Week in Jamaica (1 Viewer)

[dandsblair]

We have just returned from a week in Jamaica. This was a holiday rather than a full on birding trip and we had chosen the Caribbean as we had recently spent some time on the coast at the end of recent trip but without really relaxing (we stayed at Santa Marta and Riohacha in Colombia).

This time we originally planned to just crash out in a coastal resort, with just a few bits of birding around the grounds and in the local area. We stayed at the all inclusive ClubHotel Rui Ocho Rios which is about 3 miles from Dunn’s River falls and has a reef for snorkelling right from the beach. While the hotel was great value with good food and well appointed rooms the birding around the large quite formal gardens was pretty disappointing.

Just before we went we decided that we needed to at least do a few trips and when I looked at booking a car for 3 three days it turned out to be cheaper to book a car for a week at the airport and not use hotel transfers. The booking with EconomyBookings got us a Toyota Yaris from Island Cars for a week including pre-paid insurance for $219 US. We did need to leave a hefty credit card deposit as we were not taking Island’s car insurance.

Having decided to hire a car for the week we decided that even with a few local trips and no really early or late sessions we could hopefully see 20 plus Jamaican Endemics and perhaps a few other Caribbean range restricted birds we hadn’t seen on previous trips.

Our flight with Thomson left Manchester at 09.30 and we were through baggage reclaim, immigration and with our car hire by 15.15 Jamaican time. We were warned by an American who uses Island Cars regularly at the car hire desk to thoroughly check the car for even minor scratches, if we were not taking their insurance, as they have a bit of a reputation for adding some charges on return. I was glad I did as they did try it on when I returned but they picked a few scratches that I had personally had them add to the check sheet and they accepted that car had no new damage.

We used Bird of West Indies (Raffaele et al) better than our old 5th addition of Collins by James Bond and had a copy of Bird Watchers Guide to (Kirwan).

On arrival, we had choice to make, set off immediately for 2 hour drive to resort near Ocho Rios or do 25 minute drive to Rocklands, near Anchovy; just in case we didn’t make it back there on our last day.

No real contest, we drove up to Rocklands, the access road up the hill, well signposted was being repaired but we managed to just squeeze past the road workers. Plan was just to spend half an hour there and then walk down the track past Sweet Rock to look for Northern Potoo and get to our Hotel by sunset.

The place was really busy with a tour party and some private groups when we arrived and when we spoke to Fritz to manager / groundkeeper he wanted $80US to just do the feeders and access the trails without any guiding, we explained we were just going to be there briefly and suggested a much lower figure but he wasn’t for negotiating, so we just birded the road. I think he just wanted want rid of us as he was probably struggling to cope with numbers he had in. We did see Caribbean Dove, Jamaican Oriole, Orangequit, Yellow-faced Grassquit, Common Ground Dove, and Red-billed Streamertail but we couldn’t find the Northern Potoo.

Still 4 lifers was not a bad result for a short detour. On the drive to the hotel we passed an area near Montego Bay with a large gathering of Brown Noddy and a few Royal tern and had fly over Yellow-billed Parrot, Jamaican Crow and Antillean Grackle which we didn’t count on the life list yet as Sarah wanted better views before we added them.

Around the hotel

I did a walk around the grounds and extensive gardens starting before sunrise but disappointingly the grounds were not very birdy, all I managed was Ruddy Turnstone, Great White Egret, White-crowned Pigeon, Zenaida Pigeon, Antillean Grackle, Green Heron, Northern Mockingbird and Moorhen. These were regular birds around the grounds and over the next few days we added Bananaquit, Antillean Palm Swift, Magnificent Frigatebird, a few a day seen, Carrib Grackle (seem to have arrived on North Coast none seen elsewhere), Brown Pelican (daily) and a couple of White-tailed Tropicbirds (passed close to shore) and we did hear a Jamaican Owl early one morning from the trees in the hotel across Mamee Bay Road.

Despite lots of flowers there was no sign of hummers or finches in the grounds.

The hotel was much better for snorkelling with access to the reef just a few metres beyond the roped off area and a really good assortment of marine life on the reef.

 
Short trip on first full day

After lunch and feeling a little bored we decided to visit Fern Gully and Shaw Park botanic gardens both within 10 miles of the hotel. However we quickly went wrong I was using off-line google-maps and it took me on the toll road towards Kingston rather than on the old A route through Ocho Rios, at this time I had no Jamaican dollars but I need not have worried when I got off toll road at the first turn they accepted $5US dollars and gave me change in J$. In fact only at a small shop in Sherwood Content, the home of Usain Bolt, did I have to pay in J$, with US$ widely accepted, the bigger ATM’s even offered a choice of US or J.

