charles Skinner (15)
YELLOWLEGS (LESSER) ON ABACO: OUT STANDING IN THE WATER
It’s always helpful when a bird ends up with a descriptive name (after translation from the Latin binomial) that actually matches the creature. Burrowing owl, Roseate Spoonbill, White-crowned pigeon, Red-legged Thrush, Black-and-white Warbler – you know where you are at once. So it is with the Yellowlegs.
The only question is whether the Yellowlegs you are looking at is ‘greater’ (Tringa melanoleuca) or ‘lesser’ (Tringa flavipes). Both are winter visitors on Abaco, and a single bird on its own – with no size comparison – can be a potential source of confusion.
Taking flight… we have lift-off
Apart from size, the greater and lesser yellowlegs have some not-necessarily-very-noticeable differences in bill length (in comparison with head-size), plumage and vocalisation. Here is an excellent example of the yellowlegs cousins together, to give you a comparison.
Little and Large
DO THESE SHOREBIRDS EVER GO ON LAND?
A: YES
*ALERT* AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY CORNER *ALERT*
DO YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE A PHOTO OF THE LEYE WING UNDERSIDES?
Yup. This bird was at Gilpin Pond. There aren’t many ‘wing underside’ photos out there. They are delicately complex and very pretty. (Will this do?)
Q: DO THEY EVER DO PHOTOBOMBS?
A: INDEED! (BOMBING A BAHAMA DUCK)Weird blue tint due to radical colour correction for the bad red algal bloom on the pond
Credits: Tom Sheley (1, 2, 9); Phil Lanoue (3); Matt Scott (4); Tony Hepburn (6); ID concealed to protect me the bad photographer (7, 8)
‘Casting’ is one of those words with multiple meanings, some archaic but most in use today. You can probably think of half-a-dozen straight off. Metallurgy, for example, or even a type of couch. ‘Casting about’ is one of the specific usages and derives from hunting, eg hounds casting about for a scent. By extension, it has come to mean something like searching intently or thoroughly for something you need, or want, or are having difficulty in finding. Which is where this tricolored heron comes into the picture.
It’s always entertaining to watch a heron or egret fishing. Their methods range from standing stock still and suddenly stabbing downwards to slowly wading to the crazy dash that reddish egrets sometimes do on the edge of the mangroves. This one is hooding its wings, sometimes called ‘canopy feeding‘. The theory is that this attracts small fish by providing shade. I also wonder if this method is used to reduce glare from the surface of the water.
The bird in this sequence is a juvenile, and not yet the lethal hunter that it will soon become. It has seen a fish moving but has temporarily lost it (fishermen will be familiar with the mild feeling of annoyance when this happens). So it is casting about, slowly zig-zagging through the water, looking from a height, crouching down, trying to get a good view of its elusive snack. This little episode didn’t end in success. Sometimes, the fish you sight and then lose has gone for good. But as fishermen often say when they lose one (and by extension the phrase is now applied to other areas of human life), there are always plenty more fish in the sea.
Photo credit: Phil Lanoue, a photographer who specialises in patiently taking wonderful sequences of bird activity, with many thanks for use permission
There are twelve species of tern – ‘swallows of the sea’ – that to a greater or lesser extent may be found on Abaco. Whether they will actually be visible at any given time is less certain, though. For a start, the only resident species is the lovely Royal Tern, available at many locations on Abaco and the cays throughout the year. The rest are migratory or just passing through.
PERMANENT RESIDENTS
ROYAL TERNS Thalasseus maximus PR1
MIGRATORY TERNS: SUMMER
In the slightly less commonly-found category are the summer migrant terns that, by definition, are only in residence for around half the year. Four of these are fairly common in certain areas, and actually breed on Abaco; these include arguably the prettiest of all, the bridled tern. The other two tern species (gull-billed and sandwich) are more rare and as far as I can make out do not breed locally; or perhaps only rarely.
