Whilst culturally Trinidad is a Caribbean Island it is, from the naturalists viewpoint, most definitely a part of South America. Lying only 13km off the coast of Venezuela Trinidad was as recently as 10,000 years ago part of South America and as a result holds a selection of birds & mammals typical of that continent. Indeed Trinidad is probably the single best venue for a birder who has never before experienced the Neo-Tropics as it holds representatives of almost all the main bird groups without the risk of swamping with too many individual species.
The island has a good infrastructure including some excellent birding sites whilst there is also specialist accommodation catering for birders. Foremost among these is the Asa Wright Nature Centre. Whilst the AWC can be packed out with birders in the favoured dry season of january-april it can be surprisingly peaceful & quiet at other times of the year. Our visit to Trinidad & the AWC was for 1 week in May 2006; the only condition my non-birding wife placed on the trip was to go in the low season to avoid 'serious' birders whom she finds somewhat intimidating!!!!
Whilst we experienced some rain we had the AWC trails to ourselves, were able to arrange our own trips & being there during their breeding season got the chance to see breeding Leatherback Turtles which proved the highlight of the trip.
Apart from birding the AWC trails or just 'liming' on the famous AWC balcony with a Pina Colada we did a number of excursions. We took a trip over the Northern Range to Blanchisseuse & a half-day trip to Caroni Swamp with Mr Rudal Ramlal who was an excellent birder, most pleasant company & an absolute gentleman. Our nocturnal Leatherback Turtle trip & an excursion to Nariva Swamp were with Dave Ramlal (Rudal's son) who was an excellent & highly knowledgeable birder, a top all-round naturalist & also great company. All of these excursions were arranged through the AWC who also supplied the vehicle & driver for airport pick-up/return. Check out the AWC at: http://www.asawright.org/
The galleries below represent most but not all of the birds & wildlife that we saw during our stay. Some images are rather poor record shots but quite a few are of reasonable quality -this being more a reflection of how easy it is to get good images in & around the AWC than a indication of my competence with a camera. Hopefully you will be persuaded to visit Trinidad as it really has a lot to offer.
