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| Vitelline Warbler, Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
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| Vitelline Warbler, Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
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| Vitelline Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
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| Swainson's Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
The second part of the recent trip down to the tropics after
Antigua and Barbuda was to Grand Cayman Island with the main focus as far as warblers go being the Vitelline Warbler which is found only on the Cayman Islands and small Swan Island off the coast of Central America. I also was on the look out for any wintering Swainson's Warblers (plus other wintering warblers).
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| Vitelline Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
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| Swainson's Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
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| Blue winged Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
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| Vitelline Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
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| Yellow throated Warbler, Old Man Bay, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
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| Palm Warbler 'western', Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
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| Cape May Warbler, Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, Grand Cayman, Mar 2, 2020 |
I arrived down in Grand Cayman ahead of schedule and breezed through immigration and then took a taxi out to our lodging in Old Man Bay arriving a bit before midnight. Monday morning dawned partly sunny with a slight breeze and with my body still an hour ahead on Antigua time I was up early and out the door to head over to the nearby north entrance to the Mastic Trail. Not long after arriving I started running into warblers (and lots of mosquitoes!). I found my main target species (Vitelline Warbler) fairly quickly and had several over the course of my just over two hours on the trail with several singing. Vitelline Warbler is quite similar to Prairie Warbler but is a bit plainer overall and has a white vent compared to the Prairie Warblers yellow vent and don’t seem to perpetually wag their tails as much as Prairie Warblers do. The song is sort of a mix of Black throated Blue Warbler and Prairie Warbler. I ran across a mixed species flock about half a mile in that contained several species including a rare for the island Blue winged Warbler that I eventually got photos of after lots of effort (a search of eBird found only two other eBird winter records...one in January 2010 and another in February 2013 but there are certainly records not yet entered into eBird). Other species in the flock included Magnolia Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Prairie Warbler and American Redstart. As I neared the 3/4 mile mark on the trail I decided to turn back as I was running out of time but I didn’t turn back without another great sighting. I had not one but two Swainson’s Warblers in roughly the same area and one was quite cooperative, allowing great views and photographic opportunities. My second lifer warbler of the morning! On my way back to the car I ran into a few other new warbler species including a male Hooded Warbler and a very interesting warbler that had me wondering exactly what it was (it turned out to be an immature Vitelline Warbler). Overall for the 2+ hours along the trail I had a total of ten species of warbler and certainly made me want to make multiple return trips over the course of the next several days. After stopping back by the lodging (and picking up another warbler for the day with a western Palm Warbler) we headed down to the nearby Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Garden. Overall the park was rather slow as far as birds go but I did see several more Vitelline Warblers as well as a Cape May Warbler. The afternoon was spent lounging around the deck which actually turned up yet another warbler species for the day with a Yellow throated Warbler which brought my total warbler species for the day up an even dozen.
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| Yellow Warbler (golden), Old Man Bay, Grand Cayman, Mar 3, 2020 |
The morning on Tuesday was spent on a snorkeling excursion and didn’t involve much birding at all. Nonetheless I added three new warbler species to the Cayman Island list with Yellow Warbler at Starfish Point near where the snorkeling tour ended and Northern Parula and Common Yellowthroat across the street from our lodging once we returned late in the morning.
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| Vitelline Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 4, 2020 |
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| American Redstart, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 4, 2020 |
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| Worm eating Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 4, 2020 |
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| Black and White Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 4, 2020 |
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| Palm Warbler 'western', Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 4, 2020 |
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| Black throated Blue Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 4, 2020 |
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| Magnolia Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 4, 2020 |
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| Yellow Warbler (golden) that landed on my car, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 4, 2020 |
Wednesday found me back at the Mastic Trail but this time I was ready for the mosquito onslaught with bug spray. I started off at the north end again and made it down about halfway before retracing my steps. Yet again the spot was great for warblers with yet another rarity for the island found in a mixed flock, a Nashville Warbler. I made a brief stop back at the lodging before heading down to walk the Mastic Trail from the south entrance. Between my two trips on the Mastic Trail plus a brief stop at Malportas Pond (where I found a Northern Waterthrush) I found a total of 17 species of warbler with new ones for the trip including Black throated Blue Warbler and Worm eating Warbler. I also ran across a Yellow Warbler that landed on the car as I drove to the southern entrance of the Mastic Trail and it did this every time I drove in or drove out...thankfully the road is not well traveled and the cars that do go by cannot go fast at all.
