Delana walking on the beach!
The authorities have announced that we can go walking on Wednesdays & Sundays, which is very good news for us! For our first outing, we walked north along the beach & returned through the scrub lands. It was a very pleasant outing, after being cooped up for so long.
Best birds:
106 Crested Duck; 95 Chilean Flamingo; 285 Two-banded Plover; 9 Greater Yellowlegs; 2 Variable Hawk; 2 Short-billed Canastero; 1 Patagonian Canastero; 5 Dark-faced Ground Tyrants; 1 Grey-bellied Shrike- Tyrant.
We walked about 3 kms north from our apartment.
It is great to be
walking again!
Patagonian Steppe: there is an awful lot of it!
17th May we drove south of Las Grutas & explored a track going inland through scrub lands. it was an overcast day & bird activity was quite low.
Best birds:
1 Burrowing Owl; 2 Turkey Vulture; 45 Burrowing Parakeet; 2 Scale-throated Earthcreeper; 2 Short-billed Canastero; 4 White-throated Cacholate; 1 Yellow-billed Tit-Tyrant; 4 Greater Wagtail Tyrant; 1 Common Diuca Finch; 65 Mourning Sierra Finch; 1 Golden-billed Saltator.
We walked up a dry river bed for a while.
Birding was slow & steady,
as winter is setting in now.
Burrowing Parakeets
American Kestrel
Burrowing Owl
White-throated Cacholate
Seems to be reasonably common in this area.
Patagonian Mockingbird
Golden-billed Saltator
Female Mourning Sierra Finch
Common Diuca Finch
as winter is setting in now.
Patagonia is made for social distancing!
A champers lunch on the beach to celebrate!
Cheers!
This is National Route 2 going south!
It was very cold in the morning.
There were 10 Southern Bottle-nosed Dolphins
cruising close inshore.
The weather improved around lunch time so we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach. A nice range of coastal species were seen, best being 2 Royal Tern & 165 Two-banded Plover.
This is National Route 2 going south!
cruising close inshore.
It is 20th May & another day out! We drove south of the dirt track (which is called a coastal road) for about 18 kms before the road ends (for two wheel drive vehicles).
Then we walked along the beach & birded the wave cut platforms & nearby coastal scrub.
Magellanic Penguin
Southern Giant Petrel
Black-necked Swan
Upland Goose
Crested Duck
Peregrine
Two-banded Plover
Dark-faced Ground Tyrant
After about 3 kms. walked up a small coastal canyon where oysters were embedded in the rocks. Walked back home along the beach. What started out as a cold grey day turned into a wonderful warm sunny afternoon & we both had a great time.
A juvenile/immature Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle.
On the way home just a few kilometres south of Las Grutas came across this superb juvenile/immature Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle. A great ending to a lovely day.
It's the 24th May & a Sunday, so we can go walkabout! The only problem is, it is pouring down with rain & blowing a gale! How unfair is that? It starts to ease off, so we drive south along the dirt track again only this time take a small dirt track towards some nearby hills. We get half way there when we come across a locked gate! So we walk back towards the coast & scan the beach & foreshore from the cliffs.
The weather deteriorates even further so we return home early. The birding was quite poor in the conditions with Aplomado Falcon being the best.
Best birds:
66 Crested Duck; 70 American Oystercatcher; 35 Two-banded Plover; 2 Variable Hawk; 2 Southern Caracara; Aplomado Falcon.
It was a very scenic walk.
Some extensive dunes here.
The end of a really nice day out.
The pond next to the sewage works.
Corscoroba Swan
Black-necked Swan
White-tufted Grebe
Silvery Grebe
Limpkin
Crested Duck
Lake Duck
Female/immature plumage
There is some nice Patagonian scrub habitat here
which we didn't bird today.
Common Diuca Finch
Just south of the town & it is wilderness!
It's the 24th May & a Sunday, so we can go walkabout! The only problem is, it is pouring down with rain & blowing a gale! How unfair is that? It starts to ease off, so we drive south along the dirt track again only this time take a small dirt track towards some nearby hills. We get half way there when we come across a locked gate! So we walk back towards the coast & scan the beach & foreshore from the cliffs.
Southern Caracara
The light was very poor.
Chimango Caracara
The weather deteriorates even further so we return home early. The birding was quite poor in the conditions with Aplomado Falcon being the best.
Best birds:
66 Crested Duck; 70 American Oystercatcher; 35 Two-banded Plover; 2 Variable Hawk; 2 Southern Caracara; Aplomado Falcon.
Walking north along the beach.
No problems with social distancing here!
It is Wednesday 27th May, which means we can go walking! Today we chose to walk north along the beach for about 6 kms, then we explored the coastal dunes, before returning along the beach with a short detour through Patagonian scrub habitat. It was a long but exhilarating day out with a couple of avian surprises!
Best birds:
Best birds:
112 Crested Duck; 250 Chilean Flamingo; 128 American Oystercatcher; 355 Two-banded Plover; 3 Brown Skua; 10 Black-browed Albatross; 1 Southern Giant Petrel; 2 Cinereous Harrier; Variable Hawk; 2 Burrowing Owl; 1 Short-eared Owl; 2 Southern Caracara; 7 Chimango Caracara; 36 Burrowing Parakeet; 1 Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail; 1 Short-billed Canastero; 5 Dark-faced Ground Tyrant; 1 Grey-bellied Shrike-Tyrant; 1 White Monjita; 1 Grey-hooded Sierra-Finch; 25 Mourning Sierra-Finch.
A small part of the flock of
8,000 Sooty Shearwaters in the bay.
Brown Skua
Moulting.
Southern Giant Petrel
Scavenging along the shore.
Chilean Flamingo
250 were in the flock.
These birds actually flew towards us!
Short-eared Owl
We flushed one out of the dunes.
Nice to see this species in the New World.
Burrowing Owl
There was a pair in an old quarry in the dunes.
Very charismatic!
Crested Duck
American Oystercatcher
Two-banded Plover
Juvenile
Variable Hawk
Male White-tipped Plantcutter
Female
Grey-bellied Shrike-Tyrant
Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail
which we didn't bird today.
It is Sunday 30th May! That means walkies! Delana found the local sewage works on Google Earth, so we paid that a visit in the morning. The weather was superb & freshwater in this area is very scarce so always worth a look. And so it proved, we had a nice hour or so walking around seeing one or two wetland species that we hadn't recorded before.
Looking south towards the centre of town
It was sunny but quite cold.
There are a series of caves all the way
along the beach.
The birding was average, as too many people around
Delana getting up close!
Kelp Gull eating a large crab.
Southern Lapwing
Immature Black-crowned Night-Heron
This race looks a bit different from what
we are used to seeing.
Late afternoon light.
We then returned home for a late breakfast & walked south along the beach to the centre of town. It was a lovely walk, we really enjoyed being outside & had great weather to boot! Returned home around 3.40 pm.
