FIRST NEW BIRD FOR 2018 — NEW BIRDS, RARE BIRDS AND RECORD BROKEN!

By Michael Ryan

Steve Mlodinow is an avid birder, and a checker for E-Bird. He visited St.Kitts in the middle of March this year, 2018.

Although I did not meet Steve, I heard about his findings through Percy Hanley. Steve visited St.Kitts and as with most birders, was pleasantly surprised by the number of different bird species that he spotted here. After all, we do have about 10 different ponds!

The find of his visit was two Bonaparte Gulls at Greatheeds Pond. This was the first sighting of any Bonaparte Gulls in St.Kitts! Bonaparte Gulls are very rarely seen this far South. Regretfully no photographs were taken, so we have shown a generic photo (credit Wikipedia).

Steve also reported seeing a Black Headed Gull (first sighting since 2001) a Sandwich Tern (last seen 1998), American Widgeon (last seen 2012), Chestnut-sided Warbler, and an Indigo Bunting (last seen 2011).

Steve also reported seeing 72 different species in one day, surpassing the previous record of 61 set in 2011. Wow, that is a lot of birds!

Well done Steve! It just goes to show that there are a lot of unseen and unreported birds passing through every year. With a few more birders, The Federation’s birding list could increase significantly.