LEAST TERN Sternula antillarum SR B 1
BRIDLED TERN Onychoprion anaethetus SR B 2
ROSEATE TERN Sterna Dougallii SR B 2
SOOTY TERN Onychoprion anaethetus SR B 2
GULL-BILLED TERN Gelochelidon nilotica SR 3
SANDWICH TERN Thalasseus sandvicensis SR 4
MIGRATORY TERNS: WINTER
There is one very rare winter resident migratory tern species, with few records of sightings for Bahamas and until early 2019, no photographic record for Abaco until Sally Chisholm saw one at Treasure Cay and managed to capture it for posterity.
FORSTER’S TERN Sterna forsteri WR 4
OCCASIONAL & RARE VISITORS
A further four tern species are very much occasionals that drop by. Three of them pass over the Bahamas on their longer migration, but may make a pit-stop around Abaco to take on fuel. Likelihood of sighting one? Slender but not impossible… the Caspian tern below was photographed on Abaco. The fourth, the Arctic Tern, is a very rare vagrant, a bird well away from its usual home or migration route as the result of storms or faulty satnav or sheer happenstance. Don’t travel to the Bahamas intent on seeing one.
CASPIAN TERN Hydroprogne caspia TR 4
The remaining species are the transient black tern and common tern; and the vanishingly rare vagrant Arctic tern. No photos of any of these I’m afraid. Here’s a handy checklist of all the tern species.
ELECTIVE MUSICAL DIGRESSION
Written by Pete Seeger, Turn x 3 was released in 1965, the title track on the second album by The Byrds. At a rather febrile time in US history (Vietnam, draft riots, civil rightists v cops and so on), this unusually palliative and thoughtful song with its religious connotations to some extent stood for peace and hope in a time of turmoil.
PS the somewhat laboured title of this post shoehorns in the name of another Byrds album, ‘The Notorious Byrd Brothers’
Photo credits: Keith Salvesen (1, 2, 3, 5, 18); Tony Hepburn (4); Alex Hughes (10, 11); Bruce Hallett (6, 7, 12); Woody Bracey (8, 13, 16); Duncan Wright (9); Dick Daniels (14); Sally Chisholm (15); Keith Kemp (17)
Some years ago we went ‘backcountry birding’ for Birds of Abaco with photographer Tom Sheley. We drove the truck through forest, then into (former) sugar cane territory, then into scrubland. Red-winged blackbirds were enthusiastic with their rusty gate-hinge calling. Soon after Tom had set up his tripod with its baffling and weighty apparatus, we were in the midst of dozens of nighthawks as they swooped and dived (dove?) while hawking for flies. “The birds were completely unperturbed by our presence, and from time to time would zoom past within inches of our heads, making a swooshing noise as they did so”. Thanks to Robin Helweg-Larsen for the reminder that males may also make a distinctive ‘booming’ noise as they dive. Nighthawks catch flying insects on the wing, and are capable of great speed and manoeuvrabilty in flight. They generally forage at dawn and dusk – or (more romantically) at night in a full moon. Besides aerial feeding displays, nighthawks may also be seen on the ground, where they nest. I say ‘nest’, but actually they hardy bother to make an actual nest, but just lay their eggs on bare ground. And, more riskily, this may well be out in the open rather than concealed. The eggs – usually 2 – hatch after 3 weeks or so, and after another 3 weeks the chicks fledge.Fortunately their colouring enables them to blend in with the landscape – a good example of bird camouflage in natural surroundings.Antillean Nighthawk Chordeiles gundlachii, is a species of nightjar. These birds have local names such as ‘killa-ka-dick’, ‘pi-di-mi-dix’, ‘pity-pat-pit’, or variations on the theme, presumably onomatopoeic. Pikadik-(dik) will do for me. See what you reckon from these recordings (excuse the thick-billed vireo – I think – in the background):Andrew Spencer / Xeno-Canto
❖
As so often, the Bahamas Philatelic Bureau leads the way with natural history stamps. The 15c Antillean Nighthawk above featured in a 2001 bird set. You can see dozens more very excellent Bahamas bird, butterfly, fish, flower and other wildlife stamps HERE.
