Trinidad and Tobago Trip Report - Part 3 - Aripo

Oct 20th
We didn't hear a lot of rain the night before and it looked like it would be a nice day, this was good because we were off to the Aripo livestock station that morning, a farm of sorts that held water buffalo among a good variety of wild birds.

Maneed had us walk a strech of the dirt road and we picked up some good species in a short time.

 Striated Heron

Smooth-billed Ani

 Red-breasted Blackbird

White-headed Water-tyrant

Finally i saw my first Southern Lapwings, along with Wattled Jacana, other shorebirds seen included a few Least Sandpipers and a Solitary Sandpiper.

The water buffalo were fun to shoot as well and Audy got a few memorable shots.

Further up the road we got some looks at a harder to find species called yellow-chinned Spinetail.

There were plenty of Black vultures around as well.

We saw one of my target birds Yellow-headed Caracara fly overhead but it never landed for a shot alas, we would see one more in Tobago while being driven on the Caribbean side and never got a shot that time either, struck out as far as caracara's were concerned.

After the livestock station we drove around the Aripo Savannah area a bit stopping at a few spots to shoot birds like 

 White-flanked Antwren

Savanna Hawk

 Squirrel Cuckoo

Yellow-rumped Cacique

The cacique's were fun to shoot as their nest tree was right down a major street with shops and a bar in a small town, at one point a local came up and said "what's all the commotion around here now?" i laughed and explained the nest in the tree across the street. He called the birds by the local name "yellow birds" and said it would be a shame if the tree died, it wasn't in good shape apparantly.

Later at Asa Wright we continued shooting the feeder species.

I had a special session with a White-necked Jacobin thanks to Audy coming into the cabin while i was resting to tell me that she had found a jacobin perch. I had gotten some lousy early morning too dark etc. shots of the species earlier in the morning so it was an absolute pleasure to spend some time with this beautiful hummingbird up close.

Barry was hanging around the veranda and we talked about the morning, suddenly it dawned on me, we were leaving for Tobago early Friday morning, we wouldn't be able to see the Oilbirds it seemed.

Barry was perturbed but said he would look into it. Later we heard that he would take us down to the cave in the early afternoon today, having re-scheduled a small group from England, who would be staying until Sunday.

We were grateful, we would get our Oilbirds after all. Before that however i wanted to nail a few more of the hummers since this was our last day in Trinidad.

Copper-rumped Hummingbird

White-chested Emerald

At 1pm we met Barry and proceeded to walk down to the Dunstan cave, which actually wasn't a cave at all but two cliff faces that come together in a pyramid, there is a stream that runs through it and the birds roost in the dark of the shadows during the day, coming out at night to feed on nectar.

The Oilbird is the only nocturnal bird to rely on echolocation.

It was important to get down to the caves before the afternoon rains began as the trail was extremely slippery at the best of times, it could become a river of mud on the way back if we didn't get back in good order.

Thankfully there was a hand rail almost the whole distance down, i decided wisely to keep the camera in backpack on the way down, even so, i did slip onto my butt once, there was one section of trail that Barry said caused 90% of hikers to slip.

We got down finally and the water was quite deep, my Helly Hanson boots were waterproof leather but the water was higher than my ankles. Who cares, this was likely going to be my only chance to tick Oilbird off my Life List and i wasn't going to let a little water get in the way. 

I would have to be extremely careful setting up my tripod and camera though, dropping it all into the water and rocks would not be good.

Dunstan Oilbird cave

Flash was not allowed with these birds but a flashlight was used by Barry to spot them on the cliff face for me, otherwise it would have been difficult to focus on them.

It was a quick extremely humid session but i was thankful to have seen these unique birds.

the hike back up was a sweaty humid grind for me but there were no slip-ups thankfully.

Tommorow morning we would be leaving Asa Wright for the airport and a short 14 minute flight to Tobago, the next portion of our trip was before us, and we slept well that night, the rains came at night and the sound on the roof was strangely comforting.

