EXPLORING NATURE: TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

I notice the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival is scheduled for Nov. 10-14, in Harlingen. (For information, visit www.rgvbf.org or call 209 227-48230.)

Also, Calico Ventures is offering birding tours to Trinidad and Tobago, two island gems in the Caribbean. (Visit caligo. com or call 800 426-7781 for information.)

I’ve attended the Rio Grande Valley festival and fondly recall seeing green jays, great kiskadees and chachalacas. I’ve also visited Trinidad and delighted in seeing 40 live species before breakfast, sitting on the spacious veranda at Asa Wright Nature Centre, a big old house overlooking bird feeding trays and looking out over a vast tropical rainforest. Turquoise-browed motmots, piping guans and numerous tanagers were just a few of the outstanding avian species that showed up.

And, oh my, the wonderful food at both places. In addition to some great Tex-Mex in Harlingen, I returned from the Valley with bags of grapefruit and oranges from the local citrus groves.

At Trinidad, we were served food cafeteria-style and while there was an emphasis on rice and beans, I had some marvelous dishes, including “coo-coo,” a cornmeal okra dumpling. And the coffee, made from beans grown on the grounds, was very good.

But the crowning culinary achievement was “pelau,” the national dish of Trinidad, a thick stew with rice, chicken and assorted vegetables. Perfectly splendid.

On Tobago, I recall seeing a redbilled tropicbird, which impressed me with its long, streaming white tail, and a huge leatherback turtle who laid eggs at night on the sandy beach, buried them and then crawled slowly into the moon-lit waves.

If you’re hankering for some first-class birding and some excellent eating, I highly recommend the Rio Grande Valley and Trinidad-Tobago.