Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima)

Although Pride of Barbados is the island’s national flower, it’s not actually as common in gardens nowadays as it used to be. As a chid growing up, I remember every garden having a hedge or cluster of Pride of Barbados resplendent with it’s yellow/orange/red flowers. They are still just as beautiful but not quite as common.

The plants produce a green seed pod about the size of a thing pea pod, and these young seed pods gradually turn brown as they dry up, and split open to release the flat seeds. The flowers are quite small and delicate, with little or no fragrance. Birds feed on the seeds and the nectar in the flowers, and sparrows (bullfinches) sometimes build their nests in these shrubs.

People do use them as hedges, but they don’t form tight hedges that would keep an animal in, but are strictly decorative and relatively easy to maintain - just trim periodically and that’s about it. They even survive the dry season with relative ease. A long line of Pride of Barbados plants can be quite spectacular when they are all covered in flowers.

Barbados Sparrow/Barbados Bullfinch (Loxigilla barbadensis)

I rescued a sparrow this morning, which definitely made my day. It was still early and as I opened my back door, I noticed a sparrow had got one of it’s legs tangled up in a piece of thread that had caught on a dried palm flower stalk. So I went and got the ladder and a small pair of sharp scissors to free the bird.

As I approached, the sparrow fluttered anxiously, but I just talked quietly and it gradually  calmed down. I put the ladder in place and started cutting the threads. I talked calmly and quietly the whole time, and the sparrow remained calm as it hung upside down. It just took a couple of minutes to cut all the threads and off it flew into the nearest tree. What a great start to my day!

I don’t have any good pics of sparrows yet (we call them sparrows but it’s actually the Barbados Bullfinch) - maybe the one I rescued will come back and pose for me, but I do have a photo of the flower stalk that it was tangled up with.

Sparrows are very busy little birds, and fight for their territory. “Fight” might be a bit of a dramatic word, but they do get up close and personal in a fierce looking and noisy fashion if another sparrow gets too close to the nest.

They have short beaks and feed on seeds from grasses, palms (the same one in the rescue incident) and other similar plants that produce small seeds. Once the seed is small enough they will be interested.

The feathers are a nondescript brown/grey, and I have not been able to detect noticeable differences between the male and the female. They build tight little nests with twigs, bits of dry grass, threads, and I’ve even seen them pick up the cat hair that I get from brushing my cats - something nice and soft with which to line the nest.

They build their nests in shrubs and trees usually, but any outdoor light fitting or guttering or other seemingly suitable location will do. Any they are very persistent at nest building. Every year, a pair tries desperately to build a nest at the top of one of the supports for my deck roof. There’s a little space that looks promising, but it’s also very windy and the pieces get blown away, but I’m sure that one year they will be successful.

After The Rain

June is early in the rainy season in Barbados, but that doesn’t mean that rainfall levels are low. On the contrary, but what is different this year is that it’s still very very windy and therefore cool - yaay.

The last couple of days have been a bit wet, and even during the rain, the air is alive with an abundance of flying insects - termites, rain ants, rain flies, moths and a host of other unidentifiable bugs.

As soon as the rain eases off, out come the rain birds (also called king birds) to feast on the assortment of bugs just waiting to be caught. These birds dart around, catching their supper (or breakfast) on the fly and without stopping to swallow. And if they do perch on a fence post or branch, they seem to twitter excitedly with the smorgasbord of insects available.

The lizards come out to drink, the whistling frogs set up a chorus of song, the butterflies flutter to nearby flowers, and the blackbirds make an appearance checking for freshly revealed morsels. Everything comes to life. And to complete the picture, the sun peeps out to reveal a rainbow of colours on each droplet of water.

Croton

There are many different varieties of croton found in tropical climes, and Barbados is no exception. As a child growing up, this was one of the most common plants to be found in any garden - easy to grow, hardy and looks fantastics. Nowadays, people tend to go for most exotic plants, but there’s still quite a lot of croton around and they are making a bit of a comeback as people appreciate the vibrant colours.

As you can see from the photos, the leaf shape varies, and they are not always vibrant reds, oranges, golds and purples. If the location is a bit shaded, the colours will be less vibrant. Nothing is more stunning that a red-orange-gold shrub that is thick with leaves.

The croton plants do have tiny nondescript little pale yellow to whitish flowers too, but so small and insignificant against the backdrop of colour, that they frequently go un-noticed.

Propagating the croton is easy - cut off a piece, stick it some water and wait until the roots appear. The leaves will shrivel and drop off and new leaves will appear. Once the roots look strong and there is some decent foliage, plant in the ground or in a pot. Ideally, whilst the plant is in water, it should be kept outdoors in a relatively natural location.

