Time for the Island-hopping part of our day with Abaco Above and Below. There’ll be some links to other aspects of the day as we go along. Apologies for the gloomy photos – the weather was distinctly adverse for much of the day, as this photo taken from Kay’s catamaran shows.
Straight boat, squint horizon
SCOTLAND CAY We saw this cay in passing but didn’t land here. We wouldn’t have been welcome on this rather stern-sounding island. It’s private. And exclusive. In case are you are making plans to drop by, this is how private and exclusive according to the island’s website: “Only property owners and their guests are allowed on the island. This exclusively private island is accessible by private aircraft, private vessel, or ferry service from nearby Marsh Harbour, Abaco. Please be advised that there are no commercial services on the island. No restaurants, bars, stores, public marinas, etc. Do not travel to the island unless you are a guest of a current property owner. You will be asked to leave immediately.” (S C website) To which one can only say “Fair Play”, and pass on by. But you are allowed to take photos from afar. Even gloomy ones. And non-exclusively.
LUBBERS CAY Our first stop was at Lubbers Cay and lunch for 14 at Cracker P’s after our snorkelling excitements at FOWL CAY.
The landing-stage looked promisingly welcoming…
…as did Cracker P’s itself
Lunch for 14 passengers and crew: excellent local food, cheerfully provided
Cuban Emeralds feeding on sugar water by our table
RH waits anxiously as his dollar bills are scrutinised for authenticity
HOPE TOWN:After lunch our next stop was Hope Town. Here are a couple of direct links to other Hope Town posts / pages from this and previous trips: HOPE TOWN ART;THE LIGHTHOUSEThe plan is to add some more Hope Town photos in due courseof an earlier trip when it was sunny…
MAN-O-WAR: We had quite a brief stop here, a quick wander round and a look at the boat yards. There was a Bahama Woodstar feeding on flowers near the jetty. The weather was still pretty vile, not conducive to photography. A place to return to on a sunny day…
AND FINALLY to some dolphins, the cetacean finale to the day, which appeared as we approached Marsh Harbour and made a very good day excellent:DOLPHINS
This very pleasant walk somehow seems more satisfactory taken clockwise, turning left at the front gateway and wandering along the guest drive. The straight service drive is less interesting and feels less ‘in the coppice’. The distance is about 2 miles. You can walk the circuit briskly in about half an hour. The birds will see you, but you won’t see them… So preferably take it easy. Here is a fantastic aerial view of the drives (courtesy of DCB)
The start of the route – trees as far as the eye can see
From a birding point of view, as you walk down to the gateway, keep an eye out on both sides. There are plenty of birds in the bushes and trees, though they are not always easy to see. You might see a western spindalis, bananaquits, black-faced grassquits, warblers, northern parulas, loggerhead kingbirds, vireos, cuban emerald hummingbirds or a bahama woodstar if you are lucky, amongst many others. When you get to the main drives, have a look straight ahead into the coppice – in fact anywhere along the guest drive is worth pausing to investigate.
This cuban emerald was just opposite the drive gateway (credit Xeno-canto.org)
The gumbo limbo trees are very popular with many birds, including the Abaco Parrots, so it’s good to check them out as you pass by (and if you have unfortunately touched a poison-wood tree, they provide the antidote – conveniently the two trees tend to grow next to each other). Here are a couple of Thick-billed Vireos proving the point. And their song, which you will hear a lot around the Club itself.(credit Xeno-canto.org)
Hairy Woodpeckers seem to favour dead trees for drilling practice – and perhaps for feeding on the sort of bugs attracted to dead wood. Here’s what they sound like (a call and response with 2 birds) (credit Xeno-canto.org)
There are plenty of small birds all along the way, some more vivid than others…Black-faced grassquit (not a warbler, as earlier suggested. Thanks CN)
Prairie Warbler
Antillean Bullfinch(not, as previously alleged, an American Redstart. Thanks CN)
If you look at the base of the trees in certain places, especially on the the left hand side of the guest drive (facing the highway), there are some small but deep holes in the limestone. If you drop a stone in, you can hear it splash in water – and the ferns growing inside them suggest a continuously moist environment.
