28 Dec 25 - Turkey Or Goose For Post-Christmas

If we were talking food, it would be neither for me as a life-long vegetarian. However, if they are live, then Goose sounds the better option: especially, if they are part of a national influx of Tundra Bean Geese and White-fronted Geese. The Poole Harbour WeBS team had arranged a WeBS count at ten to get everybody off their sofas after the Christmas break. Soon after I got home from counting my Brands Bay section, my phone pinged to say that a flock of five Tundra Bean Geese had been found, along with a much larger flock of White-fronted Geese. They were feeding in a field on the Ridge to Arne road. I decided to defer lunch and I headed back out. I arrived just after one and the field was typically empty. I say this as I've passed that field many times in the last nearly thirty years of living locally and rarely seen anything in it. There were a few of the local Birders waiting. I parked up and joined them. The Geese had been there, but they were spooked by a plane and had disappearing onto the new pools on Arne Moors. After about five minutes, the first party of White-fronted Geese reappeared.

White-fronted Goose: These are the nominate albifrons subspecies which breed in North Russia, eastward to North East Siberia. They winter in Europe, South Asia, North India, South China & Japan

White-fronted Goose: White-fronted Geese use to regularly winter in Dorset & Hampshire in the 80s and I regularly saw flocks of up to two hundred and fifty in the Hampshire parts of the Avon Valley in the early 80s. Sadly, those numbers are a thing of the past, due to climate change and probably other factors like population numbers. There were still up to twenty-three visiting the Poole Harbour area in some years in the first decade of this century. However, those numbers have dwindled to erratic individuals in a good year, between several years of absence. Therefore, a flock of this size is noteworthy

White-fronted Goose: It was also good to see youngsters in the flock with their more uniform underparts, with the adults having barred bellies and more extensive white at the base of the bill

White-fronted Goose: This flock continued to increase in the first half of Jan when it peaked at forty-four individuals

White-fronted Goose: They are noticeably smaller than this presumed local Greylag Goose

Within a few minutes, the Tundra Bean Geese family dropped in along with the rest of the thirty-eight White-fronted Geese. We were at the start of a cold snap which clearly had been very hard in neighbouring Europe and there was an unprecedented arrival of the two species throughout Southern England.

Tundra Bean Goose

Tundra Bean Goose

Tundra Bean Goose

Barnacle Goose: Soon after this Barnacle Goose flew in to join the White-fronted Geese

Barnacle Goose: It's not unusual to see a flock of Barnacle Geese passing through Poole Harbour towards the Fleet in the last couple of decades. These flocks aren't annual, but they occur often enough these days to not be as noteworthy as the Tundra Bean Geese and White-fronted Geese

Barnacle Goose: This is an immature individual and presumably it arrived with the Tundra Bean Geese and White-fronted Geese. We sometimes have lone individuals appearing in Poole Harbour, however, they are typically adults

The remarkable thing is I've don't remember seeing Geese in this field in the past and after some Greylag Geese and Canada Geese flew in, I was watching five different species of Geese feeding in the field. I added a few Egyptian Geese on the next visit. It is one of two short grassy fields next to the extensive land management work that has been going on for over two years on the adjacent Arne Moors, to create new inter-tidal marshes which will help to alleviate flood risk in the forthcoming decades to Poole and Wareham. Hopefully, this will be the first of many interesting Bird sightings in this area in the next few years.

This unremarkable-looking field might be set to become a lot more interesting now Arne Moors is being improved

25 Dec 25 - A Nice Christmas Present

During Christmas morning, I looked out of the living room window and saw there was a Sparrowhawk about four metres from the window looking at me. It was sitting on a low Pittosporum bush, which has been popular with the occasional visiting Blackcap feeding on the bush's red berries. Additionally, my local House Sparrows and Dunnocks can often be seen moving within the bush.

Sparrowhawk: I'm quite impressed with this photo considering it was taken through a double-glazed window

The Sparrowhawk spent a few minutes looking around and when it didn't see any targets, it finally flew out down my neighbour's drive.

Sparrowhawk

This Blackcap might have been what the Sparrowhawk was after. One appeared around mid-Dec and I've seen the odd visitor since then. On the day this photo was taken, I had my highest garden total with a male Blackcap and three Browncaps in the Pittosporum.

