Trinidad & Tobago!

Trinidad and Tobago - December 2009
Weather: Very warm throughout.

Wildlife seen:
193 species of bird.
Plus Red-tailed Squirrel; Tree Boa; Agouti; Brown Rat; Spectacled Caiman and various Lizards.
Plus a few species of Butterflies.

Places visited:
Hotels at Asa Wright Centre (Trinidad) and Blue Waters Inn (Tobago).
Northern Range; Akido Savannah; Manzanilla; Ariba Swamp; Caroni Marsh; Little Tobago; Tobago Forest Reserve; Gilpin Trace.

If you can stand warm weather; friendly people; an abundance of wildlife and a general chill-out atmosphere, then I urge you to visit T&T. Don't even think about it. Just go!


'All the details of the life and the quirks and the friendships can be laid out for us, but the mystery of the writing will remain. No amount of documentation, however fascinating, can take us there'...V S Naipaul


I've already posted some photos from this holiday so I will try and put up some new ones here.

Blue-crowned Motmot (new)
'Just remember it's the birds that's supposed to suffer, not the hunter'...George W. Bush, advice while quail hunting, Jan. 22, 2004


Butterfly Orchid
'I also like to garden. I grow things, vegetables, flowers...I particularly like orchids. I raise orchids'...Beau Bridges

 
Copper-rumped Hummingbird
'The very idea of a bird is a symbol and a suggestion to the poet'...John Burroughs


Gecko (for Kat-Tai)
'Lunch is for wimps'...Gordon Gekko, from Wall Street


Green Honeycreeper female
'A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself'...D.H. Lawrence


Long-tongued Nectar Bat
'Suspicion amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they never fly by twilight'...Francis Bacon


Mirror
'Success is full of promise till one gets it, and then it seems like a nest from which the bird has flown'...Henry Ward Beecher


Pearl Kite
'When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head!'...William Blake


Pied Water-Tyrant
'I'm youth, I'm joy, I'm a little bird that has broken out of the egg'...Sir James M. Barrie


Rainbow
'I've always taken 'The Wizard of Oz' very seriously, you know. I believe in the idea of the rainbow. And I've spent my entire life trying to get over it'...Judy Garland


Red-billed Tropicbird
'Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art'...Izaak Walton


Scarlet Ibis
'Faith without works is like a bird without wings; though she may hop with her companions on earth, yet she will never fly with them to heaven'...Francis Beaumont


View from my Hotel Room
'A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked'...Anais Nin


Wattled Jacana
'If one cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen'...Nikita Khrushchev


White-winged Swallow
'You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair'...Chinese Proverb



I hope I have given you a taste of T&T.
But I fear I may have only scratched the surface.

Best wishes, Graham