As you progress, you move from the hardwood coppice to the pine forest.This photograph was taken just as the forest fires in March were petering out. The theory was that the fires that raged through the pine forest would stop where the coppice began, and not sweep on to engulf Delphi… and so this photo shows. The thick pine forest with its flammable vegetation and undergrowth gives way here to damper and less combustible coppice-wood which has halted the progress of the flames. The pines you can see are the last few outliers of the pine forest.
Here is an example of the drive having acted as a partial firebreak.
The pines, even burnt ones, are a good place to see West Indian Woodpeckers
When you reach the top of the guest drive it is worth carrying on to the highway. For a start you can admire Sandy’s gardening effort on the south side of the ‘white rock’, and maybe do some weeding. You are quite likely to see Turkey Vultures on the telegraph posts and wires, as here. You may also see Bahama Swallows on the wires, and perhaps an American Kestrel on a post.
Smooth-Billed Ani(wiki-ani)
I have seen a raucous flock of Smooth-billed Anis in this area, but it is hard to get close to them. Listen out for this unmistakable noise (credit Xeno-canto.org)
Returning from the road to the fork, to your right is the way you have come – seen here as the fires burnt out. There had been thick, indeed impenetrable, bright green undergrowth all along only 3 or 4 days earlier.
To the left is the service drive and your route home
Because this route is more open, there seem to be fewer birds. Again, you may see kestrels on the posts. Halfway along we heard the loud and very melodious singing of a Northern Mockingbird some distance away. CLICK on image (as you can with all, or most, of these photos) and you can see it singing!CLICK BUTTON to hear song of a Northern Mockingbird (credit http://www.bird-friends.com)
On either drive you will see butterflies. They seem to like the vegetation around the piles of stone and rubble. GULF FRITILLARYAgraulis vanillae
It is also worth looking out on either drive for epiphytes, or air-plants, growing on their host trees. They are so-called because unlike say, mistletoe, they are non-parasitic and do not feed off their hosts.
And so back to Delphi, a well-earned swim… and an ice-cold Kalik in the hammock…
For another angle on the circuit walk, have a look at a proper professional-looking blog by Craig Nash, already trailed in the BLOGROLL. This link will take you specifically to his fourth Delphi post, featuring this stroll. At the risk of stitching myself up here, I should say that you’ll get plenty of seriously good photos… PEREGRINE’S BLOG 4
Exceptional and rare video footage of Abaco Parrots entering their underground nest, very kindly provided by Caroline Stahala for use in this blog. I don’t imagine many people have been lucky enough to see this sort of parrot activity in the wild, so it is great to be able to see it captured on video…
If the video above doesn’t work you can reach it another way: CLICK LINK—–>>>ABACO PARROTS NESTING
[At the moment the video is reachable by the link above. I’m working on embedding it, but there’s a technical hitch to sort out. It’s all geek to me. So I’m using something I’d never heard of until this morning called Dropshot, which at least lets you see the video… though I’ve got a feeling it entails having to have ‘friends’ and to end up involuntarily ‘following’ people like Britney Spears and some crazy guy called ‘iruletheworld’]
CAROLINE STAHALA was introduced in an early parrot post on this blog – see DELPHI CLUB ABACO – PARROT RESEARCH & CONSERVATION. That post will route you to her thesis and to an article in The Abaconian about her work.She has just sent a report about her current researches (and there will be future updates):
At the moment we are in full chick mode. All the parrot nests (45 nests!) that we have been finding and monitoring since the end of May have hatched. Next week I will begin banding these chicks so that we can recognize them as individuals and learn more about their behavior. Here is a picture of a chick banding from last year:In addition to banding chicks, I am going to be attempting to catch 3 mated adult pairs and place radio transmitters on these parrots. This will give us information about what pairs do during the nonbreeding season, how frequently they interact, and whether the amount of interaction during the nonbreeding season influences how well they do during the breeding season.
