trinidad
A fabulous week based entirely at the Asa Wright Centre featuring birdlife and leatherback turtles.
Wednesday 30 June - Wednesday 7 July 2010
Price: £1750 pp Single Supplement: £215 pp Deposit: £300 pp
Join Heatherlea's Mike Coleman together with experienced local guide on this wildlife adventure!
This summer adventure to Trinidad is a great birding experience with the added bonus of an evening visit to see huge Leatherback Turtles laying and young turtles making their way to the sea.
The Asa Wright Centre is a key birding destination, world famous and always full of exciting experiences. We will see a large range of neotropical birds, and seek hard-to-find rarities deep in the rainforest, in the care of very experienced and capable local guides. This is a relaxed and enjoyable holiday, and a great way to enjoy the wildlife.
Heatherlea have strong relations with the Asa Wright Centre developed over many holidays. Our friendship with the Centre allows us not only to reserve their most outstanding guides, but also to benefit from very attractive prices which we are passing directly on to you, our valued customer, on this very competitively priced short holiday. Our flights take us via Tobago, but to keep the price to the minimum we don't stay there on this trip.
Heatherlea group at Asa Wright
We stay for seven nights at the world-famous Asa Wright Centre, where on the first morning you will probably see 20 -30 species before breakfast. A full orchestra of birdsong awaits you on the verandah, with hummingbirds just inches away on the feeders, tanagers, honeycreepers and bananaquits below, and bellbirds, oropendolas, toucans, manakins and trogons seen most days. The sheer delight of seeing so many spectacular new birds, and the riot of noise and colour are unforgettable.
However, this is only the beginning! We seek all the special birdlife of Trinidad, including a visit to the famous Oilbird caves and an evening watching Scarlet Ibis coming into roost. We spend time looking for the rarest of the island’s impressive birdlife including highly elusive Trinidad Piping-Guan, the only endemic bird on the island. We also spend an evening on a quiet, palm-lined beach watching Leatherback Turtle hatchlings making their way to the ocean for the first time, with a chance also to see large female turtles laying eggs in the warm Caribbean sand.
This is a relaxed holiday. Each day begins with birding from the famous balcony, and we usually depart on excursions around 8.30 — 9.00 am. Birding in the immediate vicinity of Asa Wright is superb, and many days we will be blissfully happy with ‘lifers’ before breakfast! On two days at least we will birdwatch in the forest close to the Centre, and there will be free time to explore the trails in safety under your own steam. Optional early morning walking can be rewarding, and with dawn just after 6am, and nightfall at 6pm, expect to establish a rhythm around these times. This really is a classic Caribbean birding experience!
The holiday will be led by experienced Heatherlea Leader Mike Coleman, together with top local guides including our friend David Ramlal, and another from our team with more than fifteen clients. Mike is already looking forward to this, his third visit to Trinidad, and the pleasure of your company.
 
Day 1 Wednesday 30 June
We take our scheduled morning flight from Gatwick to Trinidad via Tobago and transfer to the fabulous Asa Wright Nature Centre high in the rain forest. We are scheduled to arrive in time for Dinner at 7pm. The Centre is in a typical valley of Trinidad’s Northern Range, where coffee, cocoa and squash plantations are still maintained, and where natural secondary growth has festooned the abandoned plantation areas with vines and a host of epiphytes. The resultant effect is of being deep in a tropical rainforest, with the comforts of our well-appointed Lodge within easy reach – a great feeling. Above all you will experience the overwhelming presence of the tropical rain forest all around; a kaleidoscope of bird life, butterflies and wild flowers, all set against the impenetrable tangle of the forest.
The relaxed nature of Asa Wright allows us to take it easy, with comfortable open-air wildlife viewing, early morning coffee, evening rum punch (not too strong!) and a good choice of appetising food at breakfast and dinner. It is important to stay at Asa Wright for a long time to truly experience the wonders of the forest. Please note that security is a top priority here, and you can walk around the extensive trails freely, unlike some other parts of the island.
Day 2 Thursday 1 July – Day 7 Tuesday 6 July
We awake each morning to the raucous noise of Crested Oropendola and a host of other exotic birds. One of the world’s most exciting birding
experiences awaits you on the verandah at Asa Wright. Bananaquit, White-necked Jacobin, Great Kiskadee, Tufted Coquette, Barred
Antshrike and Green Honeycreeper are just a few. We take a guided tour of the trails which criss-cross this wildlife sanctuary, and might see
Violaceous Trogon, Channel-billed Toucan, Chestnut Woodpecker, White-bearded Manakin darting and displaying, Rufous-browed Peppershrike, Bay Tanager, Golden-headed Manakin, Bearded
Bellbird and many more.