Blackcap: It's difficult to be sure if this is a female or a first winter male (12 Jan 26)

25 Dec 25 - Happy Christmas 25

Happy Christmas 25 to all the readers of the Blog

Chinstrap Penguin: Deception Island, South Shetlands, Antarctica

14 Dec 25 - Patagonia 25 - A Long Drive South

After spending the morning exploring dirt tracks to the South of Chasico on my Pampas Meadowlark quest, I finally got back onto tarmac roads near to Bahia Blanca. It was now lunchtime and I had a four hundred and fifty mile drive South to Trelew for the lunchtime flight on the following day. Fortunately, it was a good and generally quiet highway. I made a quick stop at a salt lake near to Bahia Blanca, which hosted a large flock of over two hundred and fifty Baird's Sandpipers.

Baird's Sandpiper

A few miles after the salt lake, there was a roadside pool with a reasonable selection of Waterbirds to make it worth a quick stop.

Chilean Flamingo: This is the widespread Flamingo in South America and the monotypic species occurs from the Andes of the South of South America to South Brazil & South Argentina

Coscoroba Swan: This monotypic species occurs from South Brazil to Paraguay, Uruguay, Tierra del Fuego & the Falkland Islands

Black-necked Stilt: This is the melanurus subspecies which occurs from inland central Peru & Bolivia to South East Brazil, South-central Chile & Argentina

The next stop was around Parque Eolico Villalonga, which is a wind farm about sixty miles North of Viedma. This was a local eBird hotspot for Hellmayr's Pipit around the wind farm. There must be an engineer who sees them there. I spent about thirty minutes looking in the wider area, but I drew a blank. Time was pressing and I needed to continue South. My final stop was for a roadside comfort break when I was back in the arid habitat near San Antonio Oeste. This is similar habitat to Las Grutas. There were a few Birds around, including my final Tick of the Argentinian trip: a Tufted Tit-spinetail. I nipped back to the car for the camera, but I couldn't relocate it when I returned to look for it.

Brown-hooded Gull: There were a few Brown-hooded Gulls in the garage the following morning. They breed in inland & coastal South East Brazil, central Chile & Argentina South to Tierra del Fuego & the Falkland Islands

I continued driving South until dusk, when I was about sixty miles North of Puerto Rawson. I found another large garage to park up in for the night. It was an early start on the following morning to get to the Commerson's Dolphin rib office, in case they were planning on going to sea. Unfortunately, they were closed up again. I spent a couple of hours exploring the coastline for Commerson's Dolphins with no success.

The big Dinosaur was still showing well on the edge of Trelew

My final Birding stop was Laguna Chiquichano in Trelew. There were some eBird records for Red-crested Cardinal, which I've only seen as introductions in Hawaii. I didn't have any success. It was time to head to the airport to return the car and check in for my flight back to Buenos Aires.

Laguna Chiquichano

This was a great display to see at the airport: Albeit the live moggie that was curled up in the display area looked unrealistic

The Jet Smart flight left on time for Buenos Aires and it was a good flight back. The only snag was the Trelew flights were from the domestic airport, which had worked well with the flight back from Ushuaia, but I needed to get a coach back to the international airport on the far side of the city. Thanks to the traffic it was a slow journey. Once at the international airport, I arranged a pick up from the owner of the private house, that I had stayed with on my first night in Argentina. The following morning, I was dropped back at the international airport for the flight back to the UK. It had been a great trip.

The Club de Pescadores building is at the start of a long pier: You pass this interesting building as you arrive or depart the domestic airport

In hindsight, I should probably have considered staying in Argentina for another ten days and trying to catch up with a few more species that I had missed on my first Argentinian trip in 1998. But that would have made it an even more expensive trip, so perhaps the short Patagonian dash was the right move.

14 Dec 25 - Patagonia 25 - A Morning In The Pampas

I was down to my last full day of Birding on my whistle-stop return trip to Patagonia. I had booked the flight home a week before Christmas to grab one of the last reasonably priced tickets. But as the Antarctica trip was a last minute decision to book, I hadn't really planned what I would do in Patagonia. Initially I planned the time to look for Commerson's Dolphins around Puerto Rawson. Having managed to bump into them in the Beagle Channel, I could focus on other options. The main target was the Franciscana Dolphins which I had seen at the El Condor River mouth, near Viedma on the previous afternoon. This gave me the time for a long three hours drive North to look for the range-restricted Pampas Meadowlark near Bahia Blanca. I ran out of light before I reached Bahia Blanca and I had pulled over soon after dark at a large garage for the night, about one hundred miles short of Bahia Blanca. I left at first light for the final leg of the drive.

