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Published: June 20th 2006
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How we all handle our problems.
Nobody else found quite the humor I did in this sign at the zoo. And those birding people take that pretty literally. I can't remember the last time I woke up after 8. But after a very uneventful week I decided I would do anything there was to do on Saturday. So I was up at 4:30 to go birdwatching. The last time I was up at 4:30 was before I had slept, not after. Anyways, you may laugh about my birding...but apparently I was in the presence of greatness without even knowing it. My guide for the day was Roger Neckles, one of the leading wildlife photographers in the world. Apparently he's a National Geographic regular and all the pictures in the airport...along with most anywhere else are his. It was just me and Roger, which luckily didn't end up being as weird as it sounds. Although when I got in the car the first thing he said to me was "You'll have to excuse me, I'm in an Avril mood." So we jammed to Avril all the way to the Asa Wright Nature Center. It's a center in the Northern Range Mountains known for it's spectacular bird watching and where he is a celebrity.
I have really never seen anyone get as excited
Honeycreeper.
I'm just guessing, you can't hold me to identifying them yet. about anything as birders do about birds. Except possibly me and the notorious chocolate cake. So it took me a while to get into it...and he sensed this- since whenever I would claim I saw the bird he was talking about he would then ask me to tell him which direction it was looking. Busted. So it's slightly addictive and after a couple of hours I was getting into it. We had a healthy competition of who could get better pictures...which is slightly silly to enter in with a professional, but I held my own. There is a great big verrandah overlooking the mountains and you can literally feel the birds wings they fly so close to you. It poured most of the day...so the hiking I was under the impression I would be doing never really happened, but between showers all the birds come out to dry off and eat. We took a couple of short hikes around the grounds and had a spectacular lunch with the former Canadian High Commissioner whom I talked hockey with. More on hockey later.
So 8 hours later I was returned home after more birdwatching than I have ever done, or had a
desire to do before. But of all places to start birding I think I picked a pretty good one. In the few hours we were there I was told I saw over 30 species...most of which were gorgeous colors and relatively rare. All the birders kept saying it's like SCUBA diving above water...I think SCUBA diving is more fun, but it was a pretty accurate analogy I suppose.
The rest of my week was relatively uneventful...
I went to the zoo and botanical gardens in Port of Spain. The zoo was small and feels a bit wrong when there are so many animals in the wild here, but since all the animals are in cages it gives you the chance to see them up close. Somehow while wandering the botanical gardens I ended up smack in front of the president's house. I looked around and saw NOBODY around anymore, and got pretty scared since I also couldn't find a way out. So after I took a picture I made a run for it, and luckily escaped the security guards who carry massive guns. The whole reason I was in Port of Spain was to pay for a tour I had
Mot Mot
I can't edit these pictures here, so I will end up losing in our competition. lined up...which I found out was cancelled once I'd already made the trip. That pretty much sums up my week there. Everything I tried to do would get cancelled, which was horribly frustrating. But just when I would get completely fed up with the place something great would happen...I had a huge delicious lunch at a hotel I found while being lost, I got a free soca warriors tshirt when I stumbled into a truck blasting music and throwing out free stuff. So it ends up equalling out I suppose. I also made a trip to the Wild Fowl Trust, a bird sanctuary that has a lot of breeding programs. It was really neat, and I had a peacock show off for me. The odd part was that it was at one of the oil refineries, the same one where I went to a wedding reception. So I still can't figure some things about this country out.
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