Barbuda Warbler and others on a trip to Antigua and Barbuda: Feb 27-Mar 1

Barbuda Warbler, Coco Point Road, Barbuda, Feb 28, 2020

Barbuda Warbler, Coco Point Road, Barbuda, Feb 28, 2020

Barbuda Warbler, Coco Point Road, Barbuda, Feb 28, 2020

Just returned from a successful four day trip down to Antigua and Barbuda in search of the Barbuda Warbler and then onto a six day trip down to Grand Cayman with the wife with the main warbler target there being the Vitelline Warbler (with the possibility of a wintering Swainson’s Warbler)...more on the Grand Cayman part of the trip in an upcoming post.

The small island of Barbuda was devastated by Hurricane Irma back in September 2017 (a Category 5 storm with 185 MPH winds) and there were fears that little if any of the birds made it though a record setting storm. Although we had stopped in Antigua on two previous cruises (March 2019 and December 2017) out of San Juan, the day time cruise stops were never long enough to get over to Barbuda (a supposed 90 minute ferry ride away from Antigua...more on that later). There are three ways over to Barbuda from Antigua: a ferry trip, a small plane ride or a helicopter and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best mode of transport as they all have their positive and negative attributes. The helicopter flight was out as it is way too expensive and I decided against the flight as it involved possibly spending a night on Barbuda as the flights over and back don’t leave a lot of time to look around and weight restrictions would keep me from bringing all the items I would need for the trip. Of course that meant it would be a trip over on the ferry. I had left myself two full days on Antigua in order to have a back up day if the ferry got canceled by bad weather (something that apparently happens with some frequency). It was a great plan until the ferry schedule changed and no trips were planned to Barbuda for Saturday so it would have to be a Friday trip and I would have to keep my fingers crossed the trip didn’t get cancelled.  Friday arrived and I got down to the ferry dock in St.Johns for 5:30am for a 6AM departure (or so I thought!). Despite multiple emails confirming the departure time the ferry was not actually leaving the port until 7AM....so much for the confirmation! The boat finally got going a little after 7 and then we took a turn away from the route to Barbuda to go to another pick up spot further south on Antigua (Jolly Harbor). After lots of waiting around there we finally got underway to Barbuda. We never arrived until 9:45 so the advertised 90 minute trip to Barbuda turned into a much longer ordeal...oh well, at least we eventually made it there. I immediately headed out to walk along Coco Point Road to Codrington (the only town on the island). After a very short time I started coming across a few Barbuda Warblers in the low scrub vegetation that dominates the island. It was great to see a decent numbers of warblers as well as many other species that made it through the hurricane from a few years ago.

Barbuda Warbler, Coco Point Road, Barbuda, Feb 28, 2020

Barbuda Warbler, Coco Point Road, Barbuda, Feb 28, 2020

Northern Parula, Coco Point Road, Barbuda, Feb 28, 2020

Yellow Warbler (golden), Coco Point Road, Barbuda, Feb 28, 2020

Cape May Warbler, Coco Point Road, Barbuda, Feb 28, 2020

Low, thorny scrub habitat preferred by the Barbuda Warbler, Coco Point Road, Barbuda, Feb 28, 2020

After the long journey to finally get to Barbuda I arrived a bit before ten in the morning and immediately started north along Coco Point Road toward the only town on the island, Codrington. After just a few minutes I started running across birds in the low thorny scrub along both sides of the road with multiple Yellow Warblers of the golden subspecies singing and showing well. I then ran across my first of many Barbuda Warblers. The species seemed quite tame and came in fairly close on many occasions allowing for fantastic looks and great photos. It was great to see the species present in what appeared to be healthy numbers in any suitable habitat. The biggest surprise of the trip as far as warblers go was a stunning male Cape May Warbler that was part of a mixed flock that included a couple Northern Parula among other species. The Cape May Warbler is apparently rare on the island with no previous eBird records. I walked up nearly to Codrington before turning around to head back to the ferry drop off and then a mile or so south. Decent numbers of Barbuda Warblers as well as Yellow Warblers were present throughout the walk. The ferry left a little after four but due to having to go back to Jolly Harbor we never made it back to St. John’s until 6:30.

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', McKinnon's Saltpond, Antigua, Feb 29, 2020

Yellow Warbler (golden), McKinnon's Saltpond, Antigua, Feb 29, 2020

With a full day available to me on Saturday in Antigua I made both morning and evening trips to the nearby McKinnon’s Saltponds plus a few short walks along the road near my lodging. The only warbler species I found during my morning walk was Yellow Warbler with both northern subspecies and golden subspecies seen. The late afternoon trip back to McKinnon’s Saltpond was a bit more exciting when I had yet another apparently rare sighting for the island. I was walking along one of the dense hedges along the pond when I heard a familiar chip note and found a group of three Yellow rumped Warblers (they were all of the myrtle subspecies). I managed to get a recording as well as a few identifiable photos with my phone through binoculars. There are no eBird reports of the species for Antigua and just a single record from Barbuda of a single individual back in December of 2006.  I found a rare warbler on Antigua (Prairie Warbler) on my previous visit to the island back in March 2019, also at McKinnon's Saltpond.

Northern Waterthrush, McKinnon's Saltpond, Antigua, Feb 29, 2020

Yellow Warbler (golden), McKinnon's Saltpond, Antigua, Feb 29, 2020

Sunday I spent a bit of time in the morning back at McKinnon’s Saltponds before heading to the airport late in the morning for the flight down to Grand Cayman via Miami. I added another warbler for the trip with the sighting of a Northern Waterthrush. With the addition of the waterthrush I had a total of three warbler species on Antigua itself plus three other species on Barbuda giving me half a dozen warbler species for this part of the trip.