Wow - I can't believe I am at part 5, and I am only starting to post about our third day of birding - I need an editor! I think that if I need two big posts to describe a single day, I'm probably being a bit too wordy, so my aim for the next several posts is to just have one post per day of the trip. Let's hope it works out.
I woke up to our third and last full day at Asa Wright listening again to a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl tooting somewhere nearby. Although I felt like I'd seen most of the birds that I was going to see from the veranda, I nevertheless wanted to be there at first light again. Hey, you never know what might show up! I'm glad I did, as I saw a few Short-tailed Nighthawks doing their last few sweeps before heading to roost, and had my only good looks at Rufous-browed Peppershrike. After a cup of tea and a lot of good-natured ribbing about my mis-pronunciation of "tityra" from the local guides after I spotted one in the distance that provided nice scope views but poor photo ops, we went in for breakfast. (BTW it is pronounced ti-tyra - with the first syllable cut short and the emphasis on tyra, like the name - NOT titti-ra which had the guides almost in tears)
We noticed that a bird we had seen a day or two earlier in the dining room still seemed to be caught there (must've come in through a low open window and couldn't figure out where to get back out) and Pam, among others, was seriously concerned about it and mentioned it to Mukesh who found a ladder and after breakfast was able to rescue the bird with the help of a butterfly net. He brought the bird to the veranda so we could all have a good look at her before he let her go. It was a female Golden-headed Manakin:
The good news is that she had plenty of energy, no feather damage, and appeared to be finding food while stuck there. I'm sure she was thrilled to be free though. I wonder how often this happens here, as we also had a Bananaquit fly into our room and to our enclosed porch the day before, and I had to catch and release it myself.
After breakfast, Linda, Dave, Kathy, Jim as well as a few other guests had our hike to the Dunstan Cave - the site on the grounds where Oilbirds nest and roost. This trip is only done once or twice a week, and only for guests that spend three or more nights at the lodge (no day-trippers) in order to minimize the disturbance of the birds at their roost and nest site. These are large fascinating birds with quite a history. Really - take a moment and check that link to read about them. I promise, I'll be here when you get back...
Cool, huh? Well, it's not cool that the locals used to harvest the fat oily chicks to use for lamp oil (in some cases apparently just putting the fresh carcass on the end of a stick and lighting it on fire). Overnight I had heard something that I swore was one of the local feral cats fighting with something (we have two indoor cats that don't get along so I know what an angry cat sounds like!) but learned that it was probably more likely to be the Oilbirds which were foraging in the area where we stayed. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pics of the Oilbirds in the cave - too dark and wet and understandably couldn't use a flash. Other bird spotted on the way there or back included Tropical Pewee, Forest Elania, a single shy Green Kingfisher that only a few of us in the front got to see, Collared Trogon, and just as we returned this White-tailed Trogon:
Once we were back at the veranda, I was determined to get as many pics of the regular birds as I could since we'd be leaving tomorrow, and I didn't know how much time we'd have in the morning. White-chested Emeralds, a hummingbird that we'd seen only briefly over that last few days, seemed to be visiting a lot more, so I made sure to get a few pics:
The White-necked Jacobins seemed to be begging to have their photo taken, so of course I obliged:
Also a very frenetic male Tufted Coquette was visiting one of the flowering bushes next to the veranda and I tried again to get some photos, with limited success:
Some other photo opportunities that presented themselves were both male and female Barred Antshrikes:
And the beautiful Violaceous Euphonia:
Also the more common Tropical Kingbird and Great Kiskadee - both birds that you can get in the US if you go to the right places, but hard to resist photos of when they are hanging out just a few meters away from you:
Just before lunch, we were approached by two gentlemen that had arrived a day or so earlier, Vincent & Colin and who had been making the most of their time there, and they asked if we'd like to join them for a trip they'd arranged to go to Waller Field to see Red-bellied Macaws. A win-win situation for all of us - we'd get to go to a location we hadn't planned on, and the per person cost was minimized for a larger group. We readily agreed and planned to meet them that afternoon. Charan, who had picked us up at the airport when we arrived, was our driver and guide, and was easily as talented and adept a birder and guide as all the others that are in the employ of As Wright. We arried at Waller Field, an old US air base from WWII, which now has a lot of construction of a new university, just as a light drizzling rain started. After checking through a security gate, where they obviously knew Charan and were used to him brining birders here, we quickly picked up on a perched falcon, which turned out to be a Merlin. Parking the car, we started picking up new birds right away - Moriche Oriole & Sulphury Flycatcher were two great finds by Charan, who seemed to take it in course. Then the Red-bellied Macaws started flying in to the palms across the street. We got out the scopes to get better looks at these beautiful birds, as more and more joined the first few that arrived, and it seemed like the rain might abate a bit. I kept checking a tree that Charan had mentioned that he'd seen Ruby-topaz Hummingbirds visit, and was rewarded with a brief but beautiful look at one of the dazzling birds. Unfortunately, I was the only one who got a good look, then the rain started coming down again. We grabbed an umbrella, and Pam and I decided to try and stake out the spot for a while in hopes that it would come back and she would get a good look - after all, we have had plenty of experience with seeing hummingbirds in the rain. After 45 minutes or so, while the rain continued to come down harder and harder, we threw in the towel and joined the rest of our group under a thatched roof shelter that still provided good looks at the macaws. We enjoyed our afternoon tea and rum punch under the shelter and tried to wait out the rain, but after a while longer, we decided that it was starting to get dark (which wouldn't have been bad for crepuscular birds and nighthawks and which this was a good spot for) and that the rain simply was not going to stop. So we loaded up the car and headed back to Asa Wright. The roads were absolutely flooded and there were brief moments of concern about whether we would be able to make it the whole way, but we did indeed make it back safe and sound, enjoyed a arm dry dinner, and packed it in for the night after another full day of birding.
I did it - I managed to get a full day into one post! Next up, our last morning at Asa Wright, and then heading over to Tobago.
