5 Feb 24 - ORCA Saga Caribbean Calypso Day 19 - A Day On Nevis

Our seventh and penultimate landing on the Saga Caribbean Calypso cruise was Nevis, the smaller island of St Kitts and Nevis. The two islands are just over one hundred square miles in size. The population is around forty-eight thousand, with around one quarter living on the smaller island of Nevis. As usual, we were on deck at dawn for the final approach into Charlestown, the main town on Nevis. A Red-billed Tropicbird and a probable Loggerhead Turtle were the highlights of this final approach.

Approaching Nevis

Sunrise over Nevis

Being a small island, we couldn't dock the ship. Therefore, like our visit to Bequia, the Spirit of Discovery anchored in the bay and we were transported ashore on the ship's lifeboat tenders. The priority for going ashore was, those passengers who were on all day tours first, followed by the remaining passengers and finally the entertainers, including the ORCA team, and the crew. Knowing there would be a reasonable delay before we were allowed to disembark, Jan suggested that we had a Wildlife Hour on the top deck where we invited the passengers to join us to see what we could see. We didn't see any Cetaceans, but enjoyed some Magnificent Frigatebirds, Royal Terns and Brown Pelicans, as well as, some passenger engagement with passengers we hadn't met before.

The ship were really good at publicising the events we organised: However, they could have done better by getting the news to a few Dolphins

Magnificent Frigatebird: A Magnificent Frigatebird put on a good display for the passengers who joined us

Royal Tern: There were a few Royal Terns to keep my camera busy

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Brown Pelican: Plus, a posing Brown Pelican while we looked for Cetaceans

Once our top deck session was over, it was time for me to head ashore.

Waiting for the tender to leave

I'm ashore on Nevis

Nevis is dominated by the extinct volcano, Nevis Peak, which is just under one thousand metres high

Turnstone: There were a dozen Turnstones roosting near to the quayside. This is the subspecies which occurs in North East Alaska & Arctic Canada and which Winters in South East US, the Caribbean, Central & South America

There was only one potential Tick on Nevis for me: the difficult and shy Bridled Quail-dove. There are eBird records from the few trails around the lower slopes of Nevis Peak. There didn't seem to be any particular trail that was any better than the other, so I opted for the Heritage Trail to the Montravers Estate. This is an old sugar cane estate, which dates to the mid-18th Century. It has been abandoned for decades and has reverted to dry secondary forest. It was about a mile walk through the town to the start of the Heritage Trail. There were a few Birds to photograph along the way.

The island museum

The owner of this car had converted it into a green car

Cattle Egret: This is the nominate ibis subspecies which occurs throughout Europe, Africa and Madagascar and which colonised the New World in the 20th Century

Scaly-naped Pigeon: I had seen Scaly-naped Pigeons on most of the landings. But many were from taxis. So, this was my first chance to get some photos

Scaly-naped Pigeon: This monotypic species occurs in the Great Antilles, Lesser Antilles & Dutch Antilles

Finally, I reached the Heritage Trail. Initially, it passed through dry secondary forest along what must have been the old cart track to the plantation.

The lower dry forest

This one hundred and sixty-five year old Baobab tree marks the entrance to the Montravers estate

Grey Kingbird: This is the vorax subspecies which occurs in the Lesser Antilles: some Winter on Trinidad & the Guianas

Common Ground-dove: This is the nigrirostris subspecies which occurs in the Northern Lesser Antilles

Black-faced Grassquit: This is the omissa subspecies which occurs on Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, North Colombia & North Venezuela

After nearly a mile's walk, I reached the ruined estate buildings. The buildings are behind locked gates and so I didn't have the opportunity to have a look around them.

The higher forest had become a bit damper

This higher, damper forest was probably a better area to find a Bridled Quail-dove. But it was around lunchtime and that isn't a good time of day to look for shy Doves. I carried on up the trail past the house. But unfortunately, the public trail ran out after another hundred metres into private land. I found some short side trails to explore, but they were pretty quiet. It was time to wander back to the town.

One of side trails looked interesting: It would have been good if I could have been up there before breakfast time. But that's not possible when on this type of cruise

Great White Egret: This is the egretta subspecies which occurs from South Canada to Tierra del Fuego. I was surprised to find it feeding on a forest track. But small island species often have to adapt to feeding wherever they can get food, as they do not have the choice of habitats that their mainland cousins have

Band-winged Dragonlet: Female. This Dragonfly is found from North America to the Caribbean, Central America & South America

Band-winged Dragonlet: Male. The sexes are very different. I photographed this individual on St Lucia (2 Feb 24)

I'm almost back at the quay area again

The island's defences need modernising

As I was queueing for tender I saw this great T-shirt that one of the passengers was wearing: Our island hopping was Grenada, Barbados, Martinique, St Lucia, Bequia, Dominica, Nevis & Antiqua

I got back to the ship in time for a late afternoon snack, as I had missed lunch. Then it was time to head to the top deck and rejoin Jan, Charlotte and Terry to get a final hour of surveying in as we left Nevis. Unfortunately, it didn't produce any Dolphins.