Because we are here for a full week, there is plenty of time to acclimatise to the tropical sun and heat. On our first day, we will restrict ourselves to guided walks around the centre, which could easily produce 50 or so species before lunch! After the heat of the early afternoon, we will go out again to add to our lists.
Another day around the centre will have as a highlight our visit to the famous Oilbird colony in Dunstan Cave, using torches to see these fascinating nocturnal birds roosting. This strange bird lives and breeds in dark caves during the day, coming out at night to feed on fruit, which it plucks from trees while in flight. This day will also include some free time for you to enjoy the Centre and its grounds under your own steam, well worth doing! We take time also to look for the rarest and most elusive of Trinidad’s amazing birdlife, the rarely encountered and endemic Trinidad Piping-Guan. This is a strange, turkey-sized black and white bird, once persecuted to near extinction, but which recently has made a promising recovery.
We take several trips away from the centre in the company of highly experienced local guides, personally chosen by Heatherlea, with whom we will enjoy a stunning programme of exceptional birding.
Crossing the Northern range to the seaside village of Blanchisseuse we look for Turquoise, Swallow and Speckled Tanagers, Rufous-tailed Jacamar, White-tailed Trogon, Ornate Hawk-eagle, Black, Grey and White Hawks and Bat Falcon, and at the coast we may see Magnificent Frigatebird, Brown Pelican, Osprey and Green Kingfisher as we enjoy lunch on a palm-shaded shore.
Another important trip is our visit to the Caroni Swamp, an extensive mangrove holding rare wildlife in its interior. Here our day ends with the spectacular flight of flocks of bright red Scarlet Ibis coming to roost, surely one of the natural world’s most dramatic moments. The birds may also include Anhinga, Large-billed and Yellow-billed Terns, Striated and Tricolored Herons, Bicoloured Conebill, Red-capped Cardinal, Black-necked Stilts, Greater Flamingo, Laughing Gull, Straight-billed Woodcreeper, Clapper Rail, American Pygmy and Ringed Kingfishers and Common Potoo, but there’s more: Spectacled Cayman, Cook’s Tree Boa, Silky Anteater, this is an exceptional experience!
Our day at Nariva Swamp on the east coast is very different. On the way we might see Savannah Hawk, Red-breasted and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Southern Lapwing, White-headed Marsh Tyrant and Green-rumped Parrotlet. This is the largest area of freshwater herbaceous swamp in Trinidad, where mangrove trees grow to over 80 feet, and holds Pearl Kite, Silvered Antbird, American Purple Gallinule, Wattled Jacana and we might see Red Howler Monkey and Tree Iguana. We stay until dusk, waiting for flocks of Red-bellied Macaw returning to roost.
After nightfall one day we visit a secluded, palm-lined beach, and watch as baby Leatherback Turtles make their first hesitant steps towards the ocean. We also hope to see adult females laying eggs on the beach. This will be a special night for Heatherlea following our adoption of ‘Heather’, a turtle the 2005 Heatherlea group watched laying eggs on this very beach.
Our final day will involve a round-up of anything we may have missed, and might include good views of Sulphury Flycatcher, Rufous-tailed Jacamar, and the rare Moriche Oriole, or a journey to lowland Aripo Savannah and Arena Forest to provide yet more birds. In the savannah, Shiny and Giant Cowbird, Yellow-rumped Cacique, Yellow-headed Caracara, various spinetails and cuckoos, Blue-black Grassquit and Pied Water Tyrant are likely. In the Arena Forest, we could see cuckoos, trogons, woodpeckers and parrots.
Day 8 Wednesday 7 July
Fly back to London Gatwick via Tobago to arrive early morning on Thursday 8 July.
Accommodation: The world famous Asa Wright Centre in Trinidad (seven nights). All rooms en suite. we can sometimes specify rooms inside the Centre or very close nearby, which is convenient for those who don't want to walk too far.
Price includes scheduled flight from London Gatwick – Piarco International Airport, Port of Spain via Crown Point, Tobago, return flight to London Gatwick, airport taxes, transfers from and to airports, seven nights full-board accommodation throughout as above including picnic lunches, ground transportation on days away from our accommodation, boat trip through Caroni Swamp, departure tax from Trinidad, incidental tips, and the services of your Leader Mike Coleman and experienced local guide David Ramlal. Max 14 clients.
Price excludes holiday insurance, optional tips to local guides/other staff, drinks, and other personal expenses.
Please note: all itineraries in this brochure are given as a guide only. Actual holiday content may vary according to the judgement of your guide, and elements beyond our control (eg weather).
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Mike Coleman
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