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Antigua and Barbuda: Island Guide

This formidable compilation is the result of firsthand experience and over two years of research. The Antigua & Barbuda Island Guide provides insightful information that allows visitors to feel like locals while enjoying the indisputable beauty of this Caribbean nation. GAIN INSIGHT – Behind those long stretches of white sand beach and turquoise colored water is a vibrant culture all its own. Get an insightful look at Antigua & Barbuda’s history, culture, environment, politics, and people. TOUR THE TWIN-ISLANDS – With 8 detailed maps and resources for getting around, let the Antigua & Barbuda Island Guide steer you in the right direction while keeping you informed on everything the island has to offer. EAT OUT – An exhaustive dining guide highlights those hidden spots where locals go to dine and points out internationally acclaimed restaurants. FIND ACCOMMODATIONS – From first class resorts to hilltop villas to deserted beachfront cabins, Antigua & Barbuda has it all when it comes to finding a place to stay (you just have to know where to look). ARRANGE ACTIVITIES – Are you dreaming about landing that big marlin? Or wanting to search for sunken treasure off Barbuda’s coast? How about chartering your own private yacht for the day? It’s all here waiting for you.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul provides a notable counterpoint to the contemporary game. At once he is inimitable and timeless - no more a product of his period than a kitchen clock, and yet not a creature of the past either, for he has scored runs yesterday and today and will score runs tomorrow. Just that he goes about it in his own sweet and deceptively frail way, relying on deflections and glides, hands as opposed to forearms, a wand as opposed to a tree trunk, persuasion and perseverance as opposed to power. He is a rubber man put among concrete pillars. In short, he is a reminder that, even now, cricket has many faces and talent can take many forms.

It has taken a boy from a distant fishing village to remind us that sporting technique cannot be pinned in a book like a dead butterfly or refined into a mathematical formula. Chanderpaul's career shows that an ambitious sportsman can defy the straitjacket of conventional thought and even scientific analysis and still make his way in the game. Except that "defy" is the wrong word because the left-hander has no defiance in him, is too modest and uncertain to confront anything beyond his own circumstances.

Nevertheless, from the outset he has been extraordinarily bold. At the very least he has ignored accepted wisdom, dared to walk into the world from a remote outpost as his own player and his own man. Perhaps it was that he knew no other way, or perhaps it is that he knew more than he let on. In any event he has demonstrated that a player blessed with ability and determination, and prepared to follow his own instincts, can develop his own game and take it with him on the long journey. It is the half-baked who fall short.

Typically, he has crept up the batting rankings till, almost unnoticed, he has reached fifth place, the highest perch attained in an impressive, occasionally interrupted career. Nor is he far adrift from the top position. Of course, his inspired performances against the Australians in the last few weeks, and especially his match-saving innings in Antigua, lie behind his recent climb, but the deft 33-year-old has been in full flow all year. Altogether he has played eight Tests in the last 12 months, and has collected 1635 runs in the three formats at an average of 86.05. Along the way he has added six centuries to his tally. Nor has he punished mugs. Besides the Australians, these runs have been scored against England and South Africa in their own backyards. It is a mighty achievement.

Of course it is the finest patch in a startling and sometimes stirring career, but Chanderpaul is hardly an overnight sensation. To the contrary, he has been an outstanding batsman for a decade. His rise is not remotely fortuitous or even unexpected. Simply, it has been an exposition of proven technique and resolute temperament. Chanderpaul has been scoring lots of runs for years, most of them in the face of the adversity that has long gripped West Indian cricket. Indeed, he has displayed laudable immunity to the forces of distraction, destruction and downright incompetence that have often swirled around him. Always he has moved along at his own pace in his own way. At times he has been a tortoise, on other occasions a hare, but always he has been staunch and skilful. His entire career tells of durability.

By no means is Chanderpaul's rise a surprise. His position reflects the work of a singular batsman with a calculating mind and a strong insight into the requirements of batsmanship. Productivity has been his aim, intuition his guide. His game is more organised than it seems. At the crease he resembles a puppet guided by an unseen hand, constantly moving, apparently at random, yet every part of the body knows its role and its location, and almost always he ends up in the right place at the right time, whereupon he essays the shot of his choosing. Chanderpaul's technique is not so much odd as original. But then it is the product of his wits and not an outsider's words. It is not so much that he turned his back on orthodoxy. The introduction was never made.

In any case, even by the most rigid standards the boy from the fishing village does an awful lot right. Most particularly, he watches the ball as does a mother hen her brood. Late movement might trap the unwary but the left-hander is not so easily foxed. He knows the trickery of the world and the cunning of bowlers and the blindness of umpires, and takes no risks save those of his own choosing. He is also an extremely disciplined batsman, not prone to flights of fancy or premeditation or the other follies of the mind. He does not indulge himself in wayward thoughts or headstrong outbursts. Rather, he goes quietly about his business, trusting no one except himself, giving the game its due, always aware of the cost of carelessness.

