Tufted Coquette:
http://www.birdsinfocus.com/show.php?absID=6188
Bob Gress
World's second smallest bird - after the Bee Hummingbird of the Cuban Archipelago. First one I got was at Asa Wright below the veranda working some vervain...
Steve Garvie
...a couple of feet from my face.
Don't seem to show much (any?) interest in feeders. Too bad, I'd have loved to have landed one.
Was told that their bills are too short for the task. Don't put much stock in that explanation 'cause the Bananaquits - which suck at sucking - go totally nuts...
http://www.bochnik.com/trinidad/trinidad2016.htm
http://www.bochnik.com/trinidad/feedfrenzy1470.JPG
...when a feeder is refilled to the brim. But:
- lotsa comments about them being scarce at the feeders
- photos of them at feeders seem to be nonexistent
Hummers are a little tough to land at Asa Wright. They have a zillion feeders on and in close proximity to the veranda and if a big monkey with fingers at perch positions makes them the slightest bit nervous it's usually not much of a big fuckin' deal to shift five feet left or right to another option. One could always get them in time but it takes extra time (duh) and it's tiring and uncomfortable too maintain position and minimize movement for longer periods. In Idaho where I had the luxury of zillions of hummers majorly worried about each other and just one feeder... Spoiled rotten.
One afternoon I became so bold as to unhook a feeder and rest it on the deck railing. Infinitely more comfortable. And the more monkeys there are stationed at feeders the more of a pain it is to avoid them and the more part of the normal background they become. A couple other revolutionaries were following my lead and our efficiency almost instantly quadrupled.
So, of course, in the name of humanity's never ending pursuit of mediocrity, AWNC Guide Barry comes along and, with a proclamation of "Poor form." breaks things up and kills all the potential for peak experiences.
I bite my lip and do not say...
- Poor form? Tell me how this is "poor form", motherfucker. Tell me what harm is being done, how anyone or anything is being hurt by this activity. Search the web and show me a single instance or example of an actual downside.
- Wanna talk poor form? How 'bout when you guys take all these groups out on the trails and play recordings of territorial and predator calls to get your target species all worked up and in close?
- For that matter, how 'bout all the CO2 we're pumping into the atmosphere to get to, from, around in these places? If we're gonna be doing it in the first place we'd better be spending as much time as possible making the most of things.
Similar experience with the bats. Night and Dawn One I got them hand feeding, making contact. Guide Jesse told me after breakfast that he was also a bat freak from early childhood, nobody had ever done that before, he'd have been afraid to try it. It was an absolute blast for me. I had made plans for what I'd be doing every evening and dawn for the rest of our stay.
The next evening as the bat cycle was phasing in the staff was busy emptying and rinsing hummer feeders and not restocking fruit feeders. Barry said AWNC policy was to NOT attract bats, that they needed to disperse and forage naturally in the forest (cold turkey). (Why? 'Cause they're not brilliantly, dazzlingly colored and freak out fifteen percent of your staff and guests and visitors and prospective guests and visitors?)
And I'm thinking that without breaking any rules and with an AWNC Guide totally cool with what I was doing I'd single handedly served as the catalyst for an end to gawd knows how many decades of policy regarding these nocturnal hummingmammals and the AWNC experience will be substantially diminished for untold tens of thousands of guests and visitors until the end of time.
So I lay low for a couple days until I have a good opportunity to sidle up to Jesse when he's isolated on the veranda. Keep a poker face, eyes aimed out at the valley, quietly say, "Looks like I'll also be the LAST person to hand feed the bats at Asa Wright."
Quiet response, poker faced, eyes aimed out at the valley, words to the effect of: Nah, we'll be doing the hummer and fruit feeders for the night action. "Barry can be like that sometimes."
And the hummer and fruit feeders get replenished for night action by staff and Yours Truly gets another good contact experience down below but doesn't say anything about it later.
Obviously some power play, political stuff going on behind the scenes. Thought Barry was a bit of a pain regarding those couple issues but don't have him in my total asshole column. But if you're gonna tell me "bad form" on something like that you better follow it up with an explanation as to WHY - rather than just making a declaration I'm supposed to accept just 'cause you declared it. That's just total bullshit. When they tell ya not to feed the bears at the National Parks in the US - even though the reasons should be pretty fucking obvious to everyone and his dog by now - they follow up with the reasons and make it an educational opportunity.
Evening One I'd seen a bat in the veranda space on a north heading disappear and commented that they didn't seem to be very shy about going into the building.
Evening Two we were in the living room watching an Asa Wright orientation video. The instant it began discussing the bats one whizzed by my right ear. Right on cue. Wondered if it was something he practiced a lot.
Rum punch before dinner...
http://www.bochnik.com/trinidad/trinidad2016.htm
http://www.bochnik.com/trinidad/rumpunch1250.JPG
...at events, on some off-site excursions is an Asa Wright "thing". One evening, New Year's Eve maybe, one of the staff is doing rum punch waitress duty on the veranda. About once a minute you'd hear her screech as a bat would pull up a few inches in front of her face upon conclusion of a low level reconnaissance run over her serving tray. "Fire her and give me her job!"
Unattended reserves of rum punch rations on the counter are covered by a red cloth to keep the bats at bay. The bats land at the edges and try to figure out how to get underneath and to the sources of the irresistible aromas.
Couldn't land any Bananaquits. Figured they'd be brain dead easy when I first encountered them. Sugar junkies, come in close to people on feeders, not shy about coming inside and landing on occupied meal tables foraging for goodies. Settled for closing this thirteen inch MacBook Pro, sprinkling some raw sugar bits on the center, having a finger on the laptop while one of the guys took the bait.
Guess when your power to weight ratio and maneuverability go down and your reaction time increases your wariness level tends to rise.
