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.
