Whenever family visits, a great thing to do is thing to do here in South Florida, is to take a cruise! This is for many reasons: having everyone doing activities together, eating meals together, exploring new places on and off the ship, no cellphone service (so people are more engaged in the moment), and just having fun doing things and making memories!
A secret (or maybe not so secret?) is that birding can be really good when going on cruises! Even as the ship is going over the ocean in autumn or spring, you can see hundreds of birds migrating, and a lot of birds land on the ship. I have seen a variety of warblers "fallout" on the ship itself, and even an American Kestrel perched on a ship flagpole hunting warblers. ...and this is far from any visible land! One time while we were on a transatlantic cruise in the spring going from Miami to Funchal (a Portugese Island) we were 2 days already sailing over the open ocean and I was still seeing songbirds flying by! Of course, you do see oceanic birds sometimes, and a few of the birds I've seen are lifers like the Masked Booby and White-tailed Tropicbird, and then some more familiar ones like Royal Terns chasing flying fish and a Red-breasted Merganser speeding by the ship.
When you finally get to the destination there is, of course, the native species. Many of the Caribbean Islands have endemic species. On this trip we stopped at 2 Bahama Islands: Coco Cay (which is Royal Carribean's private island and part of the Berry Island chain) and Nassau. I was on the search for new birds, and to see what kind of birds could be spotted during the short time on the island. My focus in the Bahamas was the Bahama Woodstar hummingbird!
Me in my beach gear. There was a cute sign with a Laughing Gull painted on it.
The Laughing Gull is the most common gull around here and Im glad they painted it, instead of a generic gull. The people didn't heed the sign, and even if they don't feed them directly there is a lot of dropped food anyway!
Walking down the beach, away from all the beach parties, and in a quieter area I found a small path. Which had various migratory warblers and some local birds. I saw lots of Bahama Strongbark trees blooming, and some with lots of pretty red berries. I saw in a shady spot and watched.
Bahama Strongbark, Bourreria succulenta, blooms and berries.
I luckily did see a Bahama Woodstar! I didn't get a clear picture of it; and it didn't stop moving for a moment, plus my camera is old and slow to focus. It was visiting each little flower and moved along silently and quickly!
Just a view of the adjacent beach where the little hummingbird was seen. Once I got on the ship that evening, I used my sketches and started making a draft-template of the bird I wanted to carve.
Fast-forward to my Bahama Woodstar carving. He's sitting on a wood finial that is supposed to resemble the wood of a Bahama Strongbark with the species of lichens found on them. I really like making these carvings because they are the ultimate souvenir for me. I think of the carving as the actual bird I saw that day.
Bahama Woodstar
Calliphlox evelynae
carving number 114
finished Oct. 2018
photographed at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens,
in Coral Gables, FL
Thanks as always for stopping by!
