Trinidad

The next stage of my trip took me to Trinidad. Trinidad's close proximity and recent separation (11,000 years) from the South American continent gives it a similar fauna and flora and there many more species of mammal, reptile and amphibian than on Tobago. The island is 50 miles long and 37 wide, with many landscapes and habitats including mangroves, littoral and seasonal deciduous forests. On my trip I first visited its hilly northern range which rises to a little over 3000 feet, and most of which is still beautifully covered by tropical humid rainforest. Here I stayed at the world famous Asa Wright Nature Centre.

 

(Northern range © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

The centre has an exceptional biodiversity, with a species list for the area comprising 400 birds, 108 mammals, 55 reptiles, 25 amphibians and 617 butterflies. The first feature that greets you on arrival at the centre is  the fantastic veranda which overlooks the forested valley and has an abundance of hummingbird and fruit feeders on view. The fruit feeders attract a great diversity of species including green and purple honeycreepers, bay-headed, silver-beaked and white-lined tanager, violaceous euphonia. Plus half a dozen hummingbird species are almost always on view too.

 

(Purple honeycreeper © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

After dinner, I joined a night walk along the entrance track to search for smaller creatures of the night. Trinidad chevron tarantulas, common whip scorpion spiders, true scorpions and several stick insect species were all surprisingly abundant. I also saw variegated gecko, polka-dot tree frog, tropical flat snake, common cat-eyed snake and a spectacular South American common coral snake and juvenile cook's tree boa. I also found the endemic yellow-throated frog (Mannophryne trinitatis) its favoured habitat of small mossy streams.

 

(Trinidad Chevron tarantula © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Trinidad Chevron tarantula © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 



(Polka dot tree frog © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

 

(Tropical flat snake © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

(Cat-eyed snake Leptodeira annulata © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

(Variegated gecko Gonatodes ceciliae © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

Birding the next morning I focussed on trying to find the tufted coquette which is not only incredibly beautiful but also has the title of being the second smallest bird in the world! A pair regular visit the flowering bushes below the veranda of the centre. After a short wait I managed a fantastic view of a male and more brief sighting of the female. This species is actually too small to feed from the artificial hummingbird feeders so you have to stake it out.

 

(Tufted coquette © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

On a walk along one of the trails through the reserve I saw such species such as the recently split Guianan trogon, channel-billed toucan, lineated woodpecker, white-bearded and golden-headed manakin, bearded bellbird and bay-headed tanager.

 

(Golden-headed manakins © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

My group also visited the Dunston Cave, (actually a gorge) home of the most accessible colony of oilbirds in the world. Oilbirds are the only nocturnal, fruit-eating birds in the world and use a combination of echolocation, a powerful sense of smell and super-sensitive vision to locate fruit bearing trees at night. We were very privileged to see these mysterious birds at their roost.

 

(Oilbird © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

From Asa Wright we moved south to visit Tamana Bat Cave. The impressive cave systems on Tamana Hill are home to an estimated 500,000 to 3 million bats of 13 species. Entering the caves is a remarkable experience but even more spectacular is watching the emergence of thousands of the bats at dusk.

 

(Davy's naked backed bats © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

(Trinidad funnel-eared bat © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

While in central Trinidad we also paid a visit to Matura beach one night, to watch leatherback turtles laying their eggs. Matura beach is the second most important nesting site in Trinidad for leatherbacks. The rural village of Matura previously received most of its income from fishing and agriculture, but in recent years these industries have been in decline while turtle watching tourism has been on the rise. This has helped boost the income for the village but with increased visitor numbers it has also caused some problems with disturbance of the turtles. There are now regulations in place and an excellent team of local volunteer rangers to enforce them. Watching an enormous female leatherback (they can grow to be as large as a small mini) laying her eggs, and then creating a decoy nest for the predators to find in the morning was fascinating and will live in my memory forever.

 

(Leatherback turtle © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

No trip to Trinidad would be complete without visiting Caroni swamp in the centre of the country. Here we watched hundreds of scarlet ibis coming to roost in the mangrove islands of the Caroni bird sanctuary. I was equally as excited about the impressive Cook's tree boa we found saw coiled up above our heads.

(Scarlet ibis © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Cook's tree boa © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

Tobago.

Back in May, I went on a familiarisation trip for my job with Reef and Rainforest Tours, (www.reefandrainforest.co.uk) to Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago. It was a very special trip which enabled me to really get to know both counties and see a good spread of each countries' natural highlights.

