Hasta la victoria siempre. 17th March.

some birds....

.....and onward into Che Guevara country, past Santa Clara, and up to the northern Cays. Revolutionary fervour is stronger out in these rural areas. Here is where the real benefits were gained. Che is still revered in these parts, with the military train he toppled and defeated still in situ and lovingly rubbed down and touched up with paint. Revolutionary graffiti adorns every other wall - Hasta la victoria siempre!

The road out through the Cays provided plenty of waterbirds and dramatic scenery but little new in the way of birds. The scrubby Cays hosted a variety of warblers including plenty of Cape May's and Oriente.

That's it, Cuba, done. Nice people but too close to America for my liking. Must head east next time.

and some cocktails....

Prisoner 1803. 14th March

All-inclusive on the beach.

A few days at Varadero, in an all-inclusive, so 'er indoors' can get some sun initially seemed a good idea. Don't do it! Staggering between the all-day buffet and the incessant mojito bar (even I can have too many mojitos and I'm still confused with the idea of 'happy hour' in an all-inclusive), an escape plan was required. Luckily the noise and flurried action of the dawn aerobics session provided perfect cover to slip past the guards and out towards the adjacent shit-laden mangrove swamp they lovingly call 'the other Varadero' and we might know as a nature reserve.

The birds knew about this place though and moved through thick and fast; each day brought new arrivals to quickly move on. Dozens of Northern Waterthrush, Black and White Warblers, Prairie Warblers, Parula's, Black-throated Blue's and American Redstarts moved through the bushes. The unsavoury pool at the end of the hotel sewage outlet hosted Lesser Scaup, Blue and Green-winged Teals, Bahama Pintails, Black-necked Stilts, Killdeers, White Ibis, Clapper Rail, Belted Kingfishers and both Night Herons. A quick jog back and nobody knew I hadn't been in the aerobics session.

After breakfast (what fast?) prisoner 1803 shuffled to the beach with all the other incumbents. The ruse of taking arty beach photos allowed close study of the regular flow of Ring-billeds, American Herrings, Laughers, Pelicans, Royal Terns and Cormorants. Regular trips to the bar via the beach scrub added Cuban Green Woodpecker, Yellow-throated Warbler and White-eyed Vireos.

Finally, they made a fatal error. They left an attended car hire desk! A quick flash of the credit card while the mojito guards went for fresh mint and we were out of there......

The nasty pool and it's birds

Zapata snap slap. 11th March.

Bee Hummingbird.  'It will sit on that branch'  Angelo in action with Grumpy.

Two things not to forget when visiting Zapata swamp are a camera and some mosquito repellent. I remembered the first but not the second. As the day progressed the crust of slapped mozzies rose and cracked as the underlying lumps swelled. But the day also brought a progression of birdy photographic opportunities as Angelo ('brother' of El Chino) took us to this tree and that tree, pointing out exactly where the bird would perch. Good birds fell routinely; Cuban Trogon, Cuban Tody, Cuban Vireo, Cuban Pee-wee, Antillean (Cuban) Nightjar, Cuban Screech Owl, Cuban Martin, Cuban Pigmy-owl, Yellow-headed Warbler, Fernandina's Flicker etc etc. The time came for Bee Hummingbird. "It will sit on that branch" said Angelo, and it did. Repeatedly. A second spot produced the same result, with a female as well. The doves followed one after another. Five Blue-headed Quail-doves, one giving a stunning view after Angelo called it out. Call me ungrateful, but this was more like shopping at Tesco's than birding.

Angelo concentrated on the endemics as he knew that's what birders want to see. Endemics, they're a bit like common birds you see elsewhere, but don't migrate, so eventually you can call them 'Cuban'. However, Angelo also called a long list of the sort of names you dreamed of hearing coming out of a crackly CB on Scilly; Black and White Warbler, Gray Catbird, Ovenbird, Yellowthroat, Magnolia Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Black-throated Green and American Redstart.

Eventually Angelo ran out of birds to show us so we paid him off and got on with some slow birding. Zapata Wren, lobster lunch, mojito, Cuban Crab Hawk, mojito, that sort of thing.

Five Cubans (Trogon, Screech Owl, Nightjar, Pygmy-owl and Emerald) and an Ovenbird.

Havana, Cuba. 8th March 2011

Well, another one crossed off the 'bucket list'; cruising around Havana in an open top '56 Buick with a big cigar. Shame I don't smoke. This laid-back, run-down city has real character. 'La revolucion' seems a long way off as the aggressive US blockade has inflicted real hardship on the people. God bless America.

Sipping mojito's in the garden of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba gets the bird list off to a stuttering start; Mourning Dove, Palm Warbler, Peregrine, Cuban Blackbird and the ever-present Turkey Vulture. However, the coastal promenade, the Malacon, is more interesting. This is where young Cubans strut their stuff nightly, in front of the crumbling colonial buildings. By day, Laughing Gull, American Herring Gull, Royal Tern, Magnificent Frigate Birds and squadrons of Brown Pelicans zip past at close range.

An evening drinking daiquiri's at Hemingway's bar and then with the magnificent oldies of the Buena Vista Social Club growling out the tunes with double gusto. Fantastic. Up early, head south to Zapata.