Back in December I spent 2 weeks on board the MS Serenissima working as a zodiac driver and naturalist guide on a cruise run by Noble Caledonia. This was a little different from my cruises around the UK and Iceland earlier in the year, but no less enjoyable. The weather was perfect as you would expect, a welcome break from a miserable British winter, and the island chain of the Lesser Antilles is a stunning destination. Opportunities for birding were limited, we spent more time doing such pleasant things as snorkelling, sampling the products of various plantation/distilleries, and touring old forts and museums and such like.
Of course I did manage to see a few nice bits and bobs, and our ship was almost constantly accompanied by some fantastic seabirds. Heres a few photos I grabbed between rum punches:
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| Antillean Crested Hummingbird |
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| Antillean Crested Hummingbird |
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| Brown Booby |
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| Black-faced Grassquit |
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| Blue-headed Hummingbird |
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| Blue-headed Hummingbird |
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| Bananaquit |
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| Carib Grackle |
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| Flying fish sp. |
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| Grey Kingbird |
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| Lesser Antillean Bullfinch |
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| Lesser Antillean Flycatcher |
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| lizard sp. |
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| Least Sandpiper |
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| Mangrove Cuckoo |
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| Magnificent Frigatebird |
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| Pearly-eyed Thrasher |
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| Purple-throated Carib |
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| Purple-throated Carib |
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| Red-billed Tropicbird |
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| Red-billed Tropicbird |
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| Red-footed Booby |
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| Royal Tern |
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| Pantropical Spotted Dolphin |
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| Semi-palmated Sandpiper |
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| White-cheeked Pintail |
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| Wilsons Plover |
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| Yellow-crowned Night Heron |
