2 weeks all inclusive jamaica. (1 Viewer)

[binus1963]

first off i'm not hard core birder or very good at i.d. but it's something that takes me all over the world so if any pictures are titled wrong just let me know and i'll do my best to make it a decent read, cheers. we left birmingham to montego bay 21/9/24 around 9hr flight on arrival through customs very quickly and out to wait for transfer to royal decameron, salem, next door to runaway bay, whilst we waited i had a kingbird or two and a few pigeons but nothing out the ordinary. on arrival at hotel northern mocking birds and kingbirds common regular american kestrel occasional red billed streamer tail, banana quit, jamaican crow and zenaida dove. down by the beach regular spotted sand, turnstones, semi palmated plover and sanderlings over the sea frigate birds, brown pelicans, numerous egrets, laughing gulls and glossy ibis. on day 3 we went to ocho rios using local taxi as lot cheaper than hotel recommended one, picked up a toyota yaris saloon and heade up to dunns river falls and couldn't take camera's in so said sod it, had a cattle egret but not much else.

 

[binus1963]

the following day we set off early east along north coast tending t stop off at any likely spots including river bridges, had our 1st moorhens, yellow and black crowned night heron and jamaican woodpecker also a little blue heron with a fish that may have been a little too big for him, we then headed up to a place called bangor ridge (we were staying there the following day so did a reconnaissance run) on the way up we had white throated thrush red billed streamer and olive throated parakeets, we then headed back down to the coast and carried on down to great huts s/e of port antonio and was upgraded to the best room which was great as i'm from yorkshire! not a lot to see and lot of tree cover so really dull althought i did have a family of mongoose, i wanted to stay at mockingbird hotel but it was shut for refurb. next morning up for breakfast and headed to hardware gap roads were really bad needed a 4wd ideally but we got to the gap having not seen much, really need to concentrate on the driving and the heavens opened and we white water rafted the yaris all the way back down stopping off at a coffee shop where we saw chestnut bellied cuckoo one of the elaenias , kingbird and bananaquit, we basically then drove straight back to coast turned west then back up the blue mountains to stay at the blue mountain wilderness retreat, we parked in town square a young lady had arranged to meet us and take us the 20/30 minute walk to the digs, steep slopes to side, climb through a gate and up hand made stairs that were a bit ropey, the digs were perfectly adequate but the view and the birds were sublime, and the staff brilliant white tailed pigeon, jamaican lizard cuckoo, jamaican mango, red billed streamers, stripe headed tanagers a nasty looking spider and 1cm frogs running round our feet in the dark

 

[binus1963]

next morning up early for the sunrise a few more of the same birds had breakfast and on our way, we decided to head for castleton botanical gardens upon arrival headed in paid our fee and the heavens opened we took cover having only really seen dragonfly's but managed some spiders whilst waiting, after 30mins we decided to make a run for it the rain was bouncing 6in high on the road we were soaked to the skin so white water rafted the yaris back down to the coast and returned to base and called it a day. the following morning we went back to castleton early to avoid the rains we had grackles, jamaican crow, jamaican tody, green heron and a few other herons/egrets around the river a white eyed thrush and a turkey vulture who had found the most horrible thing ever to eat and white tailed pigeon, this time we left before the rains came.