Anyway having got off the toll road at a place called Crystal Grove we stopped alongside some suitable secondary forest and quickly saw Sad Flycatcher, Loggerhead Kingbird, Smooth-billed Ani, Stolid Flycatcher and after a bit of search we saw a calling Jamaican Crow really well. We then headed down to Fern Gully stopping at any suitable points we added Black-throated Blue Warbler, American Redstart and Jamaican Elaenia. At the gully the only bird we added was White-eyed Thrush.

We then enjoyed the grounds of the Botanic Gardens small fee to the security guard to keep the gate open beyond 17.00 for us. We didn’t see a huge amount just Orangequit, many Red-billed Streamertail and we thought a possible zip past of a Jamaican Mango that we weren’t too concerned at missing (we should have been) but we did enjoy great views of the waterfalls in the grounds and view over and beyond Ocho Rios.

Over rum cocktails at bar I somehow persuaded Sarah to do a 05.00 start the next morning to head to Cockpit Country (well it wasn’t 04.00 and therefore wasn't really early).

 

[dandsblair]

Cockpit Country / Windsor Caves

Cockpit Country / Windsor Caves

The hotel had a 24 hour sports bar that served coffee and banana cake, so we had that before setting off via St Anne area. I had details of Jamaican Owl in small wooded area at 18°20'27.2"N 77°03'17.1"W. Sure enough we heard the bird calling but only I got a brief sighting as the bird didn’t respond well to calls.

I set the map to Sherwood Resort and then used the directions in “A birdwatchers guide to” to get to Windsor Cave. On the forested road we had three Crested Quail Doves that we stopped and saw OK with our bins but from a distance but none of them stayed for a close approach or perched close to the road when they moved to give great views or allow a photograph. We also added an Ovenbird at one stop near the river.

It was after 7am by the time we arrived at the Shack, but a friendly guy who occupied the shack told us it was ideal time for the birds and it didn’t seem bad as things started pretty well with some Olive-throated Parakeet perched in nearby tree and then a couple of Black-billed Parrots also perched and even showing for a record shot. We soon added loads of Yellow-billed Parrots, Stolid Flycatcher, and a Jamaican Pewee. I then head a Jamaican Tody a bird Sarah really wanted I tried a quick call and two birds were right above us, we need not have worried about seeing a Tody as we saw 6 today and plenty more at other times. We then heard the unique calls of a Jamaican Crow but then a Cuckoo called quite distantly, I tried a quick bit of playback for Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo and there he was sitting in a tree about 20 yards ahead of us. He was a little obscured but I did manage a record shot. Next up was Jamaican Oriole, Sad Flycatcher and then finally a Jamaican Euphonia was seen although pretty high in a tree. We then a had quite a heavy shower which did seem to quieten things down but on the walk back down the track we had a pair of Jamaican Lizard Cuckoo and then a Jamaican Vireo, so we were doing pretty well with endemics. We decided to try for the trail to the cave recommended for Blue Mountain Vireo. We saw another Tody, loads of Bananaquit, American Redstart then in a fruiting tree Yellow-billed Parrots and Jamaican Oriole before we finally connected with Blue Mountain Vireo.

On arrival back at the car we gave the guy at the shack a small tip for looking after the car and his advice on where to look on the tracks and we set google maps back to the main road. Big mistake as after 1.5KM the road was impassable and we had to reverse back to the shack and retrace our route back to Sherwood Content, google maps didn’t recognise the road we had gone in on.

We decided to pick up some lunch ingredients at Sherwood Content and photograph the Usain Bolt sign, there was a school athletics event going on in the field but no sign of the great man in attendance.
We had lunch on the banks of the Martha Brae River where we added White-chinned Thrush, Northern Parula and Yellow Warbler. We then headed back to the hotel arriving just in time for a swim before sunset.

Stewart Town

We spend the morning around the pool and on the beach snorkelling, I’m useless on fish and other marine creatures but lots of variety, after lunch decided to take an afternoon trip out to Stewart Town. Google maps directed me to right outside the police station [18:23.168N -077:26.968W] which is where the track begins. Just follow the track up-hill away from the police station.

