David Rooks, a lifelong naturalist, is the most experienced and knowledgeable bird and nature interpreter for bird watchers and naturalists visiting the island of Tobago in the southern Caribbean Sea. He operates birding and nature tours to the Tobago Main Ridge Rainforest Reserve, the Little Tobago Nature and Bird Sanctuary, the Hillsborough Dam, the Buccoo Swamp and Grafton Bird Sanctuary.
The Main Ridge Rainforest Reserve has been protected by law since 1776, and is the oldest such protected forest on planet earth. The first act in the modern environmental movement! To begin the tour, David presents a talk on the history and natural history of Tobago from geologic pre-birth to modern times. It gives the foundation for what he will show you later as you hike and walk the nature trails in the rainforest.
Progress is slow as David points
out the inhabitants plants, birds, animals, identifying and explaining
how each lives and interrelates, questions are invited. David's
tours are a feast of information and knowledge about an exciting
world you would never have dreamed of, leaving you with wonderful
memories of Tobago. The walk in is 1.7 kilometers long and returns
to the bus along the same 1.7 Km route.
Good walking shoes are highly recommended, however rubber agricultural boots can be rented at the entrances to the rainforest, a change of clothes is advisable during the rainy season, June to December.
On this island which has been a nature sanctuary since 1926, the Greater Bird of Paradise was introduced by Sir William Ingram who brought them from New Guinea in 1919 to save them from extinction by poaching. On Sir William's death the family gave the island to the country on condition that it remain a sanctuary for all time. In 1963 a devastating hurricane (Hurricane Flora) struck and all the Birds of Paradise were lost. The island has it's own native birds (45 species) of beauty and interest including many mainland species - however the real attractions are the breeding seabird colonies e.g. the boobies, terns, magnificent frigate birds and the wonderful red-billed tropicbirds, birds of unsurpassed gracefulness and beauty, just seeing them makes this tour worthwhile.
The tour includes a 20 minute boat ride from Speyside, a picturesque village built mostly on the shoreline and surrounding steep hillsides of Tobago's rainforest, across Tyrells Bay into the Atlantic, to the sanctuary. Then a walk across the island for about 500 meters through virgin seasonal deciduous forest, itself a fascinating experience, the vegetation here is unchanged since the Ice Age! The tour proceeds to the lookout point for viewing the seabird colonies and in particular the unbelievably graceful "tropicbirds" a sight never to be forgotten. David will explain how they court and breed and how fragile and rare their existence is.
Non scheduled trips are US $150 per person for a minimum of 2 persons. For clients joining tour in Speyside the price is US $90 per person.
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