This tiny but beautiful Tortricid moth above called Mictopsichia cubae was photographed recently by Deryl Varela Cienfuegos at San Miguel de los Baños. And thank you to Rayner Núñez for the identification.
And the following Sphinx moth (Hawk-moth to us here in the UK) was found and photographed recently by David Naves. It's called Eumorpha vitis Vine Sphinx.

This lovely image of a White-tailed Tropicbird was taken recently by Roberto Jovel on a birding visit with friends from Baracoa to the Guantanamo bay area. They are known to nest in Cuba only at two areas in the south-east of the island. They are the smallest of the three Tropicbird species and are widely distributed around the Tropics.
If you are looking for a beautiful casa in Baracoa with a wildlife friendly garden and wonderful hosts then try the highly recommended Villa Paradiso where they have some great birds in the garden as well as rare anoles.

"If we can't consign this serially incompetent abuser of office to the dustbin of history, we can at least do something else: never forget Jean Charles de Menezes.

For those of us who were in London in July 2005, the events of that month are unforgettable. But that was 17 years ago, and younger people may be completely unaware of them. In light of this week's political events, that awful time is worth revisiting.
It started on a high, on 6 July, when London was awarded the right to stage the 2012 Olympics. It was a surprise victory – Paris had been the clear favourite – and caused massive excitement. Hundreds celebrated in Trafalgar Square that night. But the joy didn't last.
The next morning, terrorists set off rush-hour bombs on three tube trains and a bus. 52 people died, all UK residents, of 18 nationalities. More than 700 were injured. It was the UK's worst terrorist attack since Lockerbie in 1988 and the country's first Islamist suicide attack.
Exactly two weeks later, bombers struck the tube and bus network again, in another four places. This time the bombs were badly made and there was only one minor injury, but it was terrifying – and the whole transport network was shut down.
Since the bombs hadn't gone off properly, the would-be suicide bombers didn't die. Manhunts were launched, based on fairly clear CCTV imagery.

At 9.30 the next morning, this man came out of his flat in Tulse Hill, south London. He was a 27-year-old Brazilian called Jean Charles de Menezes, on his way to fix a broken fire alarm in Kilburn, on the other side of London. As you can see, he looks nothing like the bombers.

Nevertheless, an officer on duty decided he did, and radioed his commander, who told him to follow the man and to make sure he didn't get on the tube. Several plain clothes officers now followed Jean Charles on the bus to Brixton, the nearest tube station to his home.
Brixton tube turned out to be closed – the transport network was still in chaos – so Jean Charles walked to the next station, Stockwell. He picked up a free paper at the entrance, used his Oyster card to get through the barriers, and reached the platform just as a train arrived. Officers then followed him onto the train and shot him seven times in the head, in full view of all the other petrified passengers. Yes you read that right. Seven times. In the head.
The Met immediately said he was a terror suspect, but it quickly became clear he was nothing of the kind. He wasn't carrying a bomb, or anything suspicious, and he looked nothing like the actual bombers. They then claimed he had been acting suspiciously: he vaulted the barrier, he wore a bulky coat in hot weather (potentially covering a suicide vest), and he failed to respond when challenged. None of those things were true. All flat-out lies.
In truth, the operation was a shitshow from start to finish: sloppy surveillance by the police, appalling communications along the way and then lie upon lie from the Met as the institution scrambled to cover its arse and defame the innocent man its officers had assassinated.
Revulsion over the incident led to demonstrations in the UK and shock waves abroad. Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a formal apology to the government of Brazil.
No individual officer was ever charged with the shooting, but the Met commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, was prosecuted under health and safety laws. Even then, the Met continued to play dirty. They mounted a character assassination of the man they'd killed, falsely suggesting he was high on drugs at the time and had behaved in an aggressive and threatening way. More lies. In addition, they issued a picture attempting to show that the dead man did look a bit like one of the suspects. It turned out that picture had been wildly distorted, in a further attempt to deceive.
The bad smell eventually cost Ian Blair his job, although of course it didn't prevent his elevation to the House of Lords – Lord Blair of Boughton is now a legislator for life – nor stop him walking away with a massive payoff. And what of the person at the end of the radio, who gave all the orders all the way along? They too were quietly put out to pasture, right?
Wrong. Gold Commander Cressida Dick – for it was she – was promoted, first to Deputy Assistant Commissioner, then to Assistant Commissioner. Then she went to a director-general role at the Foreign Office before returning to the Met as Commissioner, Britain's top police officer.
 
She was also awarded the Queen's Police Medal for Distinguished Service, was made a Commander of the British Empire, and then ultimately given the DBE – so she is now Dame Cressida Dick. Only in the UK can you fail upwards in quite such spectacular style.

