Jan 30 - Birding for Target birds - Asa Wright Roadway, farmlands & Airstrip and Intech Park

Today we had our security truck with us to accompany us and off we went.  Apparently this is required when we are off the property in and around Port of Spain.  We birded the roadway of the Asa Wright Property and then went down into the farm fields.  Brenda took a morning off but Barbr and Peggy and I were game for the day and it was a hot morning already.  Hot and sunny. Our guide wanted to start our day early and we did and after a 6 am breakfast we left Asa Wright at 6:30 am.  We saw the Linneated Woodpecker and the Green Backed Trogan.  We had good looks a the Hermit Hummingbird and the Grey Headed Kite.  One special bird was the Rufous-browed Peppershrike.  We had good looks at the bird but when I went to shoot my first photo of the day, I had the  NO CARD message in the camera so no photo of this lovely bird.

We went through some farmlands and brush and these were busy places.  Then we headed off back to the abandoned air strip and the Intech Park area.  This time there were no parrots, it was a totally different time of day.  We saw the Yellow-headed Caracara!  Also the Moriche Oriole and the lovely and hard to see Ruby Topaz Hummingbird.  It was really hot by this time and by 11:45 we headed back to Asa Wright for a late lunch.

After lunch some of us took a nap, others headed out on the trails here to explore.  I did the Discovery Trail again and found the White-bearded Manekin lek active and the Bearded Bellbird calling.  The White-bearded Manekins are tiny white and black fluff balls and make this popping corn sound when they are doing their elaborate mating display for the female watchers.  They don't seem to be bothered by humans nearby if one is just quietly standing.  It was great.

After this I went up up to the Bird Blind which was an adventure as the trail sort of disappears after about halfway up.  I had put long pants on and my blundstone boots in the heat for this as in the tall grass there has chiggers and I had to bush wack my way to the blind.  When I came back I went and talked with the administrator and told them there is no path really and someone should go up with a weed whacker to clear a path.  The manager was surprised that anyone went up there.  I got the Red-legged Honey Creeper up there so it was worth the hike up there. 

When I walked by the security parking one of the staff pointed out a constrictor up in a bamboo tree.
 Somehow this gives me the creeps; snakes in trees, I always thought snakes stayed on the ground or in their snake holes, not hanging around in trees.  There there is that movie about snakes on planes.....

I finally saw the male Barred Antshrike from the verandah here this afternoon between tea time and rum punch time when we park ourselves after taking a shower.  I take a shower  as I have so much Deet on me (I am in shorts and sandals while birding, it is just too stinking hot otherwise).  I have had no bites here.    I have been looking for the Antshrike since seeing the female the first day here.  Some of us went out for the night walk this evening as the temperature dropped a degree or two and it felt "fresher" but still muggy, but I like this kind of weather.

Barbr took some photos today which I have included and so did Brenda.  Peggy went on the night walk with me and we saw a tarantula.  Colleen,  I am missing watching CNN nightly with you.  There is NO TV here at all.  Internet sort of works pretty good most times, so I should not complain.

The road through the hills is still pretty tricky in places but the minivan makes it through each time.
 Barbr took this photo yesterday and the reality is the same today.  There is just enough room for the minibus to drive over the work area with about a foot to spare, then there is just free air all the way down to the bottom of the valley, a long way away.  We have an excellent driver and he takes it slow each time and we all hold our breath crossing the very narrow spots.

Having a great time!

Barbs, Brenda & Peggy

Jan 29 - Beach on the Atlantic Ocean & Nariva Marsh

Off we went this morning to Trinidad's beach on the Atlantic Ocean.  Yesterday we saw the Caribbean Sea from the lookout on the way to Brasso Secco Paria.  Again it was hot and sunny.  We stopped at a couple of places and found a Pearl Kite sitting on a nest.  Smooth-billed Anis were plentiful.  Green-rumped Parrolets were also seen flying around and finally we saw some on a roof.  A Red-breasted Meadowlark was spectacular.

