*******This blog post relates to the 17th March******
And yes, I have suffered some criticism about being irresponsible for being here, but my visit occurred just before everything began to get really serious. Throughout my time here I was constantly checking flights back to the UK and funnily enough I didn't fancy paying over £3,000 for a flight that normally costs circa £600! Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I followed the Foreign Office advice as best I could. So please go ahead and judge me but I could not have done anything differently at the time.....
Much quieter this morning and feeling a little tired I didn’t venture out until 8.30am. The only new birds were Shiny Cowbird and a Mangrove Cuckoo and there was very little else apart from the common Grey Kingbird so I returned to our cabin for a quick breakfast. I was mulling over whether I should have gone out after the curfew and tried for Puerto Rican Screech-Owl last night but at the time I decided it wasn’t great habitat for it and questioned how serious the curfew was and did I want to be snitched on to the local police by an overzealous local? Well, the answer was no! So will have to try the owl elsewhere….
And yes, I have suffered some criticism about being irresponsible for being here, but my visit occurred just before everything began to get really serious. Throughout my time here I was constantly checking flights back to the UK and funnily enough I didn't fancy paying over £3,000 for a flight that normally costs circa £600! Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I followed the Foreign Office advice as best I could. So please go ahead and judge me but I could not have done anything differently at the time.....
Much quieter this morning and feeling a little tired I didn’t venture out until 8.30am. The only new birds were Shiny Cowbird and a Mangrove Cuckoo and there was very little else apart from the common Grey Kingbird so I returned to our cabin for a quick breakfast. I was mulling over whether I should have gone out after the curfew and tried for Puerto Rican Screech-Owl last night but at the time I decided it wasn’t great habitat for it and questioned how serious the curfew was and did I want to be snitched on to the local police by an overzealous local? Well, the answer was no! So will have to try the owl elsewhere….
Anyway, we have been mulling over our options and maybe we should fly to somewhere more hospitable in the Lesser Antilles like Dominica that haven’t got any restrictions at present or should we just hunker down and see out our time here in Puerto Rico. Our flight to the Dominican Republic in a few days has been cancelled and I will have to go there another time, and I’m also afraid to post anything on social media for fear of recriminations about travelling during this pandemic. I can just hear the comments like “well, do you think you should have gone..?” etc. Well, it was ok when we left the UK!
Anyway, we mess around at Walmart getting provisions as the next hotel emailed me to say they weren’t doing dinner ffs! The road heading to the next lodge is a tricky winding route through small villages at the rear of El Yunque and then becomes dirt road and very steep and slippery, but we arrive at El Hotelito around 3pm, check-in and I’m straight off down the approach track and checking out the steep, muddy trail. A singing Eastern Red-legged Thrush is the first lifer, and what a bird this is! And it turns out to be the only new one on my exploration but I do see yet another Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo, Black-whiskered Vireo, another Puerto Rican Oriole, Mangrove Cuckoo and the ubiquitous Bananaquit.
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| Puerto Rican Oriole |
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| Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo |
I was fortunate to have the hotels 2 giant German Shepherd dogs following me and scaring a lot of the birds away! You just couldn’t write this shit! My dog experience grows even worse at dusk when the dumb dog chases a calling Puerto Rican Screech-Owl away not once but twice. WTAF?! After pushing the bloody dog into the restaurant area I return to the path and then find 2 different individual owls and manage to get a few shots of each. Result!
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| Puerto Rican Screech Owl |
With further dire Corona Virus news tonight and things looking bleak as it seems we cannot fly anywhere and are stuck with the curfew being enforced apparently through the day and this hotel closing down tomorrow, we just don’t know what to do and it’s a rather miserable pair falling asleep to the loudest crescendo and chorus of Tree Frogs I’ve ever experienced.
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