Greetings from Cuba! I am writing this column while sitting on the rooftop of our “hotel”, overlooking the Bay of Pigs, enjoying the ocean breeze and listening to the wind as it blows through the palm fronds. It is quite heavenly. What a contrast from when I left Prescott and there was still snow on the ground!
I flew out of Phoenix on Monday, March 17th, and arrived in Havana early Tuesday morning the 18th. I am participating in a trip hosted by Holbrook Travel, with an emphasis on birding and Cuban culture. The trip has been absolutely amazing. This is my first time visiting Cuba. It is a beautiful country with incredible birds.
When I go birding in a new location, somewhere I have never been before, I focus my efforts on finding endemic species—species found only in the country I am visiting, and nowhere else in the world.
Cuba has twenty-seven known endemic species, and our guides know right where to go to find our target bird species each day. In addition to looking for Cuban endemics, we are also finding a lot of species that are endemic to the West Indies, not just to Cuba.
I arrived in Cuba several hours before the rest of the group so I went birding on my own for several hours—and walked several miles! Fortunately, I did a lot of studying in preparation for my trip, so I was able to identify everything I saw. I spent part of my time at an old botanical garden in the heart of Havana and I spent a lot of time walking along the seawall in Havana Harbor.
I added several bird species to my life list including Antillean palm swift, Cuban emerald (a type of hummingbird) and Cuban Pewee, a small flycatcher similar to North America pewees. I also saw several varieties of warbler species that winter in the tropics, and summer in North America, including ovenbird, Cape May, American Redstart, northern parula, palm, and yellow-throated warbler. My trip was off to a good start!
On our first full day of birding as a group we visited the National Botanical Gardens, on the outskirts of Havana. This location had a variety of different habitats and we were able to see some unique species including olive-capped warbler and the critically endangered Gunlach’s hawk.
We left Havana the next day and headed west, arriving in the Vinales region in western Cuba just before sunset. Our journey was not without some adventure, as the clutch in our tour bus stopped working when were far from our destination. Our resourceful driver was able to get us back on the road and we limped into Vinales.
We stayed in Vinales for two days, and birded at Las Terrazas, a UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserve. We also did other short birding trips into forested areas in search of target birds such as the Cuban Solitaire—which we found! It has an incredible song, and it was thrilling to watch it in the scope as it sang from a high perch.
Highlights of our time in this region included a number of endemic species including Cuban trogon, Cuban Tody, Cuban Pygmy owl, Cuban oriole, Cuban grassquit, Cuban bullfinch, and Fernandina’s flicker. Each new species brought a sense of wonder and amazement.
I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to travel, and see God’s creations in different parts of the world. We live on a beautiful planet and I find great peace and fulfillment as I spend time in nature and try to forget about all of the craziness in our world.
More next week on my Cuba trip. Until then, Happy Birding!
Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Swarovski and Vortex optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.
I have been doing a lot of digiscoping on this trip—using my Swarovski spotting scope and my iPhone to take both still shots and video. After I get home I will get some these loaded onto The Lookout Facebook page so you can see what I saw!
This past weekend was the winter solstice, the shortest day and the longest night of the year. While I personally do not like the cold, I do love the winter night sky. Each morning when I go outside to retrieve the newspaper, I like to just pause, and look at the heavens and take in the wonder of the night sky.
Maybe like you, unfortunately I live in a neighborhood where some of my neighbors leave their outside lights on all night long. Why? I have no idea. To me it is annoying, and a poor use of precious resources. We live in a time when we need to be so mindful of how we use energy.
One may think it is a little thing, a 100 watt bulb left on all night, but multiply that by hundreds and thousands of lights left on all night and what a huge impact this has on energy use.
There is a dark sky ordinance in some communities. I personally like living in a community where people value dark skies. I like living in a neighborhood where there aren’t any street lights.
Another issue to consider is the impact of lights on wild birds, especially when they are migrating. Lights at night disorient while birds, resulting in window strikes, resulting in an untimely death.
Several months ago the Courier ran an article about outdoor lights at night, and the impact on wild birds. I concur.
