The Mariana’s, Day 3 —Saipan

 Nick Jr. and I arrived in Saipan early on Wednesday December 20, 2023 on a United Airlines jet. The trip from Guam was less than an hour. In Saipan, we rented a car from Enterprise (Nick Jr.  drove) and began birding immediately. Nick Jr. had done quite a bit of research at eBird.org and had determined the important hot spots we would need to visit. My list of bird species I considered targets on Saipan was about 20 species long. The top two hotspots were the airport catchment pond and the nearby Coral Ocean Resort. We tried to find the pond but it seemed to be overgrown with weedy vegetation and we could not get decent views of the actual pond. Similarly, a drive by at the resort yielded no useful views. We tried another shorebird hotspot at a golf driving range close to the airport. We entered the parking lot and found no golfers there. I asked permission to walk the perimeter and received it. 

We spent an hour there and found no shorebirds or shorebird habitat but the birding was great nonetheless. I couple of large trees filled with dozens of nests of Black Noddy was particularly impressive I added five new Year-Birds:

857 Mariana Kingfisher

858 Bridled White-eye

859 White-throated Ground-Dove

860 Mariana Fruit Dove

861 Micronesian Rufous Fantail.


We then drove to the opposite (northern) end of the small island, to the World War II  memorial where we also found good birds. In this area, I added three new Year-Birds:

862 Micronesian Myzomela

863 Golden White-eye

864 Mariana Swiftlet

We also found the massive Brown Noddy colony at Bird Island, and had incredible views of flying Red-tailed Tropicbird at Suicide Cliff. 


We ended the day in American Memorial Park at Garapan. Good birding here as well, but no new species. 

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