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Monday, November 16
Tobago: South
This was our last morning at Asa Wright. It was barely light when we met at 5:45 a.m. for a light breakfast of cereal, toast, and coffee.
As I carried the participants' luggage from their cabins to the upper parking lot (the Muster Point) for our ride to the airport, a palm tree near the upper cabins exploded with Palm and Blue-gray Tanagers. Low, scuttling clouds were originating in the southeast rather than in the east, and high cumulus clouds predicted another fine day. Ivan had us at the airport in plenty of time to do a quick bit of shopping before boarding the Caribbean Airlines turboprop for our 20-minute flight to Tobago. As all passengers had arrived early, we left Trinidad 15 minutes ahead of schedule, at 7:40, and arrived in Tobago at 8:05 instead of 8:25.
Our early arrival surprised our Tobago maxi driver, Bert Isaac, who I found in a nearby parking lot, busily cleaning his maxi. We loaded our luggage in the back of his spacious maxi, made use of the restrooms at the airport, grabbed some cold beverages at the restaurant across the street and a lot more at Jimmy's grocery store (including LLBs), and were birding Tobago by 8:30 a.m.
Arriving at the Bon Accord ponds, we found a mystery shorebird near the entrance. We worked on it for quite a while, with me dictating a copious description into my digital voice recorder. We walked to the far eastern end of the pond area and birded our way slowly to the westernmost area, picking up two unexpected species overhead -- four Cliff Swallows and two Bank Swallows, both species rare migrants on Tobago. We also added a Eurasian stray, a Little Egret, to our list. A Green Heron was new for us, with Striated Heron having been its Trinidad equivalent.
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Little Egret. Photo by Debby Harriman.
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Green Heron. Photo by Joan Cwi.
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As we walked around the pond we observed plenty of Anhingas and several Black Skimmers.
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Anhingas and Black Skimmers. Photo by Debby Harriman.
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A brief foray into the mangroves at the northwestern end of the area provided looks at Brown-crested Flycatcher and Scrub Greenlet, but we dipped on Mangrove Cuckoo.
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Brown-crested Flycatcher. Note the pale base to the lower mandible. Photo by Debby Harriman.
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Back at the entrance we stopped to examine the mystery shorebird again and decided that it was a basic-plumaged White-rumped Sandpiper. The dark streaks under the wings and on the flanks had not been visible when we first observed the bird. It often seems to me that when you get very close to a bird, sometimes the field marks are less apparent than they are when seen from a distance.
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White-rumped Sandpiper. Photo by Debby Harriman.
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We already had beverages, so we stopped for brunch at the Golden Girls Bakery. Choices included meat, cheese, and potato pies; sweet bread (which looked like fruitcake); currant rolls, which at my recommendation nearly everyone selected; black cake (looks like the densest chocolate cake you have ever seen); sponge cake; and coconut drops (which look like scones).
Our next stop was the Hilton Plantations, a golf-course-based hotel complex. On the entrance pond we found three female Lesser Scaup along with Least Grebe and Common Gallinule. Farther back on the property, at a pond across from the security headquarters, Jay identified a male Lesser Scaup while I was indoors conferring briefly with Phyllis Hernandez, Security Deputy Manager, and Sherwin Mitchell, Security Operations Officer. Ms. Hernandez gave us permission to bird in the area and agreed to allow us to photograph the two of them.
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Sherwin Mitchell, Phyllis Hernandez, and Bill Murphy. Photo by Terry Williams.
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On the most distant Hilton pond we found a wide variety of shorebirds and waterfowl, including another rarity -- an American Wigeon. As we returned to the maxi, we found a small flock of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks that had been concealed in the rushes.
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Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks. Photo by Debby Harriman.
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We continued our birding by traversing a remarkably interesting boardwalk that led a quarter mile through red mangroves to a postcard-perfect lagoon, devoid of any humans but us.
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Boardwalk through the mangroves. Photo by Terry Williams.