At Nariva Swamp there was an abundance of birds including Gray-breasted Martin, Savannah Hawk, Tropical Mockingbird, Yellow-breasted Flycatcher, Black-crested Antshrike, Straitiated Heron and Cocoi Heron.  We had the White-headed Marsh Tyrant and the Pied Water Tyrant.

Here are a couple of photos of the birds.  There is a lotus flower which grows from 2 feet in diameter lotus pads.  There is also the Crimson Crested Woodpecker which is as big as our Pileated Woodpecker.   There is also a Wattled Jacana and a local cow with Cattle Egret friends.
It was a super day and we returned to Asa Wright at dusk. 

We had a bit of excitement on the drive up today.  Each of us got to dance to Caribbean Music.  We stopped at a rest stop bar to use the washroom in the morning and people in the bar saw us and cranked up the music and a lady from the bar had each of dance our way out of the bar!!

We had a lovely picnic lunch at the beach and it was real windy and the tide was coming in and we had to hold onto our plates.  After the long afternoon at the marsh, we had Rum Punch time at the beach on the return journey.  Gosh we are doing so much eating these days.  It was really hot today but the good thing was the steady breeze.

The Blanchisseuses Road had some wash-outs last week with the rain and the county is fixing the real mud-side areas which we have to travel through.  Today was particularly worrisome as at some curves there was very little space to drive with four wheels on the ground and it is along way down.  At one turn, we all leaned to one side, as if to help Mahase negotiate the curve safely!

We had excitement in our minibus also.  At the march, our guide got out to talk with a fisherman as we had asked what the fisherman was catching.  Mahase brought over the bucket of fish and took one out to show us.  The fish was slithery and jumped out of his hand and in a big arc jump, we all screamed at the flying fish and it landed in Brenda's lap!!  The fish was caught and put back in the pail and returned to the fisherman.  Then the tissues came out to help Brenda with the clean-up.

Peggy and Barbr are doing great too.  These ladies had their room changed from up the hill to a room/little cabin close by the main building.  It was a hard walk up up there for them.  Barbr had told the manager that the walk up would kill her!  So their room was changed once there was a free room.  This new room has a long tiled bathroom along with a long tiled shower room.  It was double the size of our shower which was slippery because of the smooth tiles but we had hand rails and a shower mat in ours.  Barbr and Peggy's new shower had no safety bars and neither of them wanted an unfortunate accident to happen.  They alerted the manager that hand rails were missing, thinking that at least management was aware of it.  They came back from the outing and behold!!!  Safety hand rails had been installed!!!  Asa Wright was quick to respond.  Thank you!

 This selfie was taken at the beach.  As you can see... Happy Faces.

Barbs, Brenda & Peggy  ( all photos here are Barbc's)

Jan 28 - to over the ridge to Brasso Secco Paria by way of Blanchisseuse Road

We started the day with viewing from the verandah as Asa Wright at 6:30 am.  We are getting better a bit with identifying the pairs of Honeycreepers, Euphonias, Tanagers and Thrushes to name a few of the many birds that are so delightful at the sun's rising here.  It is really wonderful.

Everyone slept last night and this morning it is warm and the sky is blue.  Mahase was ready for us at 8:30 am to leave to travel and bird along the Blanchisseuse Roadway and have lunch at Brasso Secco Paria along with a coca to chocolate demonstration by farmers at Brass Secco.  We hit many of the target birds, with Common Hawk Eagle and Collared Trogran and Blue Headed Parrots and many others. 

After lunch we traveled up the road a bit further and then turned around to return to Asa Wright by 5 pm.  While the outbound journey was stop and go and I was feeling fine, the return journey, once we started, was all in one shot and I was nauseated on the trip home.  It was a long drive....  A hot tea once we returned brought me back to feeling better.  I am not sure what I will do tomorrow as the drive is 1.5 hours, but I want to go.

