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Western Spindalis male 26 Jun 2016 Gran Piedra © Tim Norriss
Following on from the pictures of a female Western Spindalis yesterday I managed to get some nice pictures of a male this morning in the same place, from the road in front of the Villa Gran Piedra overlooking the forest below. It is also known as Stripe-headed Tanager and is a reasonably common and widespread permanent resident and endemic to the Greater Antilles but the chance to get an uncluttered shot like this without sitting in a hide doesn't come along very often.
Whilst the butterfly pictures that I get are not the greatest as I use a 70-200mm Canon f2.8 it does give me the versatility to take butterflies at a reasonably close range whilst also being able to stand off and get shots from a distance, often a considerable distance, both of butterflies in flight and of birds and other wildlife. If I used just a 100mm macro lens I'd get better butterfly pictures especially of the smaller species but I would get much fewer of them and I'd miss lots of other opportunities. And up to now I've avoided the temptation of carrying another lens with me. I do carry a small Panasonic TZ40 compact in my pocket at all times which I use for scenery and all the close-ups and that works quite well except when as on this trip I had the camera on the wrong settings and couldn't figure out how to change them! And not being able to get on the internet and check the manual online didn't help. Ah well, you live and learn though it does mean that a lot of the close-ups that I took on this trip are rubbish and not worth showing. Lynn uses a TZ70 for scenery shots etc but it lacks certain important features that the TZ40 has.
We had left the outside lights on last night in the hope of attracting some moths. I checked at first light and as as the wind had got up and was blowing strongly onto the wall there was very little to see. A little later when we checked to see if Doug was ready to go down for breakfast he was still photographing the moths that he had attracted to his lights. His room was slightly lower than ours and both walls had been very sheltered from the wind and were absolutely covered with moths - there must have been 100 species or more including 6 species of Hawk-moth.
Whilst the butterfly pictures that I get are not the greatest as I use a 70-200mm Canon f2.8 it does give me the versatility to take butterflies at a reasonably close range whilst also being able to stand off and get shots from a distance, often a considerable distance, both of butterflies in flight and of birds and other wildlife. If I used just a 100mm macro lens I'd get better butterfly pictures especially of the smaller species but I would get much fewer of them and I'd miss lots of other opportunities. And up to now I've avoided the temptation of carrying another lens with me. I do carry a small Panasonic TZ40 compact in my pocket at all times which I use for scenery and all the close-ups and that works quite well except when as on this trip I had the camera on the wrong settings and couldn't figure out how to change them! And not being able to get on the internet and check the manual online didn't help. Ah well, you live and learn though it does mean that a lot of the close-ups that I took on this trip are rubbish and not worth showing. Lynn uses a TZ70 for scenery shots etc but it lacks certain important features that the TZ40 has.
We had left the outside lights on last night in the hope of attracting some moths. I checked at first light and as as the wind had got up and was blowing strongly onto the wall there was very little to see. A little later when we checked to see if Doug was ready to go down for breakfast he was still photographing the moths that he had attracted to his lights. His room was slightly lower than ours and both walls had been very sheltered from the wind and were absolutely covered with moths - there must have been 100 species or more including 6 species of Hawk-moth.
I have managed to identify some of them but I must say that the quality of moth websites, and of photographs, west of the 'pond' is not as good as it is here in Europe.
OK you get the gist of it, it was amazing! This is just a few species from one family on one night at one place. There were lots of other simply beautiful things. So, to anyone interested in moths that goes there make sure you leave the outside lights on - and get up early in the morning. And if you haven't started studying moths yet then you need to - join the dark side.
Sorry - I couldn't resist just adding a few more. My thanks to Doug for letting me use his pictures and my apologies if I have got some of the identifications wrong which is quite likely.
As we were checking out there a pair of Cuban Green Anoles Anolis porcatus on the balcony wall. Although we have seen them in lots of places it was the first time that we had seen a male displaying by extending its dewlap. The poor chap had lots his tail at some point in the past but at least he got away with his life.
As we were checking out there a pair of Cuban Green Anoles Anolis porcatus on the balcony wall. Although we have seen them in lots of places it was the first time that we had seen a male displaying by extending its dewlap. The poor chap had lots his tail at some point in the past but at least he got away with his life.
It was a clear sunny morning so after breakfast we set off down the hill towards Santiago de Cuba and the coast. We soon made a stop where there was Tournefortia flowering. There were several Swallowtails but best of all were two female Black-striped White Melete salacia. Unfortunately they were very high up so no chance of any decent shots but one that I got in flight I thought was interesting as it shows the upper hindwing as yellow whereas all the pictures of specimens that I have seen show this white or off-white.
We stopped again for fruit at a roadside stall and there were two young owls in a tree by the road - Cuban Screech-owl which we have only seen once before at Zapata. We also saw a new reptile in the form of Pallid Curlytail Leiocephalus raviceps.
This was the only night for which we had no accommodation pre-booked and as this was Leandro's home turf we left it to him to find us a casa to stay in Siboney. He found us a nice place overlooking the beach so we unloaded our cases and headed east down the coast road to Sigua. Lots of nice finds here including another new reptile Green-blotched Giant Anole Anolis smallwoodi. I think I have the id correct though no doubt someone will put me right if I'm wrong. It seemed to be a youngster and was quite low down when I first saw it but as soon as I started taking pictures it shot off back up the tree out of view. Doug was already finding lots of good larvae including a final instar Antillean Flasher Astraptes xagua about to pupate on Senna sp, Boisduval's Yellow Eurema boisduvaliana on the same plant and Tropical Checkered Skipper Pyrgus oileus. as well as Polydamas Swallowtail Battus polydamas eggs and larvae. 59 species was the excellent butterfly total for the day including eight Swallowtails.
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