Photos with this report (click to enlarge) | |||
 Black-whiskered Vireo |
 Spotted Redshank |
 Scaly-breasted Munia |
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 Pearly-eyed Thrasher |
 Lesser Antillean Flycatcher |
 White-winged Dove |
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This was a last-minute trip booked on a British Airways promotional deal for return flights from Gatwick, UK and 7 nights at the Timothy Beach Resort on South Frigate Bay in the southeast of the island of St Kitts. The location appealed to us as it was a small friendly hotel with rooms set between a well-wooded hillside and a mangrove-lined salt-lake and we were not disappointed. We also booked transport to and from the airport ($20 each way) plus a taxi-trip to Romney Manor ($80 shared between 4 people) to visit the rainforest there.
We took it slowly and aimed to see as many species as we could in the Frigate Bay area, before heading out further afield to Friar’s Bay to the south and Romney Manor to the northwest. We saw 51 species and had great views of all the target Lesser Antillean specialities: Brown Trembler, Pearly-eyed Thrasher, Scaly-breasted Thrasher, Scaly-naped Pigeon, Green and Purple-throated Caribs, Lesser Antillean Crested Hummingbird, Lesser Antillean Flycatcher and Lesser Antillean Bullfinch and the more widespread Caribbean Elaenia, Grey Kingbird, Red-tailed Hawk, Mangrove Cuckoo, Zenaida Dove, Black-faced Grassquit and Common Ground-dove. Scarcer species seen included: White-faced Pintail, newly colonising White-winged Dove, Scaly-breasted Munia and House Sparrow, plus a bonus Spotted Redshank – the first record for the island!
Itinerary
• 8 Feb: Taxi from airport to Timothy Beach Resort, South Frigate Bay
• 9-10 Feb: Frigate Bay area
• 11 Feb: Walked to South Friar’s Bay and salt pond
• 12 Feb: Walked to Muddy Point
• 13 Feb: Daytrip to Romney Manor and return via Bass-Terre
• 14-15 Feb: Two full days in Frigate Bay area and late taxi to airport on 15th
Principal sites
The main sites we visited are listed below.
1) Timothy Beach Resort, south Frigate Bay:
a) Resort grounds and beach. The resort has nice open lawned gardens with flower borders and coconut trees, whilst our mountain-view room had good views of the wooded hillside behind, so many species could be seen from a chair on our balcony! These included lots of very tame Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, Bananaquit, Black-faced Grassquit, Grey Kingbird and Zenaida Dove plus the odd Lesser Antillean Crested Hummingbird on the flower borders and Common Ground-dove and Cattle Egret on the lawns. Brown Pelican commonly fed in the bay and often overflew the resort as did the occasional Magnificent Frigatebird and Red-tailed Hawk, whilst we had both Osprey and Merlin flying over our veranda in the late afternoon. A lone Belted Kingfisher fed along the beach and adjacent dock, whilst occasional Royal Terns fed offshore and Yellow-crowned Night-herons fed for crabs along the beach after dark.
b) Wooded hillside. The dry woodland behind the resort is easily reached via an access track that now leads to a new harbour and an active building site higher up the hill. I slow-walked this track and a dead-end side-track that leads 50m up into the taller trees most mornings and found the area to be busy with birds. All of the woodland birds found in the resort grounds were present in even larger numbers here, especially Grey Kingbird (20+) which gathered to roost here in the late afternoons and Black-faced Grassquit (more common where seeding rank grass persists). Additional species here included Black-whiskered Vireo (quite common - listen for its calls), Lesser Antillean Flycatcher (2 with Kingbirds on 2 days only), Caribbean Elaenia (rather quiet and elusive), White-winged Dove (up to 2 daily), Pearly-eyed Thrasher (1-2 seen daily in taller trees), Prairie Warbler (occasional), Collared Dove (close to hotel) and at least 20 Scaly-breasted Munias feeding in the rank seeding grass with Black-faced Grassquits, plus American Kestrel and Red-winged Hawk overhead and a lone Scaly-naped Pigeon circling around the hillside on 15 Feb. Lesser Antillean Crested Hummingbird was also regular here and on 15 Feb, I watched one chase off a Green-throated Carib from its territory along the track.
