FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] BBC Trinidad-Tobago adventure underway !!!

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Long before most of us were out of bed this morning a large group of birders 
from the Bristol Bird Club departed Tri-City Airport headed out for nine days 
of birding on a BBC-sponsored birding trip to Trinidad and Tobago. 

Their base will be at the famous Asa Wright Nature Center and the The William 
Beebe Tropical Research Station.  At least 400 species of tropical birds and 
life listers await the BBC bunch in the rain forest.  It is the oldest nature 
centre in the West Indies. It features inexpensive, expertly guided birding and 
is blanketed in natural history.

The trip was organized and is guided by BBC member Dr. John Moyle, who is on 
the board of directors of the famous Asa Wright center which is a world-class 
natural history destination for students of tropical ecology and and of 
particular interest to birders. In 1999, AUDUBON magazine selected the Centre 
as one of just nine eco-lodges worldwide that it  considered one of "The 
World's Ultimate Outposts."

Located at 1,200 feet in the mountains of the Northern Range, seven miles north 
of the town of Arima, the Centre's main facilities are located on a former 
cocoa-coffee-citrus plantation, previously known as the Spring Hill Estate. 
This estate has now been partly reclaimed by secondary forest, surrounded by 
impressive rainforest, where some original climax forest on the steeper slopes 
have a canopy of 100-150 feet. The whole effect is one of being deep in 
tropical rainforest.

Since its inception over 38 years ago, the Asa Wright Center has been a leader 
in ecotourism - long before that word was even coined! It remains a world-class 
leader in this field, unsurpassed not only in Trinidad & Tobago but across the 
Caribbean, and is a world-renowned nature destination.

The Caribbean Conservation Association recognized the Nature Centre in 1992 
with an award for its "outstanding contribution to the conservation of tropical 
wildlife."

Our BBC birders will be 24-mile from Trinidad's capital, Port of Spain, and 
their trip up to the Asa Wright Nature Centre is not a trip you want to make 
after dark. The road twists vertiginously around sharp drop-offs, and nighttime 
is when poisonous fer-de-lance snakes slither across the road. 

Their typical day will begin with roasted-on-site coffees in hand, gatthering 
at 6 a.m. on the veranda to watch the sun rise over the Arima Valley and ogle 
the Yellow Bananaquits and Ruby-topaz Hummingbirds. After breakfast, they will 
go to glimpse the rare Ferruginous Pygmy Owl and 142 other bird species. At 
sunset, they'll return to the porch to swill rum punch and wait for the more 
than 40 species of tropical bats to swoop past. 

It will be exciting to have them return and share their stories, great birds 
and wondful vacation with those of us who could not join them for this exciting 
Bristol Bird Club adventure.  

Let's go birding......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN