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Bonaire’s Parrot Team

by Sam Williams

The project has grown and now we are ten strong. They include people from England, Wales, the USA and Portugal and it's a crazy time. The aim of having lots of people here is so we can cover a large amount of the island and search for nests. It works too. We have another 15 locations where birds have been seen going in and out of cavities. Of course nothing is confirmed until there are eggs but it is very exciting. There are also a further 10 or so locations which are of a high priority for further observations.

In the morning we are all out in the field in different locations watching for parrots and seeing what they are getting up to. We are looking for nest prospecting and any other clue the birds are getting in the mood. The volunteers have come out around the time the birds started breeding last year but it seems the parrots are a little later this year so it isn't all that easy to pin down particular pairs and be sure of what their intentions are.

The logistics are a nightmare and I've become rudely aware how much work managing a team of people can be. The team is accommodated in three houses which are about as separate as they could be on this island. We have three cars and twice a day we have to get everybody into different areas of the island using the least amount of fuel we can and wasting as little time as possible, phew!

The afternoons have been spent doing a variety of other activities as the parrots are much less consistent at that time. So the parrot team have been learning plant species and then using their new found knowledge to conduct feeding observations. All good ecological training! We've been to a random selection of cliffs and searched them for cavities too. We then measure the holes and will allow me to define the parrots cavity preferences because I'll then be able to look at used verses unused sites. It's not all work though and we do allow the team to have some day off to enjoy Bonaire!

Posted by Sam Williams on 04/21 at 12:35 PM
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Season Preparations

by Sam Williams

Doing nest inspections to check on chicks is a important part of my research here on Bonaire. I am looking at a lot of different things that may influence the reproductive success of the amazon pairs. So I need to know how the chicks are doing, what is causing them problems, if they have been predated or if they get to fledge.

Last year there were some of the inspections were fairly time consuming and I wanted to make them more efficient. In some cases this would involve putting in better anchor points to attach the rope too. This was not difficult. For the overhang nest there would be a lot more work. If you are unfamiliar with the overhang nest look back as some of my posts from last year and January 2007.
Last year getting to this nest involve either a dangerous ladder climb (with safety rope) or rope swinging like a pendulum in order to grab the rock and haul oneself towards the nest entrance. Both Rowan and I wanted to make access easier by simply drilling a few holes and placing some climbing bolts so that as you abseiled you could attach the rope to each successive bolt and descend beneath the overhang but when we did this we found it was slow and took a lot of effort.

As a result we came up with another idea. One now abseils with a long pole on the end of which is a caribeaner. Once at the right height you simply clip a bolt near the nest entrance and pull yourself in. Easier said than done but it works and is the simplest way we’ve come up with so far. These are the kind of things it is important too get sorted before the birds start prospecting. Once that happens we don’t want to be disturbing them.

We also fitted a infra red camera to the overhang nest. the nest has an entrance and a second hole which is to small for the birds but perfect for the camera. We’ll be following the development of the chicks and the behaviour of the breeding female as much as we can with this bit of technology. We’ll also be showing movies from inside this and other nests on our Bonaire parrot project website. http://www.parrotwatch.org. We hope you’ll take a look so you can see more of what we are doing.

Posted by Sam Williams on 04/07 at 12:22 PM
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Back Home

by Sam Williams

In a matter of hours the British winter I was struggling through has turned into Caribbean sunshine and I am now a very happy lad! So I’m back on Bonaire and it feels like home. Seeing the parrots again has been wonderful. If you have never watched wild parrots fly then you really owe it to yourself and to your companions. It is amazing!

So this season is going to be a busy one. In a few weeks we have a team of volunteers coming out here to conduct nest searches. There is a lot of the island Rowan and I simply did not get to cover last year. So we have recruited a bunch of folk in the hope we’ll get a better feeling of how many birds are nesting and to boost our sample sizes. We’ll be following the successes of the pairs and getting to know their chicks like they were our own. (That’s not so scientific eh! But that’s how it is for me!)

I will again be looking at the habitat and what the birds do in it. This year I get to watch the birds themselves a bit more as I’ll be doing feeding observations and working out what they are eating in different places and how long it takes them to process the different food items. More on that another time.

The island seems a lot drier than last year and this will certainly have an effect on the birds. In truth I have seen a difference already. There are birds in the town and they don’t normally go there until a little later in the year. We’ll have to see how it all comes together – I’m so excited, I can’t wait!!!!!

Posted by Sam Williams on 03/24 at 12:21 PM
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Winter FLocks in War and Peace

by Sam Williams

In my last update I wrote about the details of the very important Annual Bonaire Parrot count as well as some of the other jobs I had tried to cram into two hectic weeks on the island. This posting will focus more on the birds and the fabulous experiences I had seeing them in their winter flocks.

Seeing the parrots in their off season was a magnificent experience for me. I had heard of (relatively) large winter flocks (100+ birds) but I hadn't really thought what that would be like to see. Well, in truth, it isn't just the seeing. That doesn't describe it enough. There is just so much going on and so much noise too.

I would be at a roost before dawn. The birds woke up pretty much at 0632 or a minute or two either side. By 0640 some would be flying and by 0700 (probably) or 0715 (definitely) the roost was empty. After that I'd get myself to one of the major feeding areas for my regular Amazon parrot fix. Birds would be everywhere and there would be so much going on there is no way one person could see it all. I was juggling with four pieces of equipment to try and follow and record mere fractions of what I was seeing. I'd have my binoculars, of course, then I would have my photographic camera but I also had the project's video camera so I would be trying to get some footage on that. Then if I thought I saw a bird with rings I'd try and get the scope on them to have a closer look. It was of course too much. There was a crazy amount of activity and I couldn't help but laugh at the whole situation.

Within the flocks it appeared that pairs would stick together. Those good ol' monogamous birds, Rowan will be pleased. I got to see two birds that I took to be a pair, and one (the male?) was feeding the other (the female?). It could have also been an adult feeding a fairly mature chick but my gut feeling was that that wasn't the case. There would be other pairs interacting too. They would be preening each other and in that moment it was all nice and sweet, ah! But these are Amazons and a second later they would be at war! They'd be hitting each other's beaks, putting their feet up, grabbing each other and even knocking themselves off perches. It was highly entertaining but pure madness.

By far the best experience I had was one evening as the birds finished their business at the feeding area and were about to move off to the roost. This particular location is a former fruit plantation with a bunch of mango and other trees. Te main area for the parrots is maybe 100m by 30m. I guess there were over 100 birds and there was the usual amount of chaos and noise, with parrot's babbling and wereing all over the place. Then in a second the whole place went silent. After a moment of surprise I realised someone had seen something and they didn't like it. I looked up to the sky and there, sure enough, was huge falcon, a Peregrine! In the next moment one and then all the parrots together, left the area to the west. Over one hundred parrots screaming their alarm and flying off. It was amazing and certainly something I will never forget.

Posted by Sam Williams on 02/15 at 01:54 AM
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