This year, for the first time, I have set up cameras at nest sites to find out how frequently nests are being visited by potential predators and, also, who these predators might be. We have already detected cats, rats and mice at the nest sites using the cameras. Here is a picture of a feral cat at one of the nest sites:
Caroline has asked me to mention that the project is in desperate need of a new field vehicle – the old one is dying a slow painful death. She is working with a nonprofit organization Parrots International (www.parrotsinternational.org) to raise funds for the new truck (seeBLOGROLLfor their direct link to Caroline’s research). If anyone would like to support this cause, it would be greatly appreciated:
If you are interested in subscribing or donating to support the conservation project to save the Abaco population of the Bahama Parrot, the direct link to the subscription / donation page is http://www.parrotsinternational.org/main-join.html
Finally, I sent Caroline an image of a particular Parrot taken by me earlier this year. Ricky Johnson said he had never seen one with so much red on its front – almost reaching its tail. And he should know…
Caroline’s reply “I have not seen a parrot with quite that much red on its belly, however it is not completely surprising. One of the features of the Abaco parrot is more red on the chest and belly than other Cuban Amazon populations. Even within a population there is quite a bit of variation of the red. Some Abaco parrots may just have the red throat with a few red feathers, but they do go to the extreme found in your picture. Usually though you have a small red patch on the belly or what looks like spotty red areas on the belly. Very neat picture!” (rh note – thanks, but in fairness I should add that the whole group of about 12 of us took pretty much the same photo of this parrot…)
It’s worth commenting on the cluster of sightings on the south-west coast of Abaco between Sandy Point and Hole-in-the-Wall. This is the site of the Great Bahama Canyon, one of several extremely deep rifts that divide the generally shallow sea-floor of the Bahamas Islands. This deep trough provides a habitat and feeding ground for a huge variety of inshore and oceanic species, with an abundant supply of food. How convenient that the BMMRO HQ should be so close to this area…
SANDY & BILL VERNON have provided a number of wonderful photos from their stay at Delphi earlier this year. The images convenientlycoincide with various categories already posted, to which the headings below link (supposedly – I will sort out any problems in due course, the general rh policy being to upload pictures first then worry about details later…)
ABACO PARROTS(including some extraordinary acrobatics)
Here are some more stills of reef fish taken from the video of our reef-snorkelling trip to Fowl Key with Abaco Above and Below. I’ll add the fish IDs gradually. The first batch are images of individual fish; the second batch is a sequence showing a queen parrot fish feeding on small fish (?gobies) – images that I’d expect David Attenborough to describe in his quiet and breathy way as “really quite extraordinary”, especially if he has seen the general standard of pics in this blog…
BLUEHEAD WRASSE (Thalassoma bifasciatum)
YELLOWTAIL DAMSELFISH (Microspathodon chrysurus)
YELLOWTAIL DAMSELFISH & Juvenile (I hadn’t noticed the baby yellowtail until I examined the video)
First I thought it best to look up in the dictionary the meaning of the word ‘Sound’ in relation to ‘Cherokee Sound’ – it has such a poetic name. Sound: a long arm of the sea forming a channel between the mainland and an island or islands; or connecting two larger bodies of water.
“No one knows for sure where ‘the place’ got its name but one theory is that it was named after a local wild cherry tree and according to some old-English sailing charts was identified as ‘Cherry Cay’ (cay pronounced ‘key’ locally). Another story about the first settler being an old Indian woman who was supposed to have come from the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina during the American Revolution, and she named the settlement after her ancestors.” By Lee Pinder, Cherokee Sound, Abaco.
About 40 kilometres or 25 miles south of Marsh Harbour, capital of Abaco, is the seaside settlement of Cherokee Sound. It is only fifteen minutes from the superb Delphi Fishing Club at Rolling Harbour where we were based. We set off for a day’s fishing at Cherokee, the home to fewer than 150 families, where most make their living fishing for crawfish, bonefish guiding and taking parties out deep sea fishing. Some of the finest bonefish guides live at Cherokee and none better than young Dana Lowe, daughter of Delphi’s senior guide Donnie Lowe. She has learnt since childhood from her experienced father and knows every inch of the complex waters, and where best to fish under various tide and cloud conditions (perish the thought, it is almost always gloriously sunny).
Dana has developed her own relaxed approach to guiding, and takes a missed opportunity in her stride, seldom getting upset by a client’s failure to engage with the incredibly spooky fish in the Sound. She calls clearly to the fisherman on the bow from her poling platform high above the 40 horse-power Yamaha at the stern of the 14 ft skiff:Fish 40 yards off, prepare to cast(and a minute later) give me 40 (feet) at 11 (o’clock, the bow is always 12). The angler has sufficient line stripped from the reel and with one false cast and a slight single haul lands the fly in the fish’s path.