Trinidad and Tobago Trip Report - Part 2 - Caroni Swamp

Oct 19th
It rained heavy during the night and i began to fear for our Caroni trip in the morning, i hoped it woul be dry.
I gulped down a coffee first thing in the morning and Audy grabbed some fruit and juice before our driver for the next two mornings Maneed put the maxi-taxi into gear and drove us down the windy hill to the Caroni swamp, thankfully, it had stopped raining..
We would be using the services of Madoo's, i had read birding reports that recommended them so i knew we were in good company. We waited for our boat man Shawn to arrive, a worker type guy dressed in blue was sitting by himself perhaps waiting for a ride to work.

Eventually Shawn arrived and we drove to the visitor centre and a small dock.
He tried to show us a rail nest but said recent floods in the area had destroyed the nest.
We heard the calls of the Grey-necked Wood Rail and eventually even saw the birds briefly near the dock, i tried to get a clear shot but was unsuccessful. A good sign was a Scarlet Ibis near the dock as well, we tried for it and it flew just before i was able to get a shot, there would be more ibis before the morning was over.
I was extremely pleased when a Red-capped Cardinal turned up in the parking lot just before the trip and i was able to get some decent shots of this target bird.

Soon we were off and Shawn showed us a few of the special birds he had staked out.

rare Boat-billed Heron high up in a tree.

This wasn't a new species actually, we saw them up close in San Blas Mexico in '07.

Common Potoo

 

Straight-billed Woodcreeper

We saw a couple of Scarlet Ibis high up in the trees as well during our boat trip and i took some shots as well as a few of an Osprey hunting ahead of us.

At one point Shawn asked us if we wanted to take a small side trip out to open water to see pelicans and frigatebirds on roost, that sounded pretty good. Suddenly Shawn turned the boat around and slowed it to a crawl, he proceeded to pick something up out of the water, it was a Scarlet Ibis feather, beautiful crimson red with a black tip, he gave it to me and i put it away with the intention of using it as a bookmark in a book or something. Later i would reconsider the decision, i rememeber reading a poster at the Piarco airport about declaring any feathers or feather products, i know Canada has a similar rule so if i wanted no questions, i could "smuggle" it, but it was risky. When i thought of that i realized i could never take it out of the country, it was this beauty in the feather that drove the species close to extirpation in Trinidad, until it was declared the national bird of T&T, even then poaching has continued to be a problem, i didn't want to contribute to this no matter how innocently the feather was acquired, we left the feather in our cabin at Asa Wright when we left.

 

We checked out the pelicans and frigatebirds and i was pleased to see the frigatebirds had their red throat pouches on display, in Mexico we hadn't seen this in the birds.

 

We cruised back to the dock and thanked Shawn. Deciding to have lunch there i took a quick walk around the grounds behind the visitor centre and saw a small flash of scarlet red! I couldn't believe it, 4 Scarlet Ibis up close feeding with a Yellow-crowned Night-heron, up close!

I ran back to the maxi-cab and grabbed my camera and proceeded to sneak up on the birds best i could.

Great success, i got some full frame type shots of one of the main target birds of the trip.

Later Maneed drove us around a bit, The road beside the Caroni rice fields was birded briefly, in times of less rain, the rice fields can be walked, now however it wasn't a good idea. We saw Yellow-hooded Blackbird, a smaller version of our Yellow-headed Blackbird.

We tried to access the Trincity sewage ponds but the gates had been locked in recent times and the trails and ponds inside were no longer birdable. On the way out i spied a major target bird of mine on a wire overlooking a stream - a giant kingfisher by the name of Ringed Kingfisher. 

I wish we had stopped on the highway and at least tried to get a shot of it before it flew. We saw one more of the species that way on the way back to Asa Wright and again we didn't stop and i could just watch it as we drove past. I asked Maneed to make a special effort tomorrow after Aripo to get this species and he agreed. Fingers were crossed as it really is an amazing kingfisher.

Back at Asa Wright i continued to attempt to shoot the species coming into the numerous feeders around the veranda.

 Agouti

a hunted "wild meat" species in T&T, they find sanctuary at Asa Wright and thusly, there a quite a few of these gentle giant guinea pigs around.

