Birdwatching

Lee Stocking Island is privately owned and is home to the Caribbean Marine Research Center. Our readings told us that visitors are welcome provided they request permission to come ashore and treat the island with respect. What you pack in, you pack out. There are also several moorings available on a first-come, first-served basis. The approach is by a narrow channel between the rocky shoreline and shallow sandbars. We went very slowly. None of the moorings were available, so we anchored and were all shipshape in time for our SRP.

I had read that the island was a good place to see a number of birds, so early the next morning, I radioed for permission to go ashore. No joy. We did receive a response from a boat moored near us, wanting to know if we’d heard the weather. We knew a front was on its way, but precise details evaded us as the radio seems to prefer giving us white noise at the moments the critical information is being transmitted. The chap on the other boat said he’d taken his dinghy in and seen a huge NO TRESPASSING sign, so he’d headed back out, but some other people had gone about a mile along shore and found a beautiful beach with paths. Whit and I set off in the kayaks. I brought binoculars, bird book, camera, etc. It was a pretty good slog into the wind and waves, and was every bit of a mile, probably more. We walked along the beach and followed a trail into the dense scrubby growth. We saw why “visitors welcome” had become “no trespassing”, with piles of rubbish in the undergrowth and a liquor bottle lodged in a tree. Whit ploughed ahead and had the only bird sighting of the day. Later, he identified it from my book as either a yellow-crowned night heron (common) or the black-crowned night heron (uncommon). I saw some butterflies. Whit suggested I take up botany.

We were back at Django by 11 a.m. when we pulled up anchor, headed out the Wide Deep Fast Not-Scary Cut and into Exuma Sound for our run down to George Town on Great Exuma Island.

Leaving Lee Stocking Island, passing some of the small cays
and "rocks" on our way to the Adderly Cut.