Day 4 Saturday, January 12: Trinidad to Batey Caleton, Zapata

	Bird of the Day: Cuban Pygmy Owl

casa particular in Batey Caleton



At our breakfast in Trinidad, Hilda and Bill concentrated on bird identification while Colin and Barbara sipped their coffee/tea. The Cuban breakfast was the same everywhere we stayed on our trip - eggs, fresh fruit, bread, freshly squeezed guava or papaya juice, and coffee with hot milk.




Today we would be travelling to the Zapata swamp area on the Bay of Pigs, El Chino's home. The Zapata area is the birding mecca of Cuba. As usual, our drive was colorful and alive with people working and commuting.



Also, as usual, our drive included several good birding spots



We drove through the busy city of Cienfuegos and made a quick stop for some shopping. We noticed that horses were wearing waste bags - keeps the streets cleaner!



At a gas station, we admired an antique car.



We saw more birds . We also spotted a large snake!



On a side road, a man was raking rice over one lane - it takes about a day for the rice to dry and then he collects it up into bags. We quickly switched lanes.



El Chino pointed out a shrimp farm beside the ocean.

El Chino`s lives in a colourful house on the beach. He painted the signs on his house, including a very good likeness of the Zapata Wren. His brother, Ramon, lives next door. We stayed with Ramon and Colin and Hilda stayed at El Chino`s. He was staying at his wife`s mother`s place. He introduced us to his wife and his two sons, 8 year old Jonathan and a new baby, Johannsen.



As we would stay here for three days it was a good chance to hand wash our laundry and hang it out in the ocean breeze. We still had time for a hike along the beach before dinner.



El Chino took us for a short birding outing near his home where we had good sightings of a Cuban Black Hawk and Cuban Parrots.



Our tasty lobster dinner was prepared by El Chino`s brother Pedro (who also caught the lobster).



Birds seen January 12, 2013
*new birds bolded

Bird of the Day: Cuban Pygmy Owl

1. Feral Pigeon
2. Mourning Dove
3. Turkey Vulture
4. Cattle Egret
5. Least Sandpiper
6. Semi-palmated Sandpiper
7. Lesser Yellowlegs
8. Black-bellied Plover
9. Great Egret
10. Snowy Egret
11. Little Blue Heron
12. Greater Yellowlegs
13. Tricolored Heron
14. Royal Tern
15. Brown Pelican
16. Great Blue Heron
17. Black-throated Blue Warbler
18. Palm Warbler
19. Cape May Warbler
20. Northern Parula
21. La Sagra’s Flycatcher – lifer#23
22. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
23. Red-shouldered Blackbird – lifer#24
24. Greater Antillean Grackle
25. Cave Swallow
26. Common Moorhen
27. Yellow-throated Warbler
28. Cuban Emerald
29. Yellow-faced Grassquit
30. Prairie Warbler
31. Gray Catbird
32. American Coot
33. Anhinga
34. Neotropic Cormorant
35. Purple Gallinule
36. Osprey
37. Cuban Vireo – lifer#25
38. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
39. Common Yellowthroat
40. Cuban Pewee
41. Belted Kingfisher
42. Smooth-billed Ani
43. Loggerhead Kingbird
44. West Indian Woodpecker – lifer#26
45. Northern Flicker
46. Cuban Pygmy Owl - lifer#27
47. Zenaida Dove
48. Cuban Parrot - lifer#28
49. Green Heron
50. Cuban Crow - lifer#29
51. Cuban Blackbird
52. Common Black Hawk

Trip Total: 93