Up and out for 7am in search of Ridgway’s Hawk. We headed over to the usual area where we heard the hawk in the distance behind a dense woodland which we couldn’t navigate around due to the stream becoming a torrential river due to recent heavy rains. As we scanned the surrounding area we picked up Hispaniolan Woodpecker, many Palmchats, Hispaniolan Mango, Black-crowned Palm Tanager, Vervain Hummingbird, and watched a White-necked Crow uttering its raucous and more than slightly comical call.
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| Palmchat |
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| Hispaniolan Woodpecker |
At breakfast the heavens opened and the first of many heavy showers put in an appearance. This was all well and good whilst we were at the lodge having breakfast but once out in the field we had to take shelter many times. On top of that, we had to wade up to our knees numerous times to reach the clearing where a Ridgway’s Hawk was hanging out, thanks to the knowledge of local guide Juan Cespedes. And what views we had of this super rarity – flying overhead and landing in a tree right next to us.
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| Ridgway's Hawk |
In fact it was present the whole time we birded the large clearing where West Indian Whistling Duck, a cracking Antillean Piculet posed nicely for ages, Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Parula, American Redstart and a fine Cape May Warbler were all seen well. Not a bad haul and there was much relief all round at seeing the hawk, in fact we had a thoroughly enjoyable time despite getting soaked with numerous extremely heavy showers and wading through the river and across the flooded field. We returned to the quirky hotel to dry off and had an hour or so until lunch.
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| West Indian Whistling Duck |
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| Antillean Piculet |
In the late afternoon after a siesta we walked down the lane into the open area and beside the fields where we found a pair of Hispaniolan Lizard Cuckoos posing beside the road. Another cracking Cape May Warbler was at eye-level feeding in a tree, with a Broad-billed Tody close by.
We also found a flock of Village Weavers mixing with a colony of Palmchats. Next to us was a tall ‘stump’ of a palm tree with numerous holes in it being inhabited by 7 male and a female Hispaniolan Woodpeckers. We walked up behind the lodge but couldn’t find anything else new, but did enjoy some very close perched Turkey Vultures (so ugly!) and another tody. So we decided to have an early dinner – must admit fitting in 3 sit-down hotel meals into my stomach in a day is not easy!
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| Hispaniolan Woodpeckers |
After dinner we drove back along the entrance road and enjoyed crippling views of Ashy-faced Owl to make it a 10 endemic day!
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| Ashy-faced Owl |
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