Red bird journey

As the lockdown drags on, seemingly interminably, I am continuing my far-away diversion theme of short reminiscences which I hope you find interesting and perhaps will encourage research about the places and topics that have fascinated me as a naturalist. Over half a century ago, I came across a book written by a well known Swedish wildlife photographer Jan Lindblad Resa till röda faglår or Journey to red birds (published in English by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd in 1969). The author wrote about his trip to Trinidad to see the scarlet ibis and many other species of that Caribbean island’s exciting natural history. So enthralled was I with Lindblad’s writing, not just of the eponymous scarlet ibises, but of oilbirds, flamingos, epiphytic plants, porcupines, coral-snakes and much else besides, that I determined to go to this naturalists’ paradise. I had heard of a place to stay in the Arima Valley in the north of the island and favoured by ornithologists and others called the Asa Wright Centre*. Anyway, all those decades ago we managed to organise a trip and stay there. It had a wonderful enclosed verandah overlooking its grounds from which you could watch dozens of exotic birds. My photo of it here shows it as it was at that time. I expect it has grown since then.

We spent much time on the verandah and exploring the grounds but the scarlet ibises frequent the nearby Caroni mangrove swamp. I was not able to capture a decent photo but the illustration here from Jean Théodore Descourtilz’s Oiseauxbrillans et remarquables du Brésil of 1834, painted from life, shows what a magnificent wader this is. They are the only red shorebird, are about 60cm long and weigh a little less than 1.5 kg. Their plumage colour comes from their diet of red crustaceans. Have a look at the YouTube video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayvQhIC-oEY.

There were no organised trips to Caroni when I went: there are now but it is easier and less of a carbon footprint to browse the web for pictures and videos. It is well worth exploring the natural history of the extraordinary oilbirds, too, some of which live in a cave near the Asa Wright Centre. And if birds are not so much your thing, there are many exciting plants, too, such as the great array of epiphytes on trees as in my third photo, mentioned also by Lindblad.

*Although Asa herself died in 1971, the centre has a long history and indeed is still going, though I see from its web site http://asawright.org/ that covid-19 has reached even there and it is temporarily closed. CJB.