We had the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl and the Spectacled Owl which was great. We had a great day and we are all tired from the day.  In the hills, the air was coolish as long as one stayed in the shade but once we got down to the town to the valley it was hot.  Lunch was very good and we had homemade Chocolate ice cream using the processed coco locally.  Plus we had taste testing of the various stages of the coco process.

I am typing this out on the verandah where the internet is available and it is night now and the bugs are coming out so much make this brief and will edit tomorrow.  I don't want any bites and I am covered but it is just going to get more buggy here.

Barbr is doing fine her and Peggy and Brenda have recovered from their travel day and are doing great.

Barbs, Brenda & Peggy

Jan 27 - first day at Asa Wright - orientation trail & evening birding at the airfield

Our room here at Asa Wright has a high ceiling and a ceiling fan along with screened windows, so there is a good breeze for us and we slept great.  It was an early morning as one gets up to go out on the Asa Wright verandah by 6:30 am to watch the early morning birds.  There were Tanagers, hummingbirds, and even a House Wren.  It is just wonderful to take all this early morning activity in.  At the same time, coffee or tea is available so it is a perfect place to wake up and bird!

There is a bell/gong for meal times and breakfast was nice with cereal, yogurt and fresh fruit (papaya and pineapple) then most of us had a omelette.  After this our guide Mahase welcomed us to Asa Wright and we went off on an orientation walk/trail behind the center.   It was hot already and on the  trail we saw the Blue-crowned Motmot, the Elua Flycatcher (have to check the spelling) the Bearded Bellbird and the Zone-tailed Hawk.   We then continued our birding down the Asa Wright road and we saw the, Forest Elenia, Ghanian Trogan and the Common Blackhawk.   Back on the verandah we saw a huge moth, the biggest I have ever seen, called the Coco Moth, it was about 8 inches on the diagonal.  

All of a sudden it was noon and the bell rang and lunchtime!  We had a hot lunch that was very good with lamb, lentils, plantain and mixed rice.  Gosh they make hearty meals here!  A sandwich would have done it for me.  This is the hottest part of the day and it was over 30 degrees today and the birds are quiet in the shade so I went back to our room and had a cat nap. 

We met up with our group of 12 at 4 pm, just as tea time was on and we left for an evening of birding on an old WW2 US Airforce Base which was abandoned after the war.  The runway s are still there and are in good shape.  It is now called an InfoTec Park and the University of Trinidad is being built on this site along with some industrial technology buildings.  It is protect and gated also. So one of the target birds were the Red-bellied Macaws flying around and then eating their palm tree nuts.  The Macaw held the nut in its feet and ate the nut delicately like an apple.  The birds were spectacular.

Then it was time for rum punch cocktails and a safari-type hot supper on camp chairs and dined in the open.  We toasted the sighting of the Macaws and has a lovely supper.  The weather was perfect and the stars were coming out.  We looked for the Tropical Screech Owl who comes out to hunt right at dusk and we had no luck  here.  Then Mahase looked for the Paraque and we saw it flying around and then sitting on the tarmac.  We had good looks at it.  We then tried for the White-tailed Nightjar and we saw several flying around as we drove on the airfield and finally one stayed on the ground and we all got out of the van and had good looks at it.  Mahase then started looking for the Potoo and sure enough, Mahase spotted one sitting on a snag and we had great looks again.  The birding gods were with us this evening.  By now it was pitch dark and we headed back up to Asa Wright at an elevation of 1000 meters.  Up the same twisty road with construction and some wash-outs.    We made it for evening tea and there was only ONE desert  so we took four spoons and shared the chocolate mousse.  

Brenda is in the shower now and I have started on this blog .  There is no TV here anywhere and so I will have to tell Colleen that there is no CNN and we cannot comment throughout the evening and solve the problems of the world anymore.  Darn!  CNN the last two weeks was the best reality TV for us. 

