We had an early flight to catch over to Tobago where after landing myself and Stu tucked into a spicy breakfast sandwich filled with jalapeños among other exotic stuff. The stomach held out so it couldn't have been that bad. Our first stop was at some nearby pools that held the usual water birds plus some exciting species in the surrounding trees, namely the Ruby Topaz and Rufous-vented Chachalaca. Next up was a drive through the island up to Main Ridge where upon entering we were treated to some spectacular Hummingbird action with the highlight being the White-tailed Sabrewings that were making use of the feeders. A few Trinidad Motmots also gave us a sigh of relief as did a couple of Blue-backed Manakins. A trail here produced plenty of new birds but then the best was saved until last where we embarked on a small vessel and headed over to Little Tobago where we witnessed a colony of the stunning Red-billed Tropicbird in all its glory. The views were as good as I'd ever imagined and proved to be a top birding highlight, helped by the fact I'd seen several tv programmes showing this bird in the past forever gripping me off until now. Two species of Booby were also great. We drove back down to the airport and our flight was on time back to Trinidad where we sadly said farewell to Martyn and Graeme who were excellent as expected. My time (2 days) on T&T ended with 131 species including 97 lifers, and considering only top localised species were targeted, this was a good total. Tomorrow morning the six of us catch the early flight over to Guyana where the real adventure begins.
- Rufous-vented Chachalaca
- Red-billed Tropicbird
- Least Grebe
- Red-footed Booby
- Brown Booby
- Anhinga
- Great Black Hawk
- Broad-winged Hawk
- Carribean Martin
- Common Potoo
- Rufous-tailed Jacamar
- Stripe-breasted Spinetail
- Cocoa Woodcreeper
- White-fringed Antwren
- Brown-Crested Flycatcher
- Blue-backed Manakin
- Yellow-legged Thrush
- Yellow Warbler
- Trinidad Motmot
- White-tailed Sabrewing
- Golden-olive Woodpecker
- Black-faced Grassquit
- White-lined Tanager
White-necked Jacobins at Main Ridge feeders. Stunning birds.
White-tailed Sabrewing at Main Ridge feeders.
Grey Kingbird
Magnificent Frigatebird
Trinidad Motmot at Main Ridge
Golden-olive Woodpeckers displaying at Main Ridge
Red-billed Tropicbirds on Little Tobago - probably the highlight on this part of the trip was admiring these at their nesting site
Red-footed Boobies nesting on a distant ridge