White-lined Tanager

juvenile Barred Antshrike

Tropical Mockingbird

Guianan Trogon

Violacious Euphonia

 Silver-beaked Tanager

Another successful day in Trinidad, a lot of good shots,a memorable boat trip through the mangroves and a promise of more tomorrow, we slept well that night.

Trinidad and Tobago Trip Report - Part 1 - Asa Wright Nature Centre

Well, we are indeed back, having processed and posted nearly 400 shots (both mine and Audy's) since getting back, i feel confident that the trip is still sharp in my mind and i can faithfully transcribe the events that unfolded during our photo expedition to the West Indies.
Trinidad and it's little sister island of Tobago were our hosts for 10 wild days as we spent a little time in a number of locations on both islands. I feel that we were sucessful in our goal of documenting as many species as possible while still trying to raise the bar (on a personal level) as far as quality and aesthetic appeal of shot goes.

I've written enough on our reasons for going, preparation etc. in previous posts so will just start with the usual day to day report we birdwatchers are accustomed to aight?.

Oct 16
Our trip officially began when we were dropped off at the airport at 9:30am by a friend of Audy's.
The threat of a strike by Air Canada's flight attendants mere days before we were to fly was still fresh in my mind and i got us there 3 1/2 hours before our departure time of 1pm.
Smooth sailing through baggage check and screening, we had our boarding passes in hand and i noted that our luggage was tagged to POS (Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad), transferring through Toronto should hopefully be a breeze. I don't tell many people that i was actually born in TO and i suppose my hatred of the Maple Leaf's has something to do with it.
I used to sport a defiant West Coast Rules attitude of superiority over anything to do with the east coast ironically enough but i must admit that birding has softened me regarding the East, after all, there are great birds in the east, birds you won't get unless you travel there (like i did to Ohio in May for warbler migration and a few years earlier to Cape May for the World Series of Birding).
So yah, our Air Canada flight to Toronto went off without a hitch, our Caribbean Airlines flight was at the gate in TO and i watched as our luggage was loaded, things were going alright.
I had arranged with a driver from Asa Wright Nature Centre in Trinidad to meet us at the airport at 6am Oct 17th so it was kind of important that things went according to plan.
Well, the time we should have been boarding came and went, there was very little communication from the Air Caribbean gate crew but we eventually found out that there was a "mechanical" issue with the craft and they were waiting to get a part to fix whatever it was that was wrong (we never did find out). Our flight was to depart at 11:30pm but it never left the gate, at 3:30am Oct 17th an announcement was made that the flight had been scrapped, those that wished could take a limo to where ever or take a shuttle to the nearby Doubletree hotel.
Most of the passengers were a bit disgruntled at this point and the lack of communication (again) by the crew regarding which line to que in for hotel vouchers or limo rides (it made a difference, believe me LOL) just added to the black comedy. The staff at the Doubletree continued the unrest among wearly passengers by taking as long as possible to process each person (roughly 40 of us), we had done nothing but wait for hours but finally we had a bed at 4:30am and instructions to be back at the airport for a 5pm flight Oct 17th. I was able to get a quick and slightly delusional sleep and food deprived email off to Asa Wright informing them of our delay, no doubt the driver would end up waiting unfortunately.

Oct 17th
The breakfast voucher we were given was a joke, $20 seems like a lot at first but for both us us?
Airport hotels are like vultures, they know that no one would ever book a holiday at a airport hotel, the traveller is usually in transit, and stressed about missing a connection, they know this and still have the gall to charge someone $20 for a simple breakfast of - 1 small cup of coffee, 2 pieces of toast, 3 small strips of bacon and a fried egg!
what a rip-off.
Audy decided to forgo the breakfast and even with voucher still i ended up shelling out cash in the end because i was starving to eat.
At least our luggage was at the airport somewhere and we would not have to deal with it.
The shuttle bus driver to the airport asked why we had missed our flight and then laughed and pointed at a Caribbean Airlines jet on the tarmac and said "looks like they still haven't fixed it".
Ha ha...
We had gone early and decided to just wait it out at the airport, (my wallet couldn't afford the lunch the Doubletree offered anyways, even with a lousy coupon) finally getting boarding passes and optimism that our flight would take off.
We did finally get off the ground, in a different craft this time, an Air Jamaica flight, (same company as Caribbean i found out).
The meal they provided was actually quite good, a decent bun, rice, chicken in a zesty tomato sauce, veggies and small bag of wheat crisps, compared to the nothing i got on the AC flight across Canada it was heaven and i savoured it.
We eventually touched down at Piarco International airport just before 11pm Oct 17th, our driver (the same one who had waited needlessly earlier that day) was wandering around the airport somewhere and we were alone with our luggage looking around for who? i didn't know, other drivers waiting around proved friendly and helpful telling us who to look for, (guy with green hat with bird on it) finally our driver appeared in his Asa Wright hat pointing to the airport flight status monitor that still listed our flight as "delayed" even though we had landed half an hour ago.
This must be the "Trini-time" i've heard about i though with a smile, things move at a different pace in the Caribbean, best to just go with the flow.