Allamanda

These flowering shrubs are found in abundance all over Barbados, particularly the common yellow and purple variety pictured here. The pink/red specimen is much less common and harder to grow. What has also become very popular in recent years is the dwarf yellow allamanda - the flower is the same just smaller and the whole plant doesn’t grown more than about 2 feet or so in height.

I have the purple and the yellow growing in large pots, but they grow equally well in the ground and, in fact, the purple one can be seen growing wild in various parts of the island.

The seed pod is clearly shown in one of the images here. Over a period of weeks, it turns brown, dries out and eventually bursts, releasing the delicate seeds for distribution by the wind. I see the purple allamanda putting out seed pods more often than the yellow, perhaps that is whey they seem to grow wild throughout the island.

The allamanda flowers have no scent and aren’t suitable for arrangements, but a couple flowers floating in a blow of water is very attractive. Humming birds, bees and other insects feed on the nectar of the allamanda flower. This is a milk plant, so one has to be careful when trimming as the milk will blister the skin.

Blackbirds aka Grackles (Quiscalus lugubris)

Blackbirds are to be found all over Barbados, and they move in flocks, so it would be unlikely for you to see one bird by itself. They are just about 8 inches from the tip of the beak to the tail and have a varied appetite for insects, small frogs, lizards and even giant african snails. I sit on my deck and watch them moving forward like a little army, s they delicately toss aside leaves to reveal a possible delicacy sheltering underneath from the sun and waiting to become blackbird lunch.

What we all know about blackbirds is that they are noisy. And since there are always a lot of them together, the noise is quite noticeable. They love to nest in immortelle trees, and if a cat should venture forth in their direction or something startle them, the cacophony of sound as the birds rise from the tree as one is quite startling.

Blackbirds can be quite aggressive when they are nesting, and if you get too close, whether accidentally or otherwise, they will dive bomb you close enough that the wings may touch your head. I have seen them dive bomb one of my cats too, who was minding his own business and not the least bit interested in them, but was traumatised for years afterwards and ran when any bird flew too close to him.

I like to watch the blackbirds in flight too - their tail both rudder and brake. As they come into land, the tail dips down hard like the flaps on a plane, and when they in full flight, the tail is folded in a V shape and serves as a rudder. Quite fascinating to watch. And if you see what looks like slightly larger and more slender sparrows mixed in with the blackbirds, chances are those are the female blackbirds that are actually dark brown in colour and of a similar size as the males.

Rest assured, male and female are always busy.

Desert Rose (Adenium obesum)

I have one desert rose that has been growing in the same pot for years and continues to flourish. I had another one too, but had nowhere to put it so gave it to my mum, and that continues to flourish too.

The desert rose is a milk plant and thrives in dry conditions, and also seems to do well in a pot that appears to be too small for the plant. The milk will blister your skin, as I have experienced personally, so care should be taken on the rare occasions when you actually need to trim the plant, or accidentally knock off a leaf or flower.

The flowers look very pretty just floating in a shallow blow of water, but they are not suitable for arrangements. Both the flower and the leaf are very similar in appearance to those of the Frangipani, but a notable difference is that the desert rose flower has little or no fragrance.

The desert rose does produce various colours of flowers, but the relatively common pink one is shown here. The unopened buds would open into bright pink flowers with little or no white.

Aphids love the desert rose, and they can be susceptible to blight also. You can clearly see the tiny yellow aphids in one of the photographs, aphids that keep the ladybugs well fed.

Cane Toad (Bufo marinus)

Barbados has more than it’s fair share of frogs and toads, and the cane toad is particularly common. They seem to flourish even in the driest of dry seasons, and as soon as a few drops of rain fall from the sky, they suddenly appear, seemingly from nowhere.

The one pictured here was not particularly large, about 5 inches from nose to tail and, surprisingly, appeared in the middle of the day and was on it’s way to a shadier location.

Cane toads seem to eat just about anything. Their poop is quite generously proportioned, and as it disintegrates, it’s easy to see the remains of millipedes and cockroaches and beetles, so they serve a very useful purpose in keeping insects under control, but at the same time, they poop everywhere and make quite a mess. And they burrow down into the soil or grass to avoid the heat of the day, and that includes jumping into plant pots and generally making a mess and even uprooting young plants. They can easily find their way into a pot that is 20” high.

If you put out food for your dogs and the frogs get there first, the dogs might go hungry - fortunately most of them learnt at an early age not to interfere with these poisonous amphibians as many a puppy has died from ingesting the toxin when “playing” with a toad.