After a momentary pause she quietly asks (with reference to the line): ‘strip, strip, stop, strip, raise the tip, GOT IT’ as the fish yields to the temptation of the inviting fly – and in a moment, like a bat-out-of-hell is 100/120 yards off, heading for the horizon! Then it pauses and turns which is the start of a real good angling experience until it gives up and is released from the barbless hook to rejoin its pals and recount the experience, often being honoured with leadership of the shoal. Such is the order of nature!
Dana is at one with her surroundings and encourages her guests to take in all that Cherokee has to offer. At low tide she loves to have her guests wade in bare feet on the silvery golden flats, sand as far as the eye can see, and cast to the occasional meandering fish or even a shoal of them. Easy to visualise the silvery sand, the blue green of the water, and the royal blue sky off set by soft fluffiness of the pure white clouds and almost uninterrupted sunshine. I love the lunch stops on a little mangrove island under the limited shade of a coconut tree, and the opportunity to collect a few shells for my nieces. I particularly like the sand dollars that have the appearance of engraved roman coinage, but are transparent porcelain white. And the various shades of pink of the conch shells are much liked by our local jeweller for engraving most appealing cameos. From the boat again she can show you, in season, the Ospreys nesting in their very square constructions of straw and wattle, green turtles snorting, and a plentiful number of ray, shark and barracuda cruising sinisterly around and with no evil intent to the peaceful anglers! As the evening draws in we call it a day and say our goodbyes to Cherokee Sound. Dana brings us back to the little jetty where our jeep from Delphi is awaiting us and we wave our fond farewell for another year and watch as Dana punts quietly out into the bay to her lovely home further along the shore line. The slow-paced tranquil daily life here feels as if it has not changed for many years and we hope, if that is fair to the residents, that it remains so for years to come.
Trish Findlater June 2011
AND FINALLY…unknown to Trish, rh was on the other skiff with a camera. For an independent view of what was going on in this idyllic placeCLICK HERE
Our Island-hopping trip with Kay – see previous posts [links later] – held the chance of an encounter with dolphins. The frankly dodgy weather – rain, cloud etc – seemed to have dashed that hope. As we entered the approaches to Marsh Harbour, we (I) had given up all thought of seeing any dolphins when suddenly… dolphins to starboard. A small pod, not very close, of 3 or 4 adults and at least one calf. They did what dolphins do for a short time, while gradually moving away from us into the murk. There was naturally huge excitement on board at this unexpected sighting.
So as Marsh Harbour came into view, we had ticked off the full day’s list: reef-snorkelling at Fowl Cay; island-hops to Lubbers (with lunch), Elbow and Man o’ War Cays; and rounded off with the dolphins. Without going overboard in any sense, this was 6 hours of wonderful adventure, and highly recommended as a top quality day’s outing. And you can even get an Abaco Above and Below t-shirt at the end of it all to prove you have done it.
* * *
I have been uncharacteristically reticent, I notice, about showing the proof of the dolphin encounter. And for a very good reason. These may be the worst quality images of dolphins you will EVER see. You may in fact be better off looking at a cartoon… For what they are worth, here are two photos (of several worse ones…)
A DOLPHIN
ANOTHER DOLPHIN
A MORE CONVINCING DOLPHIN
DELPHI DOLPHINS You don’t have to go out in a boat to see dolphins. They have been seen from the verandah at Delphi, quite close to the beach – as have turtles and large rays. It’s worth having an occasional scan with the amazing autofocus binoculars that are kept in the Great Room
At last I have got round to the hummingbirds. It’s quite simple. There are only two species of hummingbird on Abaco. The endemic variety is the Bahama Woodstar, one of only 3 endemic bird species on Abaco (the others are the Bahama Yellowthroat and the Bahama Swallow). The settled migrant is the Cuban Emerald.
BAHAMA WOODSTAR
Calliphlox evelynae
Male and female Bahama Woodstars (Photo Credit: Phil Brown – and VG too)
These hummingbirds are found throughout the Bahamas. They do not migrate, although are occasional vagrants in SE Florida. They breed all year round, the main season being in April. The female lays 2 elliptical white eggs, which she incubates for 15-18 days. As with humans, the female is mainly responsible for childcare while males go drinking at the nectar bar and hang out with their mates.
