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| White-headed Marsh Tyrant (F)- Arundinicola leucocephala |
Day two called for an early start
as we were headed to the mountainous northern range and home to the world
famous Asa Wright Nature Centre. I was honored, thanks to Dr. John Webster who
introduced us, to have one of the islands leading birders and wildlife
Photographers and an all-around nice guy, Wendell “Stephen Jay” Reyes as a
guide.
He collected us at 6:30am for the
approximately hour and half drive up the mountain. The normally busy and congested streets were
free of traffic at this time and we were able to have a casual drive as we talked
about birds, birding and photography. He
also pointed out a few birds as we drove along. At one junction we saw a Fork-tailed Palm Swift fly into the dry branches of a palm tree and
further along we saw a small group of Black
Skimmers, a lifer, and a Fork-tailed
Flycatcher.
Asa Wright Nature Centre
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| Purple Honeycreeper - Cyanerpes caeruleus & Bananaquit - Coereba flaveola |
Wendell skillfully navigated the
winding road leading to Asa Wright, while my wife and kids were fast asleep in
the back seat. We arrived just before 8:30am,
paid our fees and entered. We were told
that the first tour would begin at 10:30am, so we had a few hours to observe
birds from the well-known balcony looking over the rain forest, with
hummingbird feeders hanging and fruit filled feeding stations just below. The hummingbirds were plentiful buzzing to
and fore. The most abundant were the White-necked Jacobin and the Copper-rumped Hummingbird. One of the hummingbirds on my must-see
list, the Tufted Coquette, was
nowhere to be seen. Wendell told me that
the Coquette was not a species that came to the feeders and he took me to
another area on the veranda overlooking the flowers. This hummer, the second smallest in the world,
feeds on Vervain Flowers. I was able to see the Tufted Coquette just before and just after the tour. The tour started at 10:30 as promised and
lasted for 1 ½ hours. Our guide, Tonya,
showed us the flora and fauna of the rain forest, including the interesting and
very busy Leaf cutter ants and a noisy insect called a Cicada which brought the forest alive with sound. We
were able to see most of our targeted species, White-bearded and Golden-headed
Manakins, Violaceous Euphonia and the star of Asa Wright, the Bearded Bellbird but
we did not see the Guianan Trogon. We left Asa Wright at about 1:00pm after
seeing 31 species most of which were lifers. It was then on to our next stop, Aripo Livestock Station.
Aripo Livestock Station
Aripo Livestock Station is a working station and permission is needed to
enter the property. That was easily
obtained by Wendell, who seemed to be a regular there. This was a location where birding from the
vehicle was necessary as the fields were fenced to secure a breed of livestock
called “buffalypso", which
looks like a water buffalo, and said to be unpredictable. One of our target birds at this location was
the Savannah hawk which I did not see. There were hundreds of Black Vultures
everywhere but it was the lone Turkey Vulture that got my attention as
it was a lifer. Other lifers included a Piratic
Flycatcher, White-headed Marsh Tyrant, Pied Water-Tyrant and Green-rumped
Parrotlet to mention a few. To close
off a rather rewarding day I saw a Saffron Finch on the journey back to
the guest house.
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| White-eyed Parakeet - Psittacara leucophthalmus |
The day of birding was not yet over however, as Wendell received a
telephone call about a rare bird which had just arrived at a location called
St. Ann’s. I had been hoping that he
would ask if I wanted to tag along and he did.
The bird we were searching for was a White-eyed Parakeet. We got
to the location just seconds too late and missed the birds but we followed the
loud call of this parakeet which led us to a tree where the main flock was
situated. We were able to get pretty
good images of the bird in flight and stationary. I had another bonus, a Boat-billed Flycatcher. This is a bird that is identical to the Great Kiskadee in appearance but has a
larger bill and a different call.
This was the last birding stop
for day 2 and we headed home for a rest knowing that day 3 would be another
long day of birding.
New
Species for the Day: 47
New
Lifers for the Day: 43
Total
Species for the Trip: 73
Total
Lifers for the trip: 59
Asa Wright
Nature Centre: White-tipped Dove, Short-tailed Swift, White-necked Jacobin, Rufous-breasted Hermit, Green
Hermit, Little Hermit, Black-throated Mango, Tufted Coquette, Blue-chinned
Sapphire, White-chested Emerald, Copper-rumped Hummingbird, Forest Elaenia,
Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Bearded
Bellbird, White-bearded Manakin, Golden-headed
Manakin, Rufous-browed Peppershrike (h), House Wren, White-necked Thrush, Silver-beaked Tanager, Bay-headed Tanager, Purple Honeycreeper, Green Honeycreeper, Violaceous Euphonia.
Aripo
Livestock Station: Turkey
Vulture, Wattled Jacana, Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Yellow-headed Caracara, Green-rumped
Parrotlet, Yellow-chinned Spinetail,
Pied Water-Tyrant, White-headed Marsh Tyrant, Piratic Flycatcher,
Southern Rough-winged Swallow,
Blue-black Grassquit, Red-eyed Vireo*, Rufous-breasted Wren*,
Long-billed Gnatwren *, Red-breasted
Meadowlark, Yellow-hooded Blackbird.
While
Driving: Black Skimmer, Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Great Egret, Saffron Finch.
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| White-necked Jacobin - Florisuga mellivora |
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| White-chested Emerald - Amazilia brevirostris |
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| Tufted Coquette - Lophornis ornatus |
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| Copper-rumped Hummingbird - Amazilia tobaci |
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| Golden-headed Manakin - Ceratopipra erythrocephala |
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| Bearded Bellbird - Procnias averano |
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| Crested Oropendola - Psarocolius decumanus |
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| Smooth-billed Ani - Crotophaga ani |
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| Boat-billed Flycatcher - Megarynchus pitangua |
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| White-eyed Parakeet - Psittacara leucophthalmus |
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| Turkey Vulture - Cathartes aura |
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| Piratic Flycatcher - Legatus leucophaius |
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| Wattled Jacana - Jacana jacana |
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