Friday, November 13 Trinidad: Northern Range As usual, we met on the veranda at dawn this morning, adding a few new birds to our list and seeing even better views of species we had seen before. Breakfast included fresh papaya, fried flatbread, fresh baked bread, scrambled eggs, and a very tasty puree of okra and garlic. Mmmm, yum! After breakfast we boarded Ivan's maxitaxi and headed up Blanchisseuse Road to explore the Northern Range. At the Textel communication station (elevation about 2200 ft.) we spent an hour walking single file around the perimeter of the concrete apron, viewing Southern Rough-winged Swallow, a Lesser Swallow-tailed Swift that unfortunately only I observed (and which we therefore did not include on our list), and Hepatic Tanager. Ivan's bus parked along the steep entrance road at the Textel site. Photo by Joan Cwi. View to the west from the top of Morne Bleu. Photo by Debby Harriman. We birded on foot halfway down the entrance road, finding a distant circling adult Black Hawk-Eagle, a light-morph Short-tailed Hawk, and a perched Broad-winged Hawk. Adult Broad-winged Hawk. Photo by Debby Harriman. View to the west from the Textel entrance drive. Photo by Jaon Cwi. We also found a flowering bromeliad rooted to nothing more than an overhead cable. Bromeliad atop Morne Bleu. Photo by Joan Cwi. From our high-elevation vantage point we observed the new Trinidad to Tobago high-speed catamaran ferry twice, once en route west along Galleons' Passage north of Trinidad and later as it approached its dock at the city of Port of Spain from the west. Reboarding the maxi, we rode the rest of the way down the entrance drive to Blanchisseuse Road, where Ivan dropped us off so we could bird on foot. It was a beautiful day, with fast-moving low clouds and slower moving high clouds. We tried continually to pull in the calling Black-faced Antthrushes but never succeeded. Upon reaching Paria Junction, Ivan and I served a lunch of bone-in chicken pilaf, cold sliced watermelon, black-eyed peas, and a fresh garden salad with homemade dressing from the bus stop shelter, which also sheltered at least four tarantulas. Sign at Paria Junction. Photo by Joan Cwi. A toast to the ghost of Paria Junction. Photo by Terry Williams. At this point we diverted from our planned itinerary, following Brasso Seco Trace instead. Brasso Seco Trace proved to be somewhat narrow and somewhat potholed, but it offered a variety of birding sites of which we took advantage. At least six Sooty Grassquits flushed from the roadside, but only those in the front of the van were able to see them. The government-run restrooms in the village of Brasso Seco were closed, so we took advantage of a rum shop/grocery store near the trailhead to the Madamas Waterfall that offered clean restrooms. We spent the afternoon birding our way along Brasso Seco Trace. We spent an hour at one spot, First I called in a cloud of the usual forest species -- Bananaquits; Blue-gray, Palm, and Turquoise Tanagers; Purple Honeycreepers; Golden-fronted Greenlets; Yellow-breasted Flycatcher; White-bearded and Golden-headed Manakins -- along with two or three of another of our high elevation target species, the Speckled Tanager. Birding along Brasso Seco Trace. Photo by Joan Cwi. Next we watched hummingbirds nectaring at a flowering pomerac tree. All of the hummingbirds seemed to favor one twig in particular. Each half-minute or so, a new individual would commandeer the perch. First we would see an adult male White-necked Jacobin, then a White-chested Emerald, then perhaps a young male White-necked Jacobin or a Copper-rumped Hummingbird. To our great delight, after we had studied the hummingbirds to our content, a very rare hummingbird took the perch -- a Brown Violetear. Hardly any birding groups get to see this species. Brown Violetear. Photo by Debby Harriman. We also had repeated views of a Golden-olive Woodpecker nectaring in the same tree. When we were satiated with excellent views of all of these birds, we returned to the Centre in time for afternoon tea and our rum punch. For dinner we had cream of corn soup, okra rice, bok choy with short pieces of corn on the cob, stewed black-eyed peas, cubed lamb in cumin sauce, and a fresh garden salad. I called the Petersons, who were staying near the airport at the Holiday Inn Express, and learned that they were planning to travel back to North Carolina the next day. The bmobile SIM card in my cell phone came in very handy during the trip, enabling me to stay abreast of developments in their situation. On the phone with the Petersens. Photo by Terry Williams. I believe that all of us were snug in bed by 8:30 p.m. New for the trip: Broad-winged Hawk, Blue-headed Parrot, Orange-winged Parrot, Brown Violetear, Plain-brown Woodcreeper, White-flanked Antwren, White-bellied Antbird (h), Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Long-billed Gnatwren (h), Speckled Tanager, Red-crowned Ant-Tanager, Hepatic Tanager, Sooty Grassquit, Grayish Saltator, Tropical Parula (h), Yellow Warbler (h) Number of species seen: 72; new for trip: 16; running total: 134 Back   Home   Next Trinidad Birding