I arrived at Stewart Town around 15.30 it took just about an hour so a good local trip. I had seen trip reports recommending this place but they all came in the morning so was interested to try an afternoon visit. It didn’t immediately look promising with just loads of Bananaquits and Smooth-billed Ani but at a fruiting tree things got a lots better with quite a few showy Jamaican Spindalis (Stripe-headed Tanager), a Jamaican Becard, (this was only place we saw a Becard) a couple on both visits, the diminutive Vervain Hummingbird, Streamertail, Jamaican Euphonia, Jamaican Tody was plentiful, American Redstart, Jamaican Vireo, Jamaican Crow, Common Ground Dove, Yellow-billed Parrot and Stolid Flycatcher.

After a couple of hours we headed back to arrive not long after dark and on the very shady road back just about 3-4KM out of Stewart Town we had both Crested Quail Dove and Ruddy Quail Dove and loads of White-chinned Thrush.

 

[dandsblair]

A few photos

Jamaican Tody and Jamaican Spindalis

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Looks like you did pretty well so far! I had no idea that Carib Grackle occurred on Jamaica, do you know anything about how long they've been there, or how they got there?

 

[dandsblair]

I think it is fairly recent

Looks like you did pretty well so far! I had no idea that Carib Grackle occurred on Jamaica, do you know anything about how long they've been there, or how they got there?

We bumped in to some other birders who said they had seen a number around Ocho Rios (possibly they arrived originally on the daily cruise ships) as they were pretty tame.
We also saw a couple in Dunn's River falls garden being fed.
It does appear to be a bird that is spreading quickly as we saw a number inland in Colombia that had just arrived last year but were already there in fairly large numbers.

 

[dandsblair]

Blue Mountain Trip

Blue Mountain Trip

Weather near Ocho Rios was forecast poor tomorrow whilst Kingston and Port Antonio looked better so we decided to go to Blue Mountains and possibly Ecclestown.

We set off for the Blue Mountains at around 05.30 – googlemap set for Section on the B1. We did same routine with coffee in the sports bar as for trip to Cockpit County and heard Jamaican Owl in the grounds of neighbouring hotel adjacent to the hotel car park.

We were stopped by police near Port Maria a routine checkpoint, they asked are we carrying any drugs or guns – we said no, showed papers and were on our way. Only to be almost stopped again just as the sun was rising at Buff Bay, fortunately when we slowed this second time we were waved on and the car behind pulled over. There were many police check points.
It wasn’t until we hit Charles Town around 07.00 that we started to see birds. Almost every bird that we slowed for seemed to be a White-chinned Thrush but it was definitely worth slowing as we also spotted a Jamaican Lizard Cuckoo, then a Crested Quail-dove, then Jamaican Woodpecker and finally a view of Jamaican Blackbird, just as we stopped to look at one of the waterfalls, although it didn’t stick around for photos. It was a lovely bright morning as we reached Section and headed to the deep ravine where we quickly saw two more Jamaican Blackbirds, Jamaican Euphonia, Orangequit, Red-billed Streamertail and Jamaican Spindalis. Cloud looked to be building ahead so we decided to up to the Hardwar Gap café (it was still closed) but we went on to Woodside Road and spend the next few hours here. This was a great spot with some target birds soon seen first Greater Antillean Bullfinch, then Rufous-tailed Flycatcher, White-crowned Pigeon, Ruddy-quail Dove, Yellow-shouldered Grassquit, finally a little Arrowhead Warbler, Greater Antillean Elaenia, Jamaican Spindalis, Jamaican Tody, Jamaican Woodpecker and a distant probable Ring-tailed Pigeon but we didn’t have the scope, Vervain Hummingbird and Jamaican Vireo. We heard a Crested Quail-Dove calling but just couldn’t coax it out into the open. It was still nice and bright overhead but the weather looked to be coming our way, so we decided to head up to the Café to look at the feeders and sample the Coffee ( it wasn’t too pricy and the café offered great views down to Kingston) but all we saw on the feeders was Streamertails and a single Vervain Hummer. We did however get White-eyed Thrush, Stolid Flycatcher and Greater Antillean Grackle and then the cloud and mist had suddenly surrounded us.

Decision time – we were missing Rufous-throated Solitaire (guy who lives near Section told us they were easy here) but we didn’t even get to hear the distinctive call and still hadn’t seen a Mango, and would like better views of Ring-tailed Pigeon. So we decided lets head down to the coast and go to Mockingbird Hill and hopefully get Mango and Black-billed Streamertail.

 

[dandsblair]

Off to Mockingbird Hill.

Off to Mockingbird Hill.

