Bananaquits Bath Time

Posted on August 15, 2014 by marta

Bananaquit enjoying the water droplets.

Harbour Club Villas has quite a few birds now and this is an never ending source of photos for me. Another hot, sunny day on island and so I sprayed down our pepper and tomato plants. Within minutes all kinds of birds showed up to enjoy fluttering about in the droplets on the small palms and Washingtonians. They would fluff up their feathers to expose bare skin and rapidly flick their wings in the droplets collected on the fronds. Tough to try and get photos that are in focus because they were moving so fast. Here’s a selection of bananaquit photos.

A Washingtonian palm frond makes a perfect bird bath.

A lot of hopping about from frond to frond

Two little bananaquits enjoying a bath on a hot Provo day

Love this photo of a bananaquit on a palm frond

Fluttering wings picking up water droplets

A natural bird bath

Providenciales has numerous birds and the bananaquit is perhaps one of the more colourful small birds. I love to watch them especially around Harbour Club Villas pool area where many of our guests and bird watching guests can sit, enjoy and capture them in their photographs.

Call us for more information.

Marta

Birds at Harbour Club Villas

Posted on March 11, 2014 by marta

A beautiful Bahama Woodstar hummingbirds flies to the Dwarf Poinciana flowers for nectar.

Activity around the pool at Harbour Club Villas has been amazing. I sit there often trying to capture all our birds coming in to feed from the variety of flowering plants. Our villa guests too are taking photos of the Hummingbirds and Bananaquits that are always there twittering and flying from perch to perch. Our resident Green Heron often comes for drinks and preens himself by the pool. He’ll squawk at you if he doesn’t like you enjoying “his” private pool!! We have Mourning Doves that peck at the gravel under the neem trees at the top of the driveway. They must be finding food there and also seen this week was the Northern Mockingbird.

Pretty little bananaquit sitting in our Tamarind tree…see the fruit…….found in my favourite Worcestershire Sauce.

We see Mourning Doves every day pecking at something underneath the neem trees.

The Northern Mockingbird is locally called “Preacher Bird”

Our resident Green Heron preening and grooming by what he thinks is his own private swimming pool!

The Island Honeysuckle attracts many birds to our pool area at Harbour Club Villas.

My first sighting of a Cuban Crow in one of our Palm trees……uncommon to see on Provo and has a bizarre gobbling cackle which is how I tracked him down at the villas.

A baby Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher just learning to fly……….so cute!

The Gray Kingbird comes to the Turks and Caicos to breed in the summertime.

The American Kestrel known as Sparrowhawk is commonly seen here year round.

The Yellow Warbler male has reddish brown streaks and lives and breeds in the Turks and Caicos year round.

And just because I love them so much, another photo of the Bahama Woodstar hummingbird that guests can watch daily by the pool at Harbour Club Villas.

Birdwatchers have so many birds they can see when on holiday and staying at Harbour Club Villas. The surrounding area has other water birds as well so have those cameras ready!

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Posted on September 11, 2012 by marta

This juvenile yellow crowned heron came for a visit and a drink from the pool.

It’s been so hot of late and this juvenile, yellow crowned night heron has been visiting the pool at Harbour Club Villas to cool off and to get a drink. Juvenile night-herons have different plumage from the adults. The juvenile is grayish-brown overall with thin spotting on the back and upperwings. This heron is a year round breeding resident in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The adults look quite different and are dark gray over all, with black on the face and a large, white ear patch. The crown is also white. In breeding season, they get white, thread-like plumes on the back of the head and long, plumes of feathers on the back.

The adult night heron has a thread like plume on the back of its head

Yellow-crowned night herons acquire adult plumage by two years of age. It makes a living catching crabs and especially likes land crabs, and will even dig into their burrows to catch them. Although primarily nocturnal it does sometimes hunt in the day, and can be found quietly stalking through the dry bush looking for a meal. They’ve been seen eating cockroaches too.

He didn't like me approaching him and kept making warning noises.

Juvenile night heron with gorgeous brownish grey spotted feathering

Piercing yellow-orange eye

Preening yellow crowned night heron sitting on the pool fence at Harbour Club Villas.

looks pretty fierce here as he gets ready to fly off.

