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.

3 Feb 24 - ORCA Saga Caribbean Calypso Day 17 - An Afternoon On Bequia

Our fifth Lesser Antilles landing on the Saga Caribbean Calypso cruise was Bequia, which is one of the islands in the Grenadines. After a visit to the Bequia Turtle Sanctuary, we returned to the town and wandered along the beach looking for a quieter beach, where we could have a swim.

The main beach was too busy for swimming

In the 19th Century, American whalers used the island for whaling. As a consequence, the International Whaling Commission still allows the islands to kill up to four Humpback Whales every year on the excuse of aboriginal whaling. This is a manipulation of the truth, as there is no evidence of any whaling in the Grenadines until the American whalers arrived. So, the whaling cannot be reasonably described as aboriginal or indigenous whaling. The locals would be much better developing an eco-tourism business which would protect the Whales and use the profits from those businesses to replace any money that the local economy makes from the whaling.

There was no way this beachside bar was going to get any of my money: Not with these whalebone seats

After a twenty minute walk, we found a quieter beach: It was only when we got there, that I realised I had left my small rucksack at the Turtle Sanctuary. After a phone call and a fair bit of chasing, I was finally reunited with it on the quayside at the end of the afternoon. I never got a swim as my swimming bits were in the rucksack. I was relieved to retrieve it, as the rucksack is mainly used as my camera bag

There were some showy Royal Terns feeding along the shoreline.

Royal Tern: Royal Terns were the most obvious Seabird along the coastline

Royal Tern: This is the nominate maximus subspecies which occurs from coastal US to the Caribbean, the Guianas & Brazil. Some winter as far South as Argentina

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Royal Tern

Little Blue Heron: This monotypic species occurs from the US & the Caribbean to South Brazil & Uruguay

Little Blue Heron

As a typical small island, there were few species of Landbirds behind there beach. But not surprisingly, there were a few Zenaida Doves and Common Ground-doves.

Zenaida Dove: This is the nominate aurita subspecies which occurs throughout the Lesser Antilles

Common Ground-dove: This is the antillarum subspecies which occurs on the Southern Lesser Antilles from St Lucia & Barbados to Grenada

With my swimming cancelled, I spent my time photographing the Carib Grackles and some Grenadine Ameiva Lizards at the back of the beach.

Carib Grackle: This is the luminosus subspecies which occurs on Grenada and the Grenadines. A different subspecies occurs on St Vincent and there are more subspecies in other parts of the Caribbean and from North East Colombia to North Venezuela, the Guianas & North East Brazil

Carib Grackle

Carib Grackle

Grenadine Ameiva: This species is restricted to the Grenadines & Grenada

Grenadine Ameiva: They were clearly a common species on Bequia. However, due to introduced Mongooses they are now very rare on St Vincent

Grenadine Ameiva: Some authorities think this is a subspecies of the common & widespread South American Ground Lizard which occurs on a number of Caribbean islands and from Panama to Colombia & Venezuela and as far South as Peru, Bolivia & Argentina

Grenadine Ameiva

Atlantic Ghost Crab: This is a common species on sandy beaches from the US to Southern Brazil

It was good to see these colourful local Fish in the water: Much better than the piles of plastic bottles we saw in St Lucia

An intrepid drink vendor

The Spirit of Discovery sitting out in the bay

By early-afternoon, we were back in the town to get some food and to allow me to chase up on the retrieval of my rucksack. A kind local finally transported it back to the tourist information office in Port Elizabeth. We caught a tender back to the ship and almost certainly we would have checked out the coffee and cakes in the lounge, before heading back to the cabins. I had a bit of time to finalise my plans for the next morning's landing, before heading to the deck to survey up to dusk. I will cover that in the next Blog Post.