Getting down the hill was pretty tricky; visibility was now poor and we discovered that there was two Blue Mountain Cycling Groups each with their own following support bus, this on what is mainly a single track road. At one point I was passing a group of stopped cyclists when a car came the other way, I had to reverse back with cycling leaders talking me back and it was only when half the tyre width was over the cliff was the other car able to pass and Sarah more than a little nervous, fortunately I wasn’t aware just how close to the edge I was.

Fortunately about 2 miles before Charles Town things brightened up. We tried for Blue Mountain Vireo one last time it would have been good to have seen the bird in the Blue Mountains but we weren’t too concerned having seen him well at Windsor Caves and made a last attempt at calling the Solitaire but all we saw were some Grackles, Euphonia and American Redstart.

It was then directly down to the coast and head east towards Port Antonio, we did stop at Orange bay and got a fly past Brown Booby, Royal Tern and Magnificent Frigatebird.

We eventually arrived at Mockingbird Hill hotel about 14.30 and decided to have some coffee and cake and hopefully see some birds from the hotel viewing deck. There was almost nothing around just a Bananaquit but then we spotted a number of Ring-tailed Pigeons that were flying in and out of the trees down below the hotel, an American Kestrel and of course some Northern Mockingbirds.

We waited an hour or so for Black-billed Streamertail and Mango but there was little about, just a female Red-billed Streamertail, so we decided to take a walk around the paths, where we had good views of Orangequit, Woodpecker, Black-throated Blue Warbler and White-chinned Thrush. I was photographing these birds when I heard Sarah, trying to attract my attention quietly, she had found a perched male Black-billed Streamertail, the light wasn’t great but we were very happy to see him. This was the only one we saw this afternoon of what is meant to be a common bird here.

It was now after 16.30 and starting to drizzle so we decided not to try Ecclesdown Road as we wanted to get back for cocktails and entertainment at the hotel – as I said this wasn’t really a full-on birding trip.


Black-billed and Red-billed Streamertail, Kestrel, Redstart and Black-throated Blue Warbler

 

[dandsblair]

Day snorkelling and then trip to Stewart Town

Day snorkelling and then trip to Stewart Town

We enjoyed a nice day on the beach, seeing Little Blue Heron, Great White Egret, Magnificent Frigatebird and White-crowned Pigeon but as we were starting to get a little pink and if I’m honest slightly bored; after lunch we decide to drive over to Stewart Town again.

On the way over we stopped for some Olive-throated Parakeets and spotted a few Green-rumped Parrotlets about 7Km after leaving the A1. There was a pretty grand house on the left just before some open fields.

We walked a little further up the track once we got to Stewart Town but the first two kilometres from the police station were most productive. Largely more of the same but nice views of Smooth-billed Ani, Rufous-tailed Flycatcher, Sad Flycatcher, Jamaican Becard, Jamaican Vireo, Northern Parula, Jamaican Pewee, Crested Quail Dove (tried to call it close but only managed to delete the call from my phone and couldn’t download it), White-eyed Thrush, White-chinned Thrush, Black-billed Streamertail, Jamaican Crow, Northern Mockingbird, Common Ground Dove, Jamaican Tody, Yellow-billed Parrot, Jamaican Becard, Jamaican Euphonia, Jamaican Woodpecker, Yellow-faced Grassquit and American Redstart.

For anyone relaxing on the coast at Runaway Bay or nearby this place is only 40 minutes away, so even if you don’t have your own transport it would be possible to get a taxi and see maybe 15 or more of the endemics in a couple of hours.

 

[dandsblair]

Dunn’s River Falls

Dunn’s River Falls

Going to these falls had been on Sarah’s list for a while but we were careful to pick a day when there were no cruise ships at Ocho Rios and got there just as the place was opening at 8.30. We were only the second car in the carpark and no coach parties had arrived.

There are lockers to leave cameras and binoculars and some nice gardens for some birdwatching. There is also a nice private beach that offers decent snorkelling although the reef here did seem to be bleached despite the cooler water coming down of the falls.

We dropped our stuff in the lockers and got in to the pools before the crowds arrived, we didn’t climb all the falls we were quite happy to just go in and up the various areas selectively. It was noticeable that around 10.00 it got pretty busy at which time we went to the beach to snorkel. It was then time to change and do a bit of birding in the gardens as the falls and the grounds (loads of shops and stalls had appeared and were busy with coach parties).
We bumped into another pair of British birders and compared the Antillean and Carib Grackles who were really quite tame and allowed a close approach. We were still trying for Jamaican Mango and one of the gardeners told us they favoured some flowers near the trees by the picnic bench but we could only see Black-billed Streamertail, the other birders weren’t too bothered as they has seen him at their hotel (Grand Hyatt), only other birds were Jamaican Crow, White-crowned Pigeon, Common Ground Dove, Jamaican Woodpecker and Antillean Palm Swift.

