Woodward Family: A Very Late Post on Trinidad

Don and Carol’s Overly Postponed Trip to Trinidad and Tobago in May/June 2012

Heliconia

Friday, May 25, 2012 - San Francisco to Miami

The Miami Airport

This is Don. As some of you may know I have a blog that eats up a lot of my time posting about western college baseball. Not a whole lot of traffic on that blog but more than here. For the longest time I said to myself that I would eventually post on this blog. So, here I am. Carol and I decided years ago that we would go to TT on our fifth anniversary. Well, that has come and gone. About this time last year we talked about it again. It’s famous for birds and I’m the birder in the family so I didn’t really want to push it but Carol said, “Let’s go!” So, here we go.

The flight from San Francisco was to leave at eleven AM, or so, in the morning but was postponed to later that day so we stayed home and waited. I found that out on the airline’s website. A change again wasn’t posted online. I found that out by an automated phone call. I usually ignore 800 numbers as they are usually asking for money or want me to have my carpets cleaned. This one I picked up. Devine providence and a good thing. The flight had been changed again - Earlier! Zowie! We have to get moving. We got there to find out it had been changed again. Ok, enough of this. We finally get on the plane and they ply us with liquor to shut us all up. Good plan. Next stop, Miami.

We arrive in Miami in the evening and we had decided earlier to stay over and leave early on Saturday. Another wise decision on our part. Get some well-needed rest and get to Port of Spain early in the day rather than late in the evening.

Saturday, May 26, 2012 - Miami to Port of Spain, Trinidad

Steel band with steel musicians

The flight was uneventful and I always give thanks for that. The landing was a little different. The plane was on final approach and about 50 feet above the runway when the pilot changed his mind and gunned the engines to make another pass. We all freaked a bit and it was later announced that something was on the runway. Goat, person, dinosaur we never found out. Next pass was just fine.

Our tour van

After picking up our luggage and going outside we were approached by Dave Ramlal, our guide for the time on Trinidad. I proceeded to get in the wrong seat and Dave asked if I wanted to drive. Oops, British rules. Driving through town on the narrow roads was hair-raising and we never really got used to it. Brakes not needed. It took us an hour to get from town, up into the mountains, and to our lodge which is famous among birders - Asa Wright Nature Center. Great place with good food and service. After getting situated in our room, I immediately headed out to the veranda which is set up with hummingbird feeders and fruit to draw in birds and anything else that might be wanting a snack. I picked up a bunch of new birds for my list while drinking a rum punch. Easy birding.

Green Honeycreeper

Dinner that evening was tasty and we met Phil and Terry, American expatriates living in Port of Spain, who introduced us to Angostura 1919 Rum. Good stuff to be consumed as if it were a fine single malt scotch. To bed and an early start.

Sunday May 27, 2012 - Asa Wright and Leatherback Turtles

Where we stayed while on Trinidad

Dave meets us and takes us on a walking tour of the grounds which are substantial in size. It’s an old coffee plantation so it’s big. A few of the more interesting birds on this walk are Bearded Bellbird, White-beared and Golden-headed Manakins, and Guianan and Collared Trogons. By the way, I got my 1000th bird on this trip; a Streaked Xenops from the veranda. Birding is tough.

We leave early in the afternoon to Matura Beach to view Leatherback Turtles laying eggs and young hatchlings. It’s a long drive but we had a few stops one of which was memorable. A Fer de Lance was stretched out in the road on the way to the beach and was determined not to move. It is one of the most poisonous snakes in the American tropics and is not to be messed with and it knew it. Dave and our turtle guide got out with machetes trying to figure out what to do. Bad policy to kill the snake with a bunch of amateur naturalists watching. Dave got a big branch and coaxed it back into the forest. It put up a fight but we eventually moved on. We were too far from medical help so a bite would probably have been fatal. Cool, dude. Better on a road than at night on a trail. They are very aggressive.

