Waterfront Property in the Bahamas & Real Estate Expertise

The White Crowned Pigeon (Columba Lencocephala) migrates to the Bahama Islands in the early spring to nest and bring forth the next generation before they begin their migratory journey in the fall back to the mountainous islands of the Greater Antilles. The birds nest on numerous Cays (pronounced “keys”) that are off the coast of the large islands then travel back and forth to feed themselves and their young with such fruit as Poison wood (it really is), Pigeon plum (aptly named), Coca plum (nothing like coca but more like cotton), Pepper berries (as the name suggests) and Sea grape.

The hunting season for this game bird opens in late September, but due to the large number of hunters at the beginning of the shoot, I decided to take my Grandson on his first hunting trip after the madness subsided. I have been visiting Andros for fifty years, mostly to hunt, but later to support my real estate business of property listings.

Nicholas, or affectionately known as Nickie, had never been to Andros, the largest island in the Bahamas and was brimming over with excitement as we packed his hunting clothes and other items that he would need on the trip. On Friday, October 16th we departed on Western Air for Congo Town, South Andros.

After collecting our rental car and depositing our bags in our beach villa, we collected our guide (called a ‘pickup’). Rudolph is his name and I have known him for some 30 years and he never changes. We decided to take an easy jaunt along an inland trail to see if there were any birds about and ended up walking just over 6 miles and left the ‘bush’ long after sunset.

The excitement began for Nickie almost immediately as he got a good look at his first Andros Vulture circling overhead. It is interesting that these birds are found in Andros and not in Nassau, which, at the nearest point is only 20 miles away.

The next bit of excitement was when Nickie almost stepped on a small Boa constrictor which Rudolph dispatched with his machete before I had a chance to stop him. Island folks are deathly afraid of snakes. We were saddened at this action as it would have been a bit of fun to catch it and keep it for awhile before releasing it back into the wild.

The following morning we awoke at 5:30am, had a bite to eat, collected Rudolph and proceeded to the “White Road” in Smiths Hill, South Andros. As the sun brightened the eastern horizon, the Pigeons began to fly and while the shooting was not terrific, Nickie had a grand time learning how to find and retrieve downed birds and particularly all about the flora of the Coppice. He also saw a few other species of birds that he hadn’t seen before such as Rain Crows , Herons and Cranes, not to mention many Finches, Pintail doves, Tobacco Doves, Mocking birds and Black Crows.

We shot again in the afternoon and again on the following morning and experienced much of the same, except that it rained on the final day which made the hunting conditions a little testing.

In our spare time we visited quite a few settlements that are dotted along the east coast from Driggs Hill in the north , Congo Town, The Bluff, Long Bays, Smith’s Hill, Kemps Bay, Deep Creek, Little Creek, Pleasant Bay down to Mars Bay in the south. Nickie will be writing about these places and people as part of a school project.

All in all it was a marvelous experience with my Grandson and one to be treasured.

Posted by:David Lunn