Small islands in the Carribean Sea are my backyard for a while each year. I’m just back from two weeks on a tiny island between Cuba and Jamaica and will share some nature observations in the Bucket today (and hopefully one or two more).
The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Rain, sun, wind...insects, birds, flowers...meteorites, rocks...seasonal changes...all are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
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Today’s is a tribute to a fantastical bird who may be familiar to some folks since its range includes the southern U.S. but it is exotic and spectacular to me, as a native of the Pacific Northwest. The Black-necked Stilt is well-named, her long pointed wings and beak perched up high on tall pink legs. She is as fluttery as a butterfly but more aggressive than any creature in the pond. Especially right now in spring. It may be warm all year here in the sub-tropics of the Caribbean Sea but spring is breeding season here too just as it is in our more northerly latitudes.
Our diving destination this year was Little Cayman, a 1 mile by 10 mile speck of coral-covered limestone that is flat and barely above sea level. Rainfall is seasonal and vegetation is either drought-adapted or salt-tolerant. Behind the beach where we stayed are mangrove ponds, a rich habitat for wildlife protected by the Cayman National Trust. Each day of our trip we dived the coral reefs all morning, had a leisurely lunch and nap in the heat of the day and then walked over to the ponds to see what the birds were doing. Except for a couple of spots where boardwalks have been built through the shrubbery (one is pictured above) the ponds are invisible from the road, but we could always hear the Stilts from quite a distance. They dominated the ponds!
Sometimes they waded through the shallow muddy water snapping up the abundant shrimp-like invertebrates and small fish there. Sometimes they chased each other, levitating and skittering lightly across the surface, or beating their sharp-pointed wings invisibly fast, their shrill calls passing back and forth.
Besides the spectacular beauty of birds what especially fascinates me is their behavior and interactions...therein lies the personality and character of all creatures. This being breeding season, there was lots of activity. The pair below appeared to be crafting a special spot on this hummock of coral ironshore just above the water. These ponds are connected to the sea through the porous limestone ground so the water level rises and falls over the day. It was high tide this afternoon — could the pair be preparing a nest? Stilts nest in a shallow cup on the ground.
It’s hard to tell sometimes depending on the light but the females have a brownish back where the males are black. But one day it was very clear who was male and female. We watched one stilt dance around the other, first one side then circling her, and then….
The whole event was over in less than a minute, according to my photo time-stamps. But they appeared to know what they were doing.
In another part of the ponds, a different pair was at a stage further along in the breeding season. Upon the knobby root mass of a Black Mangrove tree on the far side of this pond, a pair of Stilts was incubating their nest of eggs. I didn’t realize it at first since the nest was unattended, the stilts foraging nearby. I watched the progress of the family every afternoon, and using my zoom lens got to see the eggs and, later, the chicks.
April 12 pix:
April 15 pix:
April 17 pix:
The pair were very good parents. They did not hesitate to chase off any birds they felt were getting too close, no matter how big they were. Flapping, shrieking, dive-bombing…ducks, herons, other stilts...all decamped hastily!
Dusk was a busy time in the pond. Once I went out midday (I had to skip a dive-day because of a head cold) and all was silent there, the birds hiding in the brush, quiet. As the sun dropped low in the western sky everybody became active, feeding, grooming, conversing amongst themselves.
Each day as the sun began to set and the sky darkened to rosy orange, we returned to our cabin. It gets dark fast in the tropics, and the bugs come out then too.
One last look at a Black-necked Stilt....for this year.
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As alway, all nature observations are welcome in the comments below. Tell us what you’re seeing in your own natural neighborhood, in your part of the world.
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