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Naturalist Journeys and Caligo Ventures announce our celebrity tour to the Asa Wright Nature Centre for 2018 with field guide author and butterfly expert, Robert Gallardo. Join Robert for a fantastic week at the Asa Wright Nature Centre and enjoy a fast-track study of butterfly identification, behavior, and ecology coupled with the Centre’s top-rate birding.

Explore a wide variety of habitats from montane forests to mangroves, and wetlands to working agricultural as you find a wide variety of species. Robert shares his expertise through field time, workshops, and presentations. Robert's dual passion for birds and butterflies has led him to write Birds of Honduras, he is currently working on a butterfly field guide.

Many birders have turned to butterfly watching as a stunning enrichment to their field time. There are many hours, particularly mid-day, when birds are resting and difficult to find. Insects are active, fun to photograph, and fascinating to watch and observe with complex behaviors that few notice. Their relationship to plants is complex and revealing. Our Centre naturalists know where to find many of the butterfly food and host plants and they help during our field excursions. We hope to have experts from the University of the West Indies join us for specific outings as well.

The Asa Wright Nature Centre is located at 1,200 feet in Trinidad’s Northern Range. Stay in comfortable cabins decorated with tropical fabrics and furnishings and dine in the main house of the former Springhill Estate. The Centre has a comfortable teaching space always in view of the Arima Valley vista and its myriad winged creatures – large and small. Tea and rum punch are served on the expansive Verandah from which up to 70 species of birds can be seen in a day! Trails radiate out from the main house, affording numerous other species, and there is a small, waterfall-fed natural swimming pool.

November is a good time for flowering and fruiting trees. Temperatures in November are cooler than high season and it is an excellent month to witness biodiversity brought on by summer rains. November's cooling rains come quickly and bird and butterfly activity resumes with vigor as the sun returns.

The continental origin and proximity of Trinidad to South America, along with its varied habitats, has resulted in an extremely diverse biota. Species lists for this island are impressive, including 97 native mammals, 400 birds, 55 reptiles, 25 amphibians, and 617 butterflies, as well as over 2,200 species of flowering plants. No other area in the West Indies, and few areas of comparable size in tropical America, can match this spectacular species diversity.

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Tour Highlights

  • Spend time with experts! Expand your horizons, increase your skills and learn about Trinidad's winged wonders
  • Watch birds from the Asa Wright Nature Centre’s famed verandah and trails
  • Unpack just once for a full week at one of the world’s leading ecolodges (though if you want to spend extra time on Tobago, we'll help you arrange lodging)
  • Enjoy a behind the scenes tour of the Centre’s gardens, great for butterfly watching
  • Explore Caroni National Park by boat and witness scores of Scarlet Ibis returning to their roost
  • Visit the University of the West Indies campus; at the Angostura Distillery see the Barcant Butterfly collection
  • Search for elusive birds: Little Tinamou, White-bearded Bellbird, Cocoa and Plain-Brown Woodcreepers, White-bellied Antbird, Black-faced Antthrush on Centre trails.
  • Join Citizen Science efforts to catalog information on butterflies and birds
View Printable Itinerary
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Browse below for trip reports and species lists from past versions of this and other tours from this destination.

Trinidad & Tobago

Pace & Protocols +

Pace of the Tour & What to Expect You will receive a Schedule-at-a-Glance and list of Read more

Pace of the Tour & What to Expect

You will receive a Schedule-at-a-Glance and list of hotels (our eContact List) a few weeks before your departure. This will serve as an outline for each day and alert you to any recent changes made in the schedule or to our hotels, if needed.

Our journeys are set up to follow the rhythm of nature. Our focus is on birding and nature; we offer full, well-planned field days and often get up early for that magical time around dawn. We generally follow the published itinerary, but we stay flexible to the weather, wildlife opportunities and the interests of the group. Your guide will keep you apprised of the next day’s schedule at each evening meal, noting what to bring and what to prepare for. Questions and/or concerns are welcome.

