Karlos had mentioned to us the other day that he had recently seen Hooded Warbler at Playa Pesquero so we were keen to go and try to see them as the area can also be good for butterflies. Here in England the area is what we would call a brownfield site where old buildings had been demolished and since colonised by wild flowers and one or two trees. And all this next to the mangroves and forest scrub which was full of birds. We stopped to look on the flowers to see what butterflies there were and were amazed to find lots of hairstreaks - over twenty of five different species all within just a few metres of each other! There were Fulvous Hairstreak Electrostrymon angelia, Bartram's Scrub-Hairstreak Strymon acis, Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak Strymon istapa, Limenia Scrub-Hairstreak Strymon limenia and Martial Scrub-Hairstreak Strymon martialis.
Two merlins were hunting the area by sitting in some tall pines and making forays after dragonflies and birds. There were at least three Hooded Warbler in the area but were hard to see and I only managed glimpses but there were other nice things too including Western Spindalis, Cuban Oriole, Ovenbird, Parula and Oriente Warblers, Cuban Vireo and Cuban Pygmy-owl.
Along the forest edge there were some Nickerbean plants growing and the fruits were attracting several Chestnut Leafwing Cymatogramma echemus and Florida Purplewing Eunica tatila.
Gray Cracker Hamadryas februa normally settle on tree trunks but do occasionally settle on foliage.
Karlos and I then went to another area to look for Cuban Nightjar but failed to find it on this occasion but we did find two nice dragonflies. One is a Red-mantled Saddlebags Tramea onusta but I'm not sure about the other yet.
Lynn had spent the day at the hotel and when I got back told me about the large snake, a Cuban Racer Cubophis cantherigerus by the Mares pool balcony - disappointed to have missed it.
Black-throated Blue Warbler male 4 Dec 2018 Guardalavaca © Tim Norriss
The Merlin has three subspecies in N America. Two are largely sedentary while the third, the Taiga Merlin Falco columbarius columbarius, migrates from Canada and northern US east of the Rocky Mountains except the Great Plains, is migratory and winters in S North America, Central America, the Caribbean and N South America as far as the foothills of the Andes. In Cuba it is said to be an uncommon winter resident and transient though we have seen them regularly in the Guardalavaca area in winter especially at the Luna y Mares hotel. We have also heard of a group of more than ten birds being seen in this area in the early spring presumably on their way back north.
At dusk tonight two Merlin put on a fantastic display for 20 minutes chasing after the bats as they came out of their roosts in the eaves of the theatre building. And we saw one of them catch a bat for the first time. It was interesting that their strategy was completely different to that of the bird that we have have watched here for the previous three winters. That bird was a wily adult that had worked out that the bats were much easier to catch just as they came out of the roost because they were traveling at a much slower speed, so it would do small circuits around the entrance until this coincided with a bat exiting and it was job done. I presume that it was the same returning bird that we saw each year and would usually see it catch two or sometimes three bats each evening.
This year an American Kestrel had adopted exactly the same strategy, perhaps from watching the merlin do it last winter, and would just sit on an adjacent roof watching until the bats were streaming out and then it would usually take no more than two or three circuits to catch its supper - thirty seconds at most. The two Merlin this year are I suspect inexperienced first year birds. They were only attacking the bats right out in the open when they were at full speed and although Merlin are much faster, the bats seemed well aware of the threat and would deftly jinx out of the way at the last moment. There was some evidence of cooperative hunting between the two Merlin as occasionally we would see an attack by one bird closely followed by an attack by the other and tonight this was successful. The bat loses a lot of speed as it jinxes and was picked off by the second bird. Lynn and I both agreed that watching the Merlins each evening was one of the real highlights of the holiday and would have been worth it even if we had seen nothing else. The display was always spectacular with the birds sometimes coming so close that you could hear and feel the rush of their wings as they came past - absolutely breath-taking! Nothing in nature is guaranteed but if you stay at the Luna y Mares during the winter do go and check them out.
And my grateful thanks to Graham Catley for letting me use his superb image of a Taiga Merlin below.
At dusk tonight two Merlin put on a fantastic display for 20 minutes chasing after the bats as they came out of their roosts in the eaves of the theatre building. And we saw one of them catch a bat for the first time. It was interesting that their strategy was completely different to that of the bird that we have have watched here for the previous three winters. That bird was a wily adult that had worked out that the bats were much easier to catch just as they came out of the roost because they were traveling at a much slower speed, so it would do small circuits around the entrance until this coincided with a bat exiting and it was job done. I presume that it was the same returning bird that we saw each year and would usually see it catch two or sometimes three bats each evening.
This year an American Kestrel had adopted exactly the same strategy, perhaps from watching the merlin do it last winter, and would just sit on an adjacent roof watching until the bats were streaming out and then it would usually take no more than two or three circuits to catch its supper - thirty seconds at most. The two Merlin this year are I suspect inexperienced first year birds. They were only attacking the bats right out in the open when they were at full speed and although Merlin are much faster, the bats seemed well aware of the threat and would deftly jinx out of the way at the last moment. There was some evidence of cooperative hunting between the two Merlin as occasionally we would see an attack by one bird closely followed by an attack by the other and tonight this was successful. The bat loses a lot of speed as it jinxes and was picked off by the second bird. Lynn and I both agreed that watching the Merlins each evening was one of the real highlights of the holiday and would have been worth it even if we had seen nothing else. The display was always spectacular with the birds sometimes coming so close that you could hear and feel the rush of their wings as they came past - absolutely breath-taking! Nothing in nature is guaranteed but if you stay at the Luna y Mares during the winter do go and check them out.
And my grateful thanks to Graham Catley for letting me use his superb image of a Taiga Merlin below.
Taiga Merlin (Falco c. columbarius) May 2013 Point Pelee © Graham Catley
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