This BW was one of a small group at Hole-in-the-Wall. They were completely unconcerned by our presence, and we could get within arm’s length of them. Woodstars, though tame in human terms, can be aggressive and territorial. They are plentiful throughout the Bahamas except on Grand Bahama, Abaco and Andros. Significantly those are the only islands where the Cuban Emerald is found in any numbers. As with the native red and import grey squirrel problem in the UK, the migrant emerald is aggressive towards the woodstar, which is consequently rare where emeralds are abundant.
Here is their call (credit Jesse Fagan Xeno-canto)
Addition April 2012Here is a seriously cute female Woodstar photographed by Ann Capling at Bahama Palm Shores, close to Ocean Drive – a really pretty little bird
At Delphi, you’ll frequently see emeralds, especially now that feeders with sugar water have been hung up for them. The pool area is a very good place to watch them. But there are occasional woodstars to be seen as well – in the coppice on the drives for example, and even on the feeders. The vague blur to the left of the feeder below is a woodstar in the millisecond between me pointing the camera and it flying away… Don’t bother to click to enlarge it – it’s a useless photo, I know, but it is evidence even at the lowest level
CUBAN EMERALDChlorostilbon ricordii
There’s probably a great deal to be written about the emeralds, but not by me. Or not now, anyway. The little you need to know from me is already covered above, and I haven’t yet discovered whether their childcare arrangements differ significantly from the woodstars. Probably not. So I’ll put in a selection of photos, and remark that it is strange how quickly they can change from sleek and slender birds to small rather cold and dispirited looking bundles of feathers. Both states are depicted below. Here’s what to listen for (credit Xeno-canto.org)
Delphi – pool feeder
Delphi – pool feeder
Delphi – pool feeder
Delphi – far side of pool
Delphi – near pool
Delphi – front drive
Delphi – front drive
All the above birds were photographed at Delphi. We saw emeralds elsewhere, of course – in the pine forest, flicking across the logging tracks; on other Cays. The best sighting was during our day trip reef-snorkelling and island-hopping with Kay Politano, when we had an excellent lunch for 14 at Cracker P’s on Lubbers Cay (see future post about this and the island-hops). There was a bird feeder by our table, to which emeralds came and went throughout the meal. Here are some photos – I wanted to get them hovering, and kind of succeeded. More or less.
By which I mean, of course, Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones on the Delphi beach, but let’s just keep an eye on the individual ‘hits’ tally for this provocatively titled post…
A single Wilson’s Plover – February 2010
Four Ruddy Turnstones at the north end of the beach, on the lethal coral – March 2011
(thanks for the ID correction Margaret – see comments below)
Two Ruddy Turnstones – March 2011
An inviting track to be followed (quite some distance, as it turned out)
The end of the track – a crab’s home
Finally, his ‘n’ hers rods – evidence of a perfect Rolling Harbour afternoon
Our visit to Elbow Cay was one part of our day’s Island Hopping / Reef Snorkelling expedition with Kay Politano. In Hope Town, while most of the party wandered round the streets (and shops…)Mrs Rolling Harbour took the boat across the harbour to the Hope Town Lighthouse. This must be the best known landmark of Abaco – ‘iconic’, perhaps, in the modern sense of the word. The weather on the day was pretty poor, with thick cloud and intermittent rain and drizzle. Which is a pity, because the photos would have looked even better with sunshine and blue sky…
All Photos: Mrs Rolling Harbour
HOPE TOWN LIGHTHOUSE FACTS
(click on Coordinates below for position and Hope Town info)
The Hope Town Lighthouseis one of only three Manual Lighthouses left in the World. It has a spring mechanism that has to be hand cranked every few hours to maintain the sequence of five white flashes every 15 seconds. The lamp burns kerosene with a wick and mantle. The light is then focused as it passes through the optics of a first order (largest size) Fresnel lens which floats on a bed of mercury.