Love the long plumes from the back of his head.

Our guests at Harbour Club Villas are frequently surprised by both Green Herons and Yellow Crowned Night Herons as they fly in to drink water from the pool. It’s lovely to see and watch them as they squawk and make their presence known. It’s almost like the pool belongs to them and how dare these non flying creatures be allowed to lounge around at will!!

Happy bird watching……….the Turks and Caicos Islands has many species of birds and this is just one of them.

Marta

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com

Birds on French Cay

Posted on April 23, 2010 by marta

An unusual shaped log is the perfect perch for this group of Brown Noddies

An unusual shaped log is the perfect perch for this group of Brown Noddy birds

I managed to slowly walk quite close to these birds all sitting on a large piece of drift wood. I looked them up in Richard Ground’s Bird book and found out they were a sea bird from the Tern family called Brown Noddy.

Note the numerous crabs on the log upright....not sure what they were doing.

As I got closer I couldn’t believe how many crabs were scrambling on the part of the log closest to the water. The birds weren’t at all bothered by my approach and continued perching on the drift wood.

This Brown Noddy seems to be scolding "her" mate???? He's turning a deaf ear to her anyways!

The Brown Noddy is the largest of the Terns with a white forehead blending to gray nape, and small white (lower) half-eye ring. Noddies range throughout the world where the seas are warm. They breed on land in large colonies usually remote islands such as French Cay.

Here's a close up of this beautiful seabird...the Brown Noddy

Sea birds on French Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands

Look at the clear water and the spectacular colours.....unbelieveable.

There were more birds but that’s for another time.

Happy bird watching.

Marta

http://www.diving.tc

Flamingos Part 2

Posted on June 2, 2009 by marta

Greater Flamingos in the salt ponds of Grand Turk

On an all too short visit to Grand Turk, a girl friend and I spent at least an hour getting these shots of the Flamingos in the town salina. They didn’t seem too worried about us and just went about their business of searching for food.

The West Indian Flamingo is part of the crest of the Turks and Caicos Islands and stand on either side of the shield.

The flamingo’s long legs and neck make them look quite awkward but it enables them to inhabit deeper water than other wading birds. Their specialized upside down beaks contain rows of bristles (lamellae) through which they strain the water for minute organisms which they can swallow without raising their heads.

There were quite a few flamingos wading the salt ponds on this particular day.

The Town Salina in Cockburn Town, Grand Turk, is surrounded by people, houses and roads. Still, this doesn’t disturb the flamingos which like to feed there. The flamingos are often joined by pelicans and herons.

Birdwatching is a favourite occupation here in our islands. If you are a bird watcher or birder, come see all the different varieties of birds found in the Turks and Caicos Islands

Marta

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com

Flamingos on Flamingo Lake

Posted on June 1, 2009 by marta

I glanced off our deck and spotted three specks in the lake and when I grabbed the binoculars.......sure enough there were three flamingos.

Today there were three West Indian or Greater Flamingos out in the lake and that’s something we don’t often see. Usually they are further down and more in Juba Salina. I grabbed my camera and ran down to take some photos. It was interesting watching the flamingos feed as they would do a little stomping dance and then put their heads in the water. Apparently they feed on small organisms which they strain out of the mud by filtering it through their unusual, upside-down beaks.

One flamingo was quite a bright pink and the other much paler.

North Caicos has a large flock of flamingos with as many as 1000 birds inhabiting Pumpkin Bluff Pond better known as Flamingo Pond.

The last time I took photos of Flamingos near our villas was just after Hurricane Ike

If you’re a bird watcher or birder, come and see the large variety of birds in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Hopefully you’ll catch a glimpse of these beautiful flamingos.

See you soon on Provo,

Marta

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com

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MyTurksAndCaicosBlog.com

Turks and Caicos Vacation, Travel, Fishing, and Diving

Tag Archives: bird watching

Bananaquits Bath Time

Birds at Harbour Club Villas

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Birds on French Cay

Flamingos Part 2

Flamingos on Flamingo Lake