Holguin Cuba

I've always been spontaneous but this trip takes the cake. I found out the night before leaving that I was going to Cuba the next morning. I obviously couldn't turn down the last minute and off season deal.

Arriving to a Cuba on a rainy night would have been perfect for looking for frogs but the forecast was rain every night for the next three days so naturally after the plane ride I relaxed and drank. Our resort (Rio Sol de Luna y Mares) was quite remote and each side had a different wild ecosystem. One side had a wide but somewhat deep lagoon with mangroves and the other had a park with forest and scrub on the rocky coast.

The morning saw us at the lagoon where Snowy and Great Egrets had amassed in numbers. We saw many waterbirds that morning just visiting the Lagoon and walking around the resort.

Northern Shoveler
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
American Coot (There is no way I could tell from a Carribean Coot)
White-crowned Pigeon
White-winged Dove
Common Ground Dove
Cuban Green Woodpecker
Eastern Kingbird
Loggerhead Kingbird
Red-eyed Vireo
Black-whiskered Vireo
Cuban Martin
Red-legged Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Tawny-shouldered Blackbird
Cuban Blackbird
Greater Antillean Grackle
House Sparrow

What I didn't know at the beginning of this trip is that the night I arrived would be the ONLY night it rained for the entire trip. That is great for most people but I hopelessly tried to find amphibians every night with very little luck.

That day was a very nice warm sunny day with reptiles crawling all over the resort.