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| Hooded Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 5, 2020 |
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| Ovenbird, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 5, 2020 |
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| Cape May Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 5, 2020 |
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| Prairie Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 5, 2020 |
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| Black and White Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 5, 2020 |
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| Common Yellowthroat, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 5, 2020 |
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| Yellow Warbler (golden), Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 5, 2020 |
Thursday I decided to walk the entire length of the Mastic Trail and back starting at the south end before dawn. I picked up a total of 16 species of warbler for the morning there including above normal counts for Ovenbird, Black and White Warbler, Hooded Warbler and Vitelline Warbler (lots of singing individuals...they never seemed to be out of earshot the entire walk). Starting on the southern end produced a couple species I didn’t get on the north end on previous mornings (Common Yellowthroat and Northern Waterthrush) but oddly I didn’t find a Magnolia Warbler the entire morning. While walking the trail I ran across the eBird reviewer for the island after having corresponded with him regarding some of my rare sightings the last several days. He was able to relocate the Nashville Warbler I had the day before and he was very happy about finding that rarity (I failed to relocate it during my walk).
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| Black throated Green Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 6, 2020 |
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| Vitelline Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 6, 2020 |
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| Cape May Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 6, 2020 |
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| Tennessee Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 6, 2020 |
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| Swainson's Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 6, 2020 |
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| Magnolia Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 6, 2020 |
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| Yellow throated Warbler, Old Man Bay, Grand Cayman, Mar 6, 2020 |
On my last full day on the island I decided to see how many warbler species I could find over the course of the morning. I had managed to find a maximum of 17 species on a previous morning so I did my best to beat that total. I started off on the north end of the Mastic Trail and walked down about 3/4 of a mile before turning around and heading back. I had a few good pockets of warblers including another new one for my Cayman Island list with a Tennessee Warbler feeding in a tree with other warblers. I didn’t have any luck relocating the Nashville Warbler during this stop or a subsequent stop later in the morning but I did try to find it (it was seen and photographed by others again this day). I left the north part of the trail with a total of eleven species of warbler and then went south to hike a small section of the southern end of the trail. I added several new species including yet another rarity for the date with the sighting of a Black throated Green Warbler plus I had at least three more Tennessee Warblers and loads of Northern Parula (a total of 13 species of warblers for this stop). As mentioned above I made a return trip to the north end of the trail to try for the Nashville Warbler again but had no luck. A few more short stops at various locations turned up one more species of warbler for the morning bringing my grand total for the day to 19 species of warblers.
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| Nashville Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 7, 2020 |
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| Nashville Warbler, Mastic Trail, Grand Cayman, Mar 7, 2020 |
I had just a few hours time in the morning on Saturday before we had to make the trek back to the airport for our flights back to reality. I decided to try one more time to relocate the Nashville Warbler at the north end of the Mastic Trail as it was the only warbler I was unable to get a photo of for the trip. Unfortunately the morning started off quite breezy with some sprinkles but I decided to try nonetheless. Thankfully the clouds lifted somewhat a little after dawn so at least the threat of additional rain was gone. I walked down to the area I had the bird previously as well as a bit beyond it but no luck at all. I decided it was just too breezy so I headed back out after about an hour of looking. As I got to the trail head I noticed some birds flitting around some low brush in a freshly disturbed area and one of the birds was the Nashville Warbler. I finally got some documentation shots of the rarity before I left.
Grand Cayman turned out to be a really impressive location for warbler diversity and numbers with a total of 21 species seen over the course of the visit there (the Mastic Trail was by far the best location and I had all 21 species there at some point).
Antigua and Barbuda produced half a dozen species. I found rare warblers on both stops which I covered in greater detail above. Overall for the trip I tallied 23 species of warbler with three being life birds.
Warblers on
Antigua and Barbuda: Northern Waterthrush, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Yellow Warbler (golden subspecies), Yellow rumped Warbler (myrtle subspecies) and Barbuda Warbler.
Warblers Grand Cayman: Ovenbird, Worm eating Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Blue winged Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Swainson’s Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded Warbler, American Redstart, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow Warbler (golden subspecies), Black throated Blue Warbler, Palm Warbler (western), Yellow throated Warbler, Vitelline Warbler, Prairie Warbler and Black throated Green Warbler.
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