Welcome

Special Birding Trips

Trip Reports

Gift Memberships

Century Club Benefits

ABA DONOR TRIP

Trinidad—Asa Wright Nature Centre

with John Kricher and Paul Green
8-15 January 2003

Bird list | Part 2

The American Birding Association's Donor Trip to Trinidad for Century Club members was led by John Kricher, Professor of Ecology at Wheaton College, Massachusetts and ABA Board Member, with logistical support from Martha Vaughan, Paul Green and Eng-Li Green. The trip was carefully planned by Nanci Hawley.

8 January 2003, Wednesday. Day one on the West Indian island of Trinidad

The members of our group, totaling 16, came from around the USA and most gathered in Miami International Airport for the BWIA (pronounced "Bewee" but standing for British West Indies Airways) non-stop flight to Port-of-Spain.  The flight left on time, at 1530h Miami time, 1630h Trinidad time.  Unlike the current domestic flights by U.S. airlines, BWIA served an in-flight meal that, together with the bright décor and anticipation of great birds to be seen, made the journey pleasant, and the flight arrived as scheduled at about 1945h local time. 

It was a clear, warm, star-filled night in the tropics, Orion looming overhead. After clearing customs, Mahase Ramlal, the son of Jogie Ramlal, met the group and this excellent father-son team became our guides for the week. We loaded ourselves into two red and white Toyota vans, our luggage following on a small pickup truck, and we were driven (in a very civilized fashion on the left side of the road) through a maze of small streets. Eventually we joined the Blanchisseuse Road at Arima, and wound our way up into the Northern Range toward the Asa Wright Nature Centre. We arrived at the Centre at about 2200h and were met by June, one of the staff at the Centre. She assigned rooms and informed us that sandwiches and water awaited us in the rooms.  A chorus of crickets welcomed us to the land of the Oilbirds and bellbirds.  During the night the resident Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl vocalized from time to time.

9 January 2003, Thursday. A day at the Asa Wright Nature Centre

Our group assembled by 0600h on the veranda of the main house at the Asa Wright Nature Centre, one of the most famous birding verandas in the world. The list of noteworthy birders who have experienced the daily "bird show" from the veranda, beginning with Don Eckelberry and Richard ffrench, would read like a gazetteer of Who's Who in birding.  Hot coffee and tea were available to help us wake up and concentrate on the birding.

We quickly came to know most of the "regulars:" the ubiquitous Bananaquit, the various tanagers, honeycreepers, hummingbirds, and thrushes. The earliest among us met the Blue-crowned Motmots, the first at the feeders.  A male Chestnut Woodpecker stole the show for some minutes as it "hammered" on some bread (perhaps the bread was stale). 

Several Agoutis scampered below the feeders with Ruddy Ground-doves and Gray-fronted Doves.  Telescopes soon picked up Channel-billed Toucans and Crested Oropendolas as well as a Double-toothed Kite in the distant trees.

Breakfast was at 0730h, followed by meeting Jogie Ramlal, our main guide. Jogie's first job in his long career was that of a field assistant for William Beebe at Simla, the nearby research station that Beebe founded. Jogie has worked with Don Eckelberry, Arthur Singer, John Dunston, Richard ffrench, Jonnie Fiske, and David and Barbara Snow.  There is little about the natural history of the Arima Valley that has escaped him.

Jogie led us on a walk along the driveway from the Centre to the main road. He pointed out various plants to the group, including cocoa and coffee, noting that the numerous blooming Immortelle trees, with brilliant orange blossoms, were planted as shade trees for coffee and cocoa, both understory trees. We continued to learn the resident birds, such as White-tailed and Violaceous Trogons, Yellow Oriole, Great Antshrike, Black Hawk, and the spectacular White Hawk. The nondescript Ochre-bellied Flycatcher was wing-flicking, and John described how it seems to be evolving manakin-like behavior as it also evolves a mostly frugivorous diet. The weather was extremely pleasant, not overly humid, clear with scattered clouds, the weather of the dry season in Trinidad.

We had lunch at noon, a very agreeable mélange of fish, fried plantains, and rice. Very Carib, and very tasty.

After lunch, Paul and John brought the group together to introduce the plan for the week as well as to celebrate donations of six of John's Neotropical Companion books to Birders' Exchange (BE) for use at the Centre. This was facilitated by Betty Petersen, director of BE, and Marguerite Agard and her assistant Gail Abdulla.  Marguerite is the Education and Outreach Officer at Asa Wright Centre and Gail works with local school groups in establishing educational outreach programs. The books were presented to Mr. Louis Julian, the General Manager of the Asa Wright Center.  As John presented the books, Paul used his ever-handy digital camera to record the moment for ABA posterity.  John then spoke briefly about the history of the Asa Wright Centre and how it had evolved from the Spring Hill Estate, run by the formidable Asa Wright, to one of the world's leading places for the study of tropical ecology.

At about 1340h, the group, accompanied by Marguerite and Gail, began its first walk down the Discovery Trail to the famous leks of the White-bearded Manakins and Bearded Bellbirds. Weather continued to be pleasantly hot and delightfully clear.  We stopped briefly to inspect a nest excavation of Lilac-tailed Parrotlets that Bob and Emmy Carras, who had arrived the previous day, had observed, but the small psitticines were nowhere to be found on this day.