Well it was finally true at least, we were in Trinidad and about to spend our first night at Asa Wright.
For some reason i never bothered to change the time on my Nixon wrist watch the whole trip, TO was 3 hours ahead and i was surprised to find that the time zone was the same - 3 hours ahead of Vancouver, i would just add 3 whenever i looked at my watch.
I couldn't really tell if our driver was pissed at us or not but it wasn't our fault, he seemed cool and i converesed with him on the windy drive up the Arima hills to the nature centre overlooking the valley.
Having studied the online T&T newspapers for a couple of months before the trip i would throw out stuff i had read to get his reaction to whatever, perhaps i impressed him a bit with my "local knowledge", at least i wasn't without a clue.
The SOE and curfew meant that we were driving during the prohibition period, he explained that there was a police office in the airport and passes were given in cases like ours where we arrive late at night.

Finally we were there, we pulled up into a driveway next to the big house (with famous veranda) and were greeted by the head of security, "good evening" i said by way of greeting, "no, good morning" was his reply with a smile, it was indeed after midnight and we were now in a new day.

our room at Asa Wright

Oct 18th
We woke to the sound of birds, sometime around 6am, both us us were pumped to finally see the country in day light, arriving in the dark we had no idea just how overgrown and "jungly" everything was, so green and wild, it was just what we needed.
We were greeted on the veranda at one point in the morning by the manager and i organized a couple of field trips with her.
Unfortunetely, the mechanical delay with our flight in TO had cost us a day of birding and i had to condence our plans and ambitions somewhat. I decided that a trip to the Caroni Swamp was a must, i wasn't however sold on the traditional evening trip out to see the Scarlet Ibis fly to their roost. They feed in Venezuala during the day and come to sleep in Trinidad believe it or not. The problem with the evening trip for a bird photographer was that the birds would be distant and boats would not be allowed anywhere near the roost, there would be many boats out as well, the trip is popular with cruiseship tourists, i asked about a morning trip, i was interested in shooting kingfishers and other species possible in the mangroves as well as ibis.
The centre was able to organize a trip for Audy and me early the next morning, a special morning session, i was told Scarlet Ibis wasn't guaranteed in the morning but chances were good, good enough for me, as well, the driver would stop off at a couple of locations on the way back.
The other trip i organized was for the following morning to the Aripo livestock station and Aripo savannah, there were some hard to find birds like Red-breasted Blackbird that could be found at the station, as well as Southern Lapwing, a species i really wanted, i was familiar with the Red-Wattled Lapwing from Thailand and wanted to add another to the list.

The rest of the present day would be spent at the centre, plenty to shoot around the centre for sure.

the Bananaquits were everywhere on both islands

Lineated Woodpecker - so like our Pileated

Crested Oropendola - good poser

Green Honeycreeper

the honeycreepers were my favourite species overall i think, maybe..

At around 8:30am we were met by a guide on staff by the name of Barry, he was cool and took us down a slippery trail. Since we were presently the only guests at Asa Wright it was just us.

He showed us the Golden-headed Manakin lek.

