I woke early as I had a number of things to sort out before I left the flat to drop the bags with Oceanwide Expeditions. A quick scan of the quay confirmed the Ortelius was tied up.
Ortelius is the middle ship on the right hand jetty
As previously mentioned in an earlier Blog Post, this is a flat I wouldn't recommend. However, it had one positive thing, it was only a ten minute walk to drop the bags off. I then headed off to the Urban Reserve which is next to the city.
The view of the Urban Reserve from the flat
There is a raw look to the Urban Reserve: However, the scenery behind is stunning
I'm sure I would find similar raw-looking areas next to some of the high Arctic towns
There was a selection of Ducks on the water, which included over two hundred Crested Ducks, fifty Flying Steamerducks and a handful of Red Shovelers and Speckled Teal.
Crested Duck: This is the nominate specularioides subspecies which occurs from central Chile & Argentina to Tierra del Fuego & the Falkland Islands
Crested Duck: There is a second subspecies which occurs in the Andes of North Chile & North Argentina to Peru & Bolivia
Flying Steamerduck: This monotypic species occurs in South Chile & South Argentina. They also occur on the Falkland Islands, where they are a scarce species
Flying Steamerduck: Note, the thinner and less orange bills compared to the Flightless Steamerducks
Flying Steamerduck: The males also have darker heads than Flightless Steamerducks
Red Shoveler: This monotypic Duck is probably my favourite of the Latin American Wildfowl. They occur from South Peru & South Brazil to Tierra del Fuego & the Falkland Islands
Night Heron: Adult. This is the obscurus subspecies which occurs from North Chile & North-central Argentina to Tierra del Fuego. There are two other New World subspecies to the North of this subspecies and on the Falkland Islands, respectively
Night Heron: Another adult
After the lake at the Urban Reserve, I walked along the path next to the stream that flows into the lake. It didn't take long to find a feeding Magellanic Snipe. They are very approachable compared to our Snipe, which typically would have flushed as soon as it saw me.
Magellanic Snipe: This is the nominate magellanica subspecies which occurs from central Chile & Argentina to Tierra del Fuego & the Falkland Islands
There was a party of three Long-tailed Meadowlarks at the end of the stream, as well as, a Chimango Caracara and a few Southern Lapwings by the houses that are adjacent to the Southern end of the reserve.
Long-tailed Meadowlark: This is the nominate loyca subspecies which occurs in Chile & Eastern Argentina as far South as Tierra del Fuego
Long-tailed Meadowlark: Two other subspecies occur in the North West of Argentina, with a third subspecies on the Falkland Islands
Long-tailed Meadowlark: This looks to be a display, as I saw two different individuals in this posture
Chimango Caracara: This is the temucoensis subspecies which occurs from South Chile & South Argentina to Tierra del Fuego
Southern Lapwing: This is the fretensis subspecies which occurs in South Chile & South Argentina. It always surprised me, how happy Southern Lapwings were on unfenced garden lawns. I saw few cats in Argentina and dog ownership wasn't high in Ushuaia, with many walked on leads. That scenario would be fantastic in the UK, but sadly it will never happen
As I reached the far corner of the Urban Reserve, it was good to see this old Argentinian Patrol Boat. It looked like she was being restored. Having checked since I got home, she was an American Fast Patrol Boat built during WW2 for deployment in the Pacific. After WW2, she was one of ten Fast Patrol Boats sold to the Argentinian Navy and in service up to 1984. After that she was used as a storage vessel, with most of the internal compartments removed. It is good to see that the Maritime Museum of Ushuaia is working closely with the Navy to restore her to her former glory. There still looks to be a lot of work to complete. However, there has been excellent progress to get her back to looking this good, from the sorry state as a glorified storage container.
Fast Patrol Boat A.R.A. Towora
It was lunchtime and time for me to head towards the port to board the Ortelius. I will cover the rest of the day in the next Blog Post.
