Day 8 - Feb 22

Feb. 22 AM - If you look carefully at the map, you'll see a forked itinerary. Only one of the two 'tines' of that fork is correct. (If any of the trip participants is reading this and can correct this info, I'd be most grateful!) The problem comes from the reality that A) we went to a town called Najasa this day and B) there are two towns of that name within driving distance of Camagüey! I think we went to the town noted by the bigger of the 2 dots. One of the birds we were hoping to find there was the Palm Crow, a slightly smaller version of the Cuban Crow. The Palm Crow is now considered to be endemic to Cuba and has a voice that is very 'crow-like,' similar to that of the Fish Crow found in the eastern US. (On the other hand, the voice of the Cuban Crow was, I thought, a delight to hear. When I heard one calling, I couldn't help but smile, and often laugh. 

So we drove south to (one of the 2) Najasa and began walking on the road near open country with many Royal Palms. Numerous lovely warblers - the neotropical migrants we were noting - were in abundance. As we walked, William played recordings of the voice of the Palm Crow. After about 30 minutes, we heard, then saw, 2 of them, and then 2 more. They were calling and seemed to be responding to the recordings, perhaps wondering who the interlopers were. They were always high in the Royal Palms and fairly far away, but, with the aid of the spotting scopes, we had excellent views of them.