We woke to clear skies and a lovely Yellow Crowned Night
Heron on the beach just outside our room.
Breakfast was very nice but again slow and Ian’s ordered sausage and
bacon failed to arrive with his eggs.
But we only had an hour before we were off for a day tour around the
island.
Jason, our guide, is from Trinidad and worked at the Asa
Wright Centre for many years in different capacities and his aunt is now the
General Manager, he’s cousins with Mukesh, Sharon is his Great Uncle –small world. He was also General Manager here at Blue
Waters for 4 years until he set up on his own as a tour guide/naturalist. An exceptional chap, extremely intelligent
and extremely knowledgeable on practically every subject and very personable too.
Firstly we went to an old tobacco plantation (the word Tobacco
being a corruption of Tobago) which is now a golf course, posh hotel and some
very swanky houses). Around here we saw amongst other birds:-
Southern Lapwing
Whistleling Duck
The water lilies once again were beautiful (and I didn't see the Whistlers til I taken the shot)
Female Purple Gallinula
Areca Palm with fruit
Then once again we found ourselves walking around a sewage
farm, although at this one nothing was going on. When birders see a bird for the first time,
it is known as a “lifer” and Jason was very, very excited to see his first Northern
Shoveller Duck the other day whilst taking some American birders around. They were not at all impressed as it’s a very
common bird there. We saw two today and
were very impressed (except I messed up the shot :( )
The Knob from Asa Wright was out with Jason for a few hours
on Wednesday and one of is “lifers” was a White Winged Swallow which he failed
to see – but we did and I got the shot haha!
Sweet Oil Butterfly
White Peacock Butterfly
Littering is a worldwide problem
Jason knew an amazing amount about most things except photography
and plants so I was able to add a little to his knowledge bank. Ricinus communis seedheads (the drug ricin is made from this plant)
A Green Heron amongst the water hyacinth which for some
reason (leeched chemicals?) was not looking its usual healthy self but it made
a nice contrast to the bird.
Once again the rain came down rather hard so our remaining
views of the north of the island was mainly from the car, which is a shame as
there are some stunning views.
Finally whilst we were driving through the Rain Forest
towards home we saw this lovely Trinidad MotMot.
.