Peggy and Brenda were still tired today from their long day yesterday getting here and took a siesta in the morning to catch up a bit.   They were rested enough for the afternoon expedition today, so maybe recovered.  The birds are great here and plentiful but we are all on a learning curve to learn the names of the birds and match it to the right birds.  A bird paradise.

Jan 26 - Arrival in Trinidad - Asa Wright - Yay

We left Fort Lauderdale today for Trinidad at around 10:30 am and arrived at 4 pm.  We are now one hour ahead of Ontario.

We met our driver and birding guide, Mahase.  The area around Port of Spain has some mountains of about 1,000 meters.  The driving is on the left (former British Colony) and it is a lush, jungle drive up from Port of Spain to Asa Wright that takes about an hour. The road is challenging.  There are many twists and switchbacks and I was nauseated from the drive and ate up my entire inventory of candy (three).  I just did not think to buy some in Florida.

The drive is spectacular and there are plenty of different birds up here.  The verandah at Asa Wright has many hummingbird feeders that are below and there are other feeding stations.  It looks like plantain and mango are put out to feed some birds.

Both Barbr and I spent the late afternoon on the verandah meeting other birders.  I had tea and then I had rum punch at cocktail hour.  It was very good with the freshest pineapple I have had in ages.  Supper was buffet style and the food was good and it was mostly an East Indian influence.  We figured out that dessert was papaya and Coolwhip.  

I am just waiting now for Brenda and Peggy to show up as their flight did not get in until 9:30 pm and they have the dark drive up through the hills to get up here.

After supper I joined a group of guest led by an Asa Wright guide in to the deep darkness looking for night creatures and we found them, snakes  and tarantulas.  There are four different poisonous snakes here: 2 coral snake species and two vipers.  We also found many different bugs and smaller spiders and some crabs that live in the side of the hill.  One sweet moment was discovering by accident a sleeping Northern Waterthrush.  It really lifted up its head like it was just woken up.   We left it alone as we did not want it to flush and fly in the dark.

Brenda and Peggy have just arrived and are happy to be here after a long day.

Tomorrow we meet up and start the birding.  This is dream birding place.

Jan 25 - Squeezing in some final Florida birding today - Brian Piccolo Park in Cooper City, south Ft Lauderdale

We watched Colleen pack up last evening and her packing skills are quite impressive.  As everyone knows, we always have a lot of stuff.  Colleen even brought along her scope and tripod for all of us to use and that was a big help in our birding.  Colleen managed to pack her things into two small rolling bags and a carry bag and small knapsack and a waist belt.  All her stuff magically fit!  Her bags were heavy with all the optics and computer stuff.  But she did it!  She managed to take all of her apples with her also for the train ride to Lakeland (about a 3.5 train trip). 

So the all packed-up Colleen along with Barbr and I (who were still in the multi-plastic bags and stuff stage) set off this morning for Brian Piccolo Park in Cooper City to do some birding with Colleen before she had to be dropped off at the nearby Amtrak Station.  In other years we have visited this park and Burrowing Owls and Monk Parakeets have showed up for us.  It was already hot by the time we arrived after the hour drive.  We spotted one Burrowing owl hole (guarded off by yellow ropes with a T-shape stand for the owl to sit on).  Very lucky for us, there was a Burrowing Owl at the burrow hole!  Burrowing Owls are small with long legs to dig their burrows.  We walked to the back of the park where we have had luck with Monk Parakeets other times but not today.  Here we saw a Yellow-throated Warbler which was sweet.  Mr Yellow-throat played peek a boo with a leaf.

Time moves fast when we bird and soon we had to get Colleen to the Amtrak Station.  Once at the train station, I met a gent who was from Toronto who was going to Tampa and when Colleen returned from booking-in at the desk we all spoke with the fellow. He turned out to be an interesting fellow, a writer.  Colleen ended up chatting with the fellow.  We took our last selfie together and said goodbye to Colleen and wished her safe travels home to Lakeland.  We won't see Colleen until April when she and Paul return to Canada.  Lucky!