 

[MKinHK]

That Lizard Cuckoo looks tremendous - what a bill!

 

[dandsblair]

Thanks

That Lizard Cuckoo looks tremendous - what a bill!

Thanks Mike

It was. We saw another just sitting 10 feet up by the roadside but it flew when I opened the car window to photograph it

 

[dandsblair]

Fine or a bribe

Fine or a bribe

We had to hand back the hire car by 14.00 and then get checked in for our 16.15 flight. Just time for a wander around the hotel grounds after breakfast and then a couple of hours at Rocklands to hopefully pick up last few birds.
Around the grounds we had usual birds Northern Mockingbird, Zenaida Dove, White-crowned Pigeon, Great White Egret, Green Heron, Magnificent Frigatebird, Moorhen, Greater Antillean Grackle, Bananaquit and Turkey Vulture.

Drive towards Montego Bay was quite slow, there was a reggae festival in Rose House area which was possibly adding to traffic and loads of police speed checks along the A1. I somehow got myself pulled over, not for speeding, but for crossing the solid centre line when overtaking a slowing taxi. Cops were adamant I had broken the law and would get a ticket despite them accepting I was within the speed limit and that it was a safe manoeuvre. They started to do loads of paper work and then said I could avoid paying S100 fine on-line or at a police station if I gave them $50 cash now. I felt that this was probably a request for a bribe but I didn’t want to waste another 30 minutes to get the various forms so I offered the $36 US dollars in cash I had in my pocket. After a short discussion they accepted this, entered it in a book and gave me back my driving license and car hire papers. Pretty certain this book wasn’t official and receipt certainly wasn’t; so in all likelihood it was a bribe which I wasn’t exactly happy with as they were pulling loads of people over and I was effectively encouraging the behaviour.

Anyway we got to Rocklands around 11.40 so just under the planned two hours available. We of course now didn’t have any US$ so when we spoke to young guy, Fritz was busy, he said they couldn’t take a debit card, I suppose I could have stopped at an ATM, but the owner of Rocklands who was there that day said he would accept 35 Euro for access to the feeders and the trails. This was much better than last week when Fritz wanted US80$ for this.

At the feeders we were given encouraged to take a seat and given some good coffee and spoke to the owner, he lives in the Blue Mountains, he was surprised that we had missed the Solitaire, and then Fritz joined us when another group left. While a bit staged the Streamertail Feeding was really good and Sarah loved the experience of a male Red-billed Streamertail sitting on her finger feeding from a little nectar bottle. Also around the feeders were Caribbean Dove, Jamaican Oriole, Shiny Cowbird, Yellow-shouldered and Black-faced Grassquit, Orangequit, Greater Antillean Bullfinch and Black-throated Blue Warbler. However there were no Jamaican Mangos, Fritz reckons they are breeding and so not coming to feeders, he took us down to an area where we could hopefully find them but despite a fair bit of a search no luck; that was the only Endemic we didn’t find. Unfortunately the Jamaican Owl had not been roosting in the ground recently (so Sarah only heard the Owl). We added Jamaican Woodpecker, our last Jamaican Tody, and Jamaican Vireo before we were able to see a nice Northern Potoo which was roosting quite openly where we had looked last week about 75M up the road near Sweet Rock entrance, so obviously the birds don’t always use the same day roost a good finish to our trip.

That was pretty much it for us. We arrived back at the car hire in good time and got checked in with Thomson pretty quickly. Only downside is that Thomson don’t pay the Departure tax with the flight ticket as scheduled airlines do and you have to pay it in cash but they accepted UK pounds.
The good news was that due to a strong tail wind the flight back was just over 7 hours.

Summary

For anyone wanting a week in the sun with local flights (we went from Manchester on the Dreamliner) and some fairly easy birding without guides then Jamaica is pretty much ideal, particularly if you want great beaches and good snorkelling at a reasonable price (we got a discounted deal with Thomson from their Website). Probably not the most bird friendly of hotels chosen by us, we went for it based on size of grounds / gardens but if you are prepared to drive or go out by taxi you can easily get 15-20 new birds even if you have been to Caribbean before; without being really full-on we got 27 of the 28 realistic endemics plus a couple of other lifers in less than three full days birding. So we were really pleased.

 

[dandsblair]

A few more photos

Chestnut-bellied Cuckoo etc

 

[dandsblair]

Full report and list

List of birds seen and few more photos