Cuban kestrels and blackbirds

This video is called Birding in the San Diego, Cuba area. Delaware Nature Society Bird Survey Trip, 2010.

After 7 March 2017, on 8 March 2017, we went from Viñales to Santa Clara in Cuba.

As we woke up, four Cuban martins sitting on a TV antenna.

After our journey began, an eastern meadowlark, a North American migrant bird, on a meadow.

Two American kestrels drove a much bigger turkey vulture away.

A cattle egret. A peregrine falcon flying.

We went to the La Güira National Park, near San Diego.

At the entrance, trees with orange flowers, attracting several blackish bird species.

Greater Antillean grackles; tawny-shouldered blackbirds (see photos); and shiny cowbirds.

We continue to the Cuevas de los Portales; caves near a river valley. A Cuban solitaire sings. In 1962, Che Guevara lived in these caves. The Cuban government feared that after the 1961 Playa Giron invasion, there would come another United States military incursion: not this time of a relatively small force of CIA mercenaries as in 1961, but of ten thousands of regular United States soldiers in that Cuban missile crisis year. If that would happen, Che intended to wage guerilla against the invasion forces from the Cuevas de los Portales.

Two great lizard cuckoos in a tree.

In another tree, the Cuban national bird: a Cuban trogon.

A Cuban emerald hummingbird.

At 14:40 we leave Pinar del Rio province for Artemisa province to its east.

Cattle egrets near cattle.

At 15:46, the lake where we had also been on the first day. Brown pelicans. Great egrets.

16:23: we are in Havana province; then, Mayabeque province. 17:30: Matanzas province.

Finally, we arrive in Santa Clara city.

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