We went this morning for another explore on the outskirts of the village of Yaguajay where we had been a few days previously. There had been more rain in the meantime so the track was even wetter than before and there were once again groups of whites and yellows taking moisture on the mud. On the left a Statira Sulphur Phoebis statira settles amongst a group of Bush Sulphur Pyrisitia dina, and on the right the Statira Sulphur overflies Florida Whites Glutophrissa drusilla on the left and Great Southern Whites Ascia monuste on the right. On the right of the picture is a Boisduval's Yellow Eurema boisduvaliana which seems to be much scarcer than the others and we have only ever seen one or two at a time. A Lime Swallowtail Papilio demoleus also joined them for a while.
Once again there were also Caribbean Daggerwing Marpesia eleuchea, Impostor Duskywing Gesta gesta, Cuban Kite Swallowtail Eurytides celadon as well as Cuban White Ganyra menciae and Lyside Sulphur Kricogonia lyside.
Further along several dragonflies were flying around a large puddle that covered the width of the road. I watched for a while but there were no perching places so I collected a couple of twigs, stuck them in the mud at the edge and settled down to watch. There were males of Erithrodiplax umbrata and Orthemis ferruginea. They would tolerate each other and readily settle on the same twig.
We spent the afternoon relaxing at the hotel and checked out the lagoon in the evening where we saw a Peregrine fly over and managed a few shots of a Cuban Vireo which was feeding in the bushes. The light wasn't great and I had to set the camera to ISO 1000.
By December the lagoon will be full of egrets and herons but at this time in early October numbers are still very low with most birds still on their way from further north. This makes me think that this juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron was born here in the mangroves around the lagoon. It was unusually confiding as I slowly walked to wards it on the open bridge. They have a much stouter bill then Black-crowned Night Heron indicating a preference for crabs in their diet rather than fish and frogs.
Yellow-crowned Night Heron 6 Oct 2017 Guardalavaca © Tim Norriss
RSS Feed