Made it out to the beach and had dinner and drinks which Dave brought along with us. They always had food for us and I don’t mean bologna sandwiches. Birds got better after the rum punch. After it got dark we went out to the areas where the female turtles were known to haul out. After a wait we found a big mama laying eggs. Very cool.

Mama leatherback

We stayed back until she started laying eggs when close approach was allowed. Apparently they go into a “trance” when laying and ignore all that is going on about them. Curious. A very long drive back to the lodge and to bed.

Monday, May 28, 2012 - Highlands and Blanchisseuse Rainforest

Don, Dave, and Phil from left

Not a lot to talk about here as it was mostly driving, stopping, getting out of van, looking up into the canopy, repeat. After a day of this you get what is called by some “warbler neck”. Lots of new birds. Carol was a bit bored on this trip as she is not interested in that little green thing up in the canopy but she will take a good long look at a Scarlet Macaw or something flashy like that. Yes, she did like the manakins we saw earlier. One thing to remember is that Carol was taking all the pictures you see here and the notes on what was done day to day. I have embellished as is my wont. More food, more rum, more sleep.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - Nariva Swamp and Abandoned US Air Base

We visit the Atlantic side of the island and it was rainy most of the day. Our first stop was Aripo Agricultural Research Station. This place is developing a breed of cattle that will do well in the tropics. It has the appropriate name of buffalypso. They are big and look like a cross between Brahma and Water Buffalo which I suspect they are.

Buffalypsos

Pastures are one of the few man-made areas we visited and there are good birds there also. Visits here are controlled so doing this on your own wouldn’t be allowed. Tours pay off this way. The end of the day was at an airbase that the US used up until the 60’s. Rather overgrown as you might imagine but also guarded closely. I asked “Why?” and Dave said that private planes use the runways to smuggle in drugs. Made sense to me. We visited for one purpose and that was to see the elusive Moriche Oriole that lives in areas where there are Moriche Palms, hence the name. My one claim to fame on this trip as I was the one who spotted it. Another fairly long drive to our lodge followed this sighting.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - Aripo Research Station and Night Birding

The morning was spent again at Aripo for visits to different habitats on the land. We then headed back to the Lodge for lunch and the afternoon was ours. We then prepared for another trip down to the lowlands and Aripo for some night birding. We saw two species of nightjar (a Whip-poor-Will is a nightjar), a Common Potoo, and a Barn Owl. They all had distinctive eye shine which is pretty cool. What next? You guessed it. A long drive back to the lodge.

Thursday, May 31, 2012 - Oilbird Cave, Caroni Swamp, and Hummingbird House

Our first trip of the day was a short walk down to the Oilbird Cave on the lodge grounds. The Oilbird is strange on many fronts. It is the only nocturnal bird that echo-locates as do bats. It gets its name from the amount of fat found in the young which, at one time, were boiled down to get the oil. Yuck. Got pretty decent looks at a bird not commonly seen. We then head on down the road to a residential area just outside of the city where we visited a nice home with many hummingbird feeders and so many hummingbirds it was hard to keep track of just one. My favorite was the Ruby Topaz Hummingbird and the name does it justice. Absolutely exquisite. With all the feeders you’d think it would be easy birding but they are all whizzing about fighting over choice spots which made it difficult. I found it best to just watch one feeder at a time. Next stop was one of the highlights of the trip to Caroni Swamp. This was a boat tour through mangrove swamp to a roosting area for many species of herons and Scarlet Ibis. A truly astounding bird as a pure red bird is always astounding. A tree full of them is beyond that adjective. This bird is the national bird of Trinidad and is found on their currency. It’s also on the top of the list of birders visiting TT for the first time.

