I was not able to contact the finder before the trip, so I was hoping to bump into him sometime along the way.
Monday, January 9
The trip to GT in a mini bus was quite comfortable, except for the loud bass music that sometimes caused the seats to rumble (especially because my seat was over one of the speakers). Along the way I saw several year birds including Magnificent Frigatebird and Carib Grackle.
In the afternoon, my brother and I popped over to the Botanical Gardens where we met Andy Narine (the finder of the parrot) leading a tour through the gardens. I found out from him where the parrots were found, but we couldn't find them at the time. He advised us to check in the morning.
We searched for Boat-billed Herons at the heronry to no avail, but I did add Greater Ani and Black-crowned Night-Heron to my year list.
We also listed Orange-winged, Yellow-crowned, and possibly Mealy Parrots; Blue-and-Yellow and Red-shouldered Macaws.
Tuesday the 10th
Before breakfast, my brother and I caught a taxi to the gardens and resumed our search for the Festive Parrot. When we reached the site, we found Andy with the same group from the day before. They had seen a pair of the parrots fly over, but had lost sight of them when they landed in a tree. After several mis-calls (I didn't participate
) we finally located them. They were slightly distant, but I could see the blue cheeks, red fore-crown, and when it took to flight, a large, red, oval-shaped patch on the lower back. We hung around after the group left, and eventually got better views. They were eating small, flat, maroon-colored pods from the large tree they were perched in. Their call was similar to that of a Yellow-crowned Parrot.All the other birds were a repeat of the day before.
On the trip back, we got on the wrong bus and ended up having to walk several block through the city after they dropped us off.
Now, tommorrow is the day I'm really looking forward to...