Cuban Blackbird © Tim Norriss
Cuban Blackbirds are perhaps the commonest bird in the hotel gardens. Along with House Sparrows and smaller numbers of Greater Antillean Grackle and occasional Tawny-shouldered Blackbird they are constant companions at the outdoor restaurants and are quick to hop onto the tables given an opportunity. The Cuban Blackbirds have the curious habit of snatching the small plastic packets of sugar placed on the tables for tea and coffee and have become very adept at opening these to eat the contents. It can't be good for them, just as too much sugar is not good for us humans. About 150 of these birds roost on the exposed roof trusses of the Luna pool bar at night and one evening near the end of our holiday while Lynn was having a swim in the pool all hell broke loose when a bird of prey came and sat in one of the palms beside the pool just as the birds were gathering to roost. Lynn rushed back to the room to get me but by the time I got back there the hawk had moved position to a tree at the front of the hotel. I never did see it which was rather frustrating.
Today we went to see if we could get permission to go into the grounds of the adjacent hotel, the Paradisus de Oro, to survey the butterflies there as the grounds have more more mature trees and shrubs and lots of nectar sources. As we arrived we bumped into Carlos, the bird guide, who was just taking a British birder and artist, Les McCallum, for a walk along the nearby tracks around the edge of the adjacent small National Park to see what birds they could find. I joined them and left Lynn to seek the necessary permission. We heard both Mangrove Cuckoo and Cuban Lizard-cuckoo and saw a good selection of warblers and Ovenbird and American Redstart but the finding of a Bauhinia bush got me rather interested as I knew from our trip to Soroa in June that this is the foodplant of the two Aguna skippers neither of which we had yet seen. In Cuba this is known as Pata de vaca or literally 'cow's foot' from the shape of the leaf. There was quite a lot of feeding damage that quickly revealed larvae in folded leaf shelters and it wasn't long before I noticed at least two female Gold-spotted Aguna Aguna asander buzzing about and occasionally ovipositing on the small new shoots. These young leaves are at first folded in half along the mid-vein and so the eggs are laid on what is the underside of the leaf after the leaf opens. I did also find a couple of eggs that had been laid on the upper surface of the leaves and that is certainly what Rayner Núñez has observed and photographed at Habana. The adults were far from easy to photograph as they rarely settled except to oviposit and then only for a moment and usually obscured. The tree didn't look terribly healthy but we nonetheless found several eggs and larvae of differing sizes.
Today we went to see if we could get permission to go into the grounds of the adjacent hotel, the Paradisus de Oro, to survey the butterflies there as the grounds have more more mature trees and shrubs and lots of nectar sources. As we arrived we bumped into Carlos, the bird guide, who was just taking a British birder and artist, Les McCallum, for a walk along the nearby tracks around the edge of the adjacent small National Park to see what birds they could find. I joined them and left Lynn to seek the necessary permission. We heard both Mangrove Cuckoo and Cuban Lizard-cuckoo and saw a good selection of warblers and Ovenbird and American Redstart but the finding of a Bauhinia bush got me rather interested as I knew from our trip to Soroa in June that this is the foodplant of the two Aguna skippers neither of which we had yet seen. In Cuba this is known as Pata de vaca or literally 'cow's foot' from the shape of the leaf. There was quite a lot of feeding damage that quickly revealed larvae in folded leaf shelters and it wasn't long before I noticed at least two female Gold-spotted Aguna Aguna asander buzzing about and occasionally ovipositing on the small new shoots. These young leaves are at first folded in half along the mid-vein and so the eggs are laid on what is the underside of the leaf after the leaf opens. I did also find a couple of eggs that had been laid on the upper surface of the leaves and that is certainly what Rayner Núñez has observed and photographed at Habana. The adults were far from easy to photograph as they rarely settled except to oviposit and then only for a moment and usually obscured. The tree didn't look terribly healthy but we nonetheless found several eggs and larvae of differing sizes.
A few days later when we returned to have another go at photographing the adults we didn't see any and all the larvae had been predated. presumably by birds. But they weren't the only larvae that we found that day as there was a small Hawk-moth Sphingidae larva and also a Nymphalid larva that proved to be a Gray Cracker Hamadryas februa. Like all Nymphalid larvae it was well protected with a battery of spines.
Back near our hotel I noticed a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker tree that I'd never noticed before. The birds drill very distinctive horizontal rows of holes in the trunk to which they return regularly to drink the sap and eat any insects that gather there. Just over the road is the stables with a row of Citrus trees on which there were several larvae of Lime Swallowtail Papilio demoleus of various sizes.
Carlos told us to look out for Anolis equestris Cuban Knight Anole on the trunks of large trees but all we saw were Cuban Blue Anole Anolis allisoni and Cuban Green Anole Anolis porcatus.
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