Saturday, September 19 Trinidad: Sudama Steps, Brickfields, and Waterloo This is our only exceedingly early morning of the trip. Up at the disgusting (to use Martyn's word) time of 3 a.m. for coffee and out of AWNC Centre at 4 a.m. in the lodge security van. We rode down the valley as far as the christophene (= choyote) plantation, where a truck had gotten mired on the shoulder of the road during the night, blocking the passage of other vehicles. We walked around the truck and boarded Ivan's maxi. With a lot of assistance Ivan managed to get the maxi turned around, and then we headed south down the Arima Valley. We followed the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway west and then the Uriah Butler Highway south, passing through the city of Sangre Grande and into the swampy South Oropuche area. We arrived shortly after dawn and started birding immediately from the roadside. Our driver, Ivan LaRose, relaxing in his maxitaxi while we bird   Dawn birding on a side road   One of our first sightings was of a Stripe-backed Bittern that flew across the road and settled into the marsh grass. We also saw scores of other species of marsh birds for the first time, including Striated Heron, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Tricolored Heron, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Common Gallinule, Purple Gallinule, Southern Lapwing, Greater Yellowlegs, Lesser Yellowlegs, Least Sandpiper, Wattled Jacana, Yellow-chinned Spinetail, Pied Water-Tyrant, White-headed Marsh-Tyrant, Yellow-hooded Blackbird, and Red-breasted Blackbird. Proceeding to the area known as Sudama Steps, we paused to don the experimental plastic boot covers I'd brought with me to test against mud (they worked well but were noisy). Marian fastens her boot covers   With the sun up and no cloud cover, it quickly got hot, hot, hot! We continued seeing lots of new species as we walked slowly on a flat track between a mangrove-lined stream and a wide marsh. We welcomed the cloud cover that developed around 8 a.m. During out walk we had excellent and repeated views of a dark-morph Long-winged Harrier along with Green-rumped Parrotlets, our target birds the Spotted Tody-Flycatcher and Bicolored Conebill, and a few early migrants from North America such as Yellow Warbler and Northern Waterthrush. Hawking insects over the marsh were Gray-breasted Martin, White-winged Swallow, and Barn Swallow. A male Masked Yellowthroat was a special treat at the terminus of our walk. Marian, Barbara, Fred, Charla, Lydia, and Eileen   Lydia, Eileen, and Jonathan   Trekking through the South Oropuche basin   Paul and Marian   On return walk we had lengthy views of a Rufous-Browed Peppershrike, a species that is normally heard a dozen times for every one that is seen. Here in the Red Mangroves it was completely exposed. We also found a cooperative Striped Cuckoo and a fly-by Ringed Kingfisher. Returning to our first birding location we looked in vain for Nacunda Nighthawk, which had been seen recently. We continued to the village of Debe for a late breakfast of a local pastry called doubles and for cold drinks. Then most of us took a nap while Ivan made the long drive back north to Orange Valley. From the concrete pier that juts out into the Gulf of Paria we scanned the tidal mud flats and found a huge variety of waterbirds, waders, and shorebirds that included Brown Pelican, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Great Blue Heron, Scarlet Ibis, Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Wilson's Plover, Collared Plover, Black-necked Stilt, Short-billed Dowitcher, Whimbrel, Spotted Sandpiper, Willet, Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, Sanderling, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Laughing Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Yellow-billed Tern, Large-billed Tern, Gull-billed Tern, and Black Skimmer. The Sanderling was the first that Martyn and I had ever seen in western Trinidad. Overhead circled Magnificent Frigatebirds and Ospreys. Martyn spotted and pointed out a lone Clapper Rail on the mud; the endemic Trinidad race is brightly colored compared to the North American race. En route to our lunch spot we made a short side trip to view the 65-foot tall statue of the Hindu Monkey God, Hanuman. In the Waterloo area we had lunch at Jenna's Restaurant, where we sampled another kind of pastry specialty, this one called "roti," which is like an East Indian-style burrito. We also enjoyed cold drinks. Then it was back to AWNC by 4pm, fighting our way through the heavy Saturday traffic. Along the way we added Ruddy Ground-Dove, Rock Pigeon, and Smooth-billed Ani. A fine celebration was going on at the AWNC honoring the publication of a new bird book called "The Experience" by Theodore Ferguson. T&T naturalists present included Carol James, director of the T&T Ministry of Agriculture & Forestry; Howard Nelson, former director of the AWNC; Hans Boos, former director of Trinidad's Emperor Valley Zoo; and Newton George, one of Tobago's top bird guides. It was quite a dressy affair, with excellent hors d'oeuvres. Birding continued from the veranda during the afternoon, with new species including Pale-vented Pigeon, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Spectacled Thrush (the former Bare-eyed Thrush), Blue-black Grassquit, Shiny Cowbird, and Carib Grackle. Later we went over the day's sightings on the upper patio and reviewed the next day's itinerary. Dinner this evening was broiled pork chops, chopped garden salad, potato and watercress soup, pigeon peas, and banana rum mousse. Number of species seen: 92; new for trip: 67; running total: 137 Long-winged Harrier at Sudama Steps   Purple Gallinule at Sudama Steps   Black-necked Stilt, Whimbrel, and Collared Plover at Waterloo   Whimbrel on Waterloo tidal mudflats   Yellow-crowned Night-Heron   Back   Home   Next Trinidad Birding