BASICS


BASICS: "Hummingbirds.....where is the person, I ask, who, on observing this glittering fragment of the rainbow, would not pause, admire, and turn his mind with reverence..." (J. J. Audubon).
This is a blog about my summer life at the Baiting Hollow Hummingbird Sanctuary, at my winter garden, Calypso, in the Bahamas, and aspects of life in general.
This private sanctuary is now permanently closed to the general public, as a result of a lawsuit brought by a neighbor. Only my friends and personal guests may visit (paul.adams%stonybrook.edu).

Saturday, April 28, 2018

plovers and whistling ducks nesting

As we get ready to leave Calypso, I've still not found another hummingbird nest, but a rare pair of West Indian Whistling Ducks have hatched ducklings on the pond, and a pair of Wilson's plover are incubating three speckled eggs in a scrape at the top of our beach.

Here are the ducks:


The plover eggs:


one of the plover parents sitting on the eggs


and a parent near the nest pretending that there's no eggs.


Wednesday, April 18, 2018

hummer firecracker



Though hummingbirds have started to arrive on Long Island (can any of my readers confirm this?), we are still at Calypso on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera, waiting for warmer weather and green leaves back home. I filmed this yesterday.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Male Bahama Woodstar

My son Rafael, an avid bird photographer (see http://mainebirder2018.blogspot.com), is here at Calypso. Here are a couple of his nice shots of a Woodstar adult male, and also one of a Cape May warbler.
Ruby-Throat Hummers have now reached Long Island -  http://hummingbirds.net/map.html





Tuesday, April 3, 2018

they are almost here!

Here's today's migration map  from Lanny Chambers (from http://hummingbirds.net/map.html) - hummers are very close to Long Island!


and here's what he will look like