The Pampas around Chasico

After reaching Bahia Blanca, I headed out North West on RN35 before turning right to the small settlement of Chasico. This seemed to be the best option to try and see some Pampas Meadowlarks. This scarce range-restricted species is vastly outnumbered by the commoner Long-tailed Meadowlarks. To add to the challenge the area has many miles of similar-looking arable fields and separating the two species isn't straight-forward. Pampas Meadowlark are a bit smaller than Long-tailed Meadowlarks, with a shorter tail and shorter, straighter bill. Plumage-wise, they have a deeper crimson throat and breast, with a narrower black border and a rounded lower edge to the breast. They are best told in flight, when its possible to see their diagnostic black underwing. The first thing was to look at lots of Long-tailed Meadowlarks to get my eye in on them.

Long-tailed Meadowlark: There was some variation in the Long-tailed Meadowlarks as they were a mixture of adults and immatures sitting on the fence posts. This is the nominate loyca subspecies which occurs in Chile & Eastern Argentina as far South as Tierra del Fuego

White-browed Blackbird: This monotypic species occurs from South East Peru to Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil & North Argentina

I took the dirt track back towards Bahia Blanca and it was a case of stopping and grilling every Long-tailed Meadowlark party, whilst driving miles through identical-looking fields. After a couple of hours of looking and one candidate that disappeared before I could confirm it, I finally found a Pampas Meadowlark, which I was happy was the real deal. Unfortunately, it flew to another fence post about two hundred metres back on the private ranch, before I could get any photos. I continued to watch it for a few minutes with the telescope, but it didn't move back towards the dirt track. It was time to move on. It took me another hour of driving before I ended up back onto a tarmac road. There were plenty of other Birds along these dirt tracks, however, I didn't spent long on photographing them.

Greater Rhea: This is the albescens subspecies which occurs in the Pampas of Argentina South to the Rio Negro

Spotted Tinamou: They are also known as Spotted Nothura. This is the annectens subspecies which occurs in the moist grasslands of East Argentina

Crested Caracara: This is the plancus subspecies previously known as Southern Crested Caracara which occurs from the Amazon basin to East Peru, Tierra del Fuego & the Falklands. It has now been relumped with Crested Caracara which occurs as far North to the Southern United States & some of the Caribbean Islands

Chimango Caracara: This is the nominate chimango subspecies that occurs from South Brazil & Paraguay to central Argentina & central Chile

Burrowing Owl: This is the nominate cunicularia subspecies which occurs from South Bolivia, South Brazil & Paraguay to Tierra del Fuego

Burrowing Owl: They are normally happy to post for a photo, but not this one

Campo Flicker: This is the campestroides subspecies which occurs from South Paraguay to South East Brazil, Uruguay & North Argentina

As I was driving back to Bahia Blanca on the dirt tracks, I stopped to photograph a Pipit on a fence post. This time I took some photos before looking at it properly. It proved fortunate that I did, as it flew off, before I could have done both. When I was sorting out the photos, it was a pleasant surprise to find it was a Chaco Pipit: which was a bonus Tick.

Chaco Pipit: They are also known as Pampas Pipit. This monotypic species occurs locally in the Chaco of East Paraguay & North Argentina

Correndera Pipit: This is the nominate correndera subspecies which occurs from coastal South East Brazil to Uruguay, Paraguay & North Argentina. It was photographed later in the day near to the Parque Eolico Villalonga wind farm on the drive South to Trelew and provides a useful comparison of the Chaco Pipit to this widespread species

Finally, I was back at Bahia Blanca. The next challenge was the four hundred and fifty mile drive South to Trelew to catch my lunchtime plane back to Buenos Aires on the next day. There wasn't any time to lose in heading South, but I had a bit of time for some quick roadside stops. I will cover the last part of the trip in the final Blog Post.

13 Dec 25 - Patagonia 25 - Franciscana Dolphin

I had started the first full day of my mini-break in Patagonia in the dunes a few miles to the South of Las Grutas. After seeing a few Ticks here, I had driven West to the town of Viedma, before heading along the Southern side of the Rio Negro river to the small coastal town of Balneario El Condor. As I reached the outskirts, I turned left to the hamlet of El Pescadero. Tall dunes separate the Rio Negro estuary from the approach road.

