Caroni Rice Fields 4/2--9 Life Birds, 6 Year Birds

SCARLET IBIS
(as if you couldn't tell)
Photo: Shari Zirlin

After picking us up at the airport and taking us to the hotel to get settled in, Kim took Lon, Peggy & us to explore the Caroni Rice Fields and the road along the canal of the Caroni Swamp, a short ride to the west. I think our first official life bird may have been TROPICAL MOCKINGBIRD at the airport, but I'm counting GREATER ANI which we found on a wire above the road. I was feeling a bit dazed to be birding so soon after traveling. It always takes me a while to incorporate the idea that the I'm here, actually at the there I've been heading to.

MASKED CARDINAL

We saw a number of RUDDY GROUND-DOVES which I at first mixed up with the Common Ground Doves we've seen in the south, but turned out to be lifers. At the entrance to the Coroni Swamp we saw MASKED CARDINAL (juvenile) eating a banana, and while walking along the canal, Kim spotted, deep in the mangroves, a stunning SCARLET IBIS, looking like a stop light in the green forest. 

We also heard what sounded sort of like a Clapper Rail, only a little slower, and up until recently, it was a Clapper Rail but the rail complex has undergone some taxonomical reordering, so this bird turned out to be another lifer, MANGROVE RAIL (appropriately enough in the mangroves).

Earlier, in one of the fields, we had our first rarity, a Snail Kite (have seen them in Florida), which apparently doesn't visit the area that often at that time of year. We went back a day later, re-found the bird and Kim photographed it for the record.

9 life birds, 6 year birds, and our suitcases weren't even unpacked. A great start.

22 species
Great Egret  10
Snowy Egret  5
Little Blue Heron  6
Cattle Egret  6
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron  1
SCARLET IBIS  1
Black Vulture  2
Turkey Vulture  3
Osprey  2
Snail Kite  1     
MANGROVE RAIL 1
Rock Pigeon  200
RUDDY GROUND-DOVE 6
GREATER ANI 3
Smooth-billed Ani  10
Great Kiskadee  1
TROPICAL KINGBIRD 1
WHITE-WINGED SWALLOW 12
TROPICAL MOCKINGBIRD  3
Northern Waterthrush  1
MASKED CARDINAL 1
CARIB GRACKLE 5