Fri, March 23 - Birding Cayo Coco

Cuban Dawn

The Sol Cayo Coco serves its big breakfast buffet at 7:30, but they kindly brought out coffee, omelets, rolls and fruit for us at 6 AM and we left in the bus well fortified at 6:30. We were joined by a young, enthusiastic local birder, Ron, and drove down the east side of Cayo Coco.  Jon Dunn, our leader, who has birded here for the past five years was particularly interested in the  number of species and their quantities so he could calculate the damage done to the avifauna from Hurricane Irma.  

Hurricane Damage

Most of the shrubs were denuded and just beginning to re-leaf, except for the small palm trees which seemed unharmed.   We stopped several times and saw the Cuban Gnatcatcher and the Oriente Warbler, both endemics. 

Passiflora species

The narrow road had a lot of construction traffic on it as the government sees a golden goose in the tourism on these lovely keys, but, I hope, they will leave some habitat intact.   We stopped by a large marsh and saw the West Indian Whistling Duck.

Western Spindalis

We crossed some causeways to Cayo Romero and onto the small island of Cayo Paredón Grande where we saw an old lighthouse built by the Spanish in 1859.  We walked along a dirt road and saw some interesting wildflowers, but in very small numbers - just coming back, I assume.  And then our guides called out a very rare Thick-billed Vireo which survived the storm and, I hope, can find a mate soon!!

We returned to our hotel at 1 PM and had lunch and beer.   Our hotel has been repainted and the large open-air lobby/bar has been rebuilt and the gardens replanted.  The Cuban government seems to have accomplished miracles here whereas the US can’t get electricity and water for its citizens in Puerto Rico!

The plan was to drive out to a key west of here where Hemingway hung out and, of course , see more birds.  I elected to stay put and relax, so Bob left with the rest of the group at 3 PM.

I walked down to the beach. I had planned on swimming but the air was a cool low 70s and the wind was whipping up some surf, so I thought it was wise not to swim alone in unfamiliar water and instead walked for an hour up the beach, wading in the warm water and looking at the turquoise colors.  I returned and brought my computer to the lobby and braving the loud music managed to catch up on email a bit and send off a blog post.

The others didn’t return until seven (so glad I stayed behind!).  I got two Cuba Libres from the bar and joined Bob at The List.  Afterwards we had a good dinner with another custom pizza and marshmallow cake for dessert.