The Winter of 2022 - 2023 has seen three C19 delayed big trips finally happen. The first was the seven week trip to Indonesia with Bird Tour Asia. Argentina was the start of the second big trip, which was a superb Oceanwide Expeditions trip to the Falklands, South Georgia & Antarctica on board the Plancius. I had decided to use some of a large saved collection of Air Miles to travel out to Buenos Aires, but I had been unable to get a flight close to when I wanted to fly down to Ushuaia. The result was I arrived in Buenos Aires with three days before I was booked to fly South. I wasn't particularly worried about this stop over, as it would give me the chance for some Birding in this part of Argentina again. I had spent five weeks flying & driving around a lot of Argentina in Nov & early Dec 1998 with Brian Field, Jem Babbington & Jon Braggs. We spent a few days travelled from Buenos Aires to the Mar del Plata coastline. My plan for this return trip was to retrace part of this route and to focus on looking for the two likely Ticks: South American Painted Snipe and Red-winged Tinamou.
The flight out was enjoyable as by chance I was sitting next to Katie Dyke, who worked for Whale & Dolphin Conservation in Scotland. She was heading out to see a friend who was studying Commerson's Dolphin: a gorgeous Dolphin that we had a chance of seeing in the Falklands. It provided a good chance to have a chat about one of our favourite subjects: Cetaceans. Hopefully, she had more success on her trip, than I did on the Plancius. Some of the passengers did see them in the Port Stanley area, but I was always in the wrong part of the town.
The flight arrived into Buenos Aires at breakfast time & I was quickly heading off in my hired car to the first site, Laguna San Vincente, to look for a South American Painted Snipe that had been seen after Christmas.
There was a good selection of typical Buenos Aires waterside and parkland species on the reasonable-sized lake. The water was a long way from the nearest reeds and a good scan confirmed that there was no sign of the South American Painted Snipe.
I decided to cut my losses & after stocking up on some food and drink from a nearby supermarket, I was quickly heading on to the other site I had. Again, there had been a South American Painted Snipe after Christmas at the second and much larger lake, San Miguel del Monte, which was on the edge of Buenos Aires.
This looked a more hopeful area with reeds extending to the water's edge. But it was a very large area, with only parts visible from roads. I spent several hours enjoying the area, but unfortunately, I drew a blank on the South American Painted Snipe.
It was now around lunchtime & I still had a 250 mile drive to get down to Mar Chiquita, which was North of Mar del Plata coastline. The drive took me through large areas of Pampas. There were a few roadside stops to have a quick look at pools in the fields. It was already dark before I arrived at the urban sprawl of Mar del Plata. I headed North along the coastline, looking for some accommodation for the night. In hindsight, trying to find a last minute hotel room in the middle of the Argentinian summer period was not going to be an easy task. Eventually, I stumbled on a campsite in Mar Chiquita & that was perfect. A few minutes later, I was getting ready for a night's sleep in the car: this is my preferred option rather than camping.