c) Salt-pond. The large salt-pond in front of the resort had high water levels throughout our stay so there was little bare mud to attract waders. The fringing mangroves held some birds although in many places they were full of dumped rubbish. Best views of the pond were from the NW corner and the northern mangroves seemed to be the least rubbish filled. Up to 25 Brown Pelicans roosted in the mangroves (mostly on the eastern side) with at least one Great Blue Heron. A handful of Little Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets and the occasional Great White Egret fed along the northern edge of the pond, and I managed to see a lone Little Green Heron here too, as well as a handful of roosting Spotted Sandpipers. Yellow-crowned Night-herons seemed to favour roosting along the southern edge of the pond. There were several Yellow Warblers in the mangroves as well as a lone Northern Parula and I flushed 2 Mangrove Cuckoos from the east side, which then flew up into some large trees towards the golf course. A pair of Killdeer favoured the wetter parts of the mown grass area to the east, whilst White-winged Dove showed on roadside wires on the north side.
d) Golf Course. The Royal St Kitts golf course extends north from South Frigate Bay across the island to Muddy Point. Apart from the open fairways, there are several areas of open water and patches of trees, which are attractive to birds. It seems that it is ok to walk along the tarmac paths provided you give way to golfers. The open water pools held more Little Blue Herons, Great White Egrets, Snowy Egrets and Yellow-crowned Night-herons as well as at least 2 Black-crowned Night-herons and several Common Gallinules (Moorhens). Several Spotted Sandpipers were also present around the pond fringes (and also on nearby North Frigate Beach) and Cattle Egrets fed in the rough grass. Patches of trees/bushes held the usual Grey Kingbird, Zenaida Dove, Common Ground Dove, Bananaquit, Black-faced Grassquit and the odd Prairie Warbler, with Collared Dove and American Kestrel closer to the hotels on the east side. The mangroves at Muddy Pond held several Yellow Warblers and there were more Scaly-breasted Munias (18+) in the rank long grass close to the golf range hangar but best of all was a lone Spotted Redshank at the seaward edge of Muddy Pond – the first for St. Kitts!
2) South Friars Bay and salt pond:
a) South Friars Bay is a very attractive bay and has good snorkelling. We walked there by following the road south from Frigate Bay. This was pretty unpleasant, walking uphill with heavy traffic until the viewpoint was reached, after which you can walk down the disused old road to reach the turn-off to the north end of South Friars Bay. There were several Red-tailed Hawks and American Kestrels hunting over the dry hills and the area was good for butterflies. South Friar’s salt pond can be viewed distantly from the viewpoint, and we spotted some 25 Black-necked Stilts. There were more Yellow Warblers in the mangroves around South Friars Bay salt pond and these were joined by a Northern Waterthrush and Antillean Crested Hummingbirds on the north side. To view the pond, we walked south down the beach to the access road at the south end of the pond and this revealed 2 more Black-necked Stilts plus 5 White-cheeked Pintail and 2 Spotted Sandpipers. We heard the distinctive calls of Bridled Quail-dove from the well wooded hillside to the south of the pond, whilst Magnificent Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans were present in the bay. It was easy to hitch down a taxi on the way back to Frigate Bay ($20 for 4 people).
3) Romney Manor:
We took a taxi for a morning trip to visit the rainforest at Romney Manor ($80 return for 4 people). The trip took us past a large Cattle Egret colony (140+ birds) in thorny scrub right next to the road just west of the airport and on the way back returned through Basse-Terre, which produced a bonus 1st-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull along the shore before the cruise-ship port and more House Sparrows and Feral Pigeons in the town centre, as well as the now expected roadside Grey Kingbird, Zenaida Dove, Common Ground Dove, Collared Dove, Cattle Egret etc. We also saw about a dozen Magnificent Frigatebirds soaring over Old Road Town harbour.
We were dropped off at Caribelle Batik at Romney Manor mid-morning just as it began raining very heavily. We were given 1.5hrs by the taxi driver (an extra hour would have been another $40). The tropical gardens at Caribelle Batik were busy with birds as soon as the rain stopped. These included several Pearly-eyed Thrashers, a very showy Lesser Antillean Flycatcher and 2 Caribbean Elaenias as well as Zenaida Dove, Common Ground Dove, Lesser Antillean Bullfinch, Black-faced Grassquit and Bananaquit, with Cattle Egret and Red-tailed Hawk overhead. The flowering shrubs attracted lots of hummingbirds. These were mostly Antillean Crested Hummingbird, but we also had nice views of Green-throated Carib here. We headed back down towards the bridge to look for Brown Tremblers (a known site for them) but the area was busy with visitors, so we headed back up the track past Caribelle Batik towards the Zip-line area. We spotted a fine Purple-throated Carib at the edge of a banana grove and eventually tracked down at least 1 Brown Trembler is dense trackside vegetation beneath some big trees, which was later moved on by a Scaly-breasted Thrasher – our only one of the trip.