GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND 



Since Grand Bahama Island is less than a half hour by 

 air from West Palm Beach International Airport, it seems 

 worth while to include this area in "Where to. Find Birds 

 in Florida." Since 1959 the Florida Audubon Society has 

 conducted four-day tours in November to Grand Bahama, 

 and members of the Society visit the island frequently 

 during the year. 



Grand Bahama is a narrow reef, running east and west, 

 at the northwest corner of the Bahama chain. * It is 

 eighty-three miles long. The main towns are West End, 

 and Freeport, thirty mils- to the east of West End. 



The Grand Bahama Potel of the Jack Tar chain has 

 dedicated its 2000 icrej as a wildlife sanctuary in coopera- 

 tion with the Florida Audubon Society. The Grand Bahama 

 Hotel grounds, which include the airport at West End, have 

 a fine golf course, bordered with native trees and shrubs, 

 this growth forming barriers between some of the fairways. 

 There are several artificial ponds on the course. A large 

 marsh extends along the south edge of the property next 

 to the sea. A tremendous quantity and variety of flowering 

 trees and shrubs have been introduced to the hotel grounds, 

 thus providing habitat for many species of birds. 



Along the shores of the hotel grounds. Brown Pelicans, 

 Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls, and Royal Terns are 

 found. Frigatebirds sail overhead. On the beaches, edges 

 of ponds, and flooded parts of the golf course, in season 

 many species of shore birds, including Upland Plover, Stilt, 

 Golden and Black-bellied Plovers, Stilt Sandpipers, and an 

 occasional White-rumped Sandpiper, are seen. Herons of 

 several species, ibises, grebes, American and Least Bitterns, 

 Common and Purple Gallinules, rails, and ducks, including 

 the White-cheeked Pintail, can be observed about the golf 

 course ponds, as well as Least and Gull-billed Terns. 



The nectar-bearing trees and shrubs attract the Cuban 

 Emerald Hummingbird by the dozens, and even greater 

 numbers of the Bahama Bananaquit. A variety of migrating 

 and wintering warblers is found in season. Thickets of 

 native shrubbery near the hotel provide habitat for Thick- 

 billed Vireo, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Red-legged Thrush, 

 Bahama Yellowthroat, Stripe-headed Tanager, and Greater 

 , Antillean Bullfinch. Thousands of Palm and Myrtle War- 

 blers feed on the golf course during migration and in 

 winter. Lark Sparrows and Water Pipits have also been 

 found in such location, mingling with Ground and Zenaida 

 Doves, and Black-faced Grassquits. Painted and Indigo 

 Bimtings winter here, and Goldfinches were reported here 

 for the first time in the winter of 1962-63. Ninety per 

 cent of the birds listed for Grand Bahama have been found 

 on the hotel premises. The local flycatchers, Loggerhead 

 and Stolid, and tlie Greater Antillean Pewee, are present 

 throughout the year but the Grey Kingbird usually disap- 

 pears in winter. One discovers occasionally a vagrant West- 

 ern Kingbird, or flocks of Eastern Kingbirds in migration. 



The Bahama Swallow is a common summer resident, and 

 during migration thousands of North American Swallows 

 will be "liawking" over the golf course. During the winter 

 the ubiquitous Northern Mockingbird is joined by many 

 Catbirds and often by thrushes. Bobolinks are abundant mi- 

 grants. The Piircon Hawk is a common winter resident. 



RALPH E. LAWRENCE 



The Kirtland's Warbler which breeds only in a limited region 

 in Michigan spends the winter in the Bahamas, where it has been 

 observed on Florida Audubon tours. 



'Many of the birds already mentioned are found in 

 shrubbery bordering the main road from West End to 

 Freeport, and beyond. A careful watch should be kept for 

 the Kirtland's Warbler, State Bird of Michigan, which 

 winters on Grand Bahama, and has been found near the 

 West End Airport and in pinewoods about five miles east 

 of Freeport. 



Twenty-five miles from West End is the Pinelands 

 Wildhfe Sanctuary under the three-way sponsorship of the 

 Colonial Research Institute, the Garden Club of Freeport, 

 and the Florida Audubon Society. This sanctuary contains 

 some of the largest pines (Pmus caribaea) on the island and 

 is designated by large, rustic signs along the main road. 

 This is the place to look for the Olive-capped Warbler as 

 well as the local races of the Yellow-throated and Pine 

 Warblers. Watch here also for the Brown-headed Nuthatch, 

 found in the Bahamas only on this island, and for the 

 Bahaman race of the Hairy Woodpecker. Flycatchers, 

 such as the Wood Pewee, like this Pinewoods, as does the 

 Stripe-headed Tanager, one of the most beautiful birds 

 of the Caribbean. Near Freeport, and beyond to the east, 

 watch for the Bahama Woodstar, one of our most attractive 

 and interesting hummingbirds. One might also find a West 

 Indian Red-bellied Woodpecker, a rare bird on this island. 



Since the Florida Audubon members, chiefly on their 

 November Tours, have added in four years more than 

 fifty species to the birds listed for Grand Bahama, there is 

 always the adventurous thrill of adding perhops still another 

 new species on a brief visit to this enchanting island. 



C. Russell Mason 



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