A Fresnel lens(pron. ‘Fray-nel’) is a type of lens originally developed by a French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel specifically for lighthouses.Compared to conventional bulky lenses, the Fresnel lens is much thinner, larger, and flatter, and captures more oblique light from a light source, thus allowing lighthouses to be visible over much greater distances. Fresnel’s lighthouse lenses ordinarily fell into six orders based on their focal length, first order being the largest (wiki-assist)
HUTIAS are cavy-like rodents of the Caribbean Islands. They range in size from 20 to 60 cm (8 to 24 in), and can weigh up to 7 kg (15 lb). Twenty species of hutia have been identified, of which half may now be extinct. Their tails vary from vestigial to prehensile. They have stout bodies and large heads. Most species are herbivorous, though some eat small animals. Instead of burrowing underground, they nest in trees or rock crevices. Of extant species, only a few are common; most have become vulnerable or endangered. In Cuba they are hunted for food, and are often cooked in a large pot with wild nuts and honey. One of the recipes is hutia stew: sauté with green peppers, onions, tomato sauce and lots of garlic. (Source: Wiki)
Photo WWF/ G. Clough
The Bahamian species of Hutia is endemic to the Bahamas. It is listed as a vulnerable species. Its natural habitats are moist forests, dry shrubland and rocky areas. Hutias are a nocturnal species, remaining underground during the day. Two subspecies became extinct in modern times. The Crooked Island Hutia (G. i. irrectus) and the Great Abaco Hutia (G. i. abaconis) were mentioned by early European voyagers, and are believed to have become extinct by 1600. This is thought to be due to land clearance rather than direct hunting. However, they are found elsewhere in the Bahamas – the Exumas, for example.
You will need: swimming kit; sweatshirt (it can be cold on the boat after snorkelling); stuff for Island Hopping later on, inc. camera, money etc; snorkel practice in the pool if you haven’t used one for (say) 20+ years – use the Club gear; Ian Took’s slim ‘Fishes of the Caribbean Reefs’. NB there is limited room on the boat, so you’ll need a bit of a nifty towel work to preserve modesty when changing…
Kay Politano of Abaco Above and Below in Marsh Harbour pencils in an unspecified number of places for a day’s island-hopping and reef-snorkelling while I find out how many non-fishing-that-day Delphi guests might be interested. Seven sign up, and one morning we all set off to Marsh Harbour. In Kay’s shop we try on our flippers, marvel at the scuba possibilities (a completely implausible proposition for most of us…), then we troop off to the marina and Kay’s reassuringly powerful and safe-looking catamaran. It takes 12 passengers; the other 5 are already aboard. We set off towards a threatening-looking weather front; rain later is a certainty…
Kay and rh at the controls
Passing by several Cays, we arrive at Fowl Cay Marine Preserve and drop anchor. We don our flippers, wrestle with our masks and snorkels, and in turn drop off the back of the boat (ok, stern, is it?) into warmish water, under thick grey cloud. My practice in the Delphi pool has paid off, and soon I am wheezing and gurgling my way towards the reef with my head (mostly) under water, a situation I generally avoid.
I am completely unprepared for what I find when I get to the reef. David Attenborough’s favourite production team has kindly arranged for a wide variety of bright fish, some electrically charged, to come up close and inspect me, an intruder in their world. I’ll spare you the colour-supp superlatives and graphic intensifiers – you’re probably blasé and have seen it all before – but I am totally gobsmacked, even with my mouthpiece in place. It’s all real! It’s even better than TV! And don’t get me started on the coral…
Sergeant Major
Parrot Fish
Blue Tang / Ocean Surgeonfish
Blue Chromis
Sting Ray
While I gasp and bubble my way around, I keep a small waterproof video camera running (see GADGETS review). My swimming is feeble at the best of times, but somehow it all seems to be coming together – my flailing limbs, the laboured breathing, the reef, the fish and the footage. We circle round the reef – occasional pale figures appear in my lateral vision – for about 25 minutes, then return to the boat and the struggle to remove our flippers… Everyone is excited about what they have seen (some saw barracudas).Who cares that it’s started drizzling… we are wet already and it’s off to Lubbers Cay for lunch; see forthcoming Island-Hopping Post. And see MARINE LIFEpage for more reef fish photos taken on this expedition.
