The Bay of Pigs...

No placename conveys the world's fear and trepidation of the Cold War back in the 1950's & 60's (at least among those old enough) more than the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, the Bahía de Cochinos. Here, in 1961, the USA staged an invasion to counter Russian atomic missiles discovered in Cuba. The invasion was a disastrous failure but it brought the world closer to nuclear catastrophe than ever before or since. The invasion resulted in 300 deaths, 1000 wounded, and 1200 US troops (mostly Cuban exiles) captured.

Grackles are commonly seen. (Wikipedia)

We visited the Bay of Pigs area, about an hour's drive west from Cienfuegos to see the invasion museum at Playa Girón, and to do some birdwatching, and visit another arts school (see previous blog). The Cubans call the invasion the Invasión de Playa Girón or Invasión de Bahía de Cochinos or Batalla de Girón.

Now, the Bay is beautiful and peaceful, but multiple memorials on the nearby roads at the exact locations of Cubans' deaths serve as a stark reminder of those few days 50 odd years ago.

The museum at Playa Girón, just 200m or so from a beach resort, is a building of modest size and its exhibits are all interpreted in Spanish only. The curators probably never expected an influx of English speaking visitors! We spent maybe an hour there, Lazaro doing much interpretation as we wandered around with our whisperers.

Warm and sunny on our vist to the Bay of Pigs.

Outside the Invasion Museum at Girón.

One interesting learning from this museum was that Castro's base for the defence of Cuba during the invasion was the nearby tiny sugar-mill township of Australia. It seems that sugar mills in that area at least were named after continents!

When US-backed forces attempted to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, the Caribbean nation's revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, orchestrated his nation's response from Australia. The Australia Township, an old sugar town about 140 kilometres south-east of Havana in the province of Matanzas, is a place far removed from Cuba's tourism hotspots. http://www.traveller.com.au

On the morning of our visit to the Bay of Pigs, we had to get up well before dawn for some first light birding with a local guide. Our buses stopped by the side of a road (Zapata?) and we trooped into what looked like private properties and areas of nature reserve. As we walked around in the dawn hours, property owners sometimes walked around with us, othertimes ignored us.

Grey-Headed Quail Dove (Jerry Oldenettel). We saw him clearly, but it was too dark for us to get an unblurred shot of this fellow.

Same with the blue-headed quail dove. What a face! (Jerry Oldenettel)

The guide was very knowledgeable, and knew exactly where to go. But, it's one thing to see exotic birds, entirely another to get good photos of them. There is no greater challenge in photography than birds in the wild. Dim and speckled light make matters worse. We have had to use some pics from the internet to show the species that we did see. And some of the birds we did capture in the lens are of unknown species - too many different birds too quickly, we're afraid.

Cuban Trogon, the country's national bird. We got a shot, but not as good as this one! (Wikipedia)

Vegetable patch in the bird watching grounds.

We've forgotten what this fellow is.

Another unknown species to us, but what a nice face!

Lazaro pointing a bird out for Rodrigo to video.

Nice coat, but what is he?

We had two Dave's in our group who were specialist birders and ornithologists. They could certainly identify the birds we saw, but unfortunately we have separated from them now. One was Dave Cothran, who lives in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, a delightful guy who was so enthusiastic about every species we saw. The other Dave was a co-expeditioner from New Jersey, a practiced bird watcher whose commentary could guide you through the trees and foliage to any hard-to-spot example. Dave would sit on the deck of the Pano Rama II for hours on end enjoying the sea birds he spotted.

Cuban endemic, camera-shy, bare legged screech owl. This is our photo, and we haven't found a better one!

The absolute highlight of this birdwatching day was a visit to a private house we simply called the humming bird house in a tiny town called Palpite near Playa Girón. This house had a particular (unknown species) tree in its back yard, described only by Dave C as "having red flowers". But this tree attracted humming birds, including and especially the Cuban bee hummingbird, not only endemic to Cuba but also the smallest bird in the world.

The red flower of the mysterious humming bird tree.

Our best shot of the tiny bee humming bird.

The bee humming bird is hardly bigger than a bee - Dave said it was the size of your thumb from the first knuckle and "weighed less than an American penny". But it attracts a lot of excitement. And, at this tree, we saw plenty of them, as well as the similar, slightly larger and easier to find emerald humming birds. We were so close to these tiny little guys that our whole group (about 20) was mesmerised. That doesn't mean we got any good photos - these little fellows dart around so fast with their wings beating at amazing speeds, they definitely don't pose for you. They can hover, but only do so for a second or less, and they can fly backwards.

What a stunning little guy is the Bee Hummingbird. (Wikipedia)

Male Cuban Emerald. We saw many of these at the humming bird tree. (Wikipedia)

Rodrigo Marra, the expedition video chronicler from Brazil, showed us how he tries to capture a bee humming bird. Simply, he focuses on a particular flower, and prays that a bird will come to it. The birds do seem to follow particular routes, but we don't think he had much success that day.

This unnamed tree has turned one family's backyard into a nice little earner. We suppose any horticulturist worth his salt could identify the tree, and no doubt there are plenty other such trees, but it's this house that has come to the attention of Lindblad National Geographic trip planners.

Rather humble looking accommodation at Palpite, but spruiking lots of facilities.

Garage door in Palpite.

As we bussed back to Cienfuegos, Dave wrapped up the day for us. Cuba has 25 endemic bird species, nowhere else in the world can they be seen, and today we saw 10 of them! He reckoned that made a pretty good day's birding!