We arrived in mid-afternoon at Zapata and headed straight to the lagoons of Salinas. First lagoon produced a West-Indian Whistling-Duck that typically slipped away into the mangroves as soon as it caught sight of us. The larger lagoons held a selection of herons and waders, including a white-phase Reddish Egret and a first year Little Blue Heron (the white bird in the background of the photo above).
The white-phase Reddish Egret was strutting around with its usual ungainly style like a demented Basil Faulty / Max Wall hybrid in a "Randall & Hopkirk" white suit - showing my age there!
A few Common Black Hawks were out on the mangroves too. This Cuban form is very brown indeed and some authorities suggest that it is worthy of full species status. Plenty of waders around too - Grey Plovers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Black-necked Stilts and surprisingly 15 or so Dunlin (long billed northern birds). Further along the Salinas road (it goes for about 20 kms or so) we found a flock of 23 Black Skimmers and a couple of Clapper Rails that responded splendidly to play-back.