We heard Channel-billed toucans up high in the canopy at one point and while i hoped to get a shot none was given, Audy had spotted a couple of the toucans way down the valley through the scope earlier in the morning and no one got a shot at the time, i was pre-occupied shooting underneath the veranda on ground level at the time and assumed i would get another shot at them, i did have a look through the scope as well and can say of course that i have seen them. They don't typically come close to the centre however and the next two mornings we would leave the centre early and missed out on seeing the toucans again on those days, and of course, our last morning when we really were hoping to see them again - they were nowhere to be seen. 

We should have taken those long distance shots the first morning, that's birding though, nothing is ever a sure thing.

Barry tried hard to bring in some Bearded bellbirds for us, they were a target species and while we heard a couple of them calling close to us never got a look at one, ah well.

We did see our only Great Antshrike with him and later on the veranda he pointed out a nice Golden-olive Woodpecker for us.

 

 

 

He asked us later when we wanted to go check out the Oilbirds, since we were staying at the centre for 3 nights or more a guided trip down to the Dunstan cave was a freebie, i said we were here until Friday and he said ok, friday morning then. Cool, we were set.

Another of my target species was the amazing Tufted Coquette, a bumble-bee sized hummingbird know for the males punkish look, it seemed however that a number of the different hummer species departed the islands for the mainland of Venezuala this time of year, i was lucky though and soon spotted a female Tufted Coquette, i love to shoot hummers on a perch but i never saw this girl stand still for a moment, it would show up suddenly, and then be gone, the Copper-rumped hummers would hang around and so would the White-chested Emerald.

 

 female Tufted Coquette

Shooting was good underneath the veranda, even when it started to rain i was sheltered enough to be able to keep shooting. In fact, i never once used the fancy rain cover i purchased prior to the trip.

 

 

 Copper-rumped Hummingbird having a rain bath

 Purple Honeycreeper

Here is a shot of an adult male Purple Honeycreeper, truly a special bird.

the hummers kept me busy as well

 

 

Copper-rumped Hummingbird

White-chested Emerald

Here are a couple of shots to show you what it looked like at Asa Wright.

the famous veranda

and one shot of our cabin in the rain - the metal roof really made the rain sound impressive at night.

The total as far as species photographed that first day was something like 20, all lifers of course, birds shot include Bananaquit, Tropical Mockingbird, Great Kiskadee, White-lined Tanager, Golden-olive Woodpecker, Trinidad Motmot, Barred Antshrike, Purple Honeycreeper, Palm Tanager, Tufted Coquette, Copper-rumped Hummingbird, Green Honeycreeper, White-chested Emerald, Collared Trogon, Guianan (Violacious) Trogon, Great Antshrike, Golden-headed Manakin, Crested Oropendola, and Lineated Woodpecker, we also got a lousy shot of a Rufous-breasted hermit (i never posted it because i nailed it later on Tobago).
Birds we dipped on include Channel-billed Toucan and Bearded Bellbird, we never got to see the White-bearded manakins at their lek with Barry either but Audy spotted one briefly near our cabin later in the day and we got shots from our balcony the next day.

Up next, Caroni Swamp and Aripo.

Gear Preperation - Trinidad & Tobago

T-Minus a day and the packing and re-packing has begun in earnst.
Audy has it easy, she only has to worry about her Manfrotto carbon tripod, ball-head, D300 and a couple of small lenses (and maybe the 80-400VR if i can get her to carry it for me).
We recently picked up a sexy Nikon 1:2.8 D 24mm AF lens for her to play around with and it takes great candid shots i must admit. She will attempt again to do some HDR photography with tripod, the shots have been hit-and-miss for the most part and she hasn't done as much as she would like but when it's good, it's quite impressive.
I had mentioned before that i typically carried my lens hood in checked luggage along with tripod and gimbal head but have decided this trip to find room for it in my carry-on bag, i was just lazy before and didn't want to bother taking the custom lens plate collar off the lens so i could slide the hood in backwards, it was quite easy to do actually and i think it's a better idea, especially if my luggage goes missing or something.
At least then i will have my complete camera/lens/flash set-up, sans tripod.
A tripod could (in a worst case scenario) be sourced from a local photog for the duration of visit if need be, i'm sure.

