Originally upstate NY near Albany follow by one year in Nashua, NH , then 10 years in CA before moving to Cabarete 20 years ago.
As has been said, I don't know of any group in the area. I do watch the birds around my house most days. Often with morning coffee. Mourning doves, Hispanolan woodpeckers, Palm chats and more, usually a nice selection. You are welcome to join me in Sosua should you feel inclined. 829-270-8783 Mike
That surprised me, too, especially almost the total lack of sea birds - no pelicans, sandpipers, or even seagulls. I've never been anywhere before where there was an ocean and no seagulls. Maybe seagull was once considered a delicacy here(?),.
I live on the beach in Cabarete. In 16 years here I've never seen even one seagull. Maybe they're making a comeback(?). I have occasionally seen some frigate birds.
I am on the water all the time. I have been seeing seagulls on the ocean here for more than 20 years. But it is rare to see them on shore. The gulls here don't seem to eat garbage like the ones back on Long Island.
I was just going to post that the only place I recall seeing seagulls is by the garbage dump near Puerto Plata.
Hi Vermontmark. Not aware of any bird group. My husband and I are from Watertown, MA and live in Cabrera (on our 3rd year). The North coast is very under surveyed since there are just not enough people birding in the area. The birding hotspots have not been well identified. Many seabirds/shorebirds we see up in Eastern US breed up there. Here we get them as visitors during migration and some stay for the northern winter while others move through further down West Indies and into South America (fewer resident gull/ tern/shorebird populations than we see in Eastern US). Rice fields/ flooded fields are an area where many shorebirds are hanging out also. Two days ago had a sighting of 487 Glossy ibises/54 Black-Neck Stilts/Pectoral Sandpipers/Limpkins/Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs to name a few all in a flooded rice field (https://ebird.org/caribbean/checklist/S119729559). The dense foliage makes detection challenging. Migrant birds are not singing which makes detection harder. In Puerto Plata I have not explored much but an area I found was the Estuario del Rio Yasica (https://ebird.org/caribbean/checklist/S101635922)which I accessed from the town of Veragua (google Wilson La Boca Restaurant and it will take you to this part of the estuary). It gets busy there but early when there are less people it is very nice for birds. Highly recommend ebird for finding where folks have found birds also just go out and explore.
They are definitely scavengers. I've seen hundreds of them around the garbage dumps in Philly and that's a good 50 miles inland from the Jersey shore. I've ever seen them on Sosua Beach either. They are not shy birds and any place I've been before where you're near the beach and there are tourists, restaurants, and food, there would always be dozens looking for scraps and handouts. Their relative scarcity here is really surprising.
Hello and thank you so very much for the detailed reply. I sincerely appreciate it. I am relatively new to ebird, just staring to explore it. we have only been here for two weeks. It is my plan to start entering sightings into ebird, and investigate further where people are seeing things. My spansh is very poor right now, so I am not confident in much off-road exploration for birds. ANOTHER QUESTION: what do you find to be the best field guide to use here. I am rather at a loss to know what to use.
a local guy told me a couple years ago that the guys or people here would capture the wild birds and sell them to forigners thats why not many left now he said when he was young thats what you do to make some money thast why not many left hes like 50 so i guess he knows