Continuing along, John pointed out some of the structural characteristics of tropical forests as we entered the land of the bellbird and manakin. Soon we heard the snapping and whirring of the wings of male White-bearded Manakins.  Shortly thereafter, we beheld them; each on its little dancing spot, all clustered together on the famous lek first studied by David Snow and described so aptly by Snow in his book The Web of Adaptation. We spent considerable time watching these amazing little birds at one of the most accessible leks in all the Neotropics, as John related the details of their lekking behavior.

We walked further along the trail and soon the demonstrative BOK! of the Bearded Bellbirds, which we had heard from the veranda, became much louder.  The birds were nearby.   Normally male Bearded Bellbirds remain either in the canopy or the subcanopy and, in spite of their bright white and black plumage, they can be devilishly difficult to find.  They are more spread out than the manakins, as they use sound almost exclusively in the initial enticement to females.  Luck was with us as we easily found not one but two male Bearded Bellbirds perched in trees directly over the sign that said "Bellbird Trail". Soon the scopes revealed the chestnut head and black fleshy wattles that decorate these birds, the wattles giving the name "bearded" to this species.

After a time we continued down the trail and, after negotiating some surface roots on a steep part of the trail, we heard the cries of an immature Ornate Hawk-Eagle. Thanks to Gail we found not only the bird itself but also the nest.  The bird was almost fully-grown and white with a distinctive crest, similar to its larger relative, the Harpy Eagle.

As we made our way uphill on our return to the Centre, some of us stopped again to linger with the bellbirds and later with the manakins. Once back on the veranda, tea and coffee were served at 1600h and rum punch made its appearance at 1800h, highlights of the civilized life of the birder at Asa Wright. As dusk approached, hummingbirds and Bananaquits were replaced at the nectar feeders by nectarivorous bats.  We did our bird list at 1830h, followed by dinner at 1900h. After dinner, some of us watched part one of a Canadian video Twits and Pishers, that was filmed at the Asa Wright Centre. It featured the stellar performance of John Acorn who seemed to take particular delight in saying "oropen-DOUGH-lah." 

10 January 2003, Friday. Blanchisseuse Road

We were up and at the veranda again by 0600h, in what would become a daily ritual of coffee/tea and early morning birding. A distant immature Gray-headed Kite was made somewhat less distant thanks to the scopes, and a White-chested Emerald hummingbird augmented a list that already contained Copper-rumped, Tufted Coquette, Black-throated Mango, White-necked Jacobin and Rufous-breasted and Green Hermit.

After breakfast, we loaded into the two vans and Jogie and Mahase began our drive north, along the snaking Blanchisseuse Road (which translates to "laundress" from the French word blanchir, to make white), leading to the beaches of the Caribbean Sea. The road passes through the picturesque densely forested Northern Range, the easternmost extension of the Andes Mountains. Our first major stop yielded good looks at four Golden-headed Manakin males in the canopy along a curve in the road.  Scopes made it possible to see their brilliant white eyes as two males often sat in immediate proximity of one another. They were not "dancing", but they looked good.

Jogie was perplexed for a while, as stop after stop failed to yield the expected birds. Most of us were just enjoying being there.  Relaxed birding eventually pays off, and soon we were at a stop that was worthy of being called "birdy". In short order we were looking at Long-billed Gnatwren, White-flanked Antbird, Southern Beardless Tyrannulet, Little Hermit, Cocoa Woodhewer (good scope view as it worked a bromeliad), Plain-brown Woodcreeper, Speckled, Bay-headed, and White-shouldered Tanagers, as well as the much sought after Collared Trogon. Black and Turkey Vultures were airborne, and we often encountered the well-named Common Black Hawk. At one point, an Ornate Hawk-Eagle soared overhead.

We ambled along, stopping to observe a Green Kingfisher along a river, and eventually came to the beaches at the town of Blanchisseuse, our lunch stop. Brown Pelicans and Magnificent Frigatebirds cruised along the shore as the wind stirred up the warm Caribbean Sea. After lunch, we walked the palm-lined beach to a nearby marsh and lagoon where we encountered Striated Heron, White-winged and Southern Rough-winged Swallows, and some migrant Spotted Sandpipers.

The ride back featured a clear example of Jogie's skills at birdfinding. We spent some time watching a Golden-olive Woodpecker excavate a nest and had great views of the large and graceful Scaled Pigeon. We stopped to watch a beautiful flight of Orange-winged Parrots as they landed in the canopy of flowering Immortelle trees below us in a valley. The late afternoon light on birds and trees was, in a word, memorable. It's why you come on these trips, why you became a birder, it's… memorable. Nearby a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl called and called, responding to Jogie's whistle but was not visible. Jogie patiently watched, noting an irritated Bananaquit that eventually led Jogie to find the owl. Scopes soon made the well-entrenched creature visible, at least parts of it. You rock, Jogie!

Once back at the Asa Wright Centre we refreshed ourselves with rum punches followed by a lamb dinner. After dinner we enjoyed the second installment of Twits and Pishers, which, appropriately enough, featured the Blanchisseuse Road. The night was clear and starry.

Bird list | Part 2