Cat’s Hill, Trinidad 2009.06.19

I can think of no better way to kickstart this website than to report on such a fantastic trip. We left Penal at 7:00am and soon encountered one of the “local” Crane Hawks, flying over the Barrackpore market. Nearing the St Mary’s junction, we paused to have a look at a Gray Hawk on a distant tree when a flock of Lilac-tailed Parrotlets flew up and landed on the tree next to us. This is the first time I have ever seen them perched. However they soon flew off before we could manage photos.

By about 8:30am we were driving through the Cat’s Hill teak fields when we spotted one of our target birds, a Hook-billed Kite (Chondrohierax uncinatus) flying between trees. Last month I had seen a gray phase/male bird here and we hoped to see it again. We had good views of it as it eventually circled overhead. This bird turned out to be a rufous phase/female, noticably missing half of one tail feather.

We were treated to 2 Swallow-tailed Kites,1 Gray-headed Kite, numerous Plumbeous Kites and 1 Zone-tailed Hawk from the same spot.

Moving on we encountered the usual mix of small forest species (notably Dusky-capped Flycatcher, Streak-headed Woodcreeper and Red-eyed Vireo) until Nigel picked up on the calls of an overhead raptor. Amazingly, this turned out to be a adult Black Hawk-Eagle (Spizaetus tyrannus),our second target bird.
A quick foray in a side road produced a White Hawk. As we stopped at the pipeline crossing near the end of the road to watch a dark phase Short-tailed Hawk, we saw a Tayra quickly cross the road and disappear on the other side (a first for me). After collecting my field camera (which yeilded only bats) we returned home with an impressive list of 11 raptors (where’s a Yellow-headed Caracara when you need it?) and a Tayra. Truly a good day and a good start to what I hope will be a productive contribution to Trinidad and tobago’s natural history.