Up at 5:30 again to look at the birds. I was hanging around the Tufted Croquette’s
favourite Verbena bush when a chap called me over to say two males were
“copulating” further up the hill. I must
have misheard him as obviously they weren’t copulating but were certainly
having a good scrap. I hope this is a
good one despite the high ISO.
Greg (American Photograper Day 1) had told us about some
reptile which lived on a creeper covered shed near us so I asked this same chap
if he knew about it. He promptly took us
to a tree and showed us the Spiky Gecko.
Once again amazing camouflage.
Once again amazing camouflage.
We got chatting about what we were doing today and it turned out he was
to be our guide for the day as Sharon had to do an airport collection. Mukesh, is Sharon’s nephew and was the Head
Naturalist until a while ago and now his main responsibility is re-designing
the gardens and he has already introduced many more plants that attract the wildlife
in general, not just birds. Sharon’s son
(Barry, Day 2) is also a naturalist guide and numerous other members of the
family have/do work here – over the years 60% of all the key jobs have been
held by family members – they are devoted to the place.
To our amazement, approx. 40% of Trinidadians are Hindus, since the abolition of slavery many thousands of East Indians (as they are referred to) were brought over to work in the plantations etc and now some 5/6 generations later they are the prosperous ones with businesses, shops, education etc. It makes me chuckle to talk with someone who looks so Indian but speaks with a strong Caribbean accent!
Mukesh is extremely knowledgeable as you would imagine but
also extremely engaging. Through his job
he was travelled widely both to study and also represent AWNC abroad and he is
very easy to talk to. The biggest bonus
is we have a nice comfortable car to travel in instead of a rattlely minibus
with no seatbelts.
We headed west towards the airport and from there south to
the Waterloo Mudflats on the west coast.
Unfortunately the traffic was quite heavy and by the time we reached the
area the threatening rain clouds had arrived and it began to rain.
We stopped at a Hindu Temple which had been built by the sea after many years of argument between the benefactor and the authorities. Sadly as with many things "Indian" there was a lot of litter around.
We stopped at a Hindu Temple which had been built by the sea after many years of argument between the benefactor and the authorities. Sadly as with many things "Indian" there was a lot of litter around.
Leaden skies and a few birds:-
Egrets (two different species)
Osprey
Brown Pelicans (another one I can't resist photographing)
Snowy Egret (with catch and raindrops)
Kiskadee
A rather lovely Saffron Finch
We had our picnic lunch at probably the most bizarre location ever – an old fisherman’s warehouse under a large steel structure rather like a carport. There were weeds growing everywhere and the place was deserted apart from 4 very dodgy looking Trinis with long hair, rolling eyes and few teeth. They were sat on the floor of this shelter putting fish hooks on 6” lengths of lines for line fishing. They were really nice guys, one cleared the boot of his car so we had somewhere to perch whilst we ate and another produced a sponge to help us get some very claggy mud from our shoes. I’d have liked to take a few photos but with a very long lens on I would have had to walk a long way away to get them all in and it might have seemed a bit weird.
The rain showed no signs of abating so we slowly made our
way back north towards the Caroni Swamp where later we would see one of the
highlights of the trip – a boat trip to see thousands of scarlet ibis returning
to roost in the trees on a small island in the swamp.
We were due to meet the other 7 I’ve mentioned. So far we’ve been everywhere on our own whereas they’ve
been in a group. Whether this is because
all our trips were prebooked and they only decided when they came I don’t know,
but I’m glad. Anyway they were joining us
for the 4pm (or sometimes slightly earlier) boat trip.
Despite us arriving just before 3pm and enjoying an early
Rum Sundowner whilst the rain poured down, the boatman didn’t appear to be
doing anything to get his boat ready. If
you’ve ever been to India then what happened next will be of no surprise!
About 4:20 two cars turned up and out got boatman’s wife and daughter plus possibly brother-in-law and wife – they’d bought a key, the key to the boatshed so boatman could get the engine out and fit it to the boat. The young (10-11) daughter played about at the jetty’s edge and the wife attempted to winch the engine into position – her husband helpfully standing by and issuing instructions. Eventually brother-in-law took over and the thing got into position. Back to the shed and without checking there was anyone in the vicinity the boatman proceeded to pour petrol from one container to another – fortunately none of our party smoked or we all could have gone bang!.
Then the piece de resistance – brother-in-law went back to
his car, lifted the bonnet, disconnected his battery and brought it onto the
boat to start the boat - miracles of miracles it started first time.
Now you could board the boat from either side, one side had two shallow steps and handrails and the other was a very steep launch yourself into the boat clinging onto a fellow passenger. You can guess which method we had to take. By this time there had been a 1/2 hour break in the rain so we were optimistic but Boatman continued to phaff around on the channels leading to the lake area and waste even more valuable time and daylight. Then the rain started with a vengeance, it poured and poured. The boat had a canvas cover – hurrah! Except this only covered the back two rows of seats and of course we were all seated in the front. So we had to clamber over slippery wet seats, bags and cameras in hand but it didn’t provide any shelter so Ian and I sat huddled under our flimsy pack-a-macs (free from New York Big Red Bus Tour) desperately trying not to let the camera get wet, although it had on its own very expensive, custom designed rain hood.
Now you could board the boat from either side, one side had two shallow steps and handrails and the other was a very steep launch yourself into the boat clinging onto a fellow passenger. You can guess which method we had to take. By this time there had been a 1/2 hour break in the rain so we were optimistic but Boatman continued to phaff around on the channels leading to the lake area and waste even more valuable time and daylight. Then the rain started with a vengeance, it poured and poured. The boat had a canvas cover – hurrah! Except this only covered the back two rows of seats and of course we were all seated in the front. So we had to clamber over slippery wet seats, bags and cameras in hand but it didn’t provide any shelter so Ian and I sat huddled under our flimsy pack-a-macs (free from New York Big Red Bus Tour) desperately trying not to let the camera get wet, although it had on its own very expensive, custom designed rain hood.
Not wishing to expose the lens to driving rain I took just
one shot and that’s out of focus.
It would have been a wonderful sight, 1000s of birds all
flying in until night fell, some brighter scarlet than others, and roosting in
the trees. From a photographic point, it
wouldn’t have made an award winning shot but it was a shame I didn’t get to
take more pictures. I’m so glad however
that I got this one of a few stray ibis earlier in the day.