The pace of our Naturalist Journeys tours is moderate; to fully participate you should be able to get in and out of vehicles several times a day, and walk 1-3 miles over uneven terrain. It is important to participate with a flexible attitude as adjustments may be made in our schedule to make the most of our time in the field or for other purposes at your guide's discretion. We are not a “listing” bird company that drills down on target species, but at times we do wait for those special species unique to the places we visit. During the day, we take time to stop for photos and for educational opportunities to learn about conservation projects, landscapes, and geology. We appreciate other taxa as well as birds, with mammals often the biggest draw but plants and butterflies are also very popular. Our clients often lend their own expertise to the mix.

We like to make meals a fun and memorable part of the experience, too. Breakfasts are often at hotels, and we carry snacks, fruit, and water in the vans each day. Lunches are a mix of picnics in the field (weather dependent) and a chance to dine with locals at small cafes and restaurants. For dinner, we pride ourselves in our homework to keep up with the best choices for dining, choosing restaurants with atmosphere that specialize in local foods. On occasion we keep dinner simple to go back out in the field for sunset wildlife viewing or night walks. In some remote locations, our choices are limited. If you are tired, room service for dinner may be an option you can choose.

Naturalist Journeys International Trips: Guide Role

Naturalist Journeys supports ecotourism and the development of excellent local guides. Once we know our international partners and guides well, we can send out small groups working directly with these trusted partners, adding a Naturalist Journeys guide to assist the local expert when we have a group of 6-7 or more. This helps us keep your costs down while retaining tour quality. The local guide is your main guide. You can expect your Naturalist Journeys guide to be well-researched and often they are experienced in the destination, but their role is not to be primary, it is to help to organize logistics, help you find birds, mammals, and interesting other species in the field, keep reports, help facilitate group interactions, and to keep the trip within Naturalist Journeys' style. Local guides live in the countries we travel to, know the destinations intimately, and are often the strongest force for conservation in their countries. They open many doors for us to have a rich experience.

Smoking

Smoking is not permitted in any vehicle or in any situation where the group is participating in an activity together, such as a vehicle excursion or a guided walk. Please respect all designated smoking areas at hotels and restaurants.

Transportation

As a courtesy to each other, we ask that all travelers please rotate seating. On international trips we may all be in one small bus, on some trips we are in vans, particularly the roomy Sprinter Vans when available. Some areas require us to be in smaller 4-wheel drive or safari vehicles. Rotation allows you to sit with different drivers and alternate front and back seating.

Photo Release & Sharing

We take many group photos and will share photos with the group. And after your tour, we will organize a chance to share photos via Dropbox or Google Photos. Please note that this is our policy and if you prefer to be excluded, we need to know ahead of your tour.

By registering for this tour, you agree to grant to Naturalist Journeys and its authorized representatives’ permission to record on photography film and/or video, pictures of my participation in the tour. You further agree that any or all of the material photographed may be used, in any form, as part of any future publications, brochure, or other printed materials used to promote Naturalist Journeys, and further that such use shall be without payment of fees, royalties, special credit or other compensation.

Travel Insurance

You are traveling in remote areas. Naturalist Journeys strongly recommends you have full medical and evacuation insurance from a company such as Allianz, for all international travel. If you do not have medical coverage or evacuation coverage on your existing travel insurance policy or for some reason elected not to take that out, we advise getting an evacuation plan with Global Rescue, World Nomads, Medjet, Allianz (they can do evacuation only) or a similar company. These plans are typically $300-$400 for a year for multiple destinations. This coverage may be a part of a larger Travel Insurance policy but can also be purchased on its own.

Questions?

Please contact Naturalist Journeys by email at clientservices@naturalistjourneys.com or telephone our office: (520) 558-1146 or toll free: (866) 900-1146 if you have any questions. Many thanks for traveling with us and we hope you enjoy your journey.

 


Photo credits: Banners: Channel-billed Toucan by Steve Wolfe; Butterfly by Bob Behrstock; Long-billed Startthroat by Hugh Simmons Photography; Scarlet Peacock by Peg Abbott; Bananaquit Feeding Frenzy by Hugh Simmons Photography; Butterfly by Mukesh Ramdass; Bearded Bellbird by Bob Rodrigues; Clear-winged Butterfly by Ray Mendez; White Peacock Butterfly by Buck Snelson; Tufted Coquette by Rich Wagner | WildNaturePhotos; Number 89 Butterfly by Mukesh Ramdass; Blue-chinned Sapphire by Steve Wolfe.

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