Puerto Rico

Woke this morning not knowing what to do. Should we try and fly home? No flights to UK! So as we had a booking for tonight at the airport hotel from my original itinerary - should we just wait it out or get the hell out of Dodge? The decision was to get our planned rental car a day early and go. Lynzi found a decent place to stay tonight near the birding hotspot of El Yunque so off we went in our shiny new Mitsubishi SUV. A detour to Walmart for provisions was necessary before driving up the winding road into El Yunque National Park, where the Visitor Centre was closed. In another 24 hours Walmart would close off all non-essential sections and the queues would be really long to gain access. Anyway, it was totally the wrong time of day to get much activity but the forest was ringing to the sound of Black-whiskered Vireos. There were a lot of people here today and the top car park was full – making a mockery of the ‘no public gathering mantra’. Anyway, I was more interested in my first Puerto Rican endemic – Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo. Oh yes! In fact I saw 3 along the road and managed further rubbish photos but I didn’t care. I was just happy to get the ball rolling. 

Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoo

Oh and this island has a much better feel to it than Jamaica. Everything there felt awkward, the roads were poor and the food was the same. Here on Puerto Rico its like you are in the states, great infrastructure, all the trappings of a fast food society, big supermarkets etc etc. 

We headed to our cabins just a 20 minute drive from El Yunque with superb views of the mountain and the clear blue Caribbean waters way below us. 

The view from our cabin

A nice location but the surrounding habitat was fragmented and didn’t initially look promising. But on further exploration there were pockets of good habitat and in an hour’s walk I saw some great birds. Firstly, a Pearly-eyed Thrasher sang away from a tree overhanging the road, giving much better views than the pair we saw approaching the cabins earlier. 

Pearly-eyed Thrasher

Then I got some decent photos of the common Grey Kingbird perched nearby, and as I turned away from this I happened to glance skywards and saw what took me a few seconds to realise was a Cuban Martin – a bird I never expected to see at this time of year. 

Grey Kingbird

Amongst the throngs of Greater Antillean Grackles playing around in the trees overhead I noticed something different, and raising my bins I saw a Puerto Rican Oriole. Result! This can sometimes be a tricky species to find so I was pleased to nail it early on in my stay on this great island. Next up was a Myiarchus flycatcher perched nearby – Puerto Rican Flycatcher. Result! A few Scaly-naped Pigeons were around, along with Zenaida Dove and Common Ground Dove, whilst a fine Northern Parula was also present. 

Puerto Rican Woodpecker - cracker!

Walking back to the cabins a Puerto Rican Woodpecker flew in and landed on a wooden telegraph post before moving uphill to some palm trees where I crept up and got really close views and some decent shots. This was my bird of the day, and an incredible woodpecker that I did not realise from the field guide was such a good looking bird.