'ULTIMATE' trinidad & tobago
ALL THE BIRDS, PLUS LEATHERBACK TURTLES
Wed 2 July - Mon 14 July 2008
Price: £2945 pp Single Supplement: £255 pp Deposit: £750 pp
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Wednesday 1 July - Monday 13 July 2009
Price: TBC
This summer adventure to Trinidad and Tobago is a very comprehensive birding and wildlife experience. Heatherlea have developed an outstanding itinerary, and this carefully designed and well-planned holiday is definitely the way to enjoy the wildlife of these islands. We include all the neotropical breeding species, seek the hard-to-find, hard-to-see rarities deep in the rainforest, watch Leatherback Turtle hatchlings make their first journey to the ocean and hope to see adult females egg-laying too! Our exceptional local guides are often booked many months in advance, and there simply isn’t any other way to obtain this holiday.
We stay for six nights at the world-famous Asa Wright Centre, where on the first morning you will probably see 20 -30 new birds before breakfast. A full orchestra of birdsong awaits you on the verandah at Asa Wright, 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 see 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 - the skulking and secretive Scaled Antpitta and Little Tinamou, and the highly elusive Trinidad Piping-Guan, the only endemic bird on the islands. 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 to see a large female turtle laying her eggs in the warm, Caribbean sand. We round off with a few days on the glorious jewel of Tobago, where hummingbirds and nightjars literally fly around and even through our hotel, and where your trip over coral in a glass-bottomed boat to see the tropicbirds and frigatebirds of Little Tobago will remain with you always.
This is a relaxed holiday. Each day begins with birding from our hotel, 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 Tobago there is also very good birding by the hotel, and optional early morning walking can be rewarding. Dawn is invariably at 6am, and it goes dark at 6pm, so expect to establish a rhythm around these times. This really is a classic Caribbean birding experience!
Day 1 Wednesday 2 July
We take the scheduled morning flight from Gatwick to Trinidad and transfer to the fabulous Asa Wright Nature Centre high in the rain forest. 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. Heatherlea have good relations with the Centre developed over many holidays here.
Day 2 Thursday 3 July – Day 7 Tuesday 8 July
Awake to the raucous noise of Crested Oropendola and a host of other exotic sounds. 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. We visit 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.
Because we are here for a long time, there is plenty of time to acclimatise to the tropical sun and heat. We take several trips away from the centre in the company of highly experienced local guides, personally chosen by Heatherlea, with whom we plan a stunning programme of exceptional birding.
On our Night Birding trip we take in difficult-to-see birds of the forest and plain when they are at their most active in the fast diminishing light. We seek good views of Sulphury Flycatcher, Rufous-tailed Jacamar, and the rare Moriche Oriole whilst having dinner and rum punch in the open air. When the sun finally sets we listen and look for elusive Tropical Screech Owl, dancing White-tailed Nightjar, and the Common Pauraque. All this played out under a fabulous night sky, with the Southern Cross amongst the plethora of stars.
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 our first Magnificent Frigatebird, Brown Pelican, Osprey and Green Kingfisher as we enjoy lunch on a palm-shaded shore.
Another highlight 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 as we sip our rum punch alfresco.
The journey to lowland Aripo Savannah and Arena Forest will 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 9 July - Day 9 Thursday 10 July
Transfer to the Northern Ridges, where we 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. After nightfall we visit a secluded, palm-lined beach, and watch as baby Leatherback Turtles make their first steps towards the ocean. In their haste to get to the safety of the water, the baby turtles will clamber over anything in their way, including taking short-cuts over the floors of beachside dwellings! This will be a special night for Heatherlea following the company’s adoption of ‘Heather’, a turtle the 2005 Heatherlea group watched lay eggs on Trinidad. We also hope to see adult females laying eggs on the beach. Finally, we enjoy a last stroll in the rainforest, or along the sandy beach, and head back to the airport for our short-hop flight to Tobago.
Day 10 Friday 11 July – Day 12 Sunday 13 July
Tobago holds a dozen or so species not found in Trinidad, and with White-tailed Sabrewing, Ruby Topaz Hummingbird, Black-faced Grassquit and Rufous-vented Chacalaca sometimes visible from our dining table, we are in the right place to see these specialities! Our hotel in Tobago is small and private, well away from the tourist spots, with Blue-crowned Motmot watching our every move, and hummingbirds sometimes flying through the lounge!
We visit the ancient Tobagan rainforests to see Collared Trogon, Red-crowned Woodpecker, White-fringed Antwren and Blue-backed Manakin dancing and flicking, and enjoy a superb day boating across to Little Tobago. Here White-tailed Tropicbird, Brown Booby, Red-footed Booby and Magnificent Frigatebird are the main attractions, though the option of snorkelling above the coral reefs will be available too – the day is special.
After a last relaxing morning around the grounds of the lodge, we take the flight from Crown Point Airport, Tobago back to Gatwick in the early evening.
Day 13 Monday 14 July
Arrive back at London Gatwick before mid-morning.
Accommodation: The world famous Asa Wright Centre in Trinidad (six nights), a comfortable hotel on the northern shores of Trinidad (two nights), and the charming Cuffie Rivers Lodge in Tobago (three nights). All rooms en suite.
Price includes scheduled flight from London Gatwick – Piarco International Airport, Port of Spain, transfer flight to Crown Point Airport, Tobago, return flight from Tobago to London Gatwick, airport taxes, transfers from and to airports, eleven nights full-board accommodation throughout as above including picnic lunches, ground transportation on days away from our accommodation, boat trip through Caroni Swamp, glass-bottomed boat trip to Little Tobago, departure tax from Tobago, incidental tips, and the services of your Leader Mike Coleman and local guides. 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).
Please note: all itineraries 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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