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Jay and Debbi on the boardwalk. Photo by Joan Cwi.
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Tranquillity at the end of the boardwark. Photo by Joan Cwi.
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A lone Royal Tern, the only one of its species on our trip, perched atop a distant float. This area held more Northern Waterthrushes, which are partial to mangroves, along with other interesting species. After having heard so many Yellow-breasted Flycatchers on our trip, it was good to finally get a really good look at one.
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Yellow-breasted Flycatcher. Photo by Debby Harriman.
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Noon was long past, so we headed to Store Bay for a late (2 p.m.) lunch.
Lunch today was a choice among almost too many kinds of local Tobago foods. The group stood in line while I explained the menu and described all of the various dishes.
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Sylvia's Food Shop, Store Bay. Photo by Joan Cwi.
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Menu at Sylvia's Food Shop, Store Bay. Photo by Joan Cwi.
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While enjoying our lunch we scanned the Caribbean and spotted our first Brown Booby, which I used as a marker to locate a lone White-winged Swallow catching insects over the anchored skiffs in the bay. This individual might well have been the only White-winged Swallow in Tobago during our visit.
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Our lunch site, Store Bay, Tobago. Photo by Joan Cwi.
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Before leaving Store Bay, we had a chance to shop for local wares and visit a candy stand, where the vendor explained all of the different local varieties of candy that he had made and was selling.
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Dresses, beach towels, and other tropical treasures. Photo by Joan Cwi.
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Tropical headgear for dreadlocks. Photo by Joan Cwi.
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Candy vendor. Photo by Terry Williams.
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We left Store Bay and drove north along the coast to the Grafton/Caledonia Nature Preserve, where we hiked along a former donkey trail through a cocoa plantation. Ed spotted our first Rufous-vented Chachalaca, and we added several new birds to our list. We also saw our first Tobago Blue-crowned Motmots and a lot of lizards.
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Blue-crowned Motmot. Photo by Debby Harriman.
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Richard's Anole, Anolis richardii. Photo by Joan Cwi.
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Then it was on to Adventure Farm for arm's-length views of hummingbirds, doves, motmots, antshrikes, and tanagers. Talk about armchair birding -- we didn't have to move at all, just relax and let the hummingbirds come to us. Along with hummingbirds we enjoyed close views of rather tame woodpeckers, antshrikes, motmots, tanagers, mockingbirds, and a variety of doves. At one point we had Ruddy Ground-Dove, Eared Dove, and Pale-vented Pigeon feeding together.
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Watching the hummingbird feeders. Photo by Debby Harriman.
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Male Barred Antshrike. Photo by Terry Williams.
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 | Ed Harriman.
Female Red-crowned Woodpecker. Photo by Debby Harriman.
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We arrived at our incredibly nice accommodations, the Cuffie River Nature Retreat, just after dark. Along the two-mile-long dirt entrance drive, those of us in the front of the maxi were able to spot the occasional White-tailed Nightjar flying up from the road in front of us, but we did not include it on our final tally. We heard them calling every evening we were there, just outside the lodge, where they caught flying insects attracted by the lights. Regina Sanchez, the owner/manager, greeted us warmly and directed us to our magnificent, spacious rooms. Dinner on this night consisted of callaloo soup, creole BBQ chicken, pumpkin fritters, loaded potatoes, tossed salad, and coconut ice cream for dessert. We went over our checklist, and then everyone crashed early after a long day.
New for the trip: Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, American Wigeon, White-cheeked Pintail, Lesser Scaup, Rufous-vented Chachalaca, Least Grebe, Brown Booby, Green Heron, Little Egret, Wilson's Snipe, Short-billed Dowitcher, Greater Yellowlegs, White-rumped Sandpiper, Royal Tern, Belted Kingfisher, Red-crowned Woodpecker, White-fringed Antwren, Brown-crested Flycatcher, Scrub Greenlet, Bank Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Black-faced Grassquit
Number of species seen: 78; new for trip: 22; running total: 196
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