 

I've been using a Crumpler "Karachi Outpost" camera backpack since 2007 as my carry-on bag when flying, it has been with me to Mexico, Thailand (twice), Cape May, Ohio, Texas and Arizona (twice) and i love it.
I can fit my Nikon 500mm f4 AFS-I lens w/ hood, 2 camera bodies, my flash and flash bracket, 1.4x tele, extension tube, batteries, memory cards, cleaning brush & blower just fine.
On Birdforum the question of best carrying bag comes up all the time, one thing that is very important when travelling is that you look as inconspicuous as possible when carrying big $$ camera equipment. The Crumpler does not really look like a traditional, boxy, black camera bag, i could just as easily be a grubby backpacker as grubby bird photographer when carrying it.
The Gitzo carbon tripod and Jobu BWG Pro head along with rain gear, etc. will still go in checked luggage, some have mentioned using a courier to deliver equipement etc. beforehand and if this was a paying job it would make a lot of sense, the only person "paying" on this trip will be me though LOL.

Because it is the hurricane season down there i expect we will not get away without a bit of rain (or a lot of rain perhaps LOL) so i invested in a proper rain cover for my camera and lens. I would have bought the camoflauge cover available through the Naturescapes store but since i am going to a country where camo is forbidden unless you are in the army i went to Lens & Shutter and bought the black Kata cover they sell as it was in stock.
I have to say that it's a bit of a rip-off that Kata does not offer a dedicated long lens kit, instead i had to buy the basic camera cover as well as a seperate long lens conversion kit to fit the 500mm. Ah well, it's extremely well-made and looks durable, i'll give it that much, i'll let you all know how it handles in actual conditions later.

By the way, i will use a small clear mylar plastic cover for the flash that Audy made for me a while ago.
She made me a complete custom cover once but it didn't hold up to real-world conditions and we decided not to market it to others (there had been some offers to buy one if we did so).

As for storage of pictures during trip, in the past we have used an Epson P3000 40gb storage device/picture view as our SD and CF cards just plug in and download, 40gb however is kind of laughable as far as storage goes these days (i shoot in RAW and so does Audy) and we found during our last couple of trips that we had to do a lot of "weeding" of shots to fit more on, this is not good because the danger is there that a good shot will be lost by accident, so we got hip and picked up a 10" 250gb Gateway Netbook (Windows 7 starter) along with a WD 1tb external HD.
The WD is pretty sweet, no more power cables and on/off switches, it powers up once connected and uses the Netbook to power itself, looks reliable. I will leave the downloaded pics on the Netbook in folders and will back them up onto the external for extreme safety.
As well, a Hama USB 2.0 Card Reader accepts all possible cards.
We are set methinks.

If only life were that simple eh?

Target Birds - Trinidad & Tobego

Well, as the days wind down and our trip now looks like it will actually happen (nothing was a sure bet there for a while due to labour unrest with our carrier Air Canada) i am again looking forward to what we may see.
There are a number of species i feel good about as far as our chances go but nothing is a given, that's what makes it so fun.
I looked through my copy of Birds of Trinidad & Tobago and made a list (we all love lists right?) of mostly "likely" species for time of year. 
There are a couple of hummers that leave the country for the mainland (Venezuela) in September to November but it seems like the chances are good that i'll see more than a few, i just hope i get some shots of the punky Tufted Coquette, Asa Wright should a good spot for them.
Just so i don't forget my focus when i'm down there i've prepared this little list below.