I remember as children hearing the bull frogs, as we call the male toads, croaking away all night long as they tried to attract a mate, a very recognisable sound, but we don’t seem to hear that so much now, or maybe there’s too much other noise at night nowadays to block it out.

Cane toads have been around for thousands of years and have a knack for surviving all sorts of harsh conditions, and are now considered pests in many countries. I don’t think they are going to be disappearing anytime soon.

Sunset

It’s not exactly nature, but I thought it would be a nice way to close out the month of May – a series of photographs of an unusual, but very beautiful (I think), sunset here in Barbados.

Mango

The mango is one of my favourite fruits on the planet, and there are countless varieties, each one quite different from the other. My favourites are the ceylon and imperial mangoes, quite similar in that they have thin yellow skins when ripe and firm meat that you can scoop out with a spoon, however, though the shapes are close, the imperial is about two to three times larger than a ceylon. The imperial is the biggest mango I have ever come across. I like the flavour of a julie but they are a bit stringy, however, one that is not quite ripe picked from the tree, washed and then eaten in it’s entirety (except for the seed) can be quite delicious.

My parents have three mango trees in their yard, two ceylons and one julie (my Dad’s favourite). The julie is a dwarf tree so it’s really easy to pick the fruit - the ones that the birds and the monkeys don’t get that is. The other two trees are much taller, and though you can pick some of the mangoes from strategic locations or with a long picker, sometimes you just have to wait till they fall. Fortunately they are on the slopes of a grassed gully so they don’t get too bashed up. Right now, the trees are laden and it’s just a matter of time before we get to sample this year’s crop.

The fruits of the various mango trees can be quite different in both taste, appearance and size, but the leaves all look pretty similar - a long slender dark green leaf. When the new leaf comes out it is a dark red colour - it’s quite spectacular to see an entire tree covered in these dark red leaves and then, as they turn to green, the flower stalks come out - very nondescript pale green flowers that give the tree a feathery appearance.

Mango trees will grow from seed but they usually take longer to bear fruit than a grafted tree. The bark is quite rough and coarse, and there can be a lot of black ants on the trees, making them hazardous for climbing, but if you don’t mind a few annoying stings, the branches are quite strong once you stick close to the main trunk.

We all know the versatility of mangoes in the kitchen, but I like mine just as a fruit, preferably with the skin if it’s a good one, but some skins are quite touch and thick, and even have a sort of bitter taste. I can’t wait for the first fruits of this season! 

Giant African Snail

Five years ago, giant African snails did not exist in Barbados; two years ago they were not found near my home, one year ago you could see armies of them crossing the road or the grassed area behind my home, mainly early in the morning or late afternoon. If I happened to be driving somewhere at dawn, you couldn’t help but hear the crunch crunch as they were crushed under the car tires. It was impossible to avoid them. Now, the numbers seem to have dwindled significantly - maybe birds are eating them (egrets or herons), or mongooses, but they don’t seem to be quite the nuisance now that they were a couple years ago.

Like all molluscs, the giant African snails seek shelter from the sun during the day, and they half bury themselves in the grass or in a flower pot or anywhere else that’s out of the sun. I remember going to clear the remnants of the flower arrangements off of my father’s grave a few years ago, and as I picked up each arrangement, I could not believe the number of snails amongst the vegetation, hundreds of them, eating the flowers and greenery that made up each arrangement.

The largest I have ever seen here in Barbados is about four inches, maybe a little bigger, and every time I see two in close proximity to each other, they seem to be copulating. They have both male and female organs, which helps to explain the explosion in numbers a few years ago with both parties laying dozens of eggs at a time.

If you put some kind of snail bait, or bleach or salt or any chemical on them to kill them and the eggs are ready, the snail will lay the eggs before dying, so giving the next generation a chance at survival. Sometimes, when you try to kill them with chemicals, you can hear a dreadful squeal when the poison touches the soft part of their body - very unpleasant and glad I’m not doing that any more.

I guess that the Giant African Snail is now a part of our landscape.

Frangipani (Plumeria)

This is one of my favourite trees - I love the delicate and dramatic colours of the flowers and the unmistakable fragrance is wonderful. These trees are found through Barbados and the Caribbean.

Frangipani trees have a very milky sap that will blister the skin and irritate the eyes, and it will also stain your clothes with an ugly black mark. The individual flowers lower very appealing floating in a shallow bowl of water, but otherwise they are unsuitably for arrangements.

