Tobago 3 - Newton George

 

It's always difficult when you are birding in a foreign country. Do you hire a guide to find the birds for you or do you do your homework and set off to find them yourself. I much prefer finding my own birds, the sense of achievement in exploring a different location and finding something new takes me back to my early birding days. Using a local guide somehow feels like cheating but if you don't get some help then you will clearly miss out on a lot of birds. So, one day out with a local bird guide is allowed, as it is only cheating a little bit.

Checking online it was clear that there were many good local guides on Tobago but one name stood out, that of Newton George.

With only a couple of weeks before we travelled I was not expecting him to be available but I e-mailed him anyway and fortunately got a positive response. Sue and I spent a day with Newton and three other birders on what turned out to be an eleven hour birding tour. Better still Sue, who is not a birder, actually enjoyed the day.

We started off in the south west of the island around the Bon Accord ponds and drainage channels and very productive it proved to be.

Spotted Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs

Green Heron

Juvenile Little Blue Heron

Southern Lapwing

Tropical Kingbird

Wattled Jacana

Anhinga

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

Least Grebe

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Grey Kingbird

Red-crowned Woodpecker

Smooth-billed Ani

Then one of the highlights of the day, a Tricoloured Heron in full breeding plumage.

Tri-coloured Heron

White-cheeked Pintail

Blue-winged Teal

Juvenile Great Blue Heron

Solitary Sandpiper

There were birds everywhere and most seemed to have no fear of us walking in the area, although I did note that all the ducks took flight if we got too close. The sad thing is that they probably should be concerned. A large part of the ground we were birding on had already been marked out for housing and drainage work had already started.

Our next stop was the ponds at the Fairways Golf Course and the Plantations Boardwalk. 

Common Gallinule

Newton was intent on finding a Mangrove Cuckoo but unfortunately it wasn't to be. However there were plenty of other birds around although photographing them in the low light levels of the mangrove swamp was a bit more challenging.

Black-crested Night Heron

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Whimbrel

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Snowy Egret

We also saw a Potoo but I will put a picture of that in a later blog.

We then went on a bit of a tour along the coast, to look for sea birds, with the first stop at the Coco Beach hotel. It has a rock breakwater protecting a seawater bathing pool and there were a hundred plus birds roosting on the rocks.

Eared Dove - looking for food

Roseate Tern

Royal Tern

Then on to view a derelict pier just below Fort James in the Plymouth area. Again hundreds of birds, I should have been carrying a wide angle lens. We found Black Skimmers, Laughing Gulls, Sandwich Terns, Royal Terns and Cayenne Terns. 

I had not even realised that Cayenne Terns existed. They are in fact a subspecies of the Sandwich Tern and are found in the southern Caribbean and Atlantic coast of South America. They have a yellow bill and a slightly longer crest than the North Atlantic Sandwich Terns. It was useful to be able to see the two subspecies at the same location.

Black Skimmers Royal Terns and Sandwich Tern

Black Skimmers

Laughing Gulls, Black Skimmers, Royal Terns, Cayenne Terns (yellow bills)

And, a little further along the coast a Brown Pelican fishing in one of the coves.

Brown Pelican

More to come from our tour with Newton George in the next blog.

Tobago 4 - More time with Newton George

 

We continued with the tour travelling up the North West coast of the island then turning east to travel up to the Main Ridge Forest.

Giant Cowbird

Green-rumped Parotlet

Orange-winged Parrot

It was obviously going to be harder to get pictures once on the forest trails but there were still some good birds to be seen from the road, including Rufous-tailed Jacamars, Trinidad Motmots, a Collard Trogon and a White-tailed Saberwing Hummingbird.

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Rufous-tailed Jacamar

Trinidad Motmot

Trinidad Motmot

Collard Trogon

Unfortunately the Saberwing would not oblige by giving a front view.

White-tailed Saberwing

We could hear a Blue-backed Manakin calling from the undergrowth but it was difficult to get a decent view. Eventually we spotted him and watched for a while as he practiced his courtship dance. He seemed to be on his own, so was probably practicing for his performance in front of the ladies at the lek.

Blue-backed Manakin

  

Crested Oropendola

Golden-olive Woodpecker

Seeing some movement I spent a long time watching the next hole waiting for another Woodpecker to look out only to get a bit of a surprise.

Tree Frog

Plain-brown Woodcreeper

Rufous-breasted Hermit on Nest

Streaked Flyctcher

Stripe-breasted Spinetail

Tobago 5 - Common Potoo

 

At the start of our tour Newton asked if I had any particular targets. I didn't, I wasn't chasing a list, I just wanted to see some new birds and have the chance to get some good pictures. When pushed I said that seeing a Potoo would be good as it looked particularly challenging to find and it would be an unexpected first for me. One Common Potoo I hoped for but I didn't expect him to find three of them for me.

I suppose this really shows why it's worth hiring a local guide I would never have found these birds even if I had been given their locations. They have a cryptic camouflage of black, brown and grey plumage that blends in with the trees in which they roost, and when stationary, as they are during the day, they just look like an extension of a branch.


The first of the three was from the boardwalk at the Planation. Difficult to see and even harder to photograph as it was in shade with bright lights behind it. They don't move and they are a lot harder to pick out than these pictures show.

The second was by the road through the rainforest at the north of the island but you would have to know where to stop and then where to look. It was sitting on a stump of bamboo amongst a bunch of similar looking stumps.

The third was just outside Roxborough with houses and people around and children playing close by.

Having seen these I now want a picture of one with its eyes open. It has large yellow eyes a bit like a Stone Curlew. I am also intrigued by the cryptic camouflage. It is almost as if they can change the colour of their feathers to match the tree they are roosting on.

There were lots of places we didn't get to see during our week on Tobago and many I would like to go back to. These bargain holidays are clearly worth keeping an eye on.