trinidad piping guan
rufous-vented chachalaca
white-faced whistling duck
muscovy duck
comb duck
white-cheeked pintail
red-billed tropicbird
red-footed booby
masked booby
scarlet ibis
limpkin
american flamingo
king vulture
ornate hawk-eagle
yellow-headed caracara
bat falcon
clapper rail
wattled jacana
southern lapwing
buff-breasted sandpiper
upland curlew
eskimo curlew
large-billed tern
cayenne tern
yellow-billed tern
scaled pigeon
pale-vented pigeon
eared dove
lilac-tailed parrotlet
striped cuckoo
squirrel cuckoo
greater ani
smooth-billed ani
oilbird
common potoo
white-tailed sabrewing
rufous-breasted hermit
green hermit
little hermit
brown violetear
white-necked jacobin
blue-chinned sapphire
white-chested emerald
copper-rumped hummingbird
long-billed starthroat
tufted coquette
guianan trogon
collared trogon
green-backed trogon
trinidad motmot
rufous-tailed jacamar
channel-billed toucan
ringed kingfisher
american pygmy kingfisher
golden-olive woodpecker
chestnut woodpecker
great antshrike
black-crested antshrike
barred antshrike
scaled antpitta
white-throated spadebill
streaked flycatcher
boat-billed flycatcher
white-headed marsh tyrant
bearded bellbird
white-bearded manakin
blue-backed manakin
golden-headed manakin
tropical mockingbird
spectacled thrush
silver-beaked tanager
blue-grey tanager
turquoise tanager
bay-headed tanager
speckled tanager
blue dacnis
red-legged honeycreeper
purple honeycreeper
green honeycreeper
bananaquit
saffron finch
red-capped cardinal
red-crowned ant tanager
golden-crowned warbler
crested oropendola
giant cowbird
red-breasted blackbird
violaceous euphonia
trinidad euphonia

Time will tell just how many we see but if i'm able to photograph even a few, i'll be hi-fiving strangers, in other words, i'll be happy.

PS, anyone who laughed when they saw Eskimo Curlew on the list should know that Trinidad was a traditional winter stop-over for this tragic species, i for one will be keeping my eyes peeled..

Long-billed Dowitcher

Went out this morning with no real destination in mind.
Ended up at Deer Lake and was witness to a great number of Yellow-rumped warblers working the sun-lit trees, no Green herons however.
After shooting a few warblers and an obliging Downy Woodpecker i decided to head over to Burnaby Lake and Piper Spit.
I guess i shouldn't have been surprised to see so many photogs already there, i didn't know any of them and decided to concentrate on a pair of Long-billed Dowitchers snoozing in front of me.
The waiting game began as i wanted to get the bird in an alert (awake) position with both legs showing. Often they like to stand on one leg while resting but it's never as satisfying as a shot with two legs IMO.
Of course i wanted a nice low angle so laid down on the pier to get more of an eye level shot. Getting isolation as always at Piper Spit was tough, so many birds wandering all over.

Trinidad & Tobago 2011 - Planning the next Adventure

Ohio in May was a blast but it wasn't our traditional yearly holiday, plus i went solo and Audy had to work.
Last year we did Thailand in December and this year i couldn't wait until December so October seemed the next likely time for us both to be able to get a couple of weeks off.
We started planning this trip way back in July, since we had a good year so far with homestay students, it helped finance what i hope will be a enriching trip for both Audy and I.

I did a lot of research online (as i always do when planning a birding trip) and wanted to find a location that was ok weather-wise in October.
I had read that Trinidad and Tobago had a short dry period in September and early October in their rainy season, i also read that they were relatively safe from hurricanes, although not completely immune, the risk was less than other more northerly Caribbean islands.

It's proximity to the mainland of South America was a big draw,  i read one birder describe it as "South American Birding 101", a large concentration of tropical birds on two small islands and a good introduction to tropical birding in a relatively easy environment.
I also read about the Caroni Swamp of Trinidad and the Scarlet Ibis in the book "50 Places to go Birding before you Die" and it seemed we had a destination.

When Glenn Bartley came back from a exploratory expedition to T&T with amazing shots of beautiful hummingbirds and other tropical birds it was a done deal.
In a perfect world i would love to take a photo workshop with pros like Glenn or David Hemmings but i'm not a retired doctor, just a guy living paycheck to paycheck pretty much, when there is a will, there is usually a way though and doing the "independent traveller" thing seems the most economical in this day and age.
By the way, having a wife who understands the need to focus on birds when travelling is a big help, i couldn't do it without her.
All the information to plan a trip is available on the web, you just have to spend some time hunting it down.
I know some birders prefer the security and camaraderie of a larger group but for the bird photographer, smaller groups are preferable.

