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.

9 Jan 23 - Argentina - The Burrowing Owl Town

I had had a good night's sleep in the car at a campsite in the small town of Mar Chiquita on the Atlantic coast. I was up at first light & was greeted by a calling Chimango Caracara near to the car. It was clearly going to be a nice day, albeit with strong sunlight.

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

Chimango Caracara: They are a common species and I bumped into the next individual just outside of the campsite

After a quick breakfast, I was heading out to explore the coastal areas around Mar Chiquita. The small town has two rivers that runs into the larger river and the sea, as well as, some good-looking coastal beaches and mud flats. It looks a nice place to live for a Birder & where the locals were tolerant of their local wildlife.

Southern Lapwing: This is the lampronotus subspecies which occurs South of the Amazon & East of the Andes to South Uruguay & central Argentina

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

There was a dirt track along the side of one of the coastal rivers which had a good selection of species.

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

Hudsonian Godwit: This monotypic species breeds in Alaska and Northern Canada & winters in Chile & Argentina. Note, the stronger supercilium compared to our similar-looking Black-tailed Godwit. In flight, their black underwing gives them away

Black Skimmer: This is the intercedens subspecies which occurs from East Brazil to Paraguay, Uruguay & North East Argentina

There was a good selection of species on the mudflats at low tide, but all too far for photos. Then I ran into the local celebrities. It was good to see how the locals were looking after them.

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

Burrowing Owl: They are quite happy dozing during the day as long as their partner is awake

Burrowing Owl: Just in case it wasn't obvious that they were protected

Burrowing Owl: The protected nest site is next to one of the dirt roads in the small town

Burrowing Owl: When I checked Google Maps, I found that I could see the Burrowing Owl pair & their nest site on Google Maps (Copyright Google Maps)

It was time to leave the Mar Chiquita area & explore further in the hope of seeing a Red-winged Tinamou: which was the Tick I was hoping to see in this area of the Argentinian coastline.