Caroni Swamp Bird Sanctuary

Corpus Christi – The day of planting, and the beginning of a glorious long weekend.   

Our plans were to go to the bird sanctuary which is housed on the Caroni River and is the nesting ground for one of the national birds of Trinidad and Tobago, the Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus Ruber).  We arrived at Caroni and were astonished to see that the tour boat was just a huge version of a pirogue with rows of seats installed for tours.  The boats were loaded to maximum capacity each holding at least forty (40) people.  When it was our turn we were helped into the boat row by row by men working for the ‘tour’ group, the seats were padded as we were going to be on the river for at least two and a half hours.  We started downstream; the water was brown and murky with no scent (praise God). On our way up the highway we passed a Caiman which was hit by a vehicle and dead on the side of the road, missing its tail (can someone say road kill).  Apparently, the tail is the most popular part for eating, and I say apparently because I have never eaten it and have no plans of doing so.  That being said, I was on the lookout for these alligator species in the murky waters of the river.  I had an end seat, and as such, thought or envisioned a Caiman rearing its ugly head right at the edge of this dingy boat, and right at me.  Very luckily, I never saw one.  Our tour guide took us up and down many tributaries, along the way describing the tiny crabs that we saw, the oysters along the barks of the mangrove roots, the different types of mangrove trees we saw and the snakes that were wrapped in the forks of the tree branches.  We also saw blue herons, white egrets, a long neck egret (great egret) and alas the red scarlet ibis (Eudocimus rubber).  We parked in a wide open area facing the embankment of a peninsula where the white egret and scarlet ibis birds would come in for the night, to mate and nest.  There were so many birds in the trees of the embankment by six (6) pm that they looked like roses in the trees.  The scarlet ibis are afraid of the boats and thus stay and fly far from any boat that they see.  The Peregrine Falcon is the scarlet ibis’ predator. It was a very beautiful site.

A little history :- The Caroni Swamp is an estuarine system comprising 5,611 hectors of mangrove forest and herbaceous marsh, interrupted by numerous channels, and brackish and saline lagoons, and with extensive intertidal mudflats on the seaward side.  This swamp is an important wetland since it is ecologically diverse, consisting of marshes, mangrove swamp and tidal mudflats in close proximity.  The wetland provides a variety of habitats for flora and faunal species and as such, supports a rich biodiversity. It is a highly productive system that provides food and protection and is a nursery for marine and freshwater species.  Red, black and white mangroves are present throughout Caroni, the red being very important for shoreline stabilization and flood control.

There are over a hundred different species of birds, caimans, snakes, crabs, herons, iguanas, mudskippers, oysters and fauna that inhabit the Caroni Swamp.  

Enjoy a visual depiction of the area below.

-Nordean Canvas

Mangrove along the river

More Mangrove

A river's view of the mangrove

Old tower, they used to allow climbing but its now delapidated

One of the tributaries opening into a lakes view

Notice the calmness of the water here

Another boat ahead of us in the beginning of the journey

Small crabs

Mangrove fauna

The roots of the mangrove

Marooned!

Oysters

Along the river/swamp

Fauna view along the river

In the marsh

So sticky

The roots

A different type of crab with spider like features

Climb crab climb

So serene

More serenity

It's brighter around this corner

Snake yikes

Snake is not moving at all

Different growth on this bark

Herons flying low

Blue heron leading the way

So close yet so far

Up in the tree

Perch heron perch

The seeds of the tree, these fall into the river, float down stream and new trees are born

Another tributary

Another tower view

Murky and slippery looking, somewhere there is a caiman

Wide lake opening

Other side of said lake

Another group chugging along

The lighting has changed

Long neck egret

Low tide, the long neck egret is walking

A white egret

Willet

The sun is going down

Egrets starting to nest

Here comes the scarlet ibis

Scarlet ibis coming in from Venezuela

They're starting to dot the mangrove

Scarlet Ibis will remain on the branches while egrets will go under the mangrove

In flight

Egret

In numbers

Here the come

The trees are starting to look like rose bushes

Red red red

Droves

Come and nest

Another tour boat with only Asians

The evening sky

© 2013, Odette M. Lawrence and NorDean Canvas. All rights reserved. The use and/or duplication of this material without the express and written permission of this blog’s author and/or owner are unauthorized and strictly prohibited.