Lesser Antilles Cruise Part 3: Dominica to Grand Turk

Red-necked Parrot

After a successful clean-up of targets on St Lucia, our cruise vessel headed north to Roseau, the capital of the island state of Dominica (often confused with the Dominican Republic in the Greater Antilles). St Lucia and Dominica were the most important of the six ports on our cruise schedule for birders. I again planned to hire a guide, hopefully with less hassle than the St Lucia shenanigans. I’d hoped to corner “Dr Birdy”, Bertrand Baptiste, who is something of an avian legend locally. Bertrand was not available so I instead hired his able assistant, Ricardo, a sharp observer and good company in the field.

Ricardo at first parrot lookout

There is just one primary site for the Dominica targets: the Syndicate Nature Trail and access road to Morne Diablotin National Park in the island’s north. On a day trip to Dominica during a cruise, there is insufficient time to locate a key target, Forest Thrush, which occurs primarily in southern Dominica and elsewhere is found only on Guadeloupe, which we were not visiting. The Syndicate Trail is especially important for Dominica’s two endemic parrots – Red-necked Parrot and Imperial Parrot, the latter being the largest neotropical parrot.

Valley view from parrot lookouts

We saw several Red-necked Parrots flying between forest patches along the access road on the way up the mountain, and quite a few more from three lookouts along the trail that overlooks a heavily forested valley. 

Red-necked Parrot

The critically endangered Imperial Parrot is much more scarce - with as few as 50 wild birds surviving - and is often missed on birding trips. As soon as we arrived at the first lookout, however, an Imperial Parrot called loudly from vegetation immediately below us. It did not show and another hour passed before we heard a second bird from another lookout distantly. The parrot appeared briefly as it flew through the canopy opposite the lookout. At this point, Dr Birdy turned up with another tour group he was leading. We heard more Imperial Parrots faintly and he scoped one in a distant tree: an impressive feat of spotting. The bird was joined by its mate and the pair offered reasonable if distant flight views (the image below was the best I could manage but shows its distinctive shape) before flying much closer, showing nicely as they disappeared into the vegetation.

(Very distant) Imperial Parrot

Along the road to the mountains we encountered the first Lesser Antillean Swifts of the trip feeding over a field. A few more swifts were seen in the forested valley from the lookouts. This is another target that can be missed on a cruise trip; I did not see it on other islands.

Lesser Antillean Swift

Roseau, capital of Dominica

Also en route to Morne Diablotin we encountered a few Caribbean Martins outside a village. These were the only ones logged for the trip other than a pair seen during our first port call at Antigua.

Caribbean Martin

Along the forest trail we we heard several skulking endemic Plumbeous Warblers and eventually saw a couple in the thick undergrowth. A Rufous-throated Solitaire of the endemic race dominicanus was seen.

Plumbeous Warbler

Also in the forest was a calling House Wren of the endemic race rufescens showing nicely. This and other House Wren subspecies in the Lesser Antilles sound and look quite different to their better known cousins and are surely good candidates for splits.

(Dominican) House Wren

At the well-kept national park headquarters at the trail entrance we had Mangrove Cuckoo calling before finding our final target – a Brown Trembler, vigorously shuffling its wings in the subcanopy.

Brown Trembler

The usually skulky Scaly-breasted Thrasher showed nicely.

Scaly-breasted Thrasher

Two male Blue-headed Honeyeaters buzzed around in forest near the trail lookouts – the only ones seen other than a single female on Martinique. Along the access road we had nice views of Purple-throated Carib, Green-throated Carib and Antillean Crested Hummingbird. All three were widespread during the trip; the latter two I had seen previously in Puerto Rico.

Antillean Crested Hummingbird

Green-throated Carib

After the vessel left Dominica, I saw from the ship deck a flock of 4 Audubon’s Shearwaters feeding about 20 nautical miles north-west of the island. A few more Audubon Shearwaters were seen before we reached our next port stop - Charlotte Amelia, the capital of the island of St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. 

Charlotte Amelia - capital of St Thomas

St Thomas north coast

We visited the newly opened botanic gardens, seeing Scaly-naped Pigeon close, a fantastic display of orchids and a Grass Anole (Anolis pulchellus). This port call was mostly a sight-seeing trip through the historic town.

Grass Anole

Botanic garden orchids

After leaving St Thomas, I was very happy to see a Black-capped Petrel at sea from the ship at 21.34836N, 70.47093W. The bird was distant but its distinctive features, shape and flight were clearly observed. The species is known to nest only on the islands of Hispaniola (in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and Dominica. The sighting was not overly distant from Hispaniola. Also seen was a pod of what I identified as Melon-headed Whales. Other opinions are welcome.

Pygmy Killer Whales

Our final port call was Grand Turk in the UK territory of Turks and Caicos islands. I looked unsuccessfully here for Bahama Woodstar, a Bahamas endemic which occurs sporadically on Grand Turk. Instead I made do with old friends like Tricoloured Heron and White-eyed Vireo.

Tricoloured Heron

White-eyed Vireo

All up, in addition to two seabird lifers, I saw 20 of 30 Lesser Antilles species that I had not seen previously. Seeing them all would have required also visiting Barbuda, Montserrat, Grenada, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Barbados and Guadeloupe. Other than the woodstar I missed two potential targets: Forest Thrush (for reasons explained above) and Bridled Quail-Dove (seen most easily on Antigua and St Thomas among the islands we visited, but I spent little time birding on those two). To sum up, birding during day stops on cruises can be a rewarding and relaxing way of cornering difficult targets.

Ebird list for Dominica

Trip Report on Surfbirds

Grand Turk