TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO MARCH 2005 TOUR NEWS Leader: Martyn Kenefick

This was the sixth consecutive year that Birdfinders have run their highly-successful Trinidad & Tobago tour and this was one of the best ever with all of the speciality birds of the islands seen together with several major rarities. With seven nights spent at the highly-acclaimed Pax Guesthouse, two at a wonderful hotel on the north coast and five in Tobago, this was a very relaxed tour. The highlights were numerous but of course, everyone loves the wonderful sight of flocks of Scarlet Ibises coming in to roost. The calls and views of Bearded Bellbird were amazing but somewhat eclipsed by a pair of the extremely-rare Pawi (Trinidad Piping-guan) found on the north coast. No less than 14 species of hummingbird were seen together with all three resident species of trogons and manakins and 10 species of tanagers. Our boat trip to the Bocas Islands (only 7km from the Venezuelan coast) for Blue-tailed Emerald is unique, whilst the boat trip to Little Tobago Island very productive with wonderful views of Red-footed and Brown Boobies, Magnificent Frigatebirds and Red-billed Tropicbirds.

Oh, and the rarities; a flock of up to nine Lesser Goldfinches were found (the first for the islands when accepted), a Franklin's Gull in virtual summer plumage (4th record for the islands and a male Baltimore Oriole (first for the islands for 25 years) were all pretty amazing finds!