Barbr and I then drove to the Atlantic Ocean, to Dancia Beach which was near the airport and our hotel for tonight.  We decided to check out Dr. Von Mizell & Eula Johstone State Park which is a long isle reached by a causeway off of US 1 - Federal Highway.  It is a day park with a long beach on the Atlantic.  We had our picnic lunch at the tip and watched as huge loaded cargo ships sailed  from the port.  There were also yachts nearby on the ocean.  We were right by the Fort Lauderdale Port and Cruise Port and there were cruise ships docked there.  It was beautiful with the ocean right there.  We were also under the take-off flight path of the Ft Lauderdale Airport.  So lots to see, but few birds.  There was an Osprey who looked very regal.

We saw a little raccoon family crossing the road and there was a parent with two babies (still quite small but they could scurry and keep up with the parent).  They quickly disappeared into the bush and there was no chance for a photo.  We stopped at a couple access points in this park and I walked the beach and the surf.  Barbr had shoes on and did not want to get sand in them so she stayed on the boardwalk.  There were only two curious pigeons around and that was it.  No shore birds.

We then checked into our hotel.  Contrary to the type of place of we usually prefer to stay at, this place did not have a drive-to-the-motel-room-door access.  Instead one has to bring everything through the front lobby and front desk.  This is when I always dread having to sashay through the hotel lobby with our loaded-down trolley of travel dregs/stuff in plastic bags, carry bags and a suitcase each and a small roller luggage.  Stuff is usually hanging down on every trolley hook.   I remember once one of us got a deep cut on the hand from a knife in our food bag taking stuff out of the car, so we had the wrapped up hand with blood coming through, guiding the trolley (one can't drive a trolley by oneself, at least we can't).   I always feel like a birding refugee and camel at this point.  I worry someday, a front desk person, seeing the flotsam and jetsam being brought in, calling out, saying "you can't stay here it is a mistake, there is no room for you!" But thankfully, our room today was nearby a side access door and we drove to that door and just made several trips bringing in our stuff.  Someday I should take a photo.  But surprise! once we spend the rest of the evening packing up, all the stuff fits back into our luggage for our flight tomorrow!   We are so good!

We then gassed up the rental car and had a nice supper at a "waterfront restaurant", called Dockers on US1 just 2 miles from the airport.  We thought the "waterfront" would be on the inter coastal waterway.  Instead the waterfront overlooked a bunch of big yachts in slips.  OK we thought, we may see some waterbirds;ducks... nope.  It was a different water view for sure. The food turned out to be delicious. We returned the car but gosh it was filthy from all those dirt roads and sand for two weeks.  We took the hotel shuttle back but not before we bumped into a gent who talked with us while waiting for our respective hotel shuttles.  He was a lawyer who specialized in the Voting Rights law and he was here for a case.   I commented that he may become busy with the new Trump-initiated inquiry on voting fraud but got no comment from the gent. 

Right now I am just taking a break from trying to fit everything back into my suitcase and my carry on roller bag (which has all the optics, electronics and battery chargers etc).  Both Barbr and I are busy packing away.  There are professional house organizers but no one has figured out that there is a need for a professional suitcase organizer!  That would be a good idea.

We are looking forward to Trinidad and Tobago.  Our flight tomorrow is over 2,600 km to get to T&T from here.  I am surprised it is so far away but we are heading to the equatorial zone and the widest girth of the earth.  Trinidad is just above Venezuela ( 7 miles away)  and Tobago is above Trinidad. Spain relinquished control of Trinidad to England so Trinidadians speak English.  We are excited for the new birds we are going to see.

All of the photos today are Barbr's.  Usually it has been a selection of photos from each of us but there is just no time tonight.

Please note that at Asa Wright where we will be staying  in Trinidad,  the internet quality is said to be "iffy".  So if I can, I will write up our highlights lights of the day as usual.  If not, I will do it off line until I can get online and post.  If I don't do the write-up the day of, the days just blend together, so I have to write the day up each day.  Bye for now.

Barbs