We had a great two weeks of perfect weather. Everything went smoothly! On the birding side, we saw 57 species, 9 of which were lifers. The bird I really wanted the most took several days to locate: Fnally found several dozen White-checked Pintail Ducks......where else.....but the waste sewer treatment discharge pond. Other lifers were Bare-eyed Pigeon, Eared Dove, Brown-throated Parakeet, Ruby-topaz and Blue-tailed hummingbirds, Tropical Mockingbird, Caribbean Grackle, and Troupial. My two favorite birds were the Common Ground-dove (they are so tame and cute) and the Magnificent Frigatebird, with close runner-ups being Bananaquit and Black-faced Grassquit.

Black-faced Grassquit, by Carol Pembroke

I found Aruba to be very birdie (only another birder would know what I mean).

As for Aruba in general it has to be as close to paradise as you can get. I didn't want

to leave, and I would go back in a heart beat. Carol found 14 restaurants to try.....can't

imagine hy she didn't want to cook in our resort unit kitchen!

Trip List

You requested a list of trip birds so here goes minus the birds already mentioned above:
Brown Booby, Brown Pelican, Neotropic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret,

Tricolored Heron, Reddish Egret, Cattle Egret, Green Heron, Black crowned Night-heron, Yellow-crowned Night-heron, Blue-winged Teal, Osprey, Crested Caracara, American Kestrel, Sora, Common Moorhen, Caribbean Coot, Black-bellied Plover, Killdeer, American Oystercatcher, Black-necked Stilt, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, Whimbrel, Ruddy Turnstone,

Lesser Yellowlegs (left) with Ruddy Turnstones. Photo by Carol Pembroke.

Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Laughing Gull, Terns: Royal, Sandwich, Common, Least, and Sooty, Brown Noddy, Rock Dove, Groove-billed Ani, Tropical Kingbird, Bank and Barn swallows, Yellow Warbler, Shiny Cowbird, House Sparrow.

Osprey, by Carol Pembroke

The Bubali observation tower is in need of repair and getting to a point of being dangerous with missing floor boards. There is no longer any open water to be seen from the tower as it is all filled in with lilly pads and grass. The best place to see the White-checked Pintails and coots is now to take the paved driveway that goes into the waste treatment plant and turn left into a paved parking lot (if the chain is not up). The large discharge pool was very productive and easily observed. The locals said they did not get their usual amount of rain in 2009. Many places that would normally have water were bone dry. The Spanish Lagoon area was very limited; the little water there was a long way from the road). (I wish I had taken my scope but didn't want to take tripod etc on the plane.)

Black-bellied Plover, by Carol Pembroke

The Urataka Center building in no longer pink but bright yellow/orange. Two areas we found very productive

were the islands just of the coast from the oil refinery and the other on the North West end. From Carribean

Palm Village Restort go North I think on A2 all the way to the end. Turn left away from the California Lighthouse

and go about a mile with the ocean on your right. There is a hut/building called Kite Flying or something like that.

Turn left onto the dirt path and find the water. It was really great early morning at sunrise.

Editors' Note: These are Sandwich Terns, mostly the "Cayenne" Tern form with the all-yellow bill. There is at least one black-billed form on the left. These are accompanied by at least three

smaller Common Terns on the far right. Photo by Carol Pembroke.

I can't believe that on the whole island there isn't another "birder." We kept looking for hummingbird feeders or any kind of feeders but did not find any. I said to Carol, "Gee, we ought to move here and start a birding tour."

Well, thanks for all your help and information, the check list came in very handy.

Wayne Pembroke

Dear Wayne & Carol: We're so glad you had a great trip! And glad that our website was helpful to you. Thank you for sending in your trip report and photos!

Allison and Jeff Wells