1 Dec 25 - Argentina 25 - A Final Walk Around Ushuaia

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: Juv

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

Magellanic Snipe

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.

26 Mar 18 - On The Waterfront

After spending most of the day at the Garibaldi Pass looking for White-bellied Seedsnipe, Tony, Glenn & I decided to head back to the car & try & find some food given it was mid afternoon. By the time we had found a café & had some food, the rain had settled in. The best option at this point, was to head back to Ushuaia & look for some of the coastal species. No chance of any new Ticks for me, but neither Tony nor Glenn had been to Ushuaia before, so there were plenty of potential Ticks for them. Plus a waterfront with views where you can scan from a car is always a good option in the rain, in my opinion.

Dolphin Gull: Adult. Looks good for a Seagull

Dolphin Gull: Teenager

At another stop we found these two sleeping Ducks: unfortunately in a position where it was not easy to properly judge the relative wing length. However, looking at the photos then I think they are Flying Steamerducks as the wing appears to be relatively long, the bill is not particularly thick and the body feathers have reddish-brown edges to them (instead of greyish edges).

Flying Steamerduck: Well actually "Sleeping Steamerducks" with a Dolphin Gull trying to photobomb the picture

Flying Steamerduck: Showing the relatively thin bill & reddish-brown edged feathers

Dark-bellied Cinclodes

Dark-bellied Cinclodes

Dark-bellied Cinclodes

The afternoon finished off with a party of 60+ Southern Giant Petrels all hanging around and trying to dominate each other around a water outflow pipe near the port at last light.

Southern Giant Petrel: No problem seeing why these are one of the Tubenose Seabirds. This odd posture seems to be an attempt to dominate the other individuals

Southern Giant Petrel: Another view of the dominating posture

Southern Giant Petrel: The pale green bill with no reddish tip rules out Northern Giant Petrel

Southern Giant Petrel: The darker the head patterns the younger they are

Southern Giant Petrel: Another one coming in to land