Photographing birds has become my passion and whenever my interest is piqued in something i go all out in an effort to master it, thankfully there are a lot of great books to inspire those who strive to bring their work to the next level.

A destination like Trinidad and Tobago seemed like the perfect place for those seeking to photograph beauty, the birds look amazing, so colourful and well, just darned tropical.
Getting my first Toucan would be a lifes dream, growing up with Toucan Sam, it seems only right to search him out.
I knew that i would have to expand my research from just online, my book fetish needed to be quenched.
I love to order online these days, so easy and the anticipation that builds when waiting for a package to be delivered is a thrill i enjoy.

Was able to get a bird song cd set for Trinidad and Tobago which is now loaded into the Ipod.

I consider myself a bird photographer but am also of course a birder, i love a good Birder book, i find them inspirational and addictive, much like the very act of twitching, one needs more and more after a while.

After we had decided on Trinidad and Tobago i remembered an old Traveller Stamp Album i had as a kid (and still do to this day), must have gotten it new in 1977, i was into collecting from an early age, my grandpa (Ukki) was the same way i think, he had a huge massive stamp and coin collection, i never took stamp collecting as far as he would have no doubt liked judging by the empty pages but for some reason i thought that some of my favourite stamps had come from T&T, today i searched out the old album, and guess what? i was wrong LOL.
Only one measly stamp..

Anyways, of course we will hit up Asa Wright Nature Centre in Trinidad before we jet off to Tobago, 4 nights at Asa Wright guarantees us a guided trip to the Oilbird cave, so hopefully it will be worth the cost per night, kind of hurt financially - and this is the reduced low season rate, i'm doubly sure that it will be worth it though, can't wait.
Asa Wright will also be able to organize any guided day trips to other birding destinations in Trinidad so we wil look into that when we get there.

Tobago will hopefully be a blast as well, we will divide our time between Blue Waters Inn (and the close vicinity to Little Tobago Island and it's seabird colonies and Tropicbirds) and the Cuffie River Wilderness Retreat, both two well-known birding destinations so i think we won't miss too much by not being in a guided group (i hope).

Since August i have been checking the online newspapers from Trinidad and Tobago to get a feel for the present political and economic situation, the news hasn't been encouraging LOL.
No sooner had we paid for our tickets (one connection thru Toronto) than a State of Emergency was declared throughout Trinidad and will likely stay in place throughout our visit. A curfew is in effect, the real reason for the SOE is kind of murky and it seems to change on a daily basis, and there seems to be no definate date that it will be lifted but crime seems to be the main reason for it, Trinidad's close proximity to South America means it is a desired transfer point for cocaine on it's way to the USA.
Crack cocaine and gangs are a big problem, as is robbery and murder (so far in 2011 there have already been over 200 killings), the capital city of Port of Spain was recently described as more dangerous than Baghdad by a major humanitarian agency. Staying away from the big cities when travelling independently would seem to be a wise and safe choice. We have arranged to have transfers directly to our destinations from airport to resort in all cases so feel quite confident that we will arrive safely.
Tobago is supposed to be far more safe and laid back than Trinidad but crime is still rampant there as well i read, while crime against tourists is rare it does happen, they seem to prefer using machetes during attacks, news agencies describe it as "getting chopped".
Recently, in a bizarre turn of events, a large shipment of Marijuana was intercepted at the airport from Jamaica hidden in boxes of frozen chicken parts (brings new meaning to Kentucky-fried), Trinidad is supposed to be a big grower as far as the weed and Rasta culture is concerned so having it being smuggled into the country seems odd, possession is also a jailable offence and nothing to toke lightly, this isn't BC after all LOL.

Camoflauge clothing is banned in T&T by the way, a big blow to this bird photographer who freely admits to a certain fetish towards the pattern, ah well, loud yet "earthy" Hawaiian floral print shirts it is then.

If i feel motivated at a later date i will document my camera and lens, flash etc. details, what i will be bringing on the trip, how it gets packed and so on.

Just a couple more weeks of work and a much needed break for both Audy and myself.

Starting to feel "Irie" mon - cue the Bob Marley and Calypso music just about any time now...