Accordingly it is a mistake to dismiss him as a curiosity, a batting version of Muttiah Muralitharan or John Gleeson. Apart from anything else, batsmen must obey cer

The Indigo Bunting, Passerina cyanea, is a small seed-eating bird in the family Cardinalidae. It is migratory, ranging from southern Canada to northern Florida during the breeding season, and from southern Florida to northern South America during the winter.[1] It often migrates by night, using the stars to navigate.[2] Its habitat is farmland, brush areas, and open woodland.[3] The Indigo Bunting is closely related to the Lazuli Bunting, and interbreeds with the latter species where their ranges overlap.

The Indigo Bunting is a small bird, with a length of 11.5–13 cm (4.5–5 in). It displays sexual dimorphism in its coloration; the male is a vibrant blue in the summer and a brown color during the winter months, while the female is brown year-round. The male displays brightly colored plumage during the breeding season to attract a mate. Nest-building and incubation are done solely by the female. The diet of the Indigo Bunting consists primarily of insects during the summer months and seeds during the winter months.

Taxonomy

The Indigo Bunting is included in the family Cardinalidae, which is made up of passerine birds found in North and South America, and is one of seven birds in the genus Passerina.[4] It was originally described as Loxia cyanea by Linnaeus in his 18th-century work, Systema Naturae.[5] The current genus name, Passerina, is derived from the Latin term passer for true sparrows and similar small birds,[6] while the species name, cyanea, is from the Latin word meaning dark or sea blue.[7]

The Indigo Bunting is closely related to the Lazuli Bunting, and interbreeds with the latter species where their ranges overlap, in the Great Plains.[8] They were declared to form a superspecies by the American Ornithologists' Union in 1983.[9] However, according to sequencing of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene of members of the genus Passerina, it was determined that the Indigo Bunting and Lazuli Bunting are not, in fact, sister taxa. The Indigo Bunting is the sister of two sister groups, a “blue” (Lazuli Bunting and Blue Grosbeak) and a “painted” (Rosita's Bunting, Orange-breasted Bunting, Varied Bunting, and Painted Bunting) clade. This genetic study shows these species diverged between 4.1 and 7.3 million years ago. This timing, which is consistent with fossil evidence, coincides with a late-Miocene cooling, which caused the evolution of a variety of western grassland habitats. Evolving to reduce size may have allowed buntings to exploit grass seeds as a food source.[10]
[edit] Description

The Indigo Bunting is 11.5–13 cm (4.5–5 in) long, with a wingspan of 20–23 cm (8–9 in).[11] During the breeding season, the adult male has deep blue plumage, with a darker crown that verges on purple. The wings and tail are black with blue edges. In fall and winter plumage, the male is similar to the female, but often retains some blue feathers. The adult female is dark brown on the upperparts and lighter brown on the underparts. It has indistinct wing bars and is faintly streaked with dark underneath.[12] The immature bird resembles the female in coloring, although a male may have hints of blue on the tail and shoulders and have darker streaks on the underside. The beak is short and conical. In the adult female, the bill is light brown tinged with blue, and in the adult male the upper half is brownish-black while the lower is light blue.[13] The feet and legs are black or gray.[14]
[edit] Distribution and habitat

The habitat of the Indigo Bunting is brushy forest edges, open deciduous woods, second growth woodland, and farmland.[3] The breeding range stretches from southern Canada to Maine, south to northern Florida and eastern Texas, and westward to southern Nevada. The winter range begins in southern Florida and central Mexico and stretches south through the West Indies and Central America to northern South America.[1] It has occurred as a vagrant in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Serbia and the United Kingdom.[15]
[edit] Behavior

The Indigo Bunting communicates through vocalizations and visual cues. A sharp chip! call is used by both sexes, and is used as an alarm call if a nest or chick is threatened. A high-pitched, buzzed zeeep is used as a contact call when the Indigo Bunting is in flight.[16] The song of the male bird is a high-pitched buzzed sweet-sweet chew-chew sweet-sweet, lasting two to four seconds, sung to mark his territory to other males and to attract females. Each male has a single complex song,[14] which he sings while perched on elevated objects, such as posts, wires, and bush-tops.[17] In areas where the ranges of the Lazuli Bunting and the Indigo Bunting overlap, the males defend territories from each another.[18] Migration takes place in April and May and then again in September and October.[1] The Indigo Bunting often migrates during the night, using the stars to direct itself

This fully illustrated, brand new edition Insight Compact Guide is the ideal companion for your trip to Antigua and Barbuda, covering everything you need to know about these idyllic sister islands, from Antigua's picturesque capital to Barbuda's renowned bird sanctuary and beautiful beaches. The top 10 sights are highlighted to help you plan your visit whilst clear, colour-coded sections cover everything from history and culture, to entertainment and food and drink, in an easy-to-read format. All sights of special interest are cross-referenced with detailed full-colour maps throughout, providing instant orientation and allowing you to tailor your chosen routes exactly to the places you most want to visit. Practical travel information is also included; covering transport and accommodation for all budgets and much more, so you have all the information you need at your fingertips, including essential contact details. Small in size but big on detail; this guide is both durable and ultra portable, so it can go, wherever you go.