25 Nov 23 - A Long Overdue Dorset Tick

I had spent the morning having a good look around a few sites at Studland, but I hadn't found anything of note and decided to head home for an early lunch. I had just finished eating, when Phil Saunders rang to say news had just broken on a Weymouth Whatsapp group of an American Golden Plover at Lodmoor. With only five previous records and none being twitchable since I've lived in Dorset, then I was phoning the news around locally, as I was heading out of the door. Local Purbeck Birder James Leaver had arrived a few minutes earlier than me & as I got there I could see his camera raised: it was clearly still here. He pointed out which part of the five hundred or so Golden Plover flock to look in & I was quickly watching it.

American Golden Plover: With a Golden Plover for comparison

It was an aggressive individual and didn't like the Golden Plovers getting too close to it. The darker crown and whiter line over the eye, dark ear covert spot, greyer more washed out colouration, lack of clear spotting on the breast and smaller size all helped to pick it out from the immaculately marked Golden Plovers. There was an interesting Golden Plover photographed the next day at Lodmoor which was washed out & didn't have any obvious golden spots which hoodwinked a few observers: but the other plumage features still confirmed it was just a washed out Golden Plover.

American Golden Plover

American Golden Plover: A teasing underwing shot

American Golden Plover: The dusky patch at the base of the underwing is one of those ID features that can be tricky to see

American Golden Plover: About the best I could do for an upperwing shot

In comparison, Golden Plovers have a nice white underwing.

Golden Plover: Showing the nice white underwing, while the American Golden Plover, to its left, is doing its best to remain uninterested

Golden Plover: Showing the nice white underwing

Golden Plover

Finally, a Pacific Golden Plover taken within a few days of the date of the Lodmoor photos, but nine years earlier in French Polynesia. I still find it hard to think that when I started Birding that American Golden Plover were lumped with Pacific Golden Plover and called Lesser Golden Plover.

Pacific Golden Plover: Mangareva, French Polynesia (20 Nov 14)

9 Jan 23 - Argentina - Going Inland

After having an early morning look around the small coastal town of Mar Chiquita, I carried on to explore the neighbouring small coastal town of Mar de Coba.

Great Kiskadee: This is the argentinus subspecies which occurs from extreme South East Brazil to East Paraguay, Uruguay & central Argentina

There was a reasonable-sized lake in Mar de Coba, with more of the Wetland species I had seen on the previous day. It was good to see Southern Lapwings breeding on some of the front garden lawns, which was an indication of the respect the locals had for their local wildlife and also the lack of garden cats.

Southern Lapwing: Feeding on a front lawn & looking after its offspring

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

It was time to head to check out the large cattle estancias inland from the Mar Chiquita area. I had a number of eBird locations where Red-winged Tinamous has been seen, but it was clearly going to be a hit & miss species and it appeared that some of these sightings had occurred when a Birder had been surveying private estancias.

A typical view one of the from the dirt tracks

Over the next half day, I drove on a set of sandy dirt tracks for about thirty miles, before finally reaching a tarmac road on the edge of the small town of Coronel Vidal. The tracks wound between large estancias. There were many large grassy fields with a few wet marshy pools along the route. The long rank grassland and ditches between the track and the boundary fence provided plenty of habitat for a good variety of Pampas species. It was a stark contrast with many arable and cattle farms in the UK where sadly the birdlife is struggling.

One of the many Pampas roadside fields

American Golden Plover: I found one large ploughed field near the start of the dirt tracks which contained over thirty wintering American Golden Plovers

Guira Cuckoo: This monotypic species occurs from North East Brazil to Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay & central Argentina

Fork-tailed Flycatcher: An adult with two young nearby

Fork-tailed Flycatcher: The recently fledged two youngsters

Fork-tailed Flycatcher: Another nest. This is the nominate savana subspecies which breeds in central & Southern South America. The Southern populations are migratory and Winter in Northern South America

Brown-and-yellow Marshbird: This monotypic species occurs from extreme South Brazil & Uruguay to North Argentina

Brown-and-yellow Marshbird: Another individual

Brown-and-yellow Marshbird: A third individual

White-browed Blackbird: This is the obscurus subspecies which occurs from extreme South East Peru to Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil & North Argentina

Long-tailed Meadowlark: This is the obscurus subspecies which occurs in central Argentina

Bay-winged Cowbird: The juvenile Screaming Cowbirds look very similar to Bay-winged Cowbirds (AKA Greyish Baywing). The bill shape is one of the key features and gives this away as a Bay-winged Cowbird. This is the nominate badius subspecies which occurs from East Bolivia to Paraguay, Uruguay & North Argentina

This was only a few of the species seen along the dirt tracks through the cattle estancias. More photos will be included in the next Blog Post.

16 Mar 18 - Chile: Halfway to Everest (Lauca National Park): Part 2 Parinacota

The previous Post had covered many of the Landbirds at Lauca National Park. This Post covers the Waterbirds. There were a number of scattered large pools & lakes near the small settlement of Parinacota. Many were distance & realistically I could only scan from the road. I could see good numbers of Andean Geese & other Waterfowl on these lakes or the wet bogs near them. There were many youngsters & I didn't fancy walking out as it was likely to disturb them. I spent a lot of time slowly scanning the whole area hoping I would see a Diameded Sandpiper-plover, but couldn't find any. I reckoned I could spend a long time walking about around the lakes trying to find a DSP. In the end, I hoped retracing my route to the first bog before returning to Parinacota again might be a more successful use of my limited time. It probably was, but it didn't produce a DSP. But there were a few new Waterbirds & Waders to photograph.

Silvery Grebe

Speckled Teal

Giant Coot: Juvenile

American Golden Plover

Andean Lapwing

Grey-breasted Seedsnipe: Male

Grey-breasted Seedsnipe: Male. It is a pity about the wire fence

Least Sandpiper

There were also a couple of Mammals around Parinacota: Vicunas & the bizarre Southern Viscacha.

Vicuna

Southern Viscacha: Although, this looks like a large Hare, it is actually a large Rodent. The body is around 16 inches long & the heaviest Southern Viscachas have been 3 Kg

Southern Viscacha: They like these rocky moist slopes at elevations over 2500 metres & occur from Southern Peru to Western Bolivia, Northern & Central Chile & Western Argentina

Southern Viscacha: This looks to be a perfect life for a Southern Viscacha

Southern Viscacha

By mid-afternoon, I had been up & down the road in Lauca National Park twice & spent a lot of time scanning all the bogs. I had failed to find any Diademed Sandpiper-plovers. It had been a good day in the park. It had clouded over & become a lot colder. So, I decided to head back to Putre & spend an hour or two checking one of the other dry valleys. However, by the time I reached Putre, cold steady rain had set in & I ditched the Birding plan. After a visit to the cafe for a very late lunch, I left for the coast as I was booked into a hotel in Arica that evening. My original plan for the North had been for two nights at Putre. Having seen the hotel, I wasn't worried I had revised the plan back in Jan to only spent a single night there. After I had booked all the flights & sorted the hotels, I heard I could get a morning's pelagic out of Arica & it was planned for the following morning: hence my early departure for the coast. I had cut my time at Putre & Lauca for the pelagic. I reached Arica just after dark, found my hotel & checked in. Then I headed out again to look for the departure point for the Pelagic. We were leaving just as it got light & I needed to ensure I knew where I was going in the morning. Departure point sorted, it was time to get an early night as it was going to be an early start in the morning.