Thought some of you might be interested in a short account of my recent visit to the "Memories Flamenco" resrt on Cayo Coco from 30th March-13th April this year. It was mainly a relaxing holiday with my wife, however I did take; 'scope, tripod, bins and The Field Guide to the Birds of Cuba, by Orlando H. Garrido and Arturo Kirkconnell. The Guide had really informative text but was let down by the quality of the illustrations in my opinion(maybe I'm spoilt by the illustrations in Collins!). Birding was strictly around the hotel area, usually between 7.00 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. before breakfast. I was lucky that within 100 yards of the hotel was a fairly large marsh which gave up some nice birds. The time we were there coincided with the Sprin migration of American Warblers North and these provided my biggest ID problem. The following account only includes birds that I was certain of correct identification. (L)=lifer
30th March; 1. Laughing Gull (L), 2. Cuban Emerald (L), 3. Turkey Vulture (L), 4. Common Black Hawk (L), 5. Northern Mocking Bird (L), 6. Greater Antillean Grackle (L).
31st March; 7. Common Ground Dove (L), 8. Cuban Martin (L), 9. Cave Swallow, 10. Black and White Warbler (L), 1. Red-legged Thrush (L), 12 White-winged Dove (L), 13. American Kestrel (L), 14. Osprey, 15. Collared Dove, 16. Roseate Spoonbill (L), 17. Royal Tern (L).
1st April; 18. Loggerhead Kingbird (L), 19. Red-eyed Vireo (L), 20. Yellow-throated Warbler (L), 21. Northern Parulla (L).
2nd April; 22. Mourning Dove (L), 23. Stripe-headed Tanager (L), 24. Oriente Warbler (L).
3rd April; at the marsh, 25. Great Egret (L), 26. Snowy Egret (L), 27. Little Blue Heron (L), 28. Great Blue Heron (L), 29. Tri-coloured Heron (L), 30. White Ibis (L), 31. Red-breasted Merganser, 32. Wilson's Plover (L), 33. Black-bellied(Grey) Plover, 34. Semipalmated Plover (L), 35. Greater Yellowlegs (L), 36. Lesser Yellowlegs (L) these two were side by side for direct comparison, 37. Short-billed Dowitcher (L), 38. Caspian Tern (L), 39. Northern Flicker (L), 40. Yellow-faced Grassquit (L).
4th April; at the marsh, 41. Stilt Sandpiper (L), 42. Brown Pelican (L), 43. Anhinga (L).
5th April; at the marsh, 44. Clapper Rail (L).
6th April; at sea, 45. Double-crested Cormorant (L).
7th April; 46. Common Yellowthroat (L), 47. Solitary Sandpiper (L), 48. Reddish Egret (L), 49. Cuban Pewee (L), 50. Red-tailed Hawk (L).
8th April; 51. American Redstart (L), 52. Killdeer (L).
9th April; 53. Palm Warbler (L), 54. La Sagra's Flycatcher (L), 55. Sandwich Tern.
10th April; 56. Crested Caracara (L), 57. Zenaida Dove (L).
11th April; 58. Blackpoll Warbler (L), 59. Cattle Egret, 60. Greater Flamingo (L), 61. House Sparrow, 62. Black-cowled Oriole (L).
12th April; 63. Willet (L).
13th April; last morning decided to stay by pool and a; 64. Magnificent Frigate Bird flew over(L).
Also saw 9 other species that I failed to 100% identify (frustrating), worst was what looked to be a Yellow-headed Blackbird from the illustration but when I read the text it had only been seen 4 times before in Cuba .
All in all I was really pleased with the birds I saw and a special thank you to Mike Passant for his helpful advice.
Cheers Ian edit due to me originally putting Northern Parula on the list twice, thanks to Mike Chorley for pointing this out.

-- Edited by Ian Campbell on Thursday 28th of April 2016 09:11:29 AM