TRAVEL TOBAGO
It might have been overshadowed by its larger neighbour in the past, but this Caribbean isle has birding riches of its own to discover
We usually think of Tobago when it is mentioned in the same breath and sentence as its sister island, Trinidad. It is almost always referred to as secondary to its larger neighbour. Indeed, most birding tours, if not all, combine the two islands of this nation on their itineraries, with usually no more than two or three days spent on Tobago. Looking on a map, you can perhaps see why this is so. It is at this point that I am going to have to make a confession. As much as I am a seasoned traveller, I honestly thought that Trinidad and Tobago (or T&T as the locals summarise themselves) was conjoined, rather like Haiti and the Dominican Republic, for all intents and purposes, one and the same. Nor did I truly really realise its true location in the Caribbean.
In actuality, Trinidad lies fewer than seven miles off the north-eastern coast of Venezuela, and sits on the South American continental shelf. It is often deemed as the southernmost island in the West Indies and, with an area of 1,841 square miles, it’s the fifth largest island inthe region. Meanwhile, Tobago is situated some 22 miles north-east of Trinidad and is tiny by comparison: 25 miles long by 6.2 miles at its widest point. Its geology is quite different from neighbouring Trinidad, too, as it straddles both the Caribbean and South American tectonic plates. The island is hilly, with a mountainous central spine known as the Main Ridge. While it is thought that Trinidad broke away from the South American mainland way back when, it is widely believed that Tobago drifted south from the islands in the Greater Antilles farther to the west, to eventually partner Trinidad.
All of this leads me neatly on to the birds. The wildlife to be found on Trinidad has a strong South American inf luence, whereas on Tobago it is less so. You won’t find any monkeys knocking around on the island (there aren’t even any fossil records) and many of the South American avian families like the tyrant f lycatchers, woodcreepers, motmots, and evenhummingbirds, have far fewer representatives on Tobago than on its larger neighbour. On the other hand, Tobago is ripe for discovering rarities or even new species for the island’s list. Furthermore, some of the species described as scarce migrants in the field guide which I meticulously studied during the f light over, may be more regular than originally supposed. An example of this were the Southern Rough-winged Swallows that I discovered on two separate occasions at the Sewage Ponds at Bon Accord. The island also has arguably the largest breeding population of Magnificent Frigatebirds in the West Indies, plus healthy populations of Red-billed Tropicbirds and several tern species.
