We were on deck as normal for dawn, so we could maximise our surveying time as we approached the island of Grenada: even if that only gave us an hour or two of survey time. It was then a dash for a late breakfast, as the ship was preparing to moor & the ship cleared customs. We were asked to give a few minutes for the Saga passengers to start going ashore before we disembarked, which allowed us the time to not have to hurry the food. This survey proved to be a good start to the Caribbean section when the only Audubon's Shearwater flew past. Unfortunately, I failed to get any photos as I carried on watching it with the bins. Some of the other local Birds were more photogenic.
Magnificent Frigatebird: This monotypic species occurs in the tropical West Atlantic & East Pacific Oceans
Brown Booby: This is the nominate leucogaster subspecies which occurs on islands in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean & the tropical Atlantic
Jan (left) & Charlotte: Jan is the official surveyor as she has the ORCA bins. Charlotte like the rest of us were generally watching, when not talking to the passengers
The ship ran up the national flag as we approached Grenada: This is good etiquette, but it doesn't appear to be a compulsory action
All too soon we saw the Pilots boat appear: Usually this is the sign that we were too close inshore to be worth continuing to survey. But we carried on enjoying the view & pointing out Birds to the passengers
Our first view of St George's the capital of Grenada: Grenada is about 135 square miles in size, with a population of about one hundred and seventeen thousand at the time of our visit
The town doesn't extend far around the bay
Fort George dominates the high ground above the port: The fort was originally built by the French between 1706 & 1710, following their colonisation in 1649. The island remained under French control until its capture by the British in 1762, during the Seven Years' War. It was ceded to Great Britain in the following year by the Treaty of Paris. At this point, the fort was renamed Fort George
There was ongoing maintenance work on the fort
The port and town behind it
It's good to see the town hasn't been ruined by high buildings
Charlotte, Terry & Jan: Ashore & wearing civies: we always wore the ORCA clothing on ship, except for the evening meal
The port customs building which had a large shop behind it: We were greeted by a small Calypso band playing on their drums outside the building
Charlotte in soft toy heaven: Trying to decide how many she can adopt without Terry saying that's too many
Grenada: Preparations were already advanced for the celebration on 7 Feb of fifty years of independence from the UK
Once we were ashore & had dragged Charlotte away from the soft toy shop, we changed some money into local currency. My plan was to hire a taxi to visit Mount Hartman on the arid side of the island. Terry planned to take the others to the Grand Etang: a high elevation lake surrounded by lush forest, which he had visited on a previous trip. My key target species were the two Grenada endemics, Grenada Dove and Grenada Flycatcher, albeit the latter species also occurs on St Vincent & the Grenadines. Both species occur in the dry forest at Mount Hartman. I quickly arranged a taxi charter for a few hours to take me to the site, with an option to continue to Grand Etang National Park, if time allowed. The driver said he knew the area. But it became clear that he didn't, when we ended up in a building site. This area was once part of the National Park until the forest was destroyed to allow somebody to make a lot of money out of a new hotel complex.
The independence day flags hadn't reached the smaller villages yet
Fortunately, I had some directions to the park, but I hadn't been able to establish the site of the park HQ, where others had looked in the past. So, I ended up taking the driver along a dirt road to the edge of the park. The habitat looked good enough to try walking further through the dry scrubby forest, so I decided to give this track a punt.
There were good numbers of these cacti under the trees
Very quickly I started to bump into a few dry country Birds, but they were mainly the widespread common species. But I did see my first Grenada Flycatcher within the first ten to fifteen minutes: one Grenada endemic down & one to go.
Common Ground-dove: This is the antillarum subspecies which occurs in the Southern Lesser Antilles from St Lucia & Barbados to Grenada. It is a widespread species that occurs from South East of the United States, through the Caribbean and Central America and as far South as Colombia, Venezuela & North East Brazil
Antillean Crested Hummingbird: This is the emigrans subspecies which is restricted to Grenada and the Grenadines. Other subspecies occur in E Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands & elsewhere in the Lesser Antilles
Grey Kingbird: This is the vorax subspecies which occurs in the Lesser Antilles. Some winter from Trinidad to the Guianas. The green colouration is caused by a leaf in the foreground
Grenada Flycatcher: This monotypic Lesser Antillean endemic also occurs on St Vincent & the Grenadines
Cocoa Thrush: This is the personus subspecies which is restricted to Grenada. Other subspecies occur in St Vincent, as well as, from Colombia, Venezuela & Trinidad to Bolivia & Brazil
Tropical Mockingbird: This is the antillarum subspecies that occurs in Martinique, St Lucia, St Vincent, the Grenadines & Grenada. Other subspecies occur from Mexico to Colombia, Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela to Brazil
Lesser Antillean Grasshopper sp.
After about a mile, the track reached the coast. There was a bridge over an inlet which took me outside of the National Park. More crucially the habitat had changed from the arid forest to Mangroves, which was the wrong habitat for the Grenada Doves. The highlight in this area was a small group of Black-faced Grassquits: time to head back to the arid forest.
Black-faced Grassquit: Female or Immature. This is the omissa subspecies which occurs from Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, Tobago, to North Venezuela & North Colombia
There were good numbers of yachts in the bay
On the way back along the track, I heard a calling Grenada Dove and headed off the path in search of it. I saw one and heard another two. Having seen the two Grenada endemics, I reckoned I had enough time to have the best part of an hour at the Grand Etang National Park. I walked quickly backed to the taxi & we left for the Grand Etang. Fortunately, the driver knew how to get to this well-visited National Park. I will cover the rest of the day in the next Blog Post.
