Dominican Adventure (May 2025)
Even before I decided on the Borneo trip which I reported on earlier, I had looked at a trip to the Dominican Republic with Rockjumper Birding Tours. While visiting my older son, Mark, along with my younger son and his kids, my grandchildren, at Thanksgiving, I mentioned that I was looking at the Dominican tour and my grandson, Derek, suggested that I should take him with me. When we got home, I did decide to sign up for the tour. As it turned out, the timing of the tour in mid-May interfered with Derek's school schedule, and he ultimately decided he would not go with me. However, the tour was appealing to me, because it was for a small group and was aimed at seeing all the endemic species of Hispaniola that can be seen in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic and Haiti share the island of Hispaniola, with Haiti on the west end of the island. With those 34 endemic species, and a good many other species not endemic, but which would be life birds for me, I was convinced to book the tour, which I did in December 2024. I would have a good chance of achieving 2,000 life birds.
Depending on the authority, there are 32 to 34 Hispaniolan endemic bird species. The field Guide Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haiti by Latta, Rimmer, and McFarland lists 34 endemic species. Of these, one occurs only in Haiti, leaving the possibility of 33 to be seen in the Dominican Republic.
At the time I booked, there were two others who were booked, a couple. The limit was eight. For unexplained reasons, no one else booked the tour. Finally Rockjumper said they could make the trip go with just the three of us, by using only local guides and not covering gratuities. The couple was disappointed, because they booked primarily because they had been with the Rockjumper guide originally assigned to the tour and wanted to go with him again. Finally we all agreed to the new conditions, and the tour was confirmed. I made my flight reservations and began planning for the trip, which was from May 8 through May 16, 2025.
As it turns out, the man of the couple, Bob, was not a birder, but a photographer. He puts his photos on Getty photos and receives a cut when someone uses his images. His wife, Marcia, was the birder. Since their retirement, they had traveled all over the world, and her life list was around 5,000. We agreed, with just two of us actually birding, we would have a good chance of seeing everything the guides would find.
My flights to Santo Domingo on May 8 through Miami went as scheduled, but Marcia and Bob, whose flights were through Atlanta and arrived at about the same time as mine, were delayed getting their bags for a bit. We arrived at our hotel in the colonial area of Santo Domingo in plenty of time for dinner. One of the conditions of the tour was that no guide would be with us at the Santo Domingo hotel. We just charged our meals to our room, and the local company, Explora Ecotour, operating for Rockjumper, covered the bill.
Leaving the Gardens, we made our way north and east to Sabana del Mar area, where we hoped to find the rare Ridgeway's Hawk. We arrived at our hotel about 2:30 PM. The hotel is built on a hillside, and the rooms are all accessible only by a series of stairs. It is beautiful site. After getting checked in, we started a hike up a hill behind the hotel and then down a steep rocky trail. In a field we saw several species, including a life bird for me, an Antillean Piculet, a small woodpecker-like bird. It was possible to see the Ridgeway's Hawk here, but we didn't, and our best chance would be the next morning, when a local guide, who is an expert on the hawk, would lead us further away from the hotel along the same starting trail.
Before breakfast the next morning we walked along a road near a wet field, but there was nothing new that I saw here. Others saw a Mangrove Cuckoo, which I missed in Florida in 1971, and would have been a life bird.
After breakfast, the local guide lead us back over the rocky downhill trail and to some fields beyond in search of the Ridgeway's Hawk. By this time it was obvious that going downhill on a rocky trail was dangerous for me, so the local guide found a stout stick and made me a trekking stick, which was a great help that day and in the days to come. Finally, after calling for the hawk for a long time, we saw it soaring above, once by itself and once being chased by grackles. The guide tried hard, but we could not get the hawk to perch in view, so we had to be satisfied with an aerial view.
After lunch at the hotel, we set off for Santo Domingo and another night in the hotel in the colonial district. We did stop at a spot near the hotel and got good looks at the Hispaniolan Parakeet, which I had first seen in the Botanical Gardens.
Manny picked us up the next morning at 7:30 AM, right after breakfast, and we started on the longest drive of the tour, all the way to the town of Pedernales near the Haitian border. We made one extended stop at the Salinas de Bani salt flats near the village of Las Salinas.
We were up early the next morning and had a packed breakfast to take with us. Our destination was the pine forest on the southern slopes of the Sierra de Bahoruco range at about 6,000 feet. We traveled the old asphalt Alcoa road most of the way to the area where mining had taken place years ago. The last few miles were on gravel. Part way up, an Antillean Nighthawk flushed from the road in front of us. Being in the front seat, Manny and I were the only ones to see it. After about an hour, we arrived at our birding site just after dawn and broke out our breakfast while keeping a close eye for new birds. In several hours here, I recorded 22 species, of which seven were life birds. The highlights were good looks through Manny's telescope of Hispaniolan Crossbill and good looks down at a pair of Golden Swallows flying below us in and around an old mining pit.
