Our third landing in the Lesser Antilles on the ORCA Saga Caribbean Calypso was Martinique. Again we were on deck for dawn, but we weren't far away from land and saw no Cetaceans during our surveying from the top deck. At least, we had a few Seabirds to point out to the passengers who joined the ORCA team on the top deck, including singles of White-tailed Tropicbird, Red-billed Tropicbird, Magnificent Frigatebird and Red-footed Booby.
As we approached the Fort-de-France harbour, there were a few Brown Pelicans and a couple of Royal Terns.
Once the ship had cleared customs, we were allowed to go ashore. I had expected that there would be good numbers of taxis waiting to be hired by the port: but there were none to be seen.
I carried on wandering around the very quiet town. The town had a very different feel from the hustle and bustle of Grenada & Barbados, given it was after nine in the morning and there was a thousand passenger cruise ship in port. However, the reality is not all the passengers went ashore, with many preferring the on ship entertainment. Plus, the vast majority of those who did go ashore were heading for a variety of pre-booked bus tours. But I wasn't the only passenger struggling to find a taxi to charter.
It was a good opportunity to stretch my legs and have a look around the water front, where I saw a few Zenaida Doves, a couple of Lesser Antillean Bullfinches, a few Carib Grackles and four Green Iguanas sunning themselves.
Eventually, I found a parked taxi, only to find the driver was already booked. But she arranged for another taxi driver to come & find me. Once he arrived, I chartered the taxi for about four hours to take me into the hills to Plateau Boucher. This is an eBird site in the mountains about twelve miles to the North of the capital, where I had a reasonable chance of seeing the single island endemic Martinique Oriole. The road wound into the hills, with a scattering of houses perched precariously by the roadside.
After a thirty minute drive, I saw the layby where other Birders had looked in the past. There is a path through a set of clearings which are surrounded by trees.
After a few hundred metres, a very narrow path entered the forest. If I was in Latin America, it might have been worth trying to follow this path for forest sulkers. However, given the few species that live on Martinique are forest edge species, there wasn't anything to be gained by this strategy.
Having found the limit of the clearings, I returned to the final clearing. When I first passed through this clearing, I had seen brief views of a Martinique Oriole, but it had quickly moved on. I decided to head back to this clearing to see if it had returned.
After a lengthy wait, a pair of Martinique Orioles put in another appearance. This was my only Tick on the island. Bridled Quail-doves do occur on Martinique, but they are secretive and rarely. Black Swifts are seasonal & I wasn't there in the right season. White-breasted Thrashers also occur, but the best-looking eBird site was in the arid bush Presqu'Ile de la Caravelle reserve on the other side of the island. Realistically, I didn't have time to visit both sites and I had another chance to look for White-breasted Thrasher on St Lucia: albeit I hadn't seen in when I visited the island in 2003. Since I've got back from the trip, I've found that Martinique Thrasher has been split from the White-breasted Thrashers on St Lucia.
After an hour & a half in the area, I had enjoyed good views of a couple of Martinique Orioles. On the journey to Plateau Boucher, we had driven past the Botanical Gardens. I figured there would be a better selection of Birds around the gardens. I asked the driver if we could spent the last hour that I had left at the Botanical Gardens. It wasn't long before he pulled up in the car park. I will cover the Botanical Gardens in the next Blog Post.