‘EGYPTIAN MUMMY’ (aka MOTHER GOOSE) & HER BROOD

February 7, 2020 by Rolling Harbour

‘EGYPTIAN MUMMY’ (aka MOTHER GOOSE) & HER BROOD

This post has little to do with Abaco, and only a tenuous connection with the Bahamas. It is about birds, though, so I’ll justify it that way. This is today’s news and these are photos I took this morning in a park that is less than 10 minutes walk from our house. The reason? I’d heard that goslings had been seen at the small lake there, remarkably early in the year for any bird.

I had expected that this rumour related to the Canada geese that lord it over the smaller waterfowl (moorhens, coots, mallards, tufted ducks and so on). What I saw, as I got close to the lake, was a pair of Egyptian geese Alopochen aegyptiaca. And, true to the report, they had goslings with them. There were 10 in all and they were jointly and severally (as we lawyers say) totally adorbs and charmsy.

These are birds of Africa, but – like Canada geese – have spread far and wide mainly as the result of introduction by man. The Egyptians considered them sacred and featured them in hieroglyphs. Modern man has deemed them ornamental (cf peafowl) and removed them from their home to pastures new. Geese are robust, so they adapted in their new environment with relative ease.

As with many other transferred species, birds inevitably escaped from their ‘owners’ and feral populations soon became established. In Abaco terms, this is exactly what happened with the peafowl that were brought to the ‘Different of Abaco’ fishing lodge. The birds survived its demise, lived and bred in the increasingly wild grounds, and are now many generations on.

At some stage, the Egyptian goose was introduced in Florida, where it thrived. Nowadays it is not a particularly unusual bird there. It remains one of the birds of south-east US that has never made the relatively short journey to Abaco. There are however a handful of reports from Grand Bahama, New Providence and Eleuthera, so northern Bahamas is in range.

It’s probably only a matter of time before these geese turn up on Abaco. Five years ago, the first BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS were found, a flock of 6 seen several times as they progressed from Crossing Rocks north to the airport. There are still the occasional sightings of these ducks, the last about 2 weeks ago north of Marsh Harbour. The Egyptian goose is a fine bird and part of me (the part that doesn’t disapprove of avian introductions) hopes that they do occasionally undertake the journey from the flocks in Florida.

All photos: Keith Salvesen / Rolling Harbour Abaco

That’s all, folks

BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS REVISITED…

July 15, 2015 by Rolling Harbour

BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS REVISITED…

The first ever Black-bellied Whistling Ducks recorded for Abaco arrived last June. Six birds turned up on South Abaco in the Crossing Rocks area and slowly worked their way north via Delphi, Bahama Palm Shores and Casuarina. They split up into smaller groups. Two were seen near the airport. Eventually, after 3 weeks or so, the sightings and reports ceased. The BBWDs had moved on, presumably to Florida.

I mention them now because this June, a flock of 13 birds arrived on a golf course in Bermuda. The only previous recorded sighting of the species had been a single bird spotted in 2006. Within a couple of weeks, the birds had disappeared again. It’s strange that in consecutive years, June sightings have occurred on two islands where they are not a known species. I happen to have taken some photos of BBWDs elsewhere in the meantime, and I thought these pretty ducks deserved further exposure…

A BBWD LOVE STORY

Hello! Would you like to preen with me?

Yes I would. As long as there are no paparazzi around.

Mmmmmm. This is so great!

I’d like to look after you and protect you

Let me take you under my wing…

GODDAMMIT. Pigeon photobomb!

THE END

BBWDS ON ABACO

All photos by RH at WWT Barnes

BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS ON ABACO: MORE SIGHTINGS & IMAGES

June 13, 2014 by Rolling Harbour

BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS ON ABACO: MORE SIGHTINGS & IMAGES

I have only just posted about this new duck species for Abaco HERE. Yesterday Liann Key Kaighin encountered a pair of these ducks at Marsh Harbour Airport. She took some great shots of them. They certainly look very appealing little birds. Her first report was “Thursday June 12, 2014, around 9am, this pair flew in together to hang out in the water puddle. They were very unafraid. At ZigZag Airways, MH Airfield, Abaco”. Since previous sightings have been of 6 birds together, either the original group has split up as they have travelled north over the week; or another pair have chosen to inaugurate the new airport with a new bird species by landing there. I asked Liann about the numbers and she says that this could be the case: “These two came in on the wing from south and I watched them for half an hour. No more showed up”.

There have been a few other reports from the same general area, and I expect there’ll be quite an archive of photos building up. Woody Bracey is the person to report sightings to. That way, he can build the picture of how many of these visitors there are, and how they are moving around the island. Contact him at edb64 [at] hotmail.com

CHART OF REPORTS OVER THE WEEK SINCE THE DUCKS WERE FIRST SPOTTED

Photo Credit: Liann; Map by cartographer Martin Brown drawn specially for “The Birds of Abaco”

A STRANGE COINCIDENCE

In my last BBWD post I added a photo from Wiki and saw it was actually taken at the WWT Wetland Centre, Barnes in West London UK. I am briefly back in London (quite close to Barnes), though without my camera. Any camera at all. Except on my phone. So today I paid a quick visit to see if the BBWDs were in residence. They were, and I took a few shots of them and various other species. Frankly the ones I took when the sun was behind the clouds are useless; the ones in the sun are OK. So here are a few. But they are NOT the Abaco ducks, just cousins. And I’ll definitely be going back at the end of the month, with a proper camera!

