There was a Caspian Tern fishing off the beach this morning as Lynn had a swim in the sea before breakfast. I took some pictures of it when it settled on a buoy some way out. The pictures showed it was fitted with a blue ring on its left leg.
While standing on the concrete jetty I could see a shoal of thin fish with long pointed jaws in the water below. They were Keeltail Needlefish Platybelone argalus. They are in the Family Belonidae and are found only in the West Atlantic. They grow up to about 0.5m but these were maybe half that size. They are related to the Garfish that we get here in the UK. Confusingly Garfish in the United States refers only to similar looking fish that belong to a different Family altogether that are found only in freshwater.

Here in the UK on the south coast of Devon and Cornwall there have been increasing reports over the last few years of Bluefin Tuna being seen just offshore. This is very exciting news as they had been wiped out by over-fishing and had not been seen for over 50 years. You can watch a lovely short film on YouTube taken by Henry Kirkwood here showing Bluefin Tuna chasing and catching Garfish off the south coast. Lynn and I will be going down there next autumn to see if we can see this wonderful wildlife spectacle. There are two garfish in UK waters. The most common is the Long-beaked Garfish Belone belone. which grows about a metre long. It features a long slim body and a long jaw armed with small but very sharp teeth capable of impaling and cutting through small prey. Short-beaked Garfish are rarer and generally found further south in the E Atlantic and Mediterranean and are infrequent visitors to the south coast of England.
I wasn't feeling great this morning so decided to stay around the hotel not far from a toilet while the others went off and saw and photographed Dusky Swallowtail, Neleis Sulphur, Cuban White and Cuban Flasher. Bit miffed by missing the latter!

There were often Killdeer feeding here on the short turf and I saw Mexican Fritillary here too. Most of the Florida Purplewing were rather tatty but the many Iphicleola Sister were still very fresh.

Later in the day just before supper there were ten Barn Swallows and two Northern Rough-winged Swallows feeding over the hotel grounds before moving on. Although i did get one or two pictures of the Yellow-headed Warbler that we saw yesterday they were pretty poor and mostly obscured by twigs and leaves so I've got permission from Marcos Verdecia Diaz to use his beautiful photo that he took recently. Thank you Marcos.

My pictures of Lynn swimming in the sea this morning weren't great so here's a picture of her taken in May this year in Trieste when we attended the International Swift Conference 2024.

Today we walked further into the Conservation area of the National Park towards Cabo Corrientes with Medalino, the Park guide. As usual the pace was slow as there was lots to see and photograph. We saw Ameiva auberi and Anolis homolechis which had a pale brownish coloration. Normally the males are blackish and females are dark brown with a pale dorsal line and a light chestnut colour on the top of the head but the white dewlap is distinctive. There were lots of butterflies along the way including Emerald Aguna Aguna claxon, many Iphicleola Sister Adelpha iphicleola, Caribbean Daggerwing Marpesia eleuchea and Tailed Cecropian Historis acheronta. We had never seen the latter settle and open its wings before as this one did.

We also saw Yellow-headed Warbler Cuban Pigmy Owl, Cuban and Black-Whiskered Vireo, Bee Hummingbird, and Cuban Lizard Cuckoo feeding along the edge of the road.

There were also lots of Cuban White Ganyra menciae but the best was a male Orbis Sulphur Phoebis orbis that settled within distance for a picture.

This dragonfly, a male Dythemis rufinervis Red Setwing, is a solely Caribbean species so is not found in Denis Paulson's books on the dragonflies of the US. The red veins on the wings and a brown patch at the base of the rear wings with a slim scarlet abdomen with black marks on the sides only are characteristic.

We have seen it just once previously at Topes in June 2018, see picture below - taken with a better camera!

In the evening we went out to see the turtles come in and lay on the beach which is on the road towards the lighthouse. Our guide Osmani told us that on this beach there are approx 200 turtle nests each year. They are 80% Green Turtle Chelonia mydas and 20% Loggerhead Turtle Caretta caretta. Eggs are mostly laid between mid-July and mid-August so we are nearing the end of the egg laying season now but the nests are protected and studied by Cuban scientists. While we were there a female Green Turtle came out of the water and up the beach as we sat quietly waiting with dimly-lit torches. No photography is allowed on the beach to reduce disturbance. On this beach there is an 82% success rate of eggs hatching.

On the beach there were also 7 Yellow-crowned Night Heron searching for crabs and we had seen Cuban Iguana along the road. We stayed out till midnight and then said our goodbyes and got back to the vehicle just as the heavens opened. There had been a bad storm over the Maria La Gorda hotel before we arrived with lots of rain, thunder and lightning but we missed the worst of it.