Jamaica Day 3: Down by the river where the birds all sing

The trees were all in bloom and the sun lit the flowers of this one beautifully.

In the morning Chris and I went down to the river by the fishing village. As we walked down the road towards it I was almost relieved at the many DOR(dead on road) cane toads. These are an invasive species that is poisonous to eat and which kills native species this way.

Birds for the morning:
Cattle egret

Male cattle egret

Nest

Boat tailed grackles
Brown pelican
Great egret

Great egret with a fishing hook stuck in it's mouth

 Common moorhen

Common moorhen

Great blue heron
Little blue heron
Yellow crowned night heron

Yellow-crowned night heron

Black crowned night heron
* hooded warbler
kinglet sp.  
parrot sp.
Tree swallows
Vervain hummingbird
American redstart

Redstart action shot

Black and white warbler

 Bannanaquit
 Loggerhead kingbird
Grey kingbird

The grey kingbird scopes out its next prey

then tossed the dragonfly up into the air and it disappeared like a natural magic trick

Red-eyed vireo?
Yellow warbler
hawk sp.
American kestrel
Magnificent frigate
Scarab beetle (Gymnetic lanius)-another endemic to Jamaica!

Scarab beetle (Gymnetis lanius)

White crowned pigeon
Red-billed streamertail

We spent the afternoon bumming around the beach. We got very scrumptious Jamaican patties from the vendor that walks a bike up and down the beach. He sells them for 100 J$ and you get a frozen juice.

At the beach we saw:
Light tan coloured crabs
Magnificent frigate
Royal terns
Swallows
Northern mockingbirds
Jumping spiders

Small jumping spider that was quite metallic

It started pouring rain in the afternoon (around 2pm) and we stayed around home. Hesran took us looking for frogs near the edges of Royal Palm Reserve. Many Jamaican's including Hesran appear to think that cane toads are frogs and tree frogs are toads.  I found it very interesting that the names were switched. We did find three new species of frogs (our definition of frogs). There were a lot of small frogs near a small spring but they were quick and hard to catch. A few of them slipped through my fingers before we finally got one to photograph.

Gecko sp.

Cuban flathead frog (Eleutherodactylus planirostris) ?

Jamaican masked frog (Eleutherodactylus luteolus)

Eleutherodactylus pantoni

 As we were driving away and scanning the road shoulders for frogs Chris got a glimpse of a blue crab. Hesran caught the small guys and our focus changed to a crab hunt. There were two species of crabs in the mangroves but the other doesn't taste good. We got to see them fighting which was pretty cool. Throughout the night we caught 19 crabs. We kept these alive in a large barrel for dinner tomorrow.

Chris and the big crab

Barrel a le crab

When we were out we heard a lot of things calling including grasshoppers, crickets, frogs, nighthawks? and other insects. We saw fireflies that glowed brighter and more orange than in Canada.

Back in Redground we saw a Jamaican owl in the backyard. I was getting ready for bed  and hear my name being frantically called by Hesran. I hear the word owl and jump up (not wearing pants) and run outside with my camera. Despite my lack of noticing I'm not wearing pants and my rush outside I was still to slow fumbling with my camera to get a picture of the owl. I am hoping to get it later tonight or tomorrow. I hope it sticks around.