Now those Bahamas

It's been about a month since I got back so I better put some pictures up or I probably won't get to it. For those of you that didn't know, for the first three weeks of January I went to the Islands of Great Abaco and Great Inagua in the Bahamas. I was going for a conference and to collect data. It as a pretty good time but I was also alone and somewhat stressed because of time and money restraints.

Before leaving for the Bahamas I had emailed a fellow parrot researcher about my trip and she hooked me up with a lady that often gives free lodging to scientists on Abaco. So I emailed this nice lady asking how to find the place and this is what she said.

hi rryan, yes we have a place for you in little harbour. you will love it. just go to little harbour and ask for allison. she has the key. i will come down in the evening and meet you. have a safe trip.

I've never been to Abaco before and I didn't have a rental car reserved so I wasn't sure what I was going to do when I got there. I wasn't to worried though since I know the islands are small. Abaco is a big island. Fortunately for me, on the plane from Miami I overheard some other people that sounded like they were scientists too. So I asked them if they were going to the conference. It turns out, there was one guy (Greg) not only going to the conference, but staying with the same lady. He offered to share a taxi into Marsh Harbour and then help me find Little Harbour.

The first place we stopped was the Friends of the Environment Office. This place is awesome for scientists. They have wifi, copiers, telephones, a conference room and they will help you find whatever you need.

A few hours later we went to Little Harbour to find where we were staying. On the way we stopped to get some beer, a peace offering for the keepers of Little Harbour. I owed Greg for paying for the taxi so I bought him a couple beers too. He went ahead and drank them in the car. It was kind of weird to be driving on the left side of the road and drinking beer at the same time but I was the passenger and I didn't know where I was going so I didn't say anything.

In Little Harbour we, of course, went straight to the bar. That is where we found our hosts. Bob talks and looks a lot like Red Green. Accept that he sometimes yells at his wife and I get a much kinder impression of Red. Later I found out he had just given up cigarettes so that probably had something to do with it.










This is the place they gave me courtesy of some absent, mysterious benefactor names Walkingstick. It was really great.



The house was wired for both 12volt and 220volt electricity. I had to watch the batteries to make sure I wasn't using more power than the solar panels put in. There was no heat or water heater, just an on demand gas water heater. It got quite cold while I was there and there was no where to warm up. The rental car didn't have heat either.


I came back really late one night and there was a flock of geese sleeping in the yard. I almost ran over them. The all woke up dazed and staring at me. Then they waddled out of the way and i drove up to the house.









The next day I went hiking through the jungle looking for bird sounds, and i found these cool epiphytes.





Abaco jungle

This picture is looking strait down into a limestone cavity. This is what the parrots nest in.

The first couple days I was on Abaco I was attending a conference put on by Friends of the Environment. It featured scientists doing research from all over the Bahamas. On Sunday we took a field trip to Hole-in-the-Wall which is at the southern most part of Abaco. I wanted to try to see some parrots before going down there so I drove the rental car through the park. It got pretty well scratched up driving through the pine forest.

Abaco National Park

This lighthouse was first constructed in 1836.

People lived here until 1995. Now it is automated and solar powered.

The Hole in the Wall

The Great Abaco Hiway is really straight. I guess there are kids that like to race down the hiway on the weekends.

Here are some pictures of some parrots I saw at Bahamas Palms Shores on Abaco.



I took these pictures on the Sunday morning before going to Hole-in-the Wall. They were the best behaved parrots of my trip.



Here is a sample of their beautiful cacophony.




After that I spent another four days driving about 800 miles looking for more parrots. To see parrot you have to be out in the morning or evening when they are making the most noise. I drove around the different housing communities with the windows down and all of my gear around my neck. I didn't see any I could record on Monday, Tuesday. On Wednesday evening I finally got a break and saw a big flock. I think I got all the data I need from that. But I still haven't had appropriate time to analyze the recordings.


This is the garbage dump at Crossing Rocks. I heard some parrots back here but I didn't see them.

A number of times I could see a flock out across the coppice and i even tried to run after them. But the coppice is so thick that it was impossible to keep up with them and I usually only came back with stickers.

Here is a hermit crab that I recorded one day while looking for woodpeckers and hummingbirds.

That was my stay on Abaco. On Friday I travelled to Inagua and that was a totally different situation. I'll post pictures from there later.