Find out about Juan Gundlach, Cuban Natural Historian (he of the Antillean Nighthawk and the Bahama Mockingbird for example) HERECredits: Sandy Walker (1); Stephen Connett (2, 3, 4, 5); Bruce Hallett (6); Andrew Spencer / Xeno-Canto (audio files); Audubon (7); Sibley / Audubon (8)
Reduced to 18mb for 10 – 15 second loading; no noticeable loss of definition
Below the screen BIRDS OF ABACO enlarges the screen, DOWNLOAD will do just that
The top bar contains all the usual ways to make adjustments to the contents
This is the penultimate version before printing, with a few crop marks etc
Please let me know if there are any problems with the download
The download is free and can be scrolled on-screen or saved in the usual way. Do share with family and friends. By all means use parts – eg the Checklist – to print for reference. It’s fine to print out a single complete copy for personal use only.
As mentioned in previous posts, I am asking those who choose to download the book to make a modest charitable donation to a local wildlife-related cause or to a local school or an organisation that inspires kids to get involved in the natural world around them.
KEITH SALVESEN
March 2024
rollingharbour.delphi@gmail.com
Thanks to all the many people who contributed to the book including 30 photographers who took brilliant photos; 3 Bahamas bird experts who contributed greatly to the composition and accuracy of the book; the superb printers Conti in Italy; Peter Mantle the inspiration and eminence grise; and my wife Sally whose publishing and editorial skills are second to none, and her patience limitless.
It is exactly 10 years since The Delphi Club Guide to the Birds of Abaco was launched in the Great Room at the Delphi Club, Abaco, Bahamas. Availability of the book had run its course by 2020. A decade after publication, preparations to compress the entire book into a downloadable e-book are now complete.
Cuban Emerald (M) – Keith Salvesen
FREE AS A BIRD
This has not been planned as a monetised project, so the ‘Book’ will be free to access online; and free to download using a linK. You can send the book to family and friends of course. By all means print out specific extracts, for example the checklist which might be fun to use for finding out the likelihood of seeing a particular bird and / or keeping a record of sightings.
It would be slightly disenchanting to find that the whole book is being printed out without checking first. This can be simply done using rollingharbour.delphi@gmail.com
Painted Bunting – Tom Sheley
$10 TO CELEBRATE THE BIRDS OF ABACO AND THE JOY THEY BRING TO THE WHOLE COMMUNITY
I am asking those who choose to download the book to make a charitable donation of $10 (‘a dollar a year’ since publication) to a local wildlife-related cause or to a local school or an organisation that inspires kids to get involved in the natural world around them. Or more than $10 by all means. There’s plenty of choice on Abaco, as I am sure there is for kind followers of Rolling Harbour who live beyond the island’s shores.
Great Egret – Tom Sheley
Killdeer – Bruce HallettWestern Spindalis – Keith SalvesenCuban Pewee – Keith Salvesen
We birds want to know what’s going on please. The rest of the ‘Abaco Bird Book Club’ have nominated us to find out. So:
Q. How likely is it that we ‘guys’ will somehow be getting inside a machine and turning up in people’s homes / on their phones (whatever those are). A. Very
Q. How long must we wait before being admired on a screen by humans – we all quite fancy that. A. A week or so
Q. Are we birds going to get any seeds / insects / berries / fish in return. A. No. You will be free. And free as a bird as well.
When, in 2014, Birds of Abaco had safely been hatched and was beginning to fledge, I started a companion site that was designed to add an additional dimension to the project. It was a bird-specific accessory to the main Rolling Harbour site that has always featured a far greater range of topics than birds.
The book exhibited Abaco birds in a deliberately perverse way (alphabetically, not by species grouping or other conventional methods). The loosely termed ‘Index’ was meant to be a quick alternative way to delve into the various species.
It was a side project and I did very little to promote it. Once put together (with a linked FB page) I pretty much left it to grow ‘organically’ (aka indolently and neglectfully). I’m bringing the site out of semi-retirement while I get on with my efforts to put the book online. Reach it HERE
A to Z
CAPE MAY WARBLER (Char Albury): as it turned out, an unpromising name. The first one was recorded on Cape May, NJ in the early nineteenth century. They were not recorded there again for more than a hundred years.
Weird blue tint due to radical colour correction for the bad red algal bloom on the pond
ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO 
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