Wild Tobago

On Global Big Day, Faraaz Abdool toured, from sunup to twilight, the Main Ridge to the wetlands, and counted 85 species of birds. He reports here on the highlights of a magical day. Contact him to participate in the next Big Day, planned to take place in October 2022.     Thousands of birders around the world observed Global Big Day on Saturday, 14 th May 2022. It is organized to identify species of birds in the same 24-hour period. Each year since its inception in 2015 by the Cornell Ornithology Lab, more and more people in more countries take part in the effort to tally as many bird species in the same 24-hour period. Global Big Day in May 2021 saw 7,234 species recorded across 192 countries. Numbers swelled this year to 7,682 species in 201 countries – the first time the number of participating countries crossed the 200 mark!   The purpose of this exercise is far-reaching and scientifically significant, to map and record birds in every location on earth at a...

Faraaz Abdool considers winged visitors from across the Atlantic; especially those that don’t naturally reside here. What is it, he asks, about our islands that seems to welcome migrants travelling on wind and a prayer. All photos courtesy Faraaz Abdool   In birding jargon, the word “vagrant” applies to a bird which appears in a region vastly different from its home range. This does not necessarily apply to human-assisted travel, for example hitchhikers on ships or victims of the global exotic pet trade. Vagrancy in birding refers to a species which has accidentally arrived in a foreign land while on migration or an extensive foraging mission. Here in Trinidad and Tobago - an equatorial territory sitting on major migratory flyways in the western hemisphere - not many American (either North or South) species qualify as bona fide vagrants. Above, a Grey Heron in its natural habitat alongside Nile Crocodiles and a sleeping African Spoonbill.  Below, a Grey Heron in a marshlan...