Tobago 2 - Little Tobago

 

Little Tobago is an island located about a mile off the North East coast of Tobago. It takes about fifteen minutes on a glass bottomed boat from the pier at the Blue Water Inn. 

The island is protected and is a great place to see migratory sea birds. You can only visit the island with an official guide and the boats trips usually combine a visit to the island with snorkelling over the coral reefs in the Blue Water Bay. Great if you like snorkelling, not so good if you wanted longer on the island.

There were lots of birds on the island. We saw the target sea birds but I am sure there were a lot more to be seen if we had more time.

There is a colony of Laughing Gulls on little Tobago and they were a very common bird around the Blue Water grounds. It was strange to see so many of them when I have travelled hundreds of miles back home in England to see one as a rare visitor to our shores.

Laughing Gull

The Yellow-bellied Elaenia, a fairly common bird around the Blue Water grounds but this one photographed on the Island

Yellow-bellied Elaenia

Then from the high point on the island, the birds we had come to see:- Magnificent Frigate Bird, Brown Booby, Red-footed Booby, Red-billed Tropic Bird

Magnificent Frigate Bird

Red-billed Tropic Bird

Red-billed Tropic Bird

Red-footed Booby

Flybys by the birds were mostly too distant for good photographs and the shots of the Brown Boobys were too distant to publish here, but we did see the occasional Red-billed Tropic Bird roosting on the ground, close enough to touch.

Red-billed Tropic Bird

We also saw short-tailed Swifts which I was unable to get in focus in the time I had available and we were shown nesting holes for Audubon's Shearwaters with young in the nests. The adults would not return until after dark and we could not disturb the young. So close to a life tick but it doesn't count.

I should perhaps have explored the possibility of getting more time on the island but with plenty of other places to visit, it did not seem worth the expense.