My latest dive trip was to Little Cayman, a remote and tiny island midway between Jamaica and Cuba. Interestingly, while the sea creatures were mostly cosmopolitan — species I’ve seen all across the Caribbean — many of the flora and birds were more specific to this area. Others have ranges north into the eastern US and will be familiar to some Dawn Chorusers, but they were quite unusual to me since I live in the Pacific Northwest. Luckily I stumbled across a nice local bird book to help me identify them, otherwise I’d be asking folks to help with that. But feel free to add any thoughts you have about them!
Two of the most spectacular birds, which I saw daily out over the ocean, were the Red-footed Boobies and the Magnificent Frigatebirds. One of the largest nesting colonies of Red-footed Boobies is right here on this island, about 5000 pairs, who occupy the mangrove trees around the Booby Pond at this season. During the day, parent Boobies journey out across the nearby ocean hunting for fish to bring home to their chicks. Their biggest hazard is the kleptoparasitic Frigatebirds who supplement their diet with the stolen fish of Boobies (and sometimes cormorants). In the photo above, I caught the tail end of an encounter between two. The Frigatebird is dive-bombing the Booby below, hoping to harrass it into regurgitating its fish, and the Booby is screeching at it. It was a brief but violent encounter.
The Booby Pond is owned and protected by the Cayman National Trust. They have purchased land throughout the islands and have a number of conservation and education programs for birds, iguanas and the coral reef.
The Booby Pond is one of several shallow tidal ponds on this flat island. Rainwater percolates right through the limestone and seawater percolates up into the ponds, especially at the west end of the island. The place we stayed was right across the road from one of these ponds and we went out there every afternoon about an hour before sunset when the birds became active. Depending on the state of the tide, the pond was flooded or mostly dry. The Trust has built two observation platforms. This is one.
Many of these wading birds are old hat to some folks but they were all new to me. It was really cool to watch them going about their business every day.
Around the place we stayed I saw a few birds, but mostly heard them. It is so difficult to see birds in trees!
One of many surprises to me on this little island was how many emdemics there are. Birds came here from Cuba or Jamaica with the prevailing easterly Trade Winds, and have diverged enough to become separate subspecies.
I will be returning to Little Cayman next year and I hope to see more birds then. Stay tuned!
As usual I will join you later in the morning after I wake up. Please add your observations for the week and any thoughts you’d like to share about these or other birds~