Goodbye 2024 - Hello 2025

Nature Will See Us Through

Jan 03, 2025

**Green-throated Carib Hummingbirds Racing to the Feeder**

Reflecting on 2024, eBird confirms that I reported 90 species. (This number includes the Cliff Swallow seen recently by our local fisherman.) This is a major jump over the 83 I reported in 2023 and 82 in 2022. Highlights include the return of American Flamingos and the stunning Scarlet Tanager in May!

**Red-billed Tropicbirds Shoal Bay East**

The last species I enjoyed on the 31st was a flock of Red-billed Tropicbirds feeding on Shoal Bay East. Just after sunset, a pair of Yellow-crowned Night Herons vocalized. It was a lovely farewell to the old year.

When the clock struck twelve on New Year’s Eve, I admit to being fast asleep. The sound of fireworks compelled me to witness their blasts of color and blooms of light streaking in the darkness. I wish they would opt for the noiseless fireworks or drone shows! It means less disruption to domestic pets and wildlife. But I digress.

I admit, I did not approach the calendar flip with my usual hopeful anticipation. “Out with the old and in with the new”, as they say.

2025 is seemingly fraught with peril both here in Anguilla and on faraway shores. But nothing stops Father Time from moving on.

Just a quarter of a century ago we wondered if we would survive “Y2K.” (If you are too young to remember that period, Heather Cox Richardson will enlighten you.)

Being a computer professional in those days, I never doubted that everything would be ok. However, some Anguillan friends were convinced by conspiracy theorists and biblical predictions, that the end of the world was coming. They said, “If it is the end, I would rather meet my maker in church than in a bar.” It was hard to argue the point despite the New Year arriving unremarkably in other parts of the world. In the end, 2000 came without a glitch.

In the first hours of the first day of 2025 hope appeared through my window!

Green-throated Carib Hummingbirds buzzed about the feeder sipping on the nectar I prepared like a bottle of Dom Perignon! A female Antillean Crested Hummingbird sat patiently waiting her turn in the tree nearby. The bushes were filled with the cackle of Bananaquits awaiting their morning cup of sugar.

Female Antillean Crested Hummingbird Bathing in the RainDrop Soaked Leaves

Then it occurred to me that nature is always there to hold our hand through uncertain times. During the dark days of Covid, many including myself, turned to birdwatching to make it through.

So whether you enjoy the simplicity of a feeder in your backyard, a walk through a wetland, or penguins in the Antarctic, enjoy it to the fullest. I am certain that nature will get us through 2025 and beyond.

Enjoy a little love and light from my yard to yours!