ADDITION April 2012 I notice there have been a few specific searches ‘what is the plural of Sergeant Major?’ Good question. The strict grammatically correct answer is, I suspect (as with the military rank), ‘sergeants major’ because it’s the sergeants who are plural and the ‘major’ is a qualifier to distinguish from other degrees of sergeant (were there sergeants minor, for example). It’s the same with courts martial – not ‘court martials’. BUT it sounds all wrong and pernickety. I reckon the whole fish is a sergeant major. If there are 2 or more, you’ve got some sergeant majors to play with.
The nesting box has clearly been a big hit, now that the woodpeckers have deigned to move in. And they are getting a bit cheeky. David Rainford has sent a great photograph of them as they play with the Club car, preen in the mirror etc… More of David’s photos will be posted shortly inCONTRIBUTIONS
A TRIP TO CHEROKEE & LITTLE HARBOUR(revised Oct 2012)
YOU WILL NEED camera; binoculars; possibly swimming kit; a car with (if you are going to get seriously stuck in at Pete’s Pub) a non-drinking driver; good appetite; and if you get weather like we did, something waterproof to wear…
ROUTE Turn right at the end of the drive, head north past Bahama Palm Shores until you get to the right-hand turn to Cherokee / Little Harbour / Winding Bay. Take the made-up road to the end, following the right-hand bend that will bring you to Cherokee. You will pass the Abaco Club, Winding Bay, a Ritz-Carlton enterprise. It doesn’t need any meagre publicity from this quarter – just ask Sandy what you have to do to play golf there, eat there, use the spa, buy a cabana and so forth.
ABACO CLUB, WINDING BAY
Photo Credit: Simon Rodehn
Continue to CHEROKEE, park and have a wander round this charming settlement. It poured when we went and we were barely able to leave the car… so any description I could give is obscured by extreme wet, low cloud and yes, a touch of gloom. Not even any birds to report. Explore for yourself, why not. Thanks to Simon Rodehn for his fine aerial views of the Abaco Club Cherokee (and see his aerial view of LITTLE HARBOUR at the end of this post).
CHEROKEEPhoto Credit: Simon Rodehn
After you have had a look round Cherokee, drive back the way you came, past the Abaco Club, until you get to a right-hand junction with a sign to Pete’s Pub and Little Harbour. This is described on the map as ‘dirt road’, which doesn’t do justice to some of the impressive rocks en route. However, with care it is easily negotiable by car. Carry on until you get to Pete’s, which is a good place to leave the car and explore from.
LITTLE HARBOUR is a good place to wander round. Nice boats for a start; the renowned Johnston’s Foundry, with examples of its work scattered round; the Gallery, which is well worth investigating; a shell-strewn beach on the back-side (as it were). And Pete’s Pub for excellent sustenance at the end of it all… fresh fish of many kinds, and a lot more besides. Here are some pictures – I haven’t attempted to photoshop them to disguise the fact that the weather that day was… inclement. Bleak, even. On a sunny day, when you go, it will surely look better…
MAIN STREET, LITTLE HARBOUR
PETE’S PUB
PETE’S PUB – BRING YOU OWN TEE
THE GALLERY, LITTLE HARBOUR
THE BEACHShells, but no idea about the swimming: thwarted by drizzle!
PETE’S PUB & GALLERY Here is the direct link to Pete’s, where you will find all the info you could wish for about the Pub, the Foundry, the Johnston family, cottage rental, fishing and the locality generally. There are also plenty of excellent pictures, so check it out for a far sunnier view than I have provided here.
DELPHI. ROLLING HARBOUR. Gorgeous sunrises. Sumptuous sunsets. Impossible to take a really bad photo. None of the images below has been photoshopped or iPhoto’d in any way. The only modifications are natural, i.e. from forest fire smoke on a couple of them.