(Brown pelicans © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

I started the trip with a week spent on Trinidad and Tobago. The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is a twin island country which lie just off the northern edge of South America. Despite being so geographically close the two islands are quite different in their culture, geography and biodiversity. Trinidad is distinctly South American in its wildlife and ecosystems and is just seven miles off the coast of north-eastern Venezuela. While much smaller Tobago sits within the Caribbean Sea and offers rich coral reefs, dry deciduous and tropical rainforest, and has a very Caribbean culture with plenty fishing and "Liming" (or sweet doing nothing)!

 

(© Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

Starting on Tobago I enjoyed a variety of tours and sampled many fun and interesting activities including paddle boarding across a reef at night, where we then had the opportunity to swim amongst bioluminescent algae and watch the fish light up the water. I also visited the award winning Tobago Cocoa Estate to see how the local cocoa is harvested and transformed into tasty dark chocolate.

Most of the wildlife action was marine based while on Tobago and I enjoyed my first true coral reef snorkelling in Cotton and Emerald Bays. I was blown away by the diversity and health of the corals here. The abundant reef fish included spotted moray eels, several species of jacks, triggerfish, kingfish, angelfish and I also had sightings of a nudibranch sp, cuttlefish and squid. There was more good snorkelling in the reef offshore from the wonderful Blue Waters Inn in Speyside. Here I saw some magnificent examples of brain corals and had a glimpse of an unidentified reef shark and an adult hawksbill turtle.

I have no idea where they got the name for Blue Waters Inn from?

 

(© Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

The accommodation and services here are superb and it is ideally located for naturalists visiting the island as Little Tobago Island (The islands second largest seabird colony) is just a 30 minute crossing by glass bottom boat away. Little Tobago is mostly covered by deciduous dry forest but is predator free and supports a high density of breeding red-billed tropicbird, brown and red-footed boobies, brown noddy sooty tern and Audubon's shearwater. All of these species except for the shearwater are unmissable on a visit to the island during the breeding season.

 

(Red-billed tropicbird © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(Brown noddy © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

I was lucky to be guided by Newton George on the trip (Tobago's most renowned wildlife guide and former warden of Little Tobago) who enabled us to have a very privileged view of the island's rarest breeding bird the Audubon's shearwater in its nest. 

Back on land Newton very kindly took us to his house where he had set up several hummingbird feeders and even offered us a beer to accompany the spectacle! Top Bloke.

 

(Copper-rumped hummingbird © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

(The stunning ruby topaz hummingbird © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

I also spent a morning birding in the Main Ridge Forest Reserve, a fantastic tract of tropical rainforest, UNESCO site and one of the oldest legally protected forests in the world. The reserve was established in 1776 to sustain rainfall on the island and in turn maintain fertile soil for agriculture. There is a good trail network through the forest including walks to some attractive waterfalls and viewpoints. Birding here was great with sightings of blue-backed manakin, Trinidad motmot, collared trogon, white-tailed nightjar, cocoa woodcreeper, stripe-breasted spinetail all common as well as the rare and endemic white-tailed sabrewing.

 

 

(Trinidad Motmot © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

(White-tailed nightjar © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 



(White-tailed sabrewing © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

Decoy Heath and Hartslock

I had been keen to get back to Decoy Heath BBOWT Reserve where I used to monitor the reptile populations to see how the site was looking and see what reptiles would be out. The weather was perfect for basking on the day, although the temperature could have been higher.

A walk around the usual route yielded at least 10 male slow worm but only 1 female which is what I have come expect this early in the season. I even found one basking in the open which is actually very unusual as they rarely expose their entire body in the open preferring to remain hidden or under ground.

(Slow worm m)

I was slightly worried by the lack of adders which I was hoping to find but I did hear a couple slither away that were likely hiding under dense gorse. Eventually I found one basking in heather in a favourite location.

(Adder)

Later in the day I made my way to another BBOWT Reserve, famous for its chalk grassland communities; Hartslock.

(River Thames, from Hartslock)

I was particularly hoping to find pasqueflower (Pusatilla,vulgaris), a stunning flower that only blooms around Easter. After a little search I found a small colony, although I was hoping to find slightly more they were such vivid colours that the 10 or so were good enough! This species is very much restricted to calcareous grasslands and only occurs at 19 sites in England.

(Pasqueflower)

(Early purple orchid)

(Chalk milkwort)

Dawlish Warren

I have a made a couple of visits to Dawlish Warren recently mainly looking for birds, the first visit involving mostly lingering over-wintering waders and wildfowl out in the Exe estuary including a flock of brent geese that included an individual of the pale-bellied race.

