ENHS Nature Trails May 2001 Article 3

The Wisners Chose a Good One
by Herb Wisner

That's a reference to a birding Elderhostel in Trinidad and Tobago. We just returned from this two week expedition and are very pleased with the result. There were lots of birds (201 species for the group of us as a whole), good food, drinkable water, comfortable travel (considering the narrowish, rough, hairpin turnish roads) in an air-conditioned small bus, great accommodations and the best of tour directors and guides. Our host there was Wildways and the birding guide they provided, Elias, was a crackerjack. No one person saw all of the species tallied but many of us got good looks at the majority of them. Even the photographic opportunities were good.

The botany was interesting too. We didn't have an expert identifier of plants along but there was enough knowledge to provide names for quite a few wild flowers and trees. Tropical plants are really quite fascinating: in growth form, in flower structure, in family affiliations, in aroma, in colors, in associations, in distributions. There are lots of epiphytes from parasitic mistletoe types to a variety of plants that just find growing on trees to be a very satisfactory way of life. The latter include things such as ferns, bromeliads galore, orchids, cacti (e. g. Cereus) and others. Some bromeliads even attach themselves to power lines. How's that for optimism? This happens in Florida too and other warm places. There was at least one fern that seemed to be very aggressive, enveloping large areas with a green carpet. Tree ferns also exist in the wetter forest areas.

Bamboo, not a native plant, grew just about everywhere, forming very dense thickets with stalks 50 to 80 feet long. It's an impressive grass. It can be a troublesome competitor to native vegetation but also a stabilizer of hillside soils. Flower colors ran from striking reds, through oranges and yellows to less showy hues including green. Some inflorescences were large while others were almost microscopic. Lots of vine types some of which we may grow as house plants here in Eugene. As in most any tropical areas the figs were well represented. A number of these are of the strangler type, starting life in the upper reaches of trees (courtesy of bird droppings) and eventually reaching ground to take root and grow into trees on their own terms, enveloping their host in the process. How about fruits?

A variety of palms sported a variety of flower forms that resulted in fruits of many forms and sizes. Some of these were edible (like coconuts) by humans and many by birds. I had never seen a calabash tree before. It's fruit (gourd-like) can be very large. Though inedible it is, nevertheless, used to make containers, baskets, bird feeders and other ornamental objects. Mangoes were not in season but there were lots of trees well on the way to producing what appeared to be bumper crops. Papayas were in season, however, and we enjoyed them on almost every menu. Bananas grow both cultivated and, seemingly, wild. They are small and delicious as are the pineapples. Cocoa trees also seemed to be wild and domesticated. At one location we were introduced to nutmeg trees and told that some reddish portions on the surface of the nuts was mace, a valuable product in its own right. It seemed like a mighty skimpy source to me.

We didn't see many mammals ( agouti, squirrel), only a couple of amphibians (a frog clinging to a tree leaf and a toad), three reptiles (2 lizards and a turtle). The turtle is worth a special note because if was a (marine) leatherback turtle that came up on the beach during daylight hours - mostly they come at night- to lay its eggs. Watching this whole process was a privilege. This occurred on a beach on the north coast of Trinidad renowned for its being host to the annual arrival of hundreds of turtles. Marine turtles in general are an endangered lot. Some people have gotten together to protect the beaches from human and other predators. It takes some 70+ days for eggs to hatch after which the turtlings have quite a gauntlet to run to get from the upper sand to the ocean where they face many additional dangers. Perhaps one in a hundred ever makes it to the adult age of 20 or more years. Plastics discarded in the ocean imitate the jellyfish which the turtles eat and result in dining mistakes that prove fatal to even mature individuals. If I were a turtle I think I would choose some other fare than jellyfish but I don't suppose the turtles will listen to me. Evolution has gotten them where they are fairly successfully.

Now, as to the birds. After all that was what we came for, even though I find it difficult to find only one group in nature to be interested in. Trinidad has especially strong suits in hummingbirds, and tanagers. Both have some pretty colorful representatives that are fairly easy to attract to feeders containing platforms of fruit or to nectar feeders. Among the tanagers the most commonly seen one was the palm tanager, not especially colorful. There were 3 species of parrots, always of interest, a good variety of water birds ( scarlet ibis being the stars), brilliantly colored nectar eaters, more than just black blackbirds, orioles, flycatchers of various ilks, a tropical mockingbird, a number of raptors and miscellaneous types that don't have counterparts here in the U. S. of A. I won't try to name everything we saw here but maybe you'll see a slide show eventually that will introduce you to some of the avian denizens to be found. Photographing the birds and the plants was fairly satisfying giving a good assortment to throw on a screen.

There is a lot more to be learned about Trinidad and Tobago; geology, climate, people, economy as well as much, much more about the subjects mentioned above. As we always say about places we visit, maybe next time.

Herb Wisner

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