I was doing a sea watch from the beach around sunset when I happened to notice something funny in the mangroves along the shore. I put the scope on them and there they were, two White-cheeked Pintails!
I thought I had one of these at the hotel earlier, but it was just a Northern Mockingbird, not even a Bahamas Mockingbird. However they are quite common, and I found my first one at the Guanica Burger King where we’d stopped for a shake:
After breakfast I took a walk around the grounds of the hotel. Lots of good birds including Common Ground Dove, White-winged Dove, and American Kestrel; but the highlight was my first Puerto Rican Woodpecker:
I thought I saw two of these last night before dinner, and I was right. This one’s from breakfast. The Pearly-eyed Thrashers and the Greater Antillean Grackles compete to steal food off guest’s plates:
Greater Antillean Grackle (Quiscalus niger brachypterus)
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This morning I refound the banded Canada Goose NA49 that I first saw in September and that’s been hanging out at least since January, 2009. I don’t see it often though so it may spend most of its time somewhere else outside the park.
