Care for the Birds at Rocky Point
Far too often, we feel that uninhabited land is of no importance to anyone and its “use” displaces no one. Faraaz Abdool makes a plea for the visible and invisible creatures of Tobago’s Rocky Point peninsula. All photos by Faraaz Abdool. From space, it is a rough peninsula dotted with vegetation between two notable beaches – Mt Irvine and Stonehaven - on Tobago’s Caribbean coast. From a vehicle coasting along the contours of the smoothly surfaced Shirvan Road, Rocky Point’s largely undisturbed secrets pass by in seconds. A closer look reveals aspects of this easily ignored spit that can teach us about the significance of this location. If we aren’t careful, we could easily lose the habitat of some special Tobago birds. The dry forest at the side of the road is the typical near-coastal vegetation of southwest Tobago. Dominated by medium-height trees, only the loudest birds can be heard over the pounding surf. But the wind carries songs of the endearing Barred Ants...