When reviewing the internet to predict what I might see in Cuba I didn't really consider the diveristy and number of American winter migrants that would be in Cuba already, in August.
I was most successful with the warblers in a small patch of mangroves near our hotel in Varadero, it seemed alive with them despite it not being the paek time. Varadero is famed for being a birdless world but this small area keep giving and giving. I picked up some really exciting birds here like Crested Caracara, American Redstart and Broad-winged Hawk.
Below is a selection of photographs from the mornings I spent wandering over there, excuse the quality on some of them;
Louisiana Waterthrush feeding on insects in a puddle;
Northern Waterhtrush, very common in the mangroves;
American Redstart. This is a male, stunning birds!
Blue Grey Gnatcatcher;
Least Sandpiper, every morning a group were feeding in a puddle by the hotel;
Prairie Warbler, probably the most common American migrant warbler I saw;
Solitary Sandpiper;
Yellow Warbler, a resident around the coast in cuba but numbers swell when the American birds join them in winter;
I'll cover the endemics next so check back soon!
D