Scarlet Ibis in Caroni Swamp

Friday, June 1, 2012 - Flight to Tobago

We say goodbye to Asa Wright and our guide Dave. He is an excellent birder and made sure we wanted for nothing on all our outings. Gladwyn was to be our guide on Tobago and he picks us up at the airport in a small bus. He looks like he could play linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys and I asked him if he ever played football. He said no as cricket was his sport of choice. He tried to explain that game to us all and he was not insulted as we all fell asleep. Crazy game. We spend some time around ponds and a golf course birding and the best of the lot were a few good looks at White-cheeked Pintail which was a target bird for me. Long drive (are there any others?) to our hotel, the Blue Waters Inn on the other end of the island.

Blue Waters Inn

Tobago is part of the island nation Trinidad and Tobago. People from Trinidad call themselves Trinis and those from Tobago call themselves Tobagonians. I like it. Same nation but two very different cultures. To keep it short I’ll give one example. The roads on Trinidad are atrocious. those on Tobago are excellent. Makes you wonder where the money is going on Trinidad.

To end the day we just went for a few short walks around the area, sat on the beach outside our rooms, or had rum drinks at the bar. What could be better? Hey, we’re there already so no long drive.

Saturday, June 2, 2012 - Little Tobago

The highlight for today was a glass-bottomed boat trip out to Little Tobago Island which is about a mile away from our hotel. The glass-bottomed boat view of the coral reef was average at best. We saw a few butterfly fish and a stingray but the coral “forest” was not so good. We understood that a hurricane a few years ago did a lot of damage to the coral and it will take some time for it to recover.

Glass-bottomed boat on way to Little Tobago

Landing on the island was hard work as the boat was pitching about so to gain a good foothold on the boat as well as the dock was tricky. One of our party had to beg off and opted to wait in the boat for our return. Nice hike to the top of the island where we could view a few small islands, the open ocean, and lots of views of Red-billed Tropicbirds.

The two fellows who operated the boat looked to be middle guards for the 49ers but were mostly in good humor. One kept calling himself Shin, which made little sense to all of us. It turns out his name is actually Shane and when we found out we all said “Oh, Shane!” and he said “That’s what I said, Shin.” A good laugh ensued. I think the other guy’s name was Z. We didn’t go any further than that. Back to the hotel for food and rum.

Sunday, June 3, 2012 - Gilpin Trace and Main Ridge Forest Reserve

This day we drove up into the mountain highlands on, as I said earlier, excellent roads. A story here. Trinidad has been asking Tobago to join with them so they wouldn’t have to take care of all their infrastructure. Tobago simply says no dice, we’ve seen your roads. The birding along the way is pretty good as we see some things found only on Tobago such as another manakin. Our guide Gladwyn worked hard to drum up the birds so he earned his pay and his tips.

Gladwyn waiting for Blue-backed Manakin

I still think I could field a pretty good college football team just by scouting Trinidad and, especially, Tobago. Trinidad has a more diverse ethnicity with Asians being about 1/2 of the population. Think Indian. Tobago is just about 100% black and big.

Reserve on Tobago

The Ridge Reserve is claimed to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest, nature preserves in the new world as it was established in 1765. They keep good care of it. Back to the hotel for relaxing and, you guessed it, more rum.

Monday, June 4, 2012 - Flight back to Trinidad and home.

We leave the Blue Waters Inn by van and it’s a long ride to the airport on the other end of the island. Windy mountain road, but a good one, all the way. Gack! We fly from Tobago back to Port of Spain and wait more than a few hours for the flight to Miami. Overnight at Miami and then home.

Overall, the birding was good to great. We had some rain but it was never much of an issue. I picked up some chiggers the first day. I don’t know how as no one else did. My God, what an itch. I added to my life list by about 100 birds so record keeping was a daily deal. As I’ve said earlier, all the pictures you see were taken by Carol and I used her journal notes to write this blog. This is a great birding spot and has been known to all serious birders for a long time. It’s not an area that I’d recommend for the casual tourist. Not much happening. Divers and birders are the main source of the tourist dollar. Would I go back? Yes, if I could have Dave as a guide again. More photos follow.