A short post about an ongoing volcanic eruption on the small Caribbean Island of Saint Vincent. The La Soufriere volcano started erupting on April 9th and has continued to have explosive eruptions daily since with ash covering most of the island and spreading to nearby islands including Barbados and Saint Lucia (as well as others). The volcano is located on the northern part of the island and is the highest point on the island. Before this eruption the last time it erupted was 1979 (it has had five recorded explosive eruptions since 1718). The island is home to two endemic bird species with the unique Whistling Warbler being the one I'm most interested in (with the other endemic being the St. Vincent Parrot). The Whistling Warbler is one of only five species of wood warbler outside of South America I have not yet seen. The warbler inhabits humid foothills and higher elevation forests and is considered endangered within its very limited range due to habitat loss, volcanic activity and hurricanes. The latest data I could find put the total population at between 3000-5000 individuals and the latest eruption will certainly hit that number hard as ash covers the entire island.
I had plans to make it down to there this past winter but the pandemic put a stop to those plans and I then had thought about it for this coming winter assuming the stringent travel restrictions there and in Dominica eased up a bit. Now it appears my chances of getting to St. Vincent anytime in the near future is quite low. Hopefully the volcano will become less active soon and the birds will pull through.
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