Sue and I, just had to get away, this winter was a tough one, cold and snow have a way of doing that. We chose the Melia Caribe Resort in Punta Cana, DR.  A very nice resort, large grounds (over 1000 acres), nice ala cart dining rooms and a golf course within a 10 minute walk. I had planned on getting away for a few days of birding with a guide Miguel A. Landestoy but soon realized the 2 days was not enough.   I plan to go back in the future and spend 5 days.  I also realized that Punta Cana has many birds but the birds I needed were not reachable on day trips. So I contented myself with golf, birding and photography, while staying on the resort. I saw many more species than I photographed but below are some of the new images for my non-ABA files.  I place stamps in my photos of Non-North American bird images, something I started doing a few years back.  Stamps are another one of my passions, always have been.

My list (of 45 species), all these birds were seen at the resort or golf course.  They’re are extensive wetlands in the centre of the resort and many manmade ponds:

Least Grebe Audubon’s Shearwater (possible) Brown Pelican Great Egret Tricolored Egret Little Blue Heron Snowy Egret Cattle Egret Green Heron Least Bittern Caribbean Flamingo West Indian Whistling-Duck White-cheeked Pintail Turkey Vulture Osprey Kestrel Merlin Helmeted Guineafowl Purple Gallinule Common Moorhen American and Caribbean Coot Wilson’s Plover Killdeer Spotted Sandpiper White-crowned Pigeon Mourning Dove Zenaida Dove Common Ground Dove Hispaniolan Parrot Hispaniolan Lizard Cuckoo Smooth-billed Ani White-collared Swift Antillean Mango Hispaniolan Emerald Belted Kingfisher Hispaniolan Woodpecker Gray Kingbird Palmchat Northern Mockingbird Gray Catbird Red-legged Thrush Prairie Warbler Bananaquit Greater Antillean Grackle House Sparrow

Ciao for now……..