This is the woman who said the Met didn't investigate crimes committed in the past, that there was no evidence of law-breaking in 10 Downing Street and, when confronted with unmissable suitcase-loads of that evidence, manoeuvered to make sure that evidence never emerges.
She is the symbol of all that's rotten in our country. To anyone who remembers the events of July 2005, it's sickening but no great surprise.”

Thank you to Chris Wood for this summary of events.

But at least Dick is now out of a job. Now we just need to get Johnson out along with all the corrupt and lying politicians who have been lining their pockets and those of their mates with our money whilst busily stripping away our hard-earned democracy. 

Back in November Yosiel Alvarez made a trip to the east of the island around Moa and Baracoa. He has kindly sent me some butterfly photos that he took on that trip. The above is a female Apricot Sulphur Phoebis argante which is an uncommon species though found throughout the island. We have seen males on a handful of occasions on our visits - and never a female. Yosiel thinks that it is perhaps the first time that a female has been photographed in the wild in Cuba - I certainly don't know of any others. Well done Yosiel. He also managed to photograph a Tailed Orange Pyrisitia proterpia which is almost restricted to the eastern part of the island though it does also occur on the Isla de Juventud south of Zapata. It can be distinguished from the similar-shaped Eurema boisduvaliana by the thick black bar along the costa of the upper forewing. This one is a male as it lacks the orange marbling on the underside of the hindwing.

Back in July of last year Yosiel Álvarez noticed that he, and others posting on social media, were seeing Tailed Cecropian Historis acheronta for the first time in Habana. This has always been considered as a scarce resident species in Cuba. On 21 July 2021 however on a visit to Rincon de Guanabo, Habana del Este municipality, he saw more then 200 individuals flying in mangrove forests, coastal scrub and ruderal vegetation near the road. All were flying west above the tree canopy at high speed. There are still some around in the area at this time indicating that have bred locally. The photograph above was taken just last week by Yosiel. What a wonderful opportunity to find the larvae in Cuba - something that has never happened before! The foodplant is thought to be Cecropia. You can read more about Yosiel's observations in the paper he has written here.

I've just been sent the above image by some friends who are currently traveling in Cuba. They tell me that they loved watching the Palm Swifts entering the palm thatch on the wall of this building at Vinales. They were seen entering even at the lowest level which is around 2m from the ground presumably as they went to roost in the evening as they wouldn't normally start nesting until about May.
They do also nest in palm trees themselves such as these in Cienfuegos Botanic Gardens.

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is found around the coast and lake shores of the tropics and sub-tropics of the Americas. It feeds mainly on crustaceans (crabs and crayfish) as well as insects and fish. This beautiful and interesting photo of an adult that has just caught what appears to be some sort of marine lamprey was taken a few days ago by Jose Alberto Perez Hechavarria. Well done Jose.

Blackpoll Warbler Setophaga striata is said to be a fairly common transient through Cuba in the autumn and spring, and also possibly occasionally winters on the island. This lovely photo of a female/immature was taken by Roberto Jovel in his garden in Baracoa in early November 2020. He says that in the east he sees them occasionally at the end of October/early November as they pass through on their way south.
During summer they can be found breeding throughout the boreal coniferous forest. They breed nearer to the tundra than any other warbler. Studies have revealed that the spring migration is primarily overland whilst the autumn routes over water were dramatically different. In the fall the birds migrate from their breeding grounds across the northern latitudes. Traveling east they converge on the north-eastern United States south to Virginia where they fatten up feeding on berries, putting on up to 2g per day. Most Blackpolls then fly directly from north-eastern North America over the Atlantic Ocean to their winter range in the northern part of South America with some stopping in the Antilles. This route averages 3,000 km (1,900 miles) over water, requiring a potentially nonstop flight of around 72 to 88 hours. What an amazing feat for a small Nearctic warbler.

A recent study demonstrated how climate change and habitat loss have combined to drive a 600-km northward shift in the breeding range of Blackpoll Warbler over the past 45 years. Even though the species is still extremely abundant across its range, it has been undergoing a significant decline since 1970. The rate of the decline is difficult to asses but assumed to be at least 25% over three generations (10.5 years). Therefore, the species is as a precaution now listed as Near Threatened.

The first Blackpoll Warbler that I saw was on the Isles of Scilly one October back in the 1970's. Sightings on this side of the Atlantic were commoner then they are now. Sadly those days will never return.

What a wonderful talent Brian Bilston is. And what a corrupt load of lying shits there are in this Tory Government. I hope you all remember this when it comes time to vote.

And here is another from Sally Hall written over coffee yesterday morning when the BBC asked what we were doing 20 May 2020.