The leaves are 10 to 12 inches in length when mature, and at certain times of the year, the tree will be almost bare of leaves or flowers and look almost dead, but then the flowers emerge and the tree will be absolutely covered in sweet smelling blossoms, and then the new leaves start to come out.

Large boomerang-shaped seed pods come out, and when they have dried out, they burst open to release small seeds encased in tissue-paper like casings that float away with the wind.

The frangipani tree is very hardy and easy to propagate - you can literally break off a small branch and stick it in a hole in the ground, and it will slowly take root with little or no attention. If you trim off branches and leave them in a heap they will continue to flower and “grow” for many months, and may even take root in their new location. Consequently, they require little water and thrive in the dry season.

Because of the poisonous nature of the sap of the frangipani tree, not many insects find them appealing, however, the exception is the caterpillar of the Hawk Moth. The tree can become covered in hundreds of these large caterpillar and clean off every leaf in a matter of days. And though the moth is very visible with it’s dramatic coral coloured stripes, birds and other predators will not touch them as they themselves are toxic from feeding on the poisonous sap of the frangipani tree.

Barbados Mahogany Tree (Swietenia mahogani)

When Barbados was first settled by Europeans in 1624, the island was, literally, covered in mahogany trees. Today, few remain, but many of the old sugar plantations still have small groves of mahogany trees, and older buildings, such as churches, are frequently accompanied by a few mahogany trees in the grounds. I am not aware of them being felled for the purpose of furniture manufacture, but if a trees falls or is trimmed, there is high demand by manufacturers for the branches.

The trees were in such abundance that they were felled to provide construction materials for settlers, firewood and materials to build furniture. Barbadian mahogany furniture is well known for its quality, strength and beauty, and many homes on the island are furnished entirely with these valuable antiques. Mahogany is still used in the furniture manufacturing industry on the island but to a lesser extent due to the scarcity of the wood.

The tree has small papery leaves with large seed pods that split open when they are dry, releasing the seeds to be distributed by the wind. The bark of the mahogany tree is quite thick and rough. Mahogany trees do not lose all of their leaves at the same time, but they do shed a lot just prior to the emergence of the feathery new light green leaves.

Nature at My Door - Part 3

A continuation ...

Sometimes a mongoose will sneak across at the very back staying close to the edge of the bushes as they hunt for food and, perhaps, a mate. I’ve never actually seen one catch anything, but they are very shy and run off immediately they become aware of my presence.

The big tree at the back is home to blackbirds, yellow canaries, ramier pigeons, doves, monkeys and, I’m sure, numerous other creatures that I am not aware of. In the evenings, as the sun is setting, the birds all fly back into the tree to roost for the night. Sometimes a flock of green parrots flies by too and stops on a nearby woman’s tongue tree to feed on the newly emerging seed pods. They are also partial to the still green seed pods on the wild tamarind trees.

And then there’s my favourite, the green monkeys. The troops move around from grove to grove, so sometimes there might just be a lone male or a small group of juveniles or a large family group, but they are always there. I love to watch the young ones playing with each other, either chasing each other in the tree and along the branches, or swinging from the vines onto the ground and racing back up into the tree to do it all over again, or playing tag on the ground. I’ve even watched them tossing around a very green fruit (picked from a neighbour’s tree) like a ball, tossing it into the air and rolling it along the ground, with mother keeping a watchful eye on the antics of her children. I have also been lucky enough to see some of the juvenile monkeys at very close quarters - one morning I was standing on my deck with one of my cats crouched at my feet, when a youngster ran purposefully from the tree, across the open grassed area, over the deck railing and then climbed gracefully onto the deck floor and walked slowly across to drink from a pool of rainwater a matter of five or six feet away from me, ignoring me completely but keeping an eye on the cat. I could see every detail of his/her long black fingers and toes, black face with greenish fur and long athletic tail and lips to the floor drinking. A real privilege. 

I like where I live. I love the fact that humanity is close by in one direction, but wild nature is steps from my door in the other direction, pure unadulterated nature.

Nature at My Door - Part 2

A continuation ...

Right next to the deck on the western side are two palm trees that are constantly putting out flower branches, tiny delicate pale yellow flowers that develop into little green berries about the size of a peanut. Honeybees visit these flowers daily and compete for nectar with the banaquits, whilst the sparrows feed on the “nuts”, and there is one large lizard that lives on both trees and defends his/her territory viciously.

At the base of the palms where there are exposed roots, old stumps and new shoots, there are also sometimes some giant African snails that seek shelter during the day from the scorching sun, only to re-emerge at dusk to forage for food. Early in the morning you can see an army of snails heading out of the bush and back to gardens to shelter for the day - sometimes it’s hard to tell which are snails and which are fallen leaves as they can look so similar until you get quite close.

