Airport Birding Chart

Airport Birding Chart

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BIRD SPECIES observed during twice-weekly airport bird patrols Nov 2010 to Nov 2011 Gerrard Smith Int’l Airport
Cayman Brac. SAMPLE ONLY: Showing 1 ONLY out of 8 approx patrols per month (Approx 30 minute patrols)
ALL SPECIES 2010 2011
NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT
19th 21st 24th 27th 6th* 3rd 22nd 12th 17th 22nd 18th** 9th
Pied-billed
Grebe		 1 2
White-tailed Tropicbird***
Brown Booby 1 2
Brown Pelican [do not count: this species was observed in the ponds AFTER the official counting ceased]
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga 1
Magnificent Frigatebird 2 1 1 2 1
Least Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 1 2 5 1 1
Great Egret 8 8 3 11 2
Snowy Egret 1 1 4 10 1 25
Little Blue Heron 1 30 2 2 2
Tricolored Heron 2 6 11
Reddish Egret 1
Cattle Egret 2 5 6 11 3 18
Green Heron 1 1 1 1 1 1
Yellow-crowned Night Heron 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
White Ibis 2
Glossy Ibis 1
West Indian Whistling Duck 2 2 4 1 16 6
Gadwall
Blue-winged Teal 20 6 20 40 40 27 60
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup 1 1
Osprey 1
Northern Harrier 1
American Kestrel 1 1 1
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon 1
Sora 1
Common Moorhen 3 5 6 2 1 8 3 2 4 1 4
American Coot 50 16 3 65 40
Black-bellied Plover 2 1 1 2 6 8 4
Semi-palmated Plover 1 3
Kildeer 1
Black-necked Stilt 45 25 2 16 12 19 48 70
Greater Yellowlegs 1 20 10 4
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Willet 4 4
Spotted
Sandpiper
Upland
sandpiper		 1
Semi-palmated
sandpiper		 1
Ruddy Turnst1
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper 20
Short-billed Dowitcher 1
Laughing Gull 1
Royal Tern 1 3
White-crowned Pigeon 1 1 3 2 8
White-winged Dove Jan (20)
Zenaida Dove 1 1 1 2
Common Ground-Dove 2 1 2 3 7 9
Cayman Parrot
Mangrove Cuckoo
Smooth-billed ani 5 22 5 4 8 7 4 10 11 26 23 5
Antillean Nighthawk
Belted Kingfisher 1
Caribbean Elaenia 1
Gray Kingbird 5 1 5 21 1
Loggerhead Kingbird
Cliff Swallow 12 2 1
Cave
Swallow
Barn Swallow 20 50 75 21 4 28 32
Gray Catbirds 5
Northern Mockingbird 1 2 7 1 4 5 6 7 8 3
Prairie Warbler
Vitelline Warbler 1 1
Palm Warbler 2 2 12 2
Northern Waterthrush 2 2
Common Yellowthroat
Bananaquit
Yellow-faced
Grassquit
UNIDENTIFIED: Passerines on the wing and some species of shorebirds are not listed, being hard to confirm
BIRDERS: Isabelle Brown, Thuyi Tin Aung, Wallace Platts, Edna Platts, Gene Edwards, Bonnie Edwards,
Karen Fraser, Kathleen Bodden-Harris, Sue Ingham
[Some served for all 12 months, others for shorter periods]
OBJECTIVES of the birders:
  1. Improve identification skills
  2. Learn more about birds in their environment on Cayman Brac
  3. Provide useful and required information to CIAA (airport authority)
OTHER NOTES
  1. Nomenclature follows checklist of Birds of the Cayman Islands (c. P.E. Bradley 2000)
  2. Chickens were found within the fenced airport area more often than not; some other wildlife (1 cat, 1 iguana).
  3. The reference book Birds of Cayman Brac by Keith Prescott proved very reliable and helpful, along with the standard references: Bradley
    (Birds of CI); Raffaele, ed. (Birds of the WI); National Geographic (Birds of
    N. America) and others
  4. This sheet shows selected patrols only. Statistical analysis was left to outside consultants on Grand Cayman.
  5. The ponds are vital for the health of our environment, already severely compromised. Why fly to a barren island?
  6. The best note-taking evolved when we divided the runway into only 3 sections — east, central and west.
* Note re March 6th
On this date we surveyed from outside the airport fence. This produced somewhat different results but was still within the mandate
** Note re September 18th
Having 5 birders we deployed 2 of them outside the fence. They produced the same birds as the others, plus semi-palmated sandpiper, brown boobies, g-b herons and a s-b dowitcher.
*** The explanation for birds listed but not numbered in the columns is: we show only one patrol for each month, not eight.
My little car did that?
My little car did THAT?

j.w. platts
Cayman Brac, Cayman Islands
20120116

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