Our fourth Caribbean landing on the Saga Caribbean Calypso cruise was St Lucia. It was another dawn start on the top deck surveying along our final entry route into the capital's port. This was our best morning coming into a port so far, thanks to three distant Short-finned Pilot Whales and fifteen False Killer Whales. Sadly, too far for any worthwhile photos, albeit Terry did get some distant images which clinched the identification of the False Killer Whales.
We had singles of Magnificent Frigatebird, Red-footed Booby & three Royal Terns on the way into the port. As we were docking, we saw two distant American Kestrels.
On my first Caribbean trip in 1994, I visited Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. I visited St Lucia and Dominica on my second Caribbean trip in Spring 2003. These were the best two islands in the Lesser Antilles in terms of potential Ticks. I saw eleven Ticks on St Lucia. But I missed a few species, namely: Bridled Quail-dove, Black Swift, White-breasted Thrasher, St Lucia Black Finch & Lesser Antillean Saltator. Bridled Quail-dove occurs on most of the islands I was visiting, but it is hard to see as it is a shy, skulking species which occurs at a low density. Black Swifts aren't in the Caribbean at this time of year and therefore, there was never a realistic chance of seeing one on this trip. But the final three species are resident. I found an arid forest site on eBird near to the town of Praslin where I had a chance of seeing all three species.
My plan was to charter a taxi & spend about three hours Birding, whilst leaving about an hour each way to cover the twenty-three miles from the port. Once out of the port, I found a taxi driver and agreed a reasonable price for the charter. In theory, it should have been possible to rent a car on St Lucia. However, the problem was most of the car hire companies were based at the airport and this would have led to extra expense and hassle to organise a taxi ride to the airport, followed by more time lost sorting out the car hire. An additional problem is some of the other Lesser Antillean islands we visited needed a local driving permit and it wasn't clear if that would be possible to do quickly or cheaply. The costs for a chartered taxi for around five hours wasn't any more expensive than trying to sort out a rental car.
It was around 10:00 by the time I finally reached the layby that was indicated on eBird. There was a track heading into the dry forest. I arranged with the driver that I would be back on the road by 13:00. He had asked to bring his missus along & they planned to visit some relatives in the nearby town of Praslin. I headed into the dry forest and within a few minutes I was watching my first Lesser Antillean Saltator. One Tick down & two more to look for.
The track steadily wound up the hillside through the dry forest. There was a reasonable variety of species, but all at low density. After a few hundred metres, the track reached a dry river bed. Just before the river bed, I finally found a St Lucia Black Finch. It disappeared before I had chance to get any photos and despite spending quite a bit of time in the area, it didn't reappear. I spent the rest of my time searching for a St Lucia Thrasher, but just like my first visit to the island, it eluded me. One for the future, if I get offered another ORCA Saga Caribbean Calypso cruise.
Finally, it was time to head back to the road. I reached the layby & was frustrated that the driver hadn't returned, given the sky was starting to look threatening. Five minutes later, the heavens opened with torrential & very local rain. It turned out it wasn't raining in Praslin and it hadn't rained about five miles further North. I was glad I had carried an umbrella, albeit my legs were still quite wet by the time the taxi driver finally bothered to turn up after twenty minutes of this heavy rain.
I had time for a late lunch snack when I got back on the ship and a bit of time to relax and prepare for some of the later islands we would be visiting. Although we had to be back on the ship by 17:00, the skipper decided to stay in port until after the evening meal.
There was a special Caribbean buffet planned for that evening and our normal restaurant was closed. The ORCA team were part of the entertainment team and we were expected to arrive late in the restaurant. That allowed the other passengers who wanted to eat early to do so, before heading onto their preferred evening's entertainment. On this occasion, part of the entertainment was a poolside cabaret next to the buffet. All the tables were packed, so once we had got our buffet food, we ended back up in the restaurant. This was a bonus as we avoided the cabaret.
It had been another successful landing in the Lesser Antilles. I had now seen nine Ticks on my first four landings. There were still more islands to visit over the next four days.