This morning at breakfast there was a thunder storm with wind and heavy rain but, not long after, the sun had returned and we set out for the day. We walked locally along the road running west from the hotel past the airfield as we had done yesterday with Leandro following in the van. There were plenty of butterflies and other things to photograph. These wasps are quite common in Cuba and they do sting so a little care needs to be taken when they are around especially near the nest.
Several Anoles caught my eye and I managed at last to get reasonable pictures of Pholidoscelis auberi Cuban Whiptail. These are quite common ground anoles never venturing off the ground but can be difficult to photograph as they are wary and usually scuttle away into cover when approached. The Cuban Green Anole Anolis porcatus on the other hand rarely ventures down onto the ground and this one was shedding its skin. The dark anole bottom right I think is another colour form of A. porcatus but I might be completely wrong.
There were quite a few butterflies nectaring on the flowers and several skippers were amongst them including this female Mesogramma Skipper Atalopedes mesogramma, the males have a yellow band across the hindwing. We found more skipper larvae too including Zarucco Skipper Erynnis zarucco, Impostor Duskywing Gesta gesta, Hammock Skipper Polygonus leo.
At the end of the road about 2km past the airport runway we came to a black sand beach at the river mouth where Antonio Maceo, Flor Crombet and others landed in 1895 to start the Second War of Independence. There's a memorial monument here and lovely views across the river to El Yunque. We did find a pair of Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae in cop here and a larva of Statira Sulphur Phoebis statira.
After lunch we went back to the El Yunque road and on the way called into Finca Daube coffee and chocolate farm. Douglas recalled on a previous visit finding larvae of Cuban Rhinthon Rhinthon cubana here and we spent some time searching the ornamental Canna without success. Rather frustrating as this would be a new species for us but you can't win them all.
Doug at Finca Daube
Part of the road to El Yunque looked a bit dodgy after the rain this morning, there was a steep muddy part so we stopped and watched butterflies in the woodland by the beautiful river.
Lynn recalls one of the many conversations with Douglas about good photographs and how people are generally quick to assume a good photo comes from an expensive camera. This led Douglas to quote from the story of The Little Prince and also refer to the thoughts of the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda famed for his photos of Che Guevara. Interesting I found a wonderful synopsis of this on the web site http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/photography/Alberto-Korda.html ......
'Korda's advice to aspiring young photographers: "Forget the camera, forget the lens, forget all of that. With any four-dollar camera, you can capture the best picture." He believed in the passion behind the photographer, not the camera that the photographer had. He was also quite fond of the French writer Antoine de Saint Exupery, and often paraphrased a quote of his from The Little Prince: “You can only see with your heart. That which is essential is invisible to the eye.” '
During our 15 day trip around Cuba we were well practiced at viewing the butterflies and other wildlife with our hearts and hope the resulting photos will reach your hearts too.
Lynn recalls one of the many conversations with Douglas about good photographs and how people are generally quick to assume a good photo comes from an expensive camera. This led Douglas to quote from the story of The Little Prince and also refer to the thoughts of the Cuban photographer Alberto Korda famed for his photos of Che Guevara. Interesting I found a wonderful synopsis of this on the web site http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/photography/Alberto-Korda.html ......
'Korda's advice to aspiring young photographers: "Forget the camera, forget the lens, forget all of that. With any four-dollar camera, you can capture the best picture." He believed in the passion behind the photographer, not the camera that the photographer had. He was also quite fond of the French writer Antoine de Saint Exupery, and often paraphrased a quote of his from The Little Prince: “You can only see with your heart. That which is essential is invisible to the eye.” '
During our 15 day trip around Cuba we were well practiced at viewing the butterflies and other wildlife with our hearts and hope the resulting photos will reach your hearts too.
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