31 Jan 24 - ORCA Saga Caribbean Calypso Day 14 - Barbados: Another Unusual Taxi Destination

The previous Blog Post had covered our arrival into Bridgetown, Barbados and the successful trip to see my first Masked Duck. with the first part of the plan completed, it was time to move on to get some better views of some Barbados Bullfinches. One of the good areas on eBird was around the Bridgetown Hilton Hotel. This was about three miles from the port, so it was easy to drop in there on the way back to the port. It was a surprisingly slow drive back to the Hilton Hotel as we got caught in a lot of slow traffic.

This cannon marks the entrance to the Pavilion Court apartment complex: This is part of the old British military hospital compound which was in use from 1789 to 1905 and it has retained a lot of its distinctive colonial look

When we arrived, I saw there was a military cemetery outside of the Hilton complex with some big trees. This looked a better option to visit, rather than to try getting into the Hilton's grounds.

A sign by the military cemetery: Obviously, that excludes the British who first colonised the island in 1625

A memorial to Barbadian merchant seamen who lost their lives in World War II: This was one in a number of interesting memorials in the cemetery. I do enjoy walking around this old cemeteries and looking at the history in the cemetery, whilst looking for Birds

Prime Minister and ex-World War II navigator, Errol Walton Barrow is buried here

There were some decent-sized trees in the military cemetery

I saw the first of several Barbados Bullfinches within a few minutes of entering the cemetery. This was good as I only had about a half hour of time charter left, excluding the time needed to get back to the port.

Zenaida Dove: This is the aurita subspecies which occurs on the Lesser Antilles. Two other subspecies occur on the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, the Virgin Islands & Mexico

Zenaida Dove: The most prominent species in the cemetery were these Zenaida Doves

It was good to be able to spend a few minutes getting my eye in on these common and pretty Zenaida Doves, which I had been in too much of a rush to look at properly on Grenada & earlier in the day. But I had limited time left on my taxi charter and I carried on further into the cemetery to look for some Barbados Bullfinches. I saw one on the cemetery wall, but it dropped over the far side. Then this one popped up on a gravestone: job done.

Barbados Bullfinch: Both sexes of this endemic species looks very similar to the female Lesser Antillean Bullfinches. I saw several on the drive from Bayfield to the Hilton area as they are a tame & conspicuous species of gardens, scrubland & open woodlands

Brown Anole: This Lizard is native to Cuba & the Bahamas. However, it has been widely introduced elsewhere and it is now found in a number of Southern States of the US, as well as, other Caribbean islands, Mexico & Taiwan

I was back on the ship for a late snack lunch around mid-afternoon. After that I went back ashore with Jan to have a wander around the port area, where she was hoping to find some shops. As we walked along the approach road we failed to find any shops. But we did find a fish processing area, where one of the Fish being cleaned up were one of the local Flying Fish species. There were a few Cattle Egrets getting some easy food there.

The tree-lined approach road to the port

Cattle Egret: This is the ibis subspecies which occurs in Southern Europe East to Iran, Africa, Madagascar, the Seychelles, Aldabra, the Comoros Islands & Mauritius. In the 20th Century this subspecies also colonised North & South America and was introduced to Hawaii

Flying Fish sp.

If only wild Flying Fish had a barcode: Charlotte's newest addition to her menagerie

We gave up on the search for shops & walked back to the ship, On the way back, I spotted a Lizard which turned out to be another Brown Anole & some Hermit Crabs. While we were watching it, some other tourists from another ship spotted a gorgeous-looking, but poisonous, Frangipani Hawk Moth caterpillar.

Brown Anole: I found another Brown Anole on the trees around the port

/Hermit Crab sp.

Brown Anole: Finally, it showed itself

Frangipani Hawk Moth caterpillar: The Frangipani Hawk Moth is native to the tropical & subtropical Americas from the Southern & South West US

Having failed to find any interesting shops outside of the port, Jan & I returned to the ship.

Just double-checking which island we were on

It was all very civilised with music being played which we had celebratory mid-afternoon tea & cakes in the lounge: I was happy having seen both the potential Ticks on Barbados

A map of our route and the islands still to visit