The view across the Rio Negro from the El Pescadero dunes

Whilst looking for information on possible sites to see Commerson's Dolphin in Argentina, I found a Mammal report by Dominique Brugiere, which said that the Rio Negro estuary was a good place to look for Franciscana Dolphins. Obviously, I was keen to look for a new Cetacean and this was one of my key targets for the Patagonian section of my trip. I arrived about 17:30 and was quickly looking from the top of the dunes. The river is about a half mile across, before it broadens out into the estuary just down river of El Pescadero. The top of the dunes provided a good viewpoint.

Looking towards the Rio Negro estuary from the El Pescadero dunes

Within a few minutes a head popped up. Unfortunately, it was just a South American Sealion. I took a few photos then carried on looking.

South American Sealion

Chimango Caracara: I didn't see a lot of Birds from the Dunes save this Chimango Caracara, flocks of Burrowing Parrots and a few distant expected river species like Neotropic Cormorants and Gulls

Chimango Caracara: This is the temucoensis subspecies which occurs from South Chile & South Argentina to Tierra del Fuego & the Cape Horn Archipelago

After about fifteen more minutes of looking, I spotted a pale dorsal fin appear in the centre of the river and downstream of my position. It was unobtrusive and quickly disappeared. However, I was sure that was going to turn out to be a Franciscana Dolphin. After a bit of searching, I managed to confirm there were two Franciscana Dolphins and to watch them in the telescope. It reminded me of the pair of Amazon River Dolphins I had seen on the River Orinoco in Venezuela back in Apr 1999, which were feeding unobtrusively in the river and just breaking the surface to breath. These Franciscana Dolphins had a similar behaviour to their riverine cousins, whilst having adapted to live in a much more saline environment.

Franciscana Dolphin: They are a pale grey colouration with a fairly triangular dorsal fin

I had expected that I would have to spend several hours that evening and the following morning to look for the Franciscana Dolphins. Seeing them quickly was a real bonus, as it would allow me to move on in search of the last target species I had considered for this Patagonian leg.

Franciscana Dolphin: They are also known as La Plata Dolphins and they occur from the La Plata area to the East of Buenos Aires to the Rio Negro

Franciscana Dolphin: This is my forty-sixth species of Cetacean. The Handbook of the Marine Mammals of the World Ed 2 lists eighty-nine extant species, but two or three have since been described since this was published

Franciscana Dolphin

Franciscana Dolphin: Finally, they appeared closer than a half mile away. However, it was a brief set of surfacing and this was the only photo I managed to get

I walked back to car via a different route and I saw a few local Birds and some Cavys. The identification of these small Rodents isn't straight-forward, but Southern Mountain Cavy seems to be the regular local species.

Picazuro Pigeon: This is the nominate picazuro subspecies which occurs from East Brazil & Bolivia to South-central Argentina

Chalk-browed Mockingbird: This is the modulator subspecies which occurs from South East Bolivia to South Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay & North Argentina

Southern Mountain Cavy: I saw several of this cute Guinea Pig-sized Rodent

Southern Mountain Cavy

After having my fill of views of the Franciscana Dolphins, it was time to continue heading North. First I had to back track to Viedma to cross over the Rio Negro. There were a couple of Patagonian Maras feeding in the fields next to road.

Patagonian Mara: I remember seeing several around the Valdez Peninsula on my first trip in 1998. These two were the only ones I saw on this short Patagonian trip

Patagonian Mara: They are one of the largest Rodents, standing about eighteen inches tall at the shoulder

The sat nav took me across this lovely old bridge in Viedma

I got lucky while looking for fuel in Viedma, when I found this old historical train by the roadside on Juan de la Piedra, in the Northern suburbs of Viedma.

The historical locomotive, La Maragata: The train is close to the Carmen De Patagones station

The historical locomotive, La Maragata: She dates back to 1922 and was built in the UK. She was designated a historical monument in 1970

I carried on driving North towards my next destination near the large town of Bahia Blanca. This was about three hours drive away, however, I pulled over soon after dark at a large garage for the night, about one hundred miles short of Bahia Blanca. The lights on the hire car weren't great. I decided to get some sleep and start at first light for the final leg of the drive. It had been a long, but worthwhile day.