This Birding Life by Stephen Moss

Author:Stephen Moss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MBI
Published: 2014-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

Teatime on Tobago

MARCH 1998

Visiting the island of Tobago is rather like going back 30 years or so. The people are well-dressed and courteous, the beaches are unspoilt and the sea is so clear you could have a bath in it. And every day, at 4.30 p.m. on the dot, you can take afternoon tea on the terrace of the Arnos Vale Hotel.

If you do, you won’t be alone. Almost as soon as the neat plate of sandwiches and cake arrives at your table, you’re sure to be joined by an uninvited guest with an unforgettable name: the Bananaquit. This little bird is the House Sparrow of the neotropics. Ubiquitous, cheeky and always on the lookout for a meal, he and his companions may also join you for breakfast, where they flit from table to table picking out the choicest items from the buffet.

Bananaquits aren’t the only birds to benefit from the open-handed generosity of the Arnos Vale and its guests. The hotel staff regularly fill a large plastic trough with leftovers, attracting a colourful cross-section of the island’s commoner species.

First to arrive will be two or three Eared Doves, looking like a miniature version of our Collared Dove, but with the small dark mark behind the eye which gives the species its name. They’ll soon be joined by vivid Blue-gray Tanagers, one of the loveliest of all neotropical birds, along with their drabber cousins, Palm Tanagers. Occasionally a Red-crowned Woodpecker will attempt to hang on to the edge of the trough, desperately trying to raise itself up like an out-of-condition gymnast, before slipping away unsatisfied to feed elsewhere.

A plaintive mewing sound, uncannily like that of a domestic cat, marks the arrival of the rather pathetic-looking Bare-eyed Thrush. And from time to time, a cracking little black-and-white striped creature known to the locals as the ‘jailbird’ will appear. It’s officially called the Barred Antshrike, but the local name is a far more evocative description of its pied appearance.

But all these birds, attractive as they are, are overshadowed by two show-stoppers. The first, the Blue-crowned Motmot, is simply one of the most colourful birds I have ever seen: a gorgeous mixture of green, chestnut, blue and black, with a hefty beak and long, twin-plumed tail. The local motmots are said to have developed a liking for cocktail cherries, something we failed to test out, owing to an inexplicable shortage of supplies.

The other Tobago speciality looks, at first sight, like a cross between a turkey and a pheasant. Only a minute or two after the food has been put out, Rufous-vented Chachalacas arrive en masse at the feeding-station. As they do so, they squabble noisily among themselves, pushing and shoving each other aside in order to get to their supper.

It’s only when things start to get nasty, and the pushing and shoving turns into out-and-out violence, that you recall what these peculiar birds really remind you of. Everything about their appearance and behaviour is uncannily reminiscent of those nasty little dinosaurs in the film Jurassic Park.

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