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THE ASA WRIGHT VERANDAH:
Most birders to Trinidad visit the Asa Wright Nature Center, situated ~1,000 ft above sea level. The Center is run by a non-profit organization with the goals of habitat preservation, education, and hosting visitors that view its birds, butterflies, plants, and animals. There are miles of trails to explore on the property, but one of the highlights of visiting Asa Wright is spending time on its verandah.

The famed Asa Wright verandah, viewed from within the garden. Flowers and feeders that attract hummingbirds, honeycreepers, and other birds surround the verandah, and its position on a hillside provides excellent views of the canopy of downhill trees.

Birders on the verandah. This is birding in comfort, with excellent views, comfortable seats, an adjacent library and bar, naturalists to answer questions, a Leica scope for viewing distant birds, and shelter from the sun and occasional rain showers.

The verandah is situated on the back side of the main building, on a hillside that presents excellent views over the garden and canopy. In addition, more than a dozen hummingbird feeders are located at eye level or on the grounds below the verandah, and flowering plants such as vervain are located within the garden to attract hummingbirds. The result is that the verandah is a wonderful location for observing tanagers, honeycreepers, toucans, oropendolas, and ~13 species of hummingbirds in splendidly relaxing conditions. In addition, if a shower occurs, you can continue to view birds while remaining dry and comfortable (perhaps with a rum punch in your hand).

A male Green Honeycreeper drawn to flowering trees near the verandah.

A stunning male Purple Honeycreeper, a common sight by the verandah fruit feeder stations.

A Yellow Oriole that occasionally visited the verandah gardens.

Blue-chinned Sapphire, a bird whose irridescence has to be witnessed in person.

Two-foot long Golden Tegu Lizards were occasionally seen on the grounds.

THE TRAILS: An excellent way to sample the birds of the forest is to walk the Asa Wright Discovery Trail, which is less than a mile long, and thus can be walked out and back at a leisurely pace in ~ 1 1/2 hours. Leks for both Golden-hooded and White-bearded Manakins are located along this trail, each of which had numerous individuals that were very active through most of the day.

White-bearded Manakin in full display mode. Dozens of these birds could be seen at any time of day along the Discovery Trail.

When walking towards the manakin leks, you will be hearing loud ‘bonk’-ing coming from downhill; these are the calls of Bearded Bellbirds. Thankfully, the Bellbirds do not exclusively dwell on the top of canopy, but instead seem to prefer mid-height in the forest, allowing reasonable views. that is, IF you can find them. You would think that it should be easy; they are incredibly loud, call incessantly, are around the size of a crow, and are mostly white. Yet somehow they remain difficult to see. But when you see them, it is wonderful. Standing in the forest, listening to this strange noise echoing from all directions, and finally finding this remarkably attired bird (complete with ‘beard’) is something that we all should experience. This is now my favorite bird of all time. Watch the video by clicking here and decide for yourself.

Bearded Bellbird. Its surprising how hard it can be to find this amazing bird. But what a treat it is to see…and hear…it.

A pair of Brown Boobies on the shoreline of Little Tobago Island.

One of the highlights of birding Tobago is a short boat trip to view nesting seabirds on Little Tobago Island, located just 2 miles across Batteau Bay from our lodging at Blue Waters Inn. In fact, hints of what was in store could be observed with binocs or scope from the inn, where Laughing Gulls, assorted Terns, Brown Noddies, Magnificent Frigatebirds, and occasional Brown Pelicans were feeding constantly over the water. The day was windy, so entrance into our boat was quite scary, timing our entry as the boat rose to the level of the dock in the swells. As we approached Little Tobago, we spotted a major target species for this trip, as a few Red-billed Tropicbirds were soaring with their central tail feathers protruding far beyond the body. Near shoreline, the boat was positioned parallel to a rocky portion where Brown Noddies, Sooty Terns, Bridled Terns, and Brown Boobies all were roosting.

Exit onto the island at their ‘dock’ (I’m using that term lightly…it was really just a wet stone wall protruding into the shallows) was even more scary; picture timing a step out of the rocking boat onto a wet rock wall as a swell lifts the boat upward, and then walking on this relatively narrow and slippery rock face as waves are splashing alongside. The crew was experienced at this sort of thing though, and everyone managed just fine. After a ~15 minute walk up a trail with occasional stops to rest and hear about the history of the island, we reached an overlook that was the highlight of the day, with multiple Red-billed Tropicbirds soaring above, at, and below eye level.  Wow.
As I was snapping photos, I noticed one bird with a yellow bill that I assumed would be an immature Red-billed Tropicbird, but upon later viewing, turned out to be a White-tailed Tropicbird. Upon submitting the sighting to eBird, I was informed that although they are seen here annually, this was the first one sighted on Little Tobago this year!

A White-tailed Tropicbird. Note the yellow bill and black patches on the secondaries.

It was the icing on a wonderful day. On the way back we took a break from birding and stopped at a sheltered location for a few minutes of snorkeling.

Today my brother and I began our first birding trip to Trinidad and Tobago. For those of you who might be considering taking such a trip yourself, let’s start with a brief introduction. Trinidad and Tobago is a single country that consists of two major islands that are separated from each other by only ~23 miles, with Trinidad being only ~7 miles from Venezuela at its closest point. The standard and apt description is that T&T is culturally part of the West Indies, but geographically is an extension of South America. T&T is often suggested to be an excellent choice for northern birders who are interested in taking their first birding foray into the tropics, because although T&T has families of tropical birds such as manakins, parrots, trogons, antbirds, woodcreepers, tityras, and jacamars, there are fewer members of each family than would be seen in locations such as Columbia or Brazil, countries whose birdlife diversity can be overwhelming. This was not our first trip to the tropics, but I agree wholeheartedly with that assessment.

Although I have grown to enjoy trips to off-the-radar birding locations and using local expertise instead of the higher-priced birding lodges and guide services, for this trip we decided to simply use one of the many birding packages offered by Caligo Ventures, the booking agent for the Asa Wright Nature Center in Trinidad and a few Tobago partners. We flew direct from JFK to Port-of-Spain Trindad and then took a short 15-minute connecting flight to Tobago. We stayed at the Blue Waters Inn on the far eastern coast of the island, a 1 1/2 hr. drive from the Tobago airport. A great thing about visiting a new country is that the first couple new life birds are easy, picked up in the airport or driving to the lodgings, or while walking to your room. We were tired but energized at the same time, but were able to see species like Saffron Finch in the Piarco Airport and Magnificent Frigatebirds en route to the Inn, confirming that we were no longer in New Jersey.

Saffron Finch gathering nesting material at Piarco Airport. Our first bird in Trinidad.

Amazingly, the first bird seen at the Inn was an Audubon’s Shearwater that was nearly on the shore. We suspect that this was a young or exhausted bird, because the next morning we found it on the lawn of the inn, hidden in the shelter of the Inn’s leeward side, out of the buffeting winds.

An Audubon’s Shearwater nearly on the shoreline at Blue Waters Inn. A major surprise for us.

The grounds of the inn, although not extensive or varied, allowed views of Trinidad Motmot, Barred Antshrike, Rufous-vented Chachalacas, Spectacled Thrushes, White-fringed Antwrens, and more. It was a day of traveling and transferring, and not much birding, but what we saw was already encouraging.

Rufous-vented Chachalaca, the national symbol of Tobago. We saw up to six of them on the grounds at the inn.

To view the entire photo collection from this trip, visit my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/14037210@N06/sets/72157655480484206