I did a pre-breakfast walk to the white bridge over the lagoon and found an adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron sitting on the balustrade. I slowly edged closer and closer taking pictures as I went and this was the best I managed. I love the red eye and the stout bill for dismembering crabs. The first Prairie Warbler was the only other thing of note.
Yellow-crowned Night Heron 01 Dec 2018 2018 Guardalavaca © Tim Norriss
From the balcony near the restaurant a pair of Mesogramma Skipper Atalopedes mesogramma briefly appeared and a delightful Saw-scaled Curlytail Leiocephalus carinatus.
We spent the rest of the morning exploring along the track that runs NE along the edge of the woodland from the adjacent Hotel Paradisus. We quickly saw Gray Cracker Hamadryas februa and a Dingy Purplewing Eunica monima. The most common butterfly was Nickerbean Blue Cyclargus ammon but there was also one Miami Blue Cyclargus thomasi. There were five Braco Skipper Burca braco and a few male Mexican Sailor Dynamine postverta. In all our visits to Cuba I had never managed to photograph a female Fiery Skipper Hylephila phyleus before so it was nice to do so on two days running!
The afternoon was spent back at the Mares pool balcony and I decided just to sit quietly on the balcony wall near to the lantana flowers and berries and see what came to feed. It was an absolute delight as although the birds were slight wary they did come up to within just a few feet on occasion.
Black-throated Blue Warbler fem 01 Dec 2018 2018 Guardalavaca © Tim Norriss
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