After breakfast at the Luna y Mares hotel we often spend a few minutes looking down towards the beach from the veranda by the Mares pool. At this time of year the Lantana is in flower so there are always a few butterflies nectaring. On this occasion there was a bonus as we saw a Mangrove Buckeye Junonia neildi. We've seen this before both a few miles to the west and a few miles to the east but this was a first for the hotel grounds. So now we had seen all three Junonia species on this trip.
Mangrove Buckeye Junonia neildi 30 Sept 2017 Guardalavaca © Tim Norriss
Cuban Brown Anole Anolis sagrei is very variable in colouration. In fact the dark ones can easily be confused for Cuban White-fanned Anole Anolis homolechis but on these two there is enough of the dewlap showing to see the reddish colour with a lack of a broad yellow border. In A. homolechis of course the dewlap is white. You can see more photos of these and others by clicking on Species > Other Wildlife > Reptiles.
Walking outside the hotel there were still lots of Concolorous Skipper Burca concolor and Cuban Kite Swallowtail Eurytides celadon. We watched a Cuban Leafwing Anaea cubana laying on Croton origanifolius where several wasps and butterflies were taking nectar, including Cuban Snout Libytheana motya, Lyside Sulphur Kricogonia lyside and Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae. I spent a while trying to photograph Cuban White Ganyra menciae without success.
On the way back from our walk we heard some birds calling from the trees overhead. We stopped and watched enchanted for ten minutes as a Black & White Warbler and a Yellow-throated Warbler hunted for insects close by. Many warblers including these are common winter visitors to Cuba from the US but in September not many have yet arrived and these two species are amongst the first. We watched the B&W as it carefully checked in all the holes and crevices till it found a moth larva. I'd never noticed before how large their feet are in relation to body size but that must be an adaptation to enable them to run up and down the trunks and even along the underside of branches like a creeper or nuthatch.
Black & White Warbler 30 Sept 2017 Guardalavaca © Tim Norriss
And the Yellow-throated Warbler is just gorgeous.
Yellow-throated Warbler 30 Sept 2017 Guardalavaca © Tim Norriss
Yellow-throated Warbler 30 Sept 2017 Guardalavaca © Tim Norriss
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