Some great sightings!

The last two months have been spectacular on the island. Well there have been many migratory birds, both common and rare sightings. One in particular caught my attention and was the sighting of a Parasitic Jaeger(stercorarius parasiticus) on the coast of Arecibo. After some friends inform me, I made several attempts to find him but were unsuccessful. This bird had only a couple of sightings for the island. But this year there were surprises.

The parasitic Jaeger is a bird, which honor its name, follows the of terns group to take their fishing or food. Due to the severe storms and hurricanes formed this year in both the Caribbean and the Gulf, large numbers of terns were on their way south were diverted to the Caribbean.

After 2 weeks of the first sighting in Arecibo, my friends saw again, not one but 3 Parasitic Jaeger. That same day there is another in Barceloneta, this time I was lucky to see it, finally. This one was diferent to the ones observed in Arecibo, as those observed at Arecibo were light morph and the one i saw was a dark morph. I Achieve take a picture of Jaeger chasing a group of terns. In the picture manages to distinguish its distinctive white markings on the wings.

Then 2 weeks later, was reported another in Añasco, for a total of 4 Parasitic Jaeger in the Puerto Rico this year. We also managed to see several Black Terns, rare sightings for the island. Another sighting was a spectacular Buff-Brest Sandpiper. We observe in the town of Toa Alta. This is the first record of this species on the island.

Some new post some old post!

I have a few post late, I hope to put my blog this week to daily. I been a little busy as well since my computer was damaged I haven't installed photoshop. So I have many photos to edit. I have to write some things from before the storm Irene hit the island. I hope in the coming days put an on top of what's happening on the island with the birds. My favorite time of year is here, the arrival of migratory warblers. I hope this year we have some surprises.

Getting Back on Birding ( Resume after Hurricanes Irene)

A week after Hurricane Irene passed through the island I'm back. I'll try to summarize what happened on the island ah after the hurricane.

Although was heading as a tropical storm in the course of entering the island was developed as a hurricane category one. The northwest and west of the island did not suffered the onslaught of much wind.. But the east and northeast of the island suffered a lot. Many roads were impassable, either due to flooding as fallen trees and landslides. About 600,000 people were without electricity, now has nearly restored throughout the island. Heavy rains caused extensive flooding. In some municipalities fell to 17 inches of rain. 20 million were lost in agriculture and 500 million in infrastructure.

President of the United States, Barack Obama said in Puerto Rico as an area of ​​"major disaster", so the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, for its acronym in English) of the Department of Homeland Security of the United States announced that federal disaster assistance is available to the government of Puerto Rico to complement the efforts of state and local recovery in the area impacted by Hurricane Irene during the period of August 21, 2011 onwards.

Birding Day at Camuy

Well, have past much days that I do not post anything about my "birding" in Puerto Rico. And these last few days have been productive with seabirds like terns, sandpipers and plovers. On Wednesday July 27, I was with some friends at the town of Camuy. There are 3 main places we visited: 2 ponds and the river mouth. It was a very productive day as we see more than 40 epecies, two rare Included.

Wilson's Plover (this photo is from 2009)

Pectoral Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs and Black-necked Stilt

Little Egret

The day start rainy, but still we wait for a while and them we go down to watch. Commencing at the mouth of Rio Camuy, where we saw several species of terns including Least Tern, one of my favorite especie of terns. We saw Wilson Plover in the area . Then in the ponds we saw a Little Egret (Egretta garzeta) which is a rare sighting, although Earlier this year was seenone  too in the same area. Also between 358 Swallows Cave, that we count,  was a Cuban Martin (Progne cryptoleuca). We also found a White-cheeked Pintail with 14 ducklings.

Im here!

Well, the last 2 months I have been disconnected. My computer crashed, so I could not write anything on my blog. Although I have not been birding a lot, but if I have several pictures of which I would like to write. Fix my computer so I hope in the coming days i update the blog a bit.

Looking for the Tricolored Munia

Today i was back on the Caño Tiburones. In search of the Tricolored Munia (Lonchura malacca). A Finch that for a long time have not been seen in Puerto Rico, and we found a group last week, me and some friends. I had the luck to find them again today, and in the same place where we saw last week. I think they are nesting in the grassland because they did not move far from the area. Although I could see 8, i could not photograph them because they hide a lot and they are a bit sneaky. I will keep going this week to get a clear picture, but I photographed a female Orange Bishop.