The last lot: a morning at the wetlands of Las Salinas, more Todies, and a mojito at last.
Cuba days 7 & 8
Around Playa Larga, with a morning in Zapata Swamp to find the eponymous Wren, some time in the Hummingbird Garden in Palpite, Quail Doves and general birding.
Cuba days 5 & 6
A day around Cayo Coco, followed by a day moving from Cayo Coco to Playa Larga, with birding stops on the way.
Cuba day 4
The journey from Camaguey to Cayo Coco was interrupted by a bus breakdown, but fortunately there was some decent birding.
Cuba days 2 & 3
A long drive from Havana to Camaguey, with a stop off at Zapata Swamp on day 2 and a day’s birding at La Belen on day 3, which provided a whopping 15 ticks for the day. Unfortunately they were the wrong sort of ticks: it took me ages to find and remove them all.
Cuba day 1
Back home, spring is just about springing, with a few Swallows today, but nothing worth photographing. I’m still wading through the Cuba pictures, so here is a selection from day 1 to be going on with.
Cuba
Snow at last
Third time lucky
The Beast From The East
Or possibly the west. We went to Weymouth today to twitch a Ross’s gull, a rare vagrant Arctic gull that breeds in northern Siberia, Greenland and a few bits in the far north of Canada. The expectation was for a long vigil as the bird is mobile and, while it has some more regular haunts, it is unpredictable. The reality was much better, a wait of less than an hour before it came and showed superbly. What a superb bird: tiny and exquisitely dainty.