Lesser Antilles Cruise Part 2: St Lucia

White-breasted Thrasher

Following our visit to Martinique (next post) we sailed south to the island state of St Lucia in the southern Lesser Antilles. St Lucia has something of a mixed reputation. Fine mountain and coastal scenery; one of the world’s highest murder rates; a superb collection of birds that makes St Lucia a desirable destination for world listers. The island has 4 endemic species; 2 species shared with one other island; and several well-defined subspecies likely to be future splits.

St Lucia's east coast

A joy of cruise birding is that you have full-day stops in ports that allow plenty of opportunity to look for birds. It’s possible to see all the St Lucia specialties during a cruise port stop, as I did with ease. My initial error was to hire a guide for the two of us for a full day with Wildlife Ambassadors, a tour company based in the capital, Castries. The cost was a somewhat expensive $US280 (lunch $40 extra), but after the deal was sealed, the cost was raised to $360. This happened amid much confusion about whether I was able - or wanted - to join a larger group at a lower cost. Little to zero information was available about these larger groups. Then just 4 days before my scheduled day on St Lucia,I was told there would be no “private tours" at all and I would have to join a group of six. The other clients were from another cruise ship that was departing earlier than mine, thus cutting short my birding day. This I learned myself; the company had ignored my questions about whether the second cruise ship was leaving earlier than mine.

Castries

Luckily I managed to track down a guide called Vision, who was once associated with Wildlife Ambassadors but had fallen out with the company. Vision was a lively and well-connected companion; he spoke superb English and was an expert bird tracker. There were just the two of us as clients at a fair cost in his excellent vehicle. Vision met us at Castries after leaving the ship and we drove across the island to the Preslin area on the east coast - a rugged patch of dry limestone scrub.

With Vision in the field

Here we soon found a Lesser Antillean Pewee of the endemic and distinctive subspecies latirostris– an excellent candidate for a split.

Lesser Antillean (St Lucia) Peewee

Lesser Antillean Flycatcher of the local subspecies sanctaeluciae showed well in the scrub and later in the wet mountain forest we were to visit; I also saw other races of this species on Martinique and Dominica. Lesser Antillean Saltator was seen again after a glimpse on Martinique.

Lesser Antillean Flycatcher

Then came one of the star birds of the trip. White-breasted Thrasher is restricted to coastal limestone scrub on St Lucia and Martinique. It took some time tracking but eventually Vision pointed quietly to some leaves behind a tree trunk that were being shuffled about. “The bird is there and will appear in a moment,” he whispered. And it did. This stunner jumped up on a rock, showing brilliantly, then to a branch were it preened briefly before disappearing.

White-breasted Thrasher

St Lucia Parrot

On the trail we found another much-wanted endemic – a male St Lucia Black Finch quietly wagging its tail deep in the rainforest vegetation. We saw a third endemic, St Lucia Warbler, both in the rainforest and in the coastal scrub, but frustratingly didn’t manage a photograph. Also in the forest was a Rufous-throated Solitaire of the St Lucia subspecies sanctaeluciae; I had seen the species in the Greater Antilles.

St Lucia Black Finch

Another to avoid the camera was the final endemic – St Lucia Oriole. Individual birds were seen well but briefly on two occasions in the rainforest canopy. A single Lesser Antillean Euphonia – another species that can be difficult – was seen somewhat distantly, with several others heard. All targets accounted for. We finished our excursion with a visit to a lively fishing port market, with large numbers of Magnificent Frigatebirds vying for fish scraps.

Fish market

Along the Des Cartiers Trail