One thing that’s irked me extra typically than I’d wish to admit is the inclusion of the phrase “frequent” within the title of a chicken. It appears virtually insulting, positive it permits some perception into the abundance of the actual species in a specific space at a cut-off date, however all birds are uncommon and unique someplace. The irony is most obvious when a chicken so named is a authentic rarity – I get excited every time I see a Widespread Floor Dove, for instance. They’re decidedly unusual in T&T however absolutely ubiquitous someplace else.
This kind of frequent chicken just isn’t what spawned this submit, nevertheless. Bearing the identical designation however really commonplace is the occasionally encountered Widespread Pauraque. All through the island of Trinidad they are often heard virtually each evening but seeing one can show just a little tough. Abandoned roads can yield fleeting views, however beneath lights just isn’t the perfect encounter (for purists a minimum of)!
Widespread Pauraque
Some extent of ability or pure luck is required to see certainly one of these near-cryptids in daylight. Beautifully camouflaged, nightjars are designed to soften into their daytime roost. At nightfall a pair nights in the past some motion caught my eye as I used to be driving. I had simply turned my lights on and it was a Widespread Pauraque that hopped from the highway again into the leaf litter. With some mild nonetheless within the sky, I knew this was a golden alternative to {photograph} this species with some semblance of pure mild.
Rigorously, I received out the automobile and retrieved my digital camera. Inside just a few quick moments, I used to be prepared with settings primed for the intense low mild. Solely factor was that I had taken my eyes off of the place the chicken was and now felt a bit hopeless as I couldn’t relocate it! I stared on the patch of stones and fallen leaves the place the chicken was, however nothing materialised. I walked as much as the place I assumed it was, nonetheless nothing. I strained my eyes within the fading mild. Then realised I used to be standing no more than 10 inches from the chicken! I backed off and seemed via my viewfinder and to my astonishment there have been really two Widespread Pauraques sitting there!
Are you able to see each Widespread Pauraques on this body? The headlamps of my jeep helped with the ambient mild and gave one chicken a neat little catchlight.
At the moment I do know I’m one step nearer to photographing these beauties within the daytime, nevertheless it’s taken so a few years to get thus far who is aware of after I’ll discover a day-roosting chicken?! It may be subsequent decade or it may be tomorrow – and that’s the great thing about birding!
