Day 1 Wednesday, January 9: Cayo Coco and Morón

	Bird of the Day: Bahama Mockingbird

casa particular in Morón

West Jet took us to Cayo Coco to join El Chino and longtime birding friends, Hilda and Colin Wooles. When we arived at Cayo Coco, we were reminded of a quote from Christopher Columbus in Waiting for Snow in Havana ( Carlos Eire) - when Columbus arrived at Cuba in 1492 he exclaimed, "This is the most beautiful land ever seen by human eyes ". We set out to discover this beautiful land led by birding guide, “El Chino”. We packed ourselves into in a Chinese-made car.



Colin quickly informed us that it was considerably cheaper to exchange our Canadian money for Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUCs) at the resort they had been staying at than at the airport, so, our first start was quick tour to the resort. CUCs in hand, we were ready to tour.

It was early afternoon and Chino wanted us to discover some special resident birds. We were in luck - 11 lifers! A great start to our trip.



An American car from the 1950s whizzed by reminding us we were in a very unique country.



We crossed the 17km causeway to the mainland as the sun was setting and 40km later arrived at our casa particular (B&B) home in the busy city of Morón (460 years old). A good time to relax, check out the local beer and enjoy our first Cuban dinner.



Horses and wagons, bicycles, trucks, and many people gave Morón a lively air. Known as City of the Rooster, we soon learned that chickens and roosters are numerous throughout Cuba and rooster calls at 5am ensured we were up for early birding.



Birds seen January 9, 2013
*new birds bolded

Bird of the Day: Bahama Mockingbird

1. Turkey Vulture
2. Greater Flamingo – lifer#1
3. Black-necked Stilt
4. Common Tern
5. Double-crested Cormorant
6. Laughing Gull
7. Bahama Mockingbird – lifer#2
8. Common Black Hawk
9. Tricolored Heron
10. Northern Shoveller
11. Blue-winged Teal
12. Cattle Egret
13. American Coot
14. Reddish Egret
15. Brown Pelican
16. Northern Mockingbird
17. Broad-winged Hawk
18. House Sparrow
19. Tree Swallow
20. Cuban Gnatcatcher – lifer#3
21. Thick-billed Vireo – lifer#4
22. Cuban Emerald – lifer#5
23. Magnificent Frigatebird
24. Red-legged Thrush – lifer#6
25. Ruddy Turnstone
26. Osprey
27. Cuban Pewee – lifer#7
28. Cuban Bullfinch – lifer#8
29. Oriente Warbler – lifer#9
30. Grundlach’s Hawk – lifer#10
31. American Kestrel
32. Cuban Blackbird – lifer#11

Trip Total: 32