One thing that’s irked me extra typically than I’d prefer to admit is the inclusion of the phrase “widespread” 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 time limit, however all birds are uncommon and unique someplace. The irony is most obvious when a chicken so named is a reliable rarity – I get excited every time I see a Frequent Floor Dove, for instance. They’re decidedly unusual in T&T however certainly ubiquitous someplace else.
This sort of widespread chicken will not be what spawned this submit, nevertheless. Bearing the identical designation however truly commonplace is the occasionally encountered Frequent Pauraque. All through the island of Trinidad they are often heard virtually each evening but seeing one can show a bit of difficult. Abandoned roads can yield fleeting views, however below lights will not be the perfect encounter (for purists not less than)!
Frequent Pauraque
Some extent of talent or pure luck is required to see one among 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 Frequent 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.
Fastidiously, I received out the car and retrieved my digital camera. Inside a number of quick moments, I used to be prepared with settings primed for the acute 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 believed 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 appeared by means of my viewfinder and to my astonishment there have been truly two Frequent Pauraques sitting there!
Are you able to see each Frequent Pauraques on this body? The headlamps of my jeep helped with the ambient mild and gave one chicken a neat little catchlight.
Presently I do know I’m one step nearer to photographing these beauties within the daytime, but it surely’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!
Autor Faraaz Abdool