I made a couple of sound recordings but one is ruined by an emergency vehicle siren that started up; and the other by a low-flying aeroplane making its descent to Heathrow Airport. The Wetlands Centre is a rural oasis ingeniously built round huge disused gravel pits by the Thames; but it has the drawback of being right on the flight path… Not sure if they are usable, thought the whistles are clear!

NOTE EPONYMOUS BLACK BELLY…

I took a brief (20 secs of your time…) phone video of the pond with a number of different waterbirds in and around it. The BBWDs are in the foreground. The interaction between the species was quite amusing. The moorhen was clearly in charge of them all… You’ll hear a bit of whistling – more a feeble squeak, really (and an aeroplane passing overhead). You’ll see that when the moorhen starts its casual harassment, the underside of the wing of the startled duck is completely black.

BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS: A NEW BIRD SPECIES FOR ABACO

June 11, 2014 by Rolling Harbour

BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS: A NEW BIRD SPECIES FOR ABACO

In March 2014 “The Delphi Club Guide to the Birds of Abaco” was published. It contains a checklist of every species recorded for Abaco that was accurate on the day of publication. So it was with a mix of excitement (new species!) tinged slight disappointment (the book is already out of date by June!) that I heard reports of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks Dendrocygna autumnalis being seen on Abaco. Followed by photographs to prove it.

The first report came from Woody Bracey in his account of a day in the field on June 9th in which 40 bird species were seen. He concluded the report: “Most remarkable of these sighting were the 5 Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. This species has been reported before on Andros and Grand Bahama but never on Abaco. 5 were seen clearly in flight with their bright white central upper wing patches, dark underbelly, red legs and bill and long neck. A Yellow-crowned Night Heron spooked 8 Parrots feeding in a Gumbo Limbo Tree when this small flock of whistling ducks flew by affording a good look coming, overhead and going. Unfortunately I did not get a photo even with camera in hand. They have bred in Cuba but not in the Bahamas”.

So, a clear sighting but no photographic evidence. Until the following morning, yesterday June 10 around breakfast time, when at the Delphi Club Lucy Mantle happened to notice some strange ducks right in front of the Club. She grabbed a camera (possibly her phone?) and took a couple of quick shots. Peter Mantle checked Hallett, the go-to field guide, and saw at once that these were not West Indian Whistling Ducks (a species found on Abaco). So he put the word about, adding Lucy’s photos. Hers are almost certainly the first ever images of this species on Abaco.

STOP PRESS 12 JUNE I’ve had an email from Woody Bracey saying that he first photos documenting the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks were in fact taken Saturday June 7 on the Schooner Bay Dock by Glen Kelly. These photos are the ‘official documenting ones’ so I’m afraid that as things stand, Lucy moves to silver medal position and Tara to bronze…

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Delphi Club (Lucy Mantle) – ~~first~~ second species photo on Abaco?

Tony White, compiler of the checklist, responded to Peter: “Congratulations! you are the first to document a new species on Abaco since the book and checklist came out. These are Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, casual visitors to the Bahamas. They are increasing rapidly in Florida and I think we can expect them to be breeding somewhere in the Bahamas in the next few years.There are two subspecies and they both have been seen in the Bahamas. I’ll let Woody try to figure out which these are. Thanks for being so alert and getting these photos”.

The birds must have moved gradually north during the day, and further sightings were reported online. Tara Lavallee took some photos of them in her yard a few miles north of Delphi and posted them on FB asking “Six of these beauties visiting my yard. Anyone know what they are?” 12-year old birder Chris Johnson was very quick off the mark with the correct ID as Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. Hector Morales had seen them flying over his house the previous day. I’ve seen no further reports, but I am really pleased to be able to feature Tara’s photos, which she kindly emailed earlier today. Her bird photography credentials are high – her wonderful photo of a Bahama Woodstar feeding from a flower takes up the whole of p43 of “The Birds of Abaco”.

This is what they sound like. If you hear this call – grab a camera!

Paul Marvin @ Xeno-Canto

The present range of this species is shown in the Cornell Lab graphic below.It seems that the range is starting to expand, and that these ones are most likely to be visitors from Florida. It remains to be seen whether these ducks will remain vagrant curiosities, or settle down and begin to breed on Abaco. There are plenty of them, and they are IUCN listed as ‘Least Concern’. It’s a gregarious species, so perhaps that increases the chances of having a breeding population on Abaco.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck Range Map

I’ll end with two excellent photos of the BBWD, taken by people who plainly had plenty of time to sort out and set up their equipment at their own pace, and not as the result of a totally unexpected and random arrival in the front yard!

Black-bellied Whistling Duck – Alan D. Wilson, http://www.naturespicsonline.com (Wiki)

Black-bellied Whistling Duck, London Wetland Centre, UK by Diliff (Wiki)

Photo credits as shown, with special thanks to Lucy Mantle for her exclusive ‘first’; to Tara for use permission and sending her originals; and an honourable mention to Chris Thomas for his powers of ID!