We returned to our hotel in Pedernales, picked up the rest of our gear, and headed for our next hotel, a good two hour drive away plus a lunch stop. This was our last day with Manny, and he got us checked in and left us. We had dinner here, and at 7:00 PM our second guide, Efrain Feliz, arrived, and we proceeded to a spot about 45-minutes away to look for the Ashy-faced Owl. After some calling, Efrain found the owl, and we got good look with his spotlight.
The next morning, May 13, with Efrain, we headed up road to a spot in the cloud forest where it was raining. We had some shelter in the small village where we were and proceeded to eat our packed breakfast, that the hotel had made for us. It was still raining, so we sat in the vehicle but soon it quit, and out we went. Here we had a local guide, who knew the area and its birds well. After some observations in the village, we headed down a rocky trail and then up into the forest and onto a muddy, rocky, and root covered trail to a site, where the guide had set up a feeding station to attract two ordinarily hard-to-see quail-doves: the Ruddy Quail-Dove and the White-fronted Quail-Dove. Both were there feeding on the chicken feed the guide had placed there. On the way back, despite having the trekking stick, I had my only fall on the trip. Somehow despite the rocky terrain, I was uninjured. This site produced four new life birds, the Eastern Chat-Tanager and the Narrow-billed Tody, besides the two Quail-Doves. In addition, we observed the local subspecies of Sharp-shinned Hawk. We returned to our hotel, picked up the rest of our gear, checked out, and headed for our next accommodation, apartments in Duvergé (French pronunciation).
Late that afternoon we set out for some local birding near the town of Puerto Escondido. Here we got good looks at White-necked Crow and two new life birds, Antillean Siskin and Zenaida Dove. While back in Puerto Escondido, we had Olive-throated Parakeet, also a life bird.
We were housed for two nights in a small, gated apartment building. It was roomy, having two bedrooms, but only one was air conditioned, a living room, and a kitchen, plus a small bathroom. There was no hot water, and several of the lights hung by their wires. I used up all my towels avoiding slipping in the shower and on the bathroom floor. I got new ones the second day. I used the kitchen sink as my lavatory as there was no room on the sink in the bathroom for anything. We also had two short power outages. We had our dinners in a restaurant owned by the same people who owned the apartments. The restaurant was very good, and the last morning there, they opened an hour early just for us and served a great breakfast.
May 14 was to be the best day of the trip for new birds. We got up about 2 AM and left the apartments at 3 AM. We traveled to Puerto Escondido, elevation 200 feet, where we transferred to two 4-wheel drive, four-door pickups for the assent to over 5,000 feet. A local guide drove one vehicle with Efrain and both our breakfast and lunch prepacked by the restaurant where we had been eating. The first part of the trip was on a paved road, but when we started up, the road turned into little more and a rocky, bumpy, steep, four-wheel-drive-only, mostly one-way trail. It took about two and one-half hours of assent to reach our birding site. My Fitbit recorded 15,267 steps, but we walked very little. Every bump resulted in a step being counted.
We arrived at our birding site just before dawn. This is when the elusive La Selle Thrush usually comes out on the road to forage. He did not disappoint, and we got good views through Efrain's telescope. I recorded 20 species that morning with 12 more life birds, including Scaly-naped Pigeon, Bay-breasted Cuckoo, Flat-billed Vireo, Greater Antillean Bullfinch, Hispaniolan Amazon (a parrot), Greater Antillean Elaenia, Hispaniolan Pewee, Caribbean Martin, Rufus-throated Solitaire, Hispaniolan Euphonia, Western Chat-Tanager, and White-winged Warbler. Truly a remarkable morning!
We saw all the target birds so early, that we arrived back at out apartments before noon and gathered our packed lunch and ate in our rooms. After dinner, we set out to a remote spot to try to lure Least Pauraque and Hispaniolan Nightjar into view. After calling for over an hour after sunset, some heard the Pauraque in the distance, but no Nightjar responded. We did get more good looks an Ashy-faced Owl.
Looking Left
On our last day of birding we stopped by Lago Enriquillo, a large inland lake which is 200 feet below sea level. We visited two sites along the lake shore, and while there were no life birds, we did get good looks at Burrowing Owls, and I recorded 17 species total.
On this tour, I was able to record all but three of the Hispaniolan endemic species defined in the reference I gave above, and one of those is not available in the Dominican Republic, missing Least Pauraque and Hispaniolan Kingbird (some consider this a part of Loggerhead Kingbird). I recorded 47 life birds, and my life list via Clements Taxonomy is 2001.
Birding was over, and we headed for a lunch stop on the way to Santo Domingo. After eating, we transferred from Efrain's vehicle to that of a driver, who would take us back to our hotel in Santo Domingo, a drive of about 4 hours. There were severe thunderstorms around, and it was raining when we arrived at our hotel. Fortunately, though it did rain in the cloud forest, weather didn't affect any of our birding. After breakfast the next morning, we were transported to the airport for our flights home and the end of a very exciting birding adventure.
— by Sam Sinderson
(Photos by the Author)