Richard Bramble is a wildlife artist and ceramics designer whose name will be familiar to anyone who has visited the Delphi Club (look, there’s his signed bonefish plate by the main door of the Great Room; and look, more of his work in the gallery ‘Mall’…). Richard will also be well-known to the many who have bought, been given, or simply admired his elegant china pieces or his table-mats. His repertoire of designs is huge – there are fish, birds, animals plants, shells and a lot else besides
In the interests of research on your behalf, I recently met Richard in his rural Studio near Sherborne, Dorset (starting to sound uncomfortably like a Sunday Times article here…) He signed a large bonefish plate I had recently been given, showed me round, and regrettably completely failed to discourage me from investing in some of the desirable items so immediately to hand. Richard has been working on a number of designs based on his stay at Delphi and various trips he took from there. Gareth was apparently the source for some of his fish ‘models’ – pre-cooking, obviously. Without more ado, here are some images. Can I make it clear that not only am I not being paid for this flagrant puffery, but I also paid top dollar at Richard’s Studio. There’s no dodgy dealing in this blog, thank you very much…
A TRIP TO HOLE-IN-THE-WALL THROUGH THE NATIONAL PARK
You will need: One truck with plenty of fuel (for the return journey); courage, patience and determination; picnic; bird book – borrow the HALLETT (KS copy) from Club library; camera / binoculars; willingness to cope with and explore derelict buildings; good shoes if you want to walk from the lighthouse; life insurance if you want to climb the uninvitingly hazardous lighthouse stairs
Map credit as elsewhere
Like marriage, this expedition is not by any to be undertaken lightly or ill- advisedly… Driving to the lighthouse at Hole-in-the-Wall involves a 15-mile (each way) return journey on a track south from the Highway. It starts promisingly but gradually turns nasty as the track degenerates. Rental cars are banned; Sandy will have strong views about using the Club car… Realistically, it can only be done in a truck. We took a truck… I don’t want to be unduly off-putting but we were still considering turning back at mile 14. Especially at mile 14. The view is as shown below for most of the way, the trees thinning out as one nears the coast.An optimistically good stretch of track
During the journey, you pass through the heart of the National Park, breeding ground for the Abaco Parrots. Uniquely for this species, they nest on the ground in limestone holes, making them vulnerable to predators. Logging roads cross the track at regular intervals, and are a good place to pull in and look for the birds of the pine forest –from large red-tailed hawks through gray catbirds, loggerhead kingbirds and hairy woodpeckers down to small warblers. If you take a picnic with you, you’ll have an excellent opportunity to bird watch.Loggerhead Kingbird in the National Park
This is what you will find when (if?) you reach the end of the road…
Park here. Mind the rocks. Far from advisable to continue further…
Hole-in-the-wall Lighthouse and outbuildings
The Entrance
No sign of renovation in Spring 2010
Land’s End – the southern tip of Great Abaco, and a good place for whale-watching
The internal staircase – access is easy, the door isn’t even kept shut let alone locked
THE UNEXPECTED REWARD for our endurance was to find, beside the path back to the car, a small group of Bahama Woodstars. This is the endemic species of hummingbird, and they are rare where there are the Cuban Emerald imports (at Delphi, for example). The ones we saw were all female – the males are iridescent green with a purple front. They were amazingly unafraid of us, flying back and forth around us, and quite happy to perch almost within arms’ reach and watch us watching them. They were completely enchanting, and cheered us up for the forthcoming journey back – fortunately it gets easier – and a picnic by a logging road once the track-terror had subsided.
STOP PRESS: Courtesy of batfa242 / Panoramio who braved the dodgy-looking spiral staircase in the lighthouse, here is a fantastic shot of ‘Land’s End’ taken across the lamp and through the glass. Many thanks for permission to use this – it makes me regret not having had the spirit of adventure to make the climb… Double-click for a very detailed view, including the in-built fresnel lens… (and see HOPE TOWN LIGHTHOUSE post)
Ricky is a well-known, infectiously enthusiastic, and compendiously knowledgeable Abaco nature guide (this guy gets way too much free publicity in this blog…). In this video he focusses his binoculars on piping plovers, a threatened species of tiny plover which annually makes a long migration to the Bahamas, including Abaco – and then heads all the way north again.
If this video doesn’t make you smile at some stage, I suspect a SOH bypass and / or your ‘anti-cute’ setting is jammed on. You’ll also see the differences between the piping plover and the more familiar Wilson’s plover.
PS Missed an obvious tongue-twister component out of the original title – now amended to tip a hat to Mine (and Thine) Host
Time for the Island-hopping part of our day with Abaco Above and Below. There’ll be some links to other aspects of the day as we go along. Apologies for the gloomy photos – the weather was distinctly adverse for much of the day, as this photo taken from Kay’s catamaran shows.
CUBAN EMERALD
ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO 
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