About seventy or so feet behind my deck is a huge bearded fig tree, and the space between deck and tree is an open grassed area - not special grass, just ordinary “sour” grass that we keep mowed and neat and tidy. But the blackbirds (grackles) love this space. A flock will arrive and march forward together like a little army, turning over leaves as they search for food. Then they fly back as one to where they had started and march forward again. Various doves like this space too and they bob along looking for food and twigs with which to build nests.

In the evenings, around sunset, the sky over this open area is alive with birds and bats catching insects mid-flight, especially if there has been rain as the air is alive with flying termites, rain ants, tiny moths and a multitude of flying insects. The bats are in constant motion as they swoop down to catch their supper. The rain birds (also called king birds) dive off their perch on a branch or neighbour’s fence to catch an insect mid-flight before returning to their perch before flying off again.

If there has been rain, an army of frogs also appears from nowhere and make their way to the bushes. They’ve been hiding in flower beds, plant pots and burrowed down in the grass waiting for the sun to set before making their entrance for a night of hunting and mating. These frogs (they are actually toads, cane toads), will be anywhere from two inches to six inches in length from nose to tail and they are very hardy, surviving through months of drought seemingly unaffected by the lack of moisture. Then there are the tiny little whistling frogs that come out at dusk and create a cacophony of sound, particularly if there has been rain. They too survive the dry weather and appear in droves during the rainy season, singing their song to attract a mate.

In the heat of the day, appearing to hover on the strong wind currents above the grass are hoards of dragonflies (I’m not sure what you call a group of dragonflies - a swarm, a flock, a bunch?). They don’t seem to move forwards or backwards, but they work as cyclists in a peloton, with the leaders breaking off and dropping to the back of the pack so that a new set can take over. They stay there for hours, and sometimes, if I’m really lucky, one will come down low just a few feet away from me, and I can see the beautiful iridescent reds, greens, purples and blues of their body.

To be continued ...

Nature at My Door - Part 1

I live in a townhouse on a quiet dead-end street. Most of the homes are on the other side of the street on a ridge overlooking the south coast of the island. From my home, I get a bit of the south coast view over the rooftops and between the buildings, so I spend  my time looking at the view facing north - wild land that was still in sugar cane when I moved here thirteen years ago, but now it is what we would call “rab land” - wild tamarind trees, wild grass, gorse bushes, woman’s tongue trees and assorted other wild vegetation.

My home has a very small back yard, most of which is occupied by a deck. I spend time each day sitting on the deck just observing nature at work, mainly in the early morning and later afternoon. Within a one hundred square foot area of my back door, there are countless birds, insects, reptiles, and other creatures - a veritable zoo!

The deck alone is home to many lizards, beautiful green ones with bright lemon yellow throats, smaller brown ones with pale green stripes running the length of their bodies from nose to tail, and in the evening, the slave lizards (also called white lizards) come out to play ... and hunt for their supper.

I’ve watched the green cock (male) lizards face off, extending their yellow throats threateningly before engaging in what appears to me to be a very vicious battle for supremacy. They become locked together, rolling across the deck floor like wrestlers on the mat, legs and tails entwined making it difficult to tell one from the other, and remaining like this until the weaker one breaks free and retreats with a bloodied body.

The lizards are not bothered by my presence, possibly because they sense that I am not a threat nor mean them any harm, and there is one little “friend” that waits while I water my small potted herb and vegetable garden that is clustered in one corner of the deck, and then drinks from the leaves. It just sits there waiting patiently. These same plants are frequented by gentle lady bugs, which come to feed on the aphids that feed on the flower buds of the purple and yellow allamandas that are just outside the deck. Honeybees come to feed on the nectar of the basil flowers (would be interesting to try the honey!), caterpillars feed on my tomato and broccoli plants, and there is the occasional moth or butterfly fluttering by.

Sometimes a praying mantis may come to visit - tiny delicate ones that are just about two inches long, and the bigger ones that we call stick insects, that are about five inches long - many a time I have reached to pick up a twig off the deck floor, only to find that it is a stick insect. And at certain times of the year, we get millipedes - little ones that we call Christmas worms and are just about an inch long that give off an offensive odour if you happen to squash them by mistake, or the bigger ones that are about two inches long and have yellow and black rings around their bodies, or the really big brown ones that are about four or five inches long. They don’t do anything but when there are lots they are a bit of a nuisance especially when they get in the house, and give a nasty crunch if you happen to step on one or close the door or window on it.

To be continued ...