 

(Pale-bellied brent goose)

Later on I saw more newly arrived migrants including a mixture of common warblers, sandwich terns, several flocks of whimbrel, common scoter and buzzard coming off the sea.

I also timed my visit to see the nationally rare sand crocus which usually blooms in the first two weeks of April. The sand crocus (Romulea columnae) which is known locally as the warren crocus is only known to occur at one other site in Britain in Cornwall. It is a native species right on the very northern edge of its range. The mild winters, warm summer climate, poor nutrient levels and freely draining soil at the warren make it suitable outpost for a small population of the species to thrive. At 7mm in diameter they are pretty tiny and surprisingly easy to miss, but still bigger than some of the other specialities of the site I found.

(Sand crocus)

There was plenty of early-forget-me-not in flower too which was nice to see and with some advice from the warden I finally tracked down petalwort. Petalwort (Petalophyllum ralfslii) is a small green liverwort found in damp hollows within sand dune slacks and is only known from 26 sites in the UK. It was a real hands and kness job to find one, but one you find it is was surprisingly conspicuous but was still restricted to just  maybe 2 or 3 square metres within the dune slacks that I could find. Very much a niche existence!

(Early forget-me-not)

(Petalwort)

On the way home from work with my colleague a couple of days later, we had an osprey fly low directly over the car, which was a nice surprise. (no pictures unfortunately) We suspect it was following the River Dart to head north initially.

Yarner Wood

I recently spent a very enjoyable day exploring Yarner Wood NNR near Bovey Tracey on the eastern edge of Dartmoor. The wood is beautiful with gnarled sessile and English oak trees covered in moss, mixed with hazel and rowan completed with an understory of holly and a ground layer of bilberry.

 

I was particularly hoping to find pied flycatchers and lesser spotted woodpecker. I was successful in finding 5 male stunning and very vocal pied flycatcher throughout the wood, but there was no sight nor sound of the woodpecker unfortunately. I was slightly too early in the month for the other denizens of this habitat such as wood warbler and tree pipit, but did see a nice range of other woodland species and common butterflies.

(pied flycatchers)

 

Wood ant nest (Formica sp)

 

I also visited Hembury woods again a great example western oakwoods on the southern edge of Dartmoor earlier in the month to see the spectacle of hundreds of wild daffodils blooming in the oak woods there. I have never seen wild daffodil in these numbers before, there was a carpet of yellow in many places.

(River Dart)

(Wild daffodils)

Divers in Brixham Harbour.

With only a short window of time, I took the opportunity to do some birding around Brixham harbour today.

A white-billed diver has been present in the harbour and the general Torbay area since Christmas.

Although there were a few sightings of the bird in the early morning, it must have moved further offshore later on as I never found it.

There was however an impressive array of other species in the area. Of particular interest was at least 10 great northern divers spread around the coast and a few were feeding in the harbour. Being mainly arctic breeders the main chance to see them in Britain is during the winter where they are most abundant in the northern isles of Scotland and the west coast of Ireland. There is an increasing number wintering in the Torbay area and they regularly overwinter in the harbour due to easy fishing.

(Great northern divers)

 



On average there has been a 39% increase in wintering numbers of great northern divers in the UK since the 1981-1984 BTO bird atlas.

I also noted at least 4 black-throated divers close inshore and one bird in the harbour itself.

(Black-throated diver)

 



There was several common guillemots feeding in the area including this individual in almost full summer plumage, which is a very unusual phenomena.

(Common guillemot)

 



Another rare sighting was that of a black guillemot (in full winter plumage) that was  feeding in the harbour.

(Black guillemot)

I took a walk along the breakwater were there was plenty of turnstones feeding along the shoreline and even at pedestrians feet where there was scraps of fisherman's bait leftover. Rock pipits, gannets and the usual gulls were also present. A little further on and I noticed a pale gull amongst the herring gulls soaring in the harbour. Sure enough this was the 1st winter Iceland gull that has been in the area and it even showed off by flying right overhead beautifully demonstrating its all "white wing tips"

 

(Iceland Gull)

 



Confusingly Iceland gulls do not actually breed in Iceland, although they do overwinter there, they actually nest in Northern Canada and Greenland and are only rare vagrants to North West Europe in the winter.


After some searching I also found the red-necked grebe that has been seen on and off in the area. By this point the rain had become very persistent so I decided to head home.

(Red-necked grebe) 

(Cormorant)