Well it is Sunday, and my first 'day off' in about three weeks, so I don't feel too guilty. Up for breakfast and then pottered around the deck overlooking the feeders for a few hours and managing a couple of ok photos. Please to see yellow oriole so well and snag a couple of good shots. Also managed to track down Trinidad euphonia - a male sitting right beside a male violaceous for a nice comparison.
It was also a morning of realisation...that the mosquito bites I thought I was having a bad reaction to were in fact CHIGGERS! We have of course been warned about these little mites, and of course anything that bites loves me, so I should have been more careful. I had been using a citronella based insect repellent at Asa Wright, but hadn't been tucking the pants in socks, etc. And clearly they were having a field-day on me. Part of the reason I was sso slow in recognising them as chiggers was the fact that people always talked about a rash, but this wasn't a rash, but nasty red bites with blisters. And remembering back to a trip to Australia (to Kingfisher Park in Far North Queensland) I now realise those bites were chiggers as well. Not sure how many bites I have but probably in excess of 25+ So I took a quick trip down to a super market and got some deet based repellent as well as some cortizone cream...joy oh joy! Perhaps work in the cold regions isn't so bad after all!
Had lunch and then a little nap, and then went for a walk up Mt Benedict behind the guest house. Partly up the road, then on a small track through the secondary forest (with repellent thickly applied and pants tucked in!). Saw a few birds, including forest elaenia, yellow-breasted flycatcher, yellow-breasted flycatcher, golden-crowned warbler, and rufous-browed peppershrike. So a couple of new birds and some nice views down over the city below and the Mt Benedict church and Pax Guest House.
So up mega early in the morning, up at 0230 for a 0300 departure! The aim is to see leatherback turtles laying eggs and then nail a Trinidad piping guan (which looks like a big turkey)...that's the aim anyway!
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| Some of the bites...ouch! Damn they are itchey! |
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| Palm tanager, they are pretty nice looking birds close up even if they are very common |
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| Same goes for bananaquits! |
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| Yellow oriole, what a beauty |
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| And again |
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| Male purple honeycreeper with its tongue out, perfect for sipping nectar |
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| The view from the fire tower down over the valley with Pax Guest House being just to the